# INTP/INTJ confusion.



## lymy (Jan 27, 2011)

I put myself down as an INTJ because I get it more often in tests. The explanation of INTJ on a few sites sounded like me. I went to the INTJ forums and I can relate a lot. I read some descriptions of differences between INTJs and INTPs and it seems like I lean toward INTP. 

I don't make all kinds of plans, or have any specific goal, but I am very scientifically minded. I love facts, data, and analysis. I like coming up with my own theories. I enjoy doing schoolwork and experiments. I am intellectual, blunt and people say I am cold. I usually get on with people if they take the time to have a conversation with me. I'm not very judgmental either. I usually don't converse because I prefer my own mind to interaction with others. I need space, a lot of it. I am very chilled out about things. 

My friend thinks I am a well developed INTJ. Do these things sound like INTJ or INTP traits?

My cognitive functions are also down below, and my big five and enneagram tests.


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## Van (Dec 28, 2009)

I wouldn't rely on the tests. They nearly always tell me that I'm an INTJ unless I cheat. It's hard to tell from your description because INTPs and INTJs can seem so similar. However, INTPs are more likely to be unsure about their own type than INTJs.


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## lymy (Jan 27, 2011)

The reason why I ask the forum is because it seems like everybody here is very educated about all of this, whereas I am not. The big difference for me and what I see as the description of an INTJ is that I am far more laid back. Yet I read the articles about INTJs and they pretty much all fit me. Also read some of the INTP forum stuff, which I didn't relate to at all. For instance, many of the INTPs there felt anger about similar things. Whereas I don't really get angry, at all. People tell me I seem angry a lot, but I rarely actually am. I am leaning more toward INTJ but I must be a very chillaxed, non-robotic version of one. I have read a bunch of posts so far and the main reason I am confused is because there seems to be very rigid standards for each "type". Which is partly why I don't put that much stock in this kind of stuff, everybody is an individual. But I am figuring if I don't meet all of these standards, does that mean I am logically something else? It seems interesting to me anyway, the forum seems pretty nifty.


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## plausible (Jan 20, 2011)

Indeed a very nifty forum.
All of the information that is put into write up and research projects about any personality types are mainly generalisations based on how the cognitive functions expect people to act and behave. Of course everyone has exceptions to their type. For instance, I am most definitely an INTP but depending on my mood I might test as a ISTJ. 
What 'your type' is, is how you can use the information the tests give you to self-identify and try to find which type suits you the best. Mixed traits are normal and we've all got out quirks.


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## Psychosmurf (Aug 22, 2010)

Just read more descriptions of the two types, and then decide which one you like more.


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## absentminded (Dec 3, 2010)

Don't set much store by the tests. I always test ENFP, but don't identify much with the type at all.

_"Introspection not included."_

Good luck finding your type. :happy:


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## Bunker Man (Jan 4, 2011)

INTJs are psychopaths.

INTPs are nerds.

I'm sure you know which one of those you are. Nerds often pretend they're psychopaths, however.


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## Monkey King (Nov 16, 2010)

I've gotten INTP, ESFJ, ISFJ numerous times; ENTJ the majority of the time 

INTP would probably be the closest of all those other results that I can relate to. But after I looked at how I handle myself during times of pressure, I knew I was an ENTJ or at least the best fitting of the 16 types. I just think when the pressure is on, I come alive and instinctively I know what to do and what things to prune out of the equation. 

What made me finally decide was an article that @Azwan had shared with us in the ENTJ subforum. You may find it helpful, it's always good to see things from all angles, in this case when the inferior function takes over. Consider how you are when you are stressed out also to garner the big picture of your type =P. 

The Form of the Inferior - ITPs


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## nevermore (Oct 1, 2010)

Psychosmurf said:


> Just read more descriptions of the two types, and then decide which one you like more.


Ooh boy, this is going to end well!:laughing:


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## bogdan (Sep 11, 2009)

They are both introverts, they are both intuitive and thinkers, so it's easy to make a confusion from their actions. Yet their interior lives are different, INTP lives most of the time in their mind using Ti, analysing and trying to understand why the world works like that? , and they will affect the exterior mostly through Ne - formed by ideas, new patterns, and theories. INTJ interior is mostly about prediction, future possiblities, how the world's system really works? The link with the exterior world is through Te, which is about commanding, ordering, planing, it's a confident and determined function.


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## Unicorntopia (Jun 18, 2010)

The archetypes influence your feelings and actions by way of your functions. There are 4 functions N & S for perceiving facts, and T & F for evaluating & decision making. These four functions can be of the introverted or extroverted psychic energy dispositions making 16 functional attitudes or cognitive processes, depending on who is writing - Fe, Te, Ti, Fi, Ne, Ni, Se, Si. 

Pick which fucntions fit into which archetypes for you and you will have your answer.

2. Read over each archetype role: The 16 Type Patterns

2. Read over each cognitive process: Introverted iNtuiting

3. Read over each role again but this time read them while imagining each function - This may take a while. Do it all over agian if you are still unsure, maybe this time the opposite way around.

So what I am trying to say is that it does not matter so much that you match the descriptions of others, as it does the archetypes are pair with the correct function and attitude.


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## lymy (Jan 27, 2011)

Reading a bit more through all of these things I think I am an INTJ. I don't identify completely with it just because I am not a psychopath like @Bunker Man so eloquently put it. But I am realizing that despite the fact that I don't come up with plans for world domination I am still an orderly person. I don't go with the flow. I like things to be planned and organized and my thinking style is pretty orderly. I guess the fact that I am a person, not four letters, is the reason why I don't identify with everything. Apparently though there are some INTJs who actually think they are INFJs, so maybe I am like those people in terms of my functions. I recently read a board with a girl who thought she was an INFJ, did the type thing and got told she was an INTJ instead. All of her answers were things I might've answered albeit without the excessive emotional responses.


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## Unicorntopia (Jun 18, 2010)

Sorry my correction in red.



Unicorntopia said:


> The archetypes influence your feelings and actions by way of your functions. There are 4 functions N & S for perceiving facts, and T & F for evaluating & decision making. These four functions can be of the introverted or extroverted psychic energy dispositions making 8 functional attitudes or cognitive processes, depending on who is writing - Fe, Te, Ti, Fi, Ne, Ni, Se, Si.
> 
> Pick which fucntions fit into which archetypes for you and you will have your answer.
> 
> ...


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