# Family and Relationships influence on the MBTI type



## CasianRoman (Nov 11, 2017)

Greetings NTs and the rest, I'm an assertive INTJ, born as a hard core introvert (yes, so introvert and obsessed on certain habits that my parents thought I was autistic), but with time, effort and external influences I can say I became more of a ambiverse person, so somewhere in between I and E.

My entire childhood was mostly spent making puzzles, reading through my fathers home library, obsessing over chemistry (I actually memorized the entire periodic table by the age 7), learning piano and going to school (while hating all about it). Now I would characterize the younger me as a withdrawn, passive-aggressive and irritating child.

But, it wan't just me, my father is a hard core ENTJ military officer and my mother a ISTJ working in biological engineering, both shared this traits:
-Obsessed over cleaning and maintaining order
-Discipline
-Very little emotional expression
-Ambitious
-Demanding

I inherited these traits too, and also my bigger sister that became a ESTJ, The interesting part is that I was more attached to the mother side, thus it seems I inherited the introversion while my sister was more attached to the father thus inheriting most of his personality.

The last influence I had on my personality was during my college education (finance) when I finally managed to get into a serious relationship with an ENTP that was attending law school and shared the same rental apartment with 2 other people. At first I considered her very annoying but after some time she got under my skin and my social life started to improve while her projects were completed much faster with my analytical and time managing abilities.

What do you think? Was your personality influenced by your parents?


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## 495602 (Oct 23, 2017)

We are constantly being influenced by everything around us. Don't forget about the shadow in mbti. You have it all, so you are able to develop and surface the opposite functions, either through self growth or due to the external influence.


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## desire machine (Jan 13, 2015)

CasianRoman said:


> Greetings NTs and the rest, I'm an assertive INTJ, born as a hard core introvert (yes, so introvert and obsessed on certain habits that my parents thought I was autistic), but with time, effort and external influences I can say I became more of a ambiverse person, so somewhere in between I and E.


I'm the opposite, an extrovert raised by an introvert (dad overbearing, narcissistic INTP, and mom an entp but w/ a lot of issues) so the result is I can be quiet and antisocial often, and prob appear as an introvert to many (tho i'm very much an extrovert).


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## ilovegoodcheese (Oct 28, 2017)

I think environment plays a lot in personality development, but usually there is a compensation mechanism towards familiar environment, trying to equilibrate them, so people raised by introverts become extrovert, judging become perceiving, etc... 

Besides that I think school, friends and society in general have a lot more weight than parents in personality development. Societies where pressure is high towards kids and are strictly regulated favour ISxx types, whereas pressure is low and there is more freedom develop more ENxx types. The rest is between.


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## Emerging Eden (Nov 17, 2017)

I'm not sure if a personality type itself can change or if we can just 'assume' another type when we're not fully emotionally developed. Years ago I constantly tested as INTP (once it was smt else, but i dont remember which), now its INTJ every single try. And I really recognize myself in the type. But I also used to recognize myself in INTP. So was I just an underdeveloped INTJ or did I change into INTJ as I became more emotionally adept and adjusted more to my education (which requires loads of planning)? It's hard to pinpoint. Me feeling like an INTP years ago was definitely due to my parents though. My dad never communicates and when he's explaining smt he's often very insulting. On the other hand my mom is very social and aware of society. She's a stickler for emotions and 'what you're supposed to do' and what's 'socially accepted'. All things that drove me to become very unemotional and distant and overly logical about everything.

Honestly, writing all this I think I was just INTJ at odds with herself and the world and so I completely ignored my feelings as long as I could. But me dealing with (what I think was) depression as a teen and my frustration towards being misunderstood and then the whole "what is even the point of existing?" seems more INTJ to me. Please correct me if you think I'm being misguided, I'd love some input on this.

I think I might've gone a bit off track...


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## Allersky (Nov 22, 2017)

I don't think parents have an overwhelming effect on personality types; just one factor that works alongside many more. My parents were ISTP and ISFx - and only one of their four children turned out to be a Sensor.


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## Sir Kanra (Jun 27, 2017)

My parents were my unhealthy xSFJ grandmother and ESTJ dad. Both sensors. But I also use to have an INFP mother but she passed when I was super young. So mainly I've just had S influence yet I'm pretty intuitive now, still. But when I was young I use to be very rule based because they are. But I've since grown out of that. I'm actually quite different than I use to be in that regard.


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## lilianapearl (Nov 25, 2017)

I find it very interesting how you say that you inherited most of your mother's personality, and your sister took after your father. I'm assuming that you're male, if so that would support my theory of personality being inherited by the parent of the opposite gender. The reason I'm interested in this phenomenon is because it happened in my family. I'm the oldest, a daughter and my dad and I are both INTPs, while my mom and oldest brother are INFPs. I think this usually just applies to the oldest sibling of each gender though, because my youngest brother is an ENTJ.


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## Asmodaeus (Feb 15, 2015)

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## PiT (May 6, 2017)

The Big Five dimensions have been demonstrated to have a decent degree of heritability and they also correlate somewhat with MBTI dichotomies, so it would follow that personality is in part inherited from parents.

In environment terms, my ENTP mother did a great deal to nurture my intellectual development, while also leading me to be more cynical and pessimistic. Not necessarily too related to being an INTJ, but it has helped make me who I am.


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## Nyarlathothep (Jul 7, 2014)

lilianapearl said:


> I find it very interesting how you say that you inherited most of your mother's personality, and your sister took after your father. I'm assuming that you're male, if so that would support my theory of personality being inherited by the parent of the opposite gender. The reason I'm interested in this phenomenon is because it happened in my family. I'm the oldest, a daughter and my dad and I are both INTPs, while my mom and oldest brother are INFPs. I think this usually just applies to the oldest sibling of each gender though, because my youngest brother is an ENTJ.


I agree with you there. My dad is probably an ISTJ, and I took him as a model when I was a kid rather than my mom, which probably contributed to make me be an INTJ o:


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