# MBTI stopped making sense, I need new input of my type



## Inguz (Mar 10, 2012)

*1. 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.
*
No. Male, 24.

*2. What type(s) do you usually score as on tests?*

I'm looking for new input, not biased interpretations of my questionnaire so I will not say.

*3. Click on this link: Flickr: Explore! Choose 2 photos and look at each for as long as you feel that you need. Copy and paste the photos here (or write the link like example: www[dot]flickr[dot]com/photos/jacoboson/8697480741/in/explore-2013-05-01), and write your impression of each of them.*











Bittersweet reflection of lost time. Beautiful but subtracting the vigorousity of life, giving one last impressive display before fading away into the cold winter.










Beautiful woman, but in this picture she seems to be momentarily devoid of thought. Her pose looks unnatural.

*4. You are on the clock to fix something, a friend of yours sits beside you and gives a lot of interesting ideas, none of them actually help or are related to your situation, but they are still something you find interesting. What is your reaction? What do you say? What do you do? What's your train of thought?*

On the clock means at work? Or with an imminent deadline? If just at work I could entertain to try and multitask to best of my ability, but if I feel stressed I will tell my friend that I can't pay any attention because I'm focused on the task.

*5a. What are some of your most important values? *

I don't really think in this way. I have desires, not important values.

*5b. Can they change? What would be the reason if they changed?*

My desires can change of course. 

*6. You are in a car with some other people, the people in the car are talking. Someone makes a claim that you see as immoral/rude/cruel. What is your inward reaction? What do you think? What do you say?*

Confront, but the point is only to disapprove with that claim in order for the person to either be able to reflect over it or at least keep a shut mouth. Then I let it slide. I may still think about it though. 

*7. a) What activities energizes you the most? Why?*

Philosophizing about interesting ideas can give me much mental energy out of excitement.

Fun social interactions, I do need to interact with people in order to feel vitalized and avoid falling into complete inactivity. 

*7. b) What activities drains you the most? Why?*

Detailed, tedious work with numbers. Like economics.

*8. Do you believe you are introverted or extraverted? Why do you believe that? (Please be as detailed as possible)*

Introverted. My natural state has been aloof, although in recent years I have started connecting with people and being really outgoing. The thing with that is that I can get an injection of energy from social interactions, but it's more like getting out of my shell, my own introverted sphere. I wouldn't be able to stand having people around me all the time. I am really concerned with getting my alone time.

*9. Please describe yourself, what do you see as your greatest strengths and what do you see as your greatest weaknesses?*

Intelligence, critical thinker, abstract thinker, charming, social skills, insights as to how people work, sense of humour, fun, witty, complex.

Procrastinating, oblivious to financial matters and health, food etc.

*10. Please describe yourself when you are feeling stressed. How do you act and why? Real life experiences are welcome.*

When I start to feel the stress I move into action and can enjoy the pressure. Unless of course it feels too heavy, then I show real escapism.

*11. What is your "soft spot" (the area that makes you upset if people mess with)?*

Being forced into a strict schedule, I need the freedom to follow my whims to really feel alive.

*12. What are most of the ideas/thoughts you get generally centered around (try to expand your answers as much as possible)?*

Typology, philosophy, psychology and a whole laundry list of things. I like to think of myself as creative. Generally they are there to give me the opportunity to introspect, reflect and come up with insights and new understanding for each thing that is subjected to this.

*13. What's your opinion of getting frequent feedback on what you do? (Someone pointing out what is good, what is bad, what and how to improve) Is there a limit to how often you want feedback? If so, what is the limit?*

I do feel fairly neutral in this. I do appreciate feedback up to a certain point where it just rehashes what I already intended to achieve, or it could just feel suffocating that people around me take things too seriously too often. The good is given with the heart in the right place.

*14. Anything beyond what has been discussed that you would like to add?*

Not really. Ask questions and give input, please.


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## Acerbusvenator (Apr 12, 2011)

For someone who is confused about MBTI, these should help:
Really Me
Psychological Types - Wikisocion

I'd also say that you display a rather clear Si and I'd say that your thinking function is stronger than your feeling function.
I am a bit thorn between calling you an ISTJ or an INTP atm. you do however sound more like an INTP and your answer to question 13 seemed more like a Ti response.

I'd say the biggest difference would be:
Do you like people giving you feedback on things you do and discussing it or are you more inclined to find it a waste of time/that they have nothing to contribute?

The reason why I ask is because Te users do their logical reasoning in the external world which is seen as discussing etc. whereas Ti users trust and do their logical reasoning on their own and dislike people putting there nose where it does not belong so to speak.


