# Why do I keep scoring as INTJ in MBTI tests?



## Teybo (Sep 25, 2012)

Eddy Nigma said:


> What sources would you recommend then concerning cognitive functions?


If you're insistent on _only_ reading about cognitive functions, well, first I'd say that you're unnecessarily limiting yourself, and then I would suggest reading Lenore Thomson's Personality Type: An Owners Manual. Anyone who is interested in personality type should absolutely read Isabel Myer's Gifts Differing and David Keirsey's Please Understand Me II.

People on the internet, like A J Drenth of personality junkie, will say all sorts of unfounded ridiculous nonsense and it gets eaten right up by all sorts of folks who don't know any better. If you don't want to be snookered, you need a solid understanding of the basics and a broader understanding then what you get from an amateur website.


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## reckful (Jun 19, 2012)

WinterFox said:


> I just took the Big 5.
> ...
> What does my results mean? Am I INTP? I scored high on inquisitiveness, and I scored low on extroversion, orderliness, emotional stability and accommodation.
> 
> ...


The P possibility is a fresh twist. If you want a lot of input from me on J/P, you'll find it in this post.

As for T/F... I've made a ridiculous number of posts on T vs. F (and especially INT vs. INF) over the past four years, mostly at INTJforum. You can find more input from me on T/F than any sane person should probably want to read in (1) this post and (2) the large collection of links in the spoiler at the bottom of this post. But I'm a pretty strong T myself, and will not take it personally if you don't so much as glance at any of those posts. So look into them only to the extent that you're moved to do so for your own selfish reasons.

Your latest post continues to lean me somewhat more F than T but, as I discuss in the linked posts, I think T/F and male/female is a significant tangle and I usually get what seem to me to be "mixed signals" (with respect to T/F) from INT women.

The strong emphasis on the arts and psychology is more characteristic of NFs than NTs — though hardly uncommon in NTs.

All the flaky stuff (pardon my French :tongue about premonitions and mind-reading and vibes and auras is _significantly_ more characteristic of NFs than NTs — and somewhat more characteristic of NFPs than NFJs, too, I'd say.

I'd say the stuff in the last part of your post is mostly introversion-related. To quote Jung: "Both [extraverts and introverts] are capable of _enthusiasm_. What fills the extravert's heart flows out of his mouth, but the enthusiasm of the introvert is the very thing that seals his lips."

Among the IN types, I'd say "difficulty asserting myself" is _least_ characteristic of INTJs and most characteristic of INFPs, with INTPs and INFJs in between.

I earlier gave you roundups of INTJ and INFJ profiles. In case you're interested, the spoiler below has INFP and INTP profiles.


* *




_INFP Profiles_
MBTI Manual (2nd Ed.)
MBTI Manual (3rd Ed.)
Keirsey (Please Understand Me)
Kroeger & Thuesen (Type Talk)
Hirsh & Kummerow (Lifetypes [abridged])
Berens & Nardi
personalitypage: Portrait
personalitypage: Personal Growth
personalitypage: Relationships
personalitypage: Careers

_INTP Profiles_
MBTI Manual (2nd Ed.)
MBTI Manual (3rd Ed.)
Keirsey (Please Understand Me)
Kroeger & Thuesen (Type Talk)
Hirsh & Kummerow (Lifetypes [abridged])
Berens & Nardi
personalitypage: Portrait
personalitypage: Personal Growth
personalitypage: Relationships
personalitypage: Careers


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## WinterFox (Sep 19, 2013)

reckful said:


> The P possibility is a fresh twist. If you want a lot of input from me on J/P, you'll find it in this post.
> 
> As for T/F... I've made a ridiculous number of posts on T vs. F (and especially INT vs. INF) over the past four years, mostly at INTJforum. You can find more input from me on T/F than any sane person should probably want to read in (1) this post and (2) the large collection of links in the spoiler at the bottom of this post. But I'm a pretty strong T myself, and will not take it personally if you don't so much as glance at any of those posts. So look into them only to the extent that you're moved to do so for your own selfish reasons.
> 
> ...





