# Fairly certain INFP looking for confirmation bias? Or proof that I'm wrong?



## DaRick (Jan 24, 2013)

*0. Is there anything that may affect the way you answer the questions? For example, a stressful time, mental illness, medications, special life circumstances? Other useful information includes sex, age, and current state of mind.*

23 year old guy, have been medicated for depression for over 4.5 years and my current state of mind is fairly serene - I don't have many worries right at this moment. Certainly, not as many as I did yesterday. :happy:

I have Asperger's Syndrome/autism.

*1. Click on this link: Flickr: Explore! Look at the random photo for about 30 seconds. Copy and paste it here, and write about your impression of it.
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This photo has a very ethereal sort of quality to it and I think the haze and sunlight in the photo is almost symbolic - it gives the photo an air of mystique that it would otherwise not have. It also evokes pictures in my head of a group of guys trekking through the forest - but for what? Just so they can? To hunt? To explore? It also takes me back to a time many years ago, when I was riding through the wetlands on my bike during a hot summer day. The haze was omniscient.

Looking at this photo, I do wonder what could be beyond its view. Danger in the form of animals or roaming tribesman? A path back to an all-together less beautiful but more gritty urban area? Or just more opportunities to take more ethereal-looking photos? :laughing:

Also, I don't doubt that if I was in this environment myself, I would be taken back to times and places where I was in a similar situation...even if those places and experiences never actually existed, to paraphrase Abe Simpson.

*2. You are with a group of people in a car, heading to a different town to see your favourite band/artist/musician. Suddenly, the car breaks down for an unknown reason in the middle of nowhere. What are your initial thoughts? What are your outward reactions?
*
Inward thoughts: "What the hell? Now what?"
Outward reactions: My facial expression would remain largely unchanged. Maybe mild annoyance at the absolute most. I would help out anyway I could of course, but if I couldn't, I would sit in the chair and allow my mind to withdraw to another time and place...which again may not have actually existed. :laughing:

*3. You somehow make it to the concert. The driver wants to go to the afterparty that was announced (and assure you they won't drink so they can drive back later). How do you feel about this party? What do you do?
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I don't really care for afterparties. I would politely make a point of leaving and letting them do as they wished. 

*4. On the drive back, your friends are talking. A friend makes a claim that clashes with your current beliefs. What is your inward reaction? What do you outwardly say?
*
(I'll ignore the fact that I may not have actually driven back with them) I would probably not call him out unless he was directing it at me _specifically_, in which case I would probably defend my beliefs with more conviction in my voice than normal.

If he was just directing it to no particular person, I would probably sit back and think something like "you're wrong buddy and I'm gonna think of how you're wrong, even if I have to find justifications for my current views online later on". 

*5. What would you do if you actually saw/experienced something that clashes with your previous beliefs, experiences, and habits?
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*Beliefs:* If I saw it online or on TV, I would probably read up more about it, especially stuff that was more negative towards the opinion (confirmation bias?). In person, I used to challenge guys who held opposing views more stridently, but I eventually reasoned that I would not be able to change their opinion no matter what, so I stopped doing that. 
*Experiences:* I would think "exceptions don't eliminate the rule".
*Habits: *Anywhere from amusement to disgust to absolute anger. I don't tend to show these emotions though. 

*6. What are some of your most important values? How did you come about determining them? How can they change?
*
Admittedly, my morals and values are influenced somewhat by my upbringing (religion, family, etc.), but my own sense of morality is really cobbled together from several different places (my experiences, various philosophies etc.), sort of like a jigsaw puzzle where each piece represents a disparate belief. Each puzzle piece then combines to form my overall belief system. 

My most important values include:
- Honesty: I feel bad when I lie about things - people who lie often tend to be disreputable characters I wouldn't want to associate myself with even fleetingly (i.e - world dictators lying about mass death in a certain region of their country)
- Fidelity: I consider adultery to be tantamount to betrayal
- Right to life: I just believe that all humans, even the unborn most of the time, deserve this right, as do animals - of course, things are different if they choose to waive that right (which is why I'm not as opposed to euthanasia as the religious tend to be)
- Decency: How can I be on good terms with who I am if I behave like an ass? 
- Honour: I don't really want to bring myself down to the level of people who I've been on bad terms with (often back-stabbing individuals who were happy to attack my character and integrity)

I also place an emphasis on the soul - what's the point of gaining the world and losing your soul? Money is a necessary evil, but it shouldn't be the focus of your life, IMO. There are more important things in this world.

