[Christie42476]

It's an interesting observation, but my personal experiences don't support it. I'm definitely an iNtuitive, but my family life sucked growing up. It was neither loving nor stable and I spent much of my younger years analyzing my mother's behavior to try to figure out why she behaved the way she did. I was always conflicted between compassion for her because of the understanding that came from those efforts and a profound anger over the damage she was doing to herself, my siblings, and me. The latter then made me feel guilty, which just made me angrier and more frustrated...it was kind of vicious internal cycle.



But your post does go to the heart of what fascinates me most about MBTI, and that's the why of it all. It's fun to ponder. Is the development of your functions all pre-determined or do environmental factors decide it? Or is it a combination of both? Is it your earliest experiences that determine your "type", or do you have an inherent type that determines how you react to those earliest experiences? I've been putting a great deal of thought into those questions since discovering MBTI, but I still can't make up my mind about it. I'm leaning towards it being some kind of combination, as in you have certain inherent tendencies that environmental factors can influence to varying degrees. And the effect particular experiences have on particular natural tendencies ultimately determines the hierarchy of your functions, and how dominant each is over its alternative.

I'll probably be thinking about this more in-depth during my hike today now, which will make it much more fun, so thanks for the inspiration =)

[OMG WTF BRO]

uuhhhh l really doubt it, honestly.

Don't you think Ns would be more common if this were true? I'll re-read thread because I was about distracted but the first impression I got was that you think intuitives spawn intuitives.

I think we are born of sensors most of the time and I don't think S/N is influenced by environment. I do think other functions can be.

My maternal family is definitely a mixture of sensors and intuitives, my paternal family are very heavily N but severe mental illness is prevalent on that side.

And neither side is stable, but if I had to pick I would say the more stable people are actually the sensors. I guess I'll agree that intuitives can be more loving IME, my grandma is definitely a sensor and she loves all of us dearly but just doesn't understand some things the more intuitive family members do.

But again, the more intutiive family members on both sides are all a bit unstable, I feel like you can either have a very bad or a very good life growing up with an intuitive parent and have a better chance of having an average but sane childhood with a sensor.

l would type my mom as an INFP also and my childhood was a wreck, the people who cleaned up her messes were the sensors.

[AintGotNoExpressions]

INTP here

I don't want to go too much into it, but my family life was/is rough. I have a stable relationship with my mother but my father has been in and out for most of my life; he's been MIA for the most part though. I can't say that I'm a N because of an easy upbringing, I've always been the way I am for the most part. My mom had a rougher childhood than I did and she is also a N.

I don't think there's a correlation.

[themartyparade]

Nah my intuitive friends seem to dislike their families more than my sensor friends.