I had contemplated the possibility that I might be an INFP before, but I noticed that I am not that feeler-ish.
I rarely hug people, and I dislike saying mushy things to people. I always feel uncomfortable when my friends tell me they love me. I prefer people to express their affection for me through actions rather than words. 
And also, I am not really in tune with my emotions. For example, there was once when an ESTx coworker yelled at me for 5 minutes (I accidentally made a mistake at work and she ended up yelling at me loudly pointing out my mistakes, and there are at least 10 people surrounding us at that time), and I didn't even realise that my feelings was hurt by her, I only started breaking down after 10 minutes later. I am so slow to notice my own emotions and I am so slow to react. If I am INFP, shouldn't I be very in tune with my emotions given that I am a dominant Fi? And also, I tried taking the cognitive functions test and I scored ISTJ in there. The results gave me ISTJ because I have extremely strong Si and it's my dominant function inside that test. But when I read the ISTJ description, it doesn't fit me at all.
I am extremely poor at details. And in my workplace, I always clashed with my xSTx coworkers, because they get frustrated by my poor attention to details. I am definitely not an S. 




And I also love travelling a lot. I always have this desire to travel worldwide and experience all the different cultures in this world.
I feel stifled staying in one place for too long, I need to move about at all times. I yearn to move to a place where I don't know anybody and then start afresh with my life and re-discover myself. I often feel like I am living in a very superficial society, I find everybody around me so superficial, their life revolves around money, jobs, relationships, fitting in with society etc. 
But I am different from those superficial people. I hate conforming to society.
I am not a follower, I am an individualist. I have my own opinions about things, and I walk my own path. 



One thing that makes me doubt that I am an INFP....I have very strong opinions/principles about things, and I refuse to back down or change my opinions for anybody. This makes me think that I am INFJ and not INFP.
I also love planning things in advance. For example, before I take a flight to overseas, I would plan the entire trip for months. 
I am not really good at being spontantenous in such situations. I don't think INFPs would plan an overseas trip for months?
Sounds more like a J trait to me :tongue:
And also, after I returned from work each day, I would start planning the clothes I wanna wear the next day.
I am such a J! :tongue:
This is another reason why I don't think I am an INFP. 
And also, I am very disorganised, but the weird thing is, I always managed to find my things among those messiness. 
I only start "losing items" when my ESFJ mum go shift my stuff. If nobody shift my things, I always managed to find my things despite the messiness. Doesn't this sound like a J trait? I can find my stuff easily despite the piles of messiness XD 


As for T vs F, one thing that makes me doubt that I am an F is I am not clingy at all.
I am very aloof from people. For example, I can go months/years without contacting my friends, and then reconnect with them and everything felt like yesterday again. and I don't feel offended if my friends disappeared off the face of the planet. In fact, I questioned my own feelings a lot.
I rarely miss my friends, I rarely miss my family, I rarely miss people. Why do I feel this way? And whenever someone tells me that I hurt their feelings, instead of empathising with them, I felt annoyed that they were trying to guilt trip me. 
The first thought that came into my mind is, they were trying to manipulate me and control me with their feelings. 
Why do I feel this way? I also love reading books a lot. Whenever I go to the book store or the library, the first section I go to is the philosophy/psychology/self-improvement/art section. My favorite movies is horror movies and comedy and detective movies. I especially love comedy movies.I enjoy "people-watching" a lot, not for counselling purposes, but I view most people as a jigsaw puzzle to be solved. I rarely offer my help to friends/family for fear of being taken advantaged of, the only people I help are beggars/homeless people because i only met them once and I know they wouldn't take advantage of my kindness. I also find myself getting annoyed by overly emotional people (ENFP/ISFP/ESFJ/ESFP) or people who try to micromanage me (ESTx). All these traits led me think that I am a T and not an F. 