I'm also not an atheist because I consider that system to be fundamentally amoral.

My values don't really change - I become more respectful of individuals with opposing views as I get older (unless they're really in-your-face), but I feel that I'm far less prone to 'following the crowd' in my actions and beliefs than Fe-types. 

*7. a) What about your personality most distinguishes you from everyone else? *

Well, my belief system and interests don't really echo or parallel anybody else's in this country. I have a very autonomous personality, IMO. If I like something, I like something. If I don't, then I don't. That's all there is to it, really. 

*b) If you could change one thing about your personality, what would it be? Why?
*
Where do we begin with this one? :bored:

I could say so many things, but I do dislike how my confidence can utterly crash like ENRON stock. It is annoying when you're on a roll and suddenly something bad happens and you have to struggle mightily with yourself internally in order to regain momentum.

*8. How do you treat hunches or gut feelings? In what situations are they most often triggered?
*
I treat them with caution, TBH. They're often triggered in potentially negative situations, but I'm still unsure of whether to trust them. I'm often dismissive towards my ISFP dad when he has the occasional 'gut instinct' about things. 

*9. a) What activities energize you most? *

- Learning about things (other countries and cultures, sometimes other people, military equipment, soccer and cricket etc.)
- Reflecting on past experiences...even ones that never occurred :dry:
- Watching soccer and cricket (for the emotional rushes)
- Listening to music (again, I like dancing around the room and picturing myself as a performer singing the song to a captive audience)
- Playing military games/football manager
- Learning other languages (I've already learnt Spanish)

*b) What activities drain you most? Why?
*
- Going to social events like family events, parties, etc. (I'm happiest at home - maybe an exception is if I'm with someone I'm in love with or something)
- Doing mundane things like cleaning, paying the bills, etc. (I'm not good at these things, really)
- Exercising (I don't really enjoy exercise and I treat it like a chore) 
- Studying (I can study really intensely, but I'm drained for a long time afterwards - I find it hard to keep on going)

*10. What do you repress about your outward behavior or internal thought process when around others? Why?
*
- I'm not usually outspoken when something happens in front of me that I'm disgusted with - I just fume
internally or vent to my parents when I get home (I'm not the most expressive person)
- I sometimes have to fight the temptation to snarl at others when they greet me and I'm in a bad mood (they don't deserve it)
- Sometimes I'm tempted to give people the cold shoulder even if they offended me some time back (again, irrational behaviour)
- I resist the tendency to vent (I don't like complaining or bothering people usually - I try and often fail to deal with issues on my own)
- My weird tendencies (I don't feel like having people take the piss out of me for it) 
- My constantly changing moods (sort of the same)


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## DaRick (Jan 24, 2013)

Confirmation bias then, I guess...:mellow:


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## Ellis Bell (Mar 16, 2012)

With Asperger's, it's hard to tell.

So the question is, if you're fairly sure you're an INFP, why do you want to confirm your type?


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## cloudyday (Mar 9, 2013)

Yes, I think you are an INFP.


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## Arden (Feb 22, 2013)

This is only conjecture but I would imagine he wants to confirm because of his aspergers.


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## Arden (Feb 22, 2013)

I would also like to add that my husband has joked with me for years about having aspergers. Upon further consideration and after studying both aspergers and now the cognitive finctions I'm more inclided to think I'm just an INTJ.... lol


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## Ellis Bell (Mar 16, 2012)

Arden said:


> I would also like to add that my husband has joked with me for years about having aspergers. Upon further consideration and after studying both aspergers and now the cognitive finctions I'm more inclided to think I'm just an INTJ.... lol


Yeah, I thought I had very mild Asperger's, too... until I found MBTI. i mean there are people out there with AS who have significant trouble dealing with daily life, and that's not me...


