# Cognitive functions growth spurts... or personality change?



## Nitou (Feb 3, 2010)

You know how teenagers sometimes have disproportionate growth spurts which result in the nose, ears or feet being too big until the rest of the body catches up? I hypothesize that it can happen with cognitive functions, too. When I was a teenager I would have identified myself as an INFP (dominant Fi). People knew me as a "hippy," a "good artist," and a "good writer." I certainly would not have identified myself as the rational type. But that changed when I entered college and focused on my studies. I was alarmed by my loss of interest in artistic pursuits. My relative tried to console me by pointing how how meticulously I worked on drawing cells and embryos, but it wasn't the same. What I didn't realize was that my analytical abilities were growing as my interest in the arts waned. I wondered whether my personality actually changed and wanted to ask the forum about it. But just as I was typing this question, I concluded that it must have been an teenage growth spurt of the Fi. Comments?


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## Van (Dec 28, 2009)

Fi and Ti are both analytical. Maybe you were growing Ne at the time, followed by Si? I don't know, I'm just guessing.


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## Shawn (Apr 10, 2010)

As most of this forum probably already knows, I had something similar to that happen when I was around 16. I was ESTJ but after some time of changing I became ISTJ with a strong N.


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## Nitou (Feb 3, 2010)

Van said:


> Fi and Ti are both analytical. Maybe you were growing Ne at the time, followed by Si? I don't know, I'm just guessing.


Do you mean that they are both rational? I think of feeling as being more synthesis than analysis. 



Shawn said:


> As most of this forum probably already knows, I had something similar to that happen when I was around 16. I was ESTJ but after some time of changing I became ISTJ with a strong N.


Do you think your personality actually changed, or was it a spurt it which your Te temporarily overtook your Si? Or do you know?


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## Shawn (Apr 10, 2010)

Wait, isn't it Si Te Fi Ne for ISTJ? In that case, I suppose it would be Si overtaking Te... and somehow Ne being developed.


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## thewindlistens (Mar 12, 2009)

I have a feeling like I just started bashing my head against Fe at an increased pace. Should that be starting around 22, in theory?


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## agokcen (Jan 3, 2010)

Personality type doesn't change; the expression of it does. Indeed, this is all about the development of your cognitive functions.

I'll use myself as an example. I was a very Ne-dominant child, but my Ti and relative introversion in general is now so strong that I sometimes question whether or not I may be an INTP. Because I was Ne-dominant from the start, however, I know that I must be an ENTP. My type hasn't changed, but the development of my cognitive functions has made me act a little differently. This is more or less just a phase most people will grow out of; depending on what function your focus is upon at the moment, you will act a bit differently. It's all a matter of growth and development, nothing more.


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## Van (Dec 28, 2009)

Nitou said:


> Do you mean that they are both rational? I think of feeling as being more synthesis than analysis.


Probably. I didn't think that exchanging Fi for Ti would make you more or less interested in art. It's also pretty common for INTPs to switch interests, so I guessed that maybe Ne/Si had more to do with it.


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## Luther (Dec 3, 2009)

To the OP, I have experienced the same 'growth spurt' as you. I too was once a sensitive INFP child and now am an INTP. I don't the reasons exactly for the change. I suspect it may have to do with a gradual desensitization during my later teenage years, eventually culminating in a shift of priorities from feelings to analysis-based thoughts. Although I have no evidence for it, I have a theory that when one's maturity levels off as adulthood approaches (17-21 years old), the true nature of one's psyche and temperament begins to emerge. During childhood and adolescence, one experiments with a multitude of cognitive functions, with a greater focus on some particulars, until the process finally filters out the primary ones by adulthood. It is these ones that we focus on and perpetually continue to develop. 

This may have a genetic component too. I noticed that by the time I was 18, I had taken on many of the characteristics of my dad, a full-blown, 'strong-and-silent-type' INTJ.


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## Tridentus (Dec 14, 2009)

im fascinated by this big change into adulthood that ppl talk about..
im 18 now, and i agree that im getting a stronger sense of who i am nowadays.. and yes just last year i had a potential Te growth spurt where i actually tried to be a rational (this was before i discovered mbti and realised many of my perspectives on things are normal) overrelied on my Te over Fi and ended up a cross between ENTJ and ENFP. the balance is back to what it was now, although my Fi won't ever be as strong as it used to be.
i've definitely changed a LOT over the last couple of years, and become much more mature and self-aware. im curious as to what will happen over the next few years though, i feel like im already moving out of the teen wilderness and it definitely is strange, but a good strange.


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