I also went to the INTP and ENTP forums before and I read quite a few threads there, I felt like I can relate to INTP and ENTP a lot. I find ENTPs humorous while I find INTPs very similar to me. Their thoughts process is very similar to mine. We seemed to have similar perspectives about things. I went to the INFP forum and I felt bored, totally can't relate to any of the INFP threads on there. Then I went to the INFJ forum and I also felt at home there. I find INFJs very similar to me. 
So I figured out I am either INTP or INFJ, but not sure which. I figured out I might be INTP, since I am so indecisive about my type. I think INFJ would be quite decisive about their type, they are Js after all :wink:
But again, there is still a possibility that I might be INFJ.
I have ruled out INTJ and INFP, so now I am left with INFJ and INTP. I am either one of these, and i still can't figure out my type.
I really want to know my type and I really want to type myself, but yet I am afraid of mistyping myself. :bored:


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## WinterFox (Sep 19, 2013)

Or perhaps I am INFJ after all, since INFJs are prone to over analyzing things and have a strong need to categorize things.
I actually felt really disturbed when I kept taking mbti tests and my results kept changing all the time, this seems like an INFJ trait since INFJs have a strong need to categorize things lol


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## Eddy Nigma (Sep 11, 2013)

WinterFox said:


> Or perhaps I am INFJ after all, since INFJs are prone to over analyzing things and have a strong need to categorize things.
> I actually felt really disturbed when I kept taking mbti tests and my results kept changing all the time, this seems like an INFJ trait since INFJs have a strong need to categorize things lol


Best advice is to give it time, interact with other types here and eventually you'll know. Took me almost a year and a half worth of research, reading, and self-discovery to determine that I'm truly an INFJ


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## Swede (Apr 2, 2013)

@reckful, I am also impressed with the first test. I had the same expectations as @FlaviaGemina. I found the word sections very interesting, because I tend to often be attracted to what is opposite of traits in myself, if that makes sense? Based on picking probably 50% opposites of what I am/do (but what I sometimes strive to become), I was certain that I'd be typed very differently, but according to the result I am a clear I & T and a moderate N & J. Very cool! 

Now I am definitely motivated to check out all the other links you posted - thanks!


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## reckful (Jun 19, 2012)

@WinterFox —

Your latest posts haven't significantly changed my take on you. I continue to think you're probably an IN_J and I continue to lean somewhat F, but there's no question I get substantial "mixed signals" from your posts on T/F and, as I said, that's often been my experience with IN women who are puzzling over their type at internet forums. A lot of your doubts about F basically revolve around the fact that you're not warm and emotionally expressive and sociable to the extent that you think you would be if you were an F but, if you've looked at my linked INTJforum posts on T/F, you know that it's been my experience that INFJs (in particular) often report that they're not "touchy-feely" in the way that some MBTI-related descriptions (and especially "Fe" descriptions) would otherwise lead them to think they should be. As I said before, INFs in general don't tend to be "feelers" in the same ways EFs and SFs more typically are.

If you're interested, here's a long recent post of mine that talks about the possibility that it may not even make sense to be thinking there's a tidy bi-polar T/F spectrum where, if you're a 20% F (for example) with respect to any T/F characteristic, you're necessarily a 20% F (or even an F at all) with respect to most or all of the other purportedly "T/F" characteristics. The linked post points out that one of the changes the official MBTI folks made in moving to the "Step II" version of the MBTI was to break down each dichotomy into five "facets," and Step II reports allow for the possibility of being "out of preference" on one or more of the facets — e.g., your report might tell you that you were an F _overall_ (in some confused sense) buuut that you were nonetheless more of a T with respect to, say, two or three of the five T/F facets.

I'm not sure what I think about the "facets" idea as applied to _all_ the MBTI dichotomies — or about the specific facets the MBTI folks have broken out at this point — but, based on my four years of internet type-me experiences, I definitely feel like, if any one of the dichotomies is notably messier than the other four in this way, it's T/F.


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## Satan Claus (Aug 6, 2013)

I go into the psychology category on Y!A sometimes and I think I actually remember you asking that lol. (People rarely ask about MBTI there)

The INTJ who typed you happens to be one of my contacts and thats how I remember...I may have answered it?

Hello again?

I agree from that description you gave there....you are an INFJ.

MBTI tests are not totally inaccurate but the best way is to really go through the functions yourself and see what you think you are.

You have to be unbiased and a lot of people lie. They say what they want to see themselves as and not what they truly are. This is when it doesnt work.


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