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## DaRick (Jan 24, 2013)

Yeah, I still have lingering doubts not only because of my Asperger's (which naturally lends a bias towards INTP), but also because of the uncertainty that Ne-dom and aux types tend to have because of the open-ended nature of extraverted intuition. 

That being said, AS does _not_ rule out strong Fi (which INFP is) - it only basically rules out strong Fe. So I decided to take another questionnaire just to be sure.

I know I'm not an INTJ or INFJ now; I have nowhere near enough confidence in my gut instincts (Ni).


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## NighTi (Jan 1, 2013)

DaRick said:


> I know I'm not an INTJ or INFJ now; I have nowhere near enough confidence in my gut instincts (Ni).


I lack confidence in your lack of confidence.

With the caveat that I could be projecting, I think you have a strong Ti/Ni axis. At first glance, Ti seems the stronger of the two. It comes out in the careful way you structure your answers to match the questions, and even more in your continuous meta-thinking. Your answer to question #1 drips with Ni, but it feels a bit contrived to me, like you're straining. 

I would be shocked if INFP turned out to be the right answer.. Your thinking is strong and clearly introverted. As you know, the thinking of an INFP is inferior and extraverted. This doesn't fit at all.

Initially, I was inclined to guess TiSeNiFe (INTP) but neither auxiliary Se nor inferior Fe seems to fit well. If you rotate Se and Fe around the Ti/Ni axis, you get NiFeTiSe (INFJ). Extraverted auxiliary Fe fits the content of your answer to #6 nicely, while unusually strong tertiary Ti fits the structure. 

Again, I could be projecting. Take it for what it's worth.


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## DaRick (Jan 24, 2013)

NighTi said:


> I lack confidence in your lack of confidence.
> 
> With the caveat that I could be projecting, I think you have a strong Ti/Ni axis. At first glance, Ti seems the stronger of the two. It comes out in the careful way you structure your answers to match the questions, and even more in your continuous meta-thinking. Your answer to question #1 drips with Ni, but it feels a bit contrived to me, like you're straining.
> 
> ...


Fascinating, because I initially thought that I may have been an INFJ, but I soon reasoned that the cognitive functions didn't quite fit (at the behest of others), so I eventually deduced that I was an INFP. Read the second page for my reasoning - bear in mind that when I first completed that questionnaire, I wasn't exactly well versed in the cognitive functions:
http://personalitycafe.com/whats-my...-wanted-questioning-over-being-intj-istj.html

You're the first person that thinks I'm an INFJ, actually. My justification for having inferior Te (rather than tertiary-or-higher Ti) is also on the second page.

Is there anything else that makes you think that I have inferior Se?

Example of me not having dominant Ni: When I did multiple choice tests at uni and school, I could do them very well...but I also could do them really badly. When I lacked confidence, I could overthink the answer, especially in situations where more than one answer sounded plausible. Shouldn't my dominant Ni lead me to the right answer intuitively...or was I simply trapped in an Ni-Ti loop? 

I actually preferred open-ended essays where there was no set correct answer, because I could write as much as I wanted and express as the tangents I came up with on paper (IMO, that points to Ne). However, my drive and motivation was very much on-off and limited to certain times and places, while I have a thing for statistics (inferior Te?). 

To any passing mods: You can merge both threads if you wish.


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## DaRick (Jan 24, 2013)

I must also say that I lack the global vision that many INFJ's seem to have - I'm simply content to help out individuals, rather than aiming to alter the fate of entire communities (lack of Fe?).

Plus I do doubt that an INFJ would be scoping for more insights and information from others about their MBTI once they've ascertained that they're an INFJ. An INFP might though, because Ne is rather open-ended so they have trouble coming to absolute conclusions. 

That's why I find your deduction that I'm an INFJ very interesting indeed.

I guess I could be an INTP, but it doesn't _quite_ fit. Why? Well, I consider my command of logic to be fairly weak (I tend to have misgivings about doing something if it doesn't _feel_ right and have trouble arguing as logically as my ISTJ brother), plus I think I'm actually pretty soft inside - which leads me to break rules in order to help out other people. OTOH, I would say that INTP's would be more objective than their countenance would initially indicate.

I would also like to add that I know the difference between reality and fantasy - but sometimes I will 'imagine' that I experienced something when I know that I didn't, just to add to the richness of my inner world (and compensate for my comparatively barren outer world).


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## DaRick (Jan 24, 2013)

Ellis Bell said:


> With Asperger's, it's hard to tell.
> 
> So the question is, if you're fairly sure you're an INFP, why do you want to confirm your type?


Only lingering uncertainty (maybe because of Ne's open-ended nature, I dunno)...plus the fact that I have Asperger's, which is a bit of a game-changer. :tongue:


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## NighTi (Jan 1, 2013)

@DaRick .

Thank you for the thoughtful response. I'd like to clarify one point. I did not reach any kind of conclusion about your type. I simply wrote about the cognitive functions that I saw (especially Ti) and speculated about how they might fit into a whole-type pattern.

You might find it helpful to revisit the cognitive functions in isolation. You seem to be a smart guy, so I highly recommend that you go straight to the source and read Jung's _Psychological Types. _The Kindle edition is less than a dollar : Two Works by Dr Carl Jung - the Association Method & Psychological Types: Dr. Carl Jung: Amazon.com: Kindle Store

In particular, note the difference between rational and irrational functions and the difference between sensing and intuition . I think you're putting considerably more emphasis on a link between confidence and intuition than Jung does.


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## Ellis Bell (Mar 16, 2012)

DaRick said:


> Only lingering uncertainty (maybe because of Ne's open-ended nature, I dunno)...plus the fact that I have Asperger's, which is a bit of a game-changer. :tongue:


It can be tough to try to type people with AS because you don't know what can be attributable to AS and what to functions. 

I think that @NighTi meant in his first post was ISTP, not INTP. .


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## NighTi (Jan 1, 2013)

@_Ellis Bell_, thank you for the correction. Yes. I wrote TiSeNiFe and meant it. That's ISTP. The error was mis-translating it to INTP.

I'm not qualified to comment on Asberger Syndrome. I will comment that Myers and Briggs designed the MBTI system for individuals within a fuzzily defined "normal" range of cognition patterns. The further we stray from their target, the less applicable their system becomes.

However, I would not conclude that Jung's psychological types don't apply. They may simply take on patterns that don't fit any of the MBTI whole types. I heard one practitioner complaining about an increasing frequency of individuals who lead with a string of irrational functions and are therefore unable to control impulses or make decisions. (FWIW, YMMV, etc, etc).


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## DaRick (Jan 24, 2013)

@_NighTi_

...and thanks for your considered response back. Sorry for taking so long to respond.

When considering the MBTI, I now feel that it's wise to distinguish between *innate* traits (i.e - traits you've always had) and *cultivated* traits (i.e - traits you've been forced to develop due to circumstances). 

By nature, people with Asperger's/autism would probably have lower Fe because of problems expressing empathy in ways that are readily apparent to most others. I have this issue myself - my ENFP friend says that my writing shows a lot of warmth and empathy, but IMO it doesn't really come out when I speak. In fact, when under stress I was regarded as being overly critical and judgmental by some others (inferior Te?). However, my mother is an Fe-aux (ISFJ) who 'taught' me how to ingratiate myself with others better through words rather than actions, so that's where the (artificial) Fe may come in. Nonetheless, when push comes to shove, I'm still not really the most effusive person in public and my behaviour when speaking to others is undeniably affected by both my memory and my moods, so I can and do lose sight of such social graces. I suspect an Fe-aux probably wouldn't so much. 

As for my Ti, I suspect that I've had to cultivate that over the course of my studies - when I was completing assignments, I was typically obliged to structure them very carefully by categorising (paragraphing) based on the topic discussed within each paragraph. At uni, my assignments were also required to be concise, so I had to crisply express the ideas that I had. I hated doing that - I much preferred just to write down every idea I could come up with. Also, when cutting down on words, you also have to cut down on ideas, which was not something I favoured. No doubt that habit of 'paragraphing' things is still evident given that I only completed my studies recently. Certainly when I was younger I don't think I had that trait.

N.B: When taking cognitive functions tests, most of my functions are actually in the mid-range - except for Se (much lower), Ne, Si and Fi (somewhat higher).


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## Amaizing (Mar 15, 2013)

I think infp


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