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## Inguz (Mar 10, 2012)

Acerbusvenator said:


> For someone who is confused about MBTI, these should help:
> Really Me
> Psychological Types - Wikisocion


Can we please have a dialogue instead of referring to "read books" or typology that isn't MBTI/Keirsey? I know how I fit in other typologies, it's just that MBTI doesn't make much sense to me any longer. 



Acerbusvenator said:


> I'd also say that you display a rather clear Si and I'd say that your thinking function is stronger than your feeling function.
> I am a bit thorn between calling you an ISTJ or an INTP atm. you do however sound more like an INTP and your answer to question 13 seemed more like a Ti response.


What make you think Si? Also how could I be ISTJ if I am really unstructured and really dislike detailed, repetitive and tedious tasks? Does INTP fit when I have good social skills?



Acerbusvenator said:


> I'd say the biggest difference would be:
> Do you like people giving you feedback on things you do and discussing it or are you more inclined to find it a waste of time/that they have nothing to contribute?


I think that feedback can be really useful and helpful.



Acerbusvenator said:


> The reason why I ask is because Te users do their logical reasoning in the external world which is seen as discussing etc. whereas Ti users trust and do their logical reasoning on their own and dislike people putting there nose where it does not belong so to speak.


Like Ti users don't like feedback at all?


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## Acerbusvenator (Apr 12, 2011)

Inguz said:


> Can we please have a dialogue instead of referring to "read books" or typology that isn't MBTI/Keirsey? I know how I fit in other typologies, it's just that MBTI doesn't make much sense to me any longer.


Then we can stop right here and right now because I have no interest in typing someone who won't even bother reading when I supply good sources.
You not finding your type means nothing to me, I am doing this in my leisure time as a hobby, but I won't babysit you through the entire process.


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## Inguz (Mar 10, 2012)

Acerbusvenator said:


> Then we can stop right here and right now because I have no interest in typing someone who won't even bother reading when I supply good sources.
> You not finding your type means nothing to me, I am doing this in my leisure time as a hobby, but I won't babysit you through the entire process.


The point to make here is that I am in no way unfamiliar to MBTI. Source material can be useful to appeal to when discussing particulars but expecting me to read through what I already have read before is not helping. I came here looking for new input because I have questions that I cannot answer on my own with the source material at my disposal. So this is why I want a dialogue rather than being directed to books (or Jung).


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## bearotter (Aug 10, 2012)

What are you confused about, out of curiosity? 

General rule of thumb that I have arrived at after making many confusing excursions through typology is if you don't have a dominant function (without all the "i's" and "e's") that you can make a strong argument for against all the others, or at most two, first to do that. 

And this can get tricky for instance. Not all sensing types will favor familiar/repetitive sensations, rather there can be a penchant for the new. Now commonly Si types aren't portrayed this way, but that's probably more a general observation on how Si types occur in nature often in so and so's experience than any clear rule.

(Of course I have absolutely no reason to suspect you're Si, just using it as an example since it came up)


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## Inguz (Mar 10, 2012)

bearotter said:


> What are you confused about, out of curiosity?
> 
> General rule of thumb that I have arrived at after making many confusing excursions through typology is if you don't have a dominant function (without all the "i's" and "e's") that you can make a strong argument for against all the others, or at most two, first to do that.
> 
> ...


My type. If I type myself by dichotomies then I am I>E N>S F=T P>J. The problem is that I do not find any one type that really fits me. So, since I have good social skills and can be outgoing then I could see some scenario of being an extrovert solely based on sociability and nothing else.


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## bearotter (Aug 10, 2012)

@Inguz if the confusion is because you find your dichotomies type incongruent to the type by functions, that is not terribly surprising since the dichotomies type is often arrived at by an "indicator" which may or may not successfully predict cognitive type. 

Being an INXP and an IEI is perfectly understandable and not an unlikely occurrence in my analysis at all.


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## bearotter (Aug 10, 2012)

If this does not fully hit what was confusing in typing yourself, feel free to continue the discussion, will try to help. I have spent a bit of time thinking of the relation between the dichotomies and the functions interpretation simply for curiosity's sake, and of course much more on purely the latter.


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## Inguz (Mar 10, 2012)

bearotter said:


> @_Inguz_ if the confusion is because you find your dichotomies type incongruent to the type by functions, that is not terribly surprising since the dichotomies type is often arrived at by an "indicator" which may or may not successfully predict cognitive type.
> 
> Being an INXP and an IEI is perfectly understandable and not an unlikely occurrence in my analysis at all.


The problem that I have with that is still that the intuitive perceiving introverts aren't as outgoing as I feel to be. I am IEI-Fe in socionics after all. So on one hand I'd be SCUEI in the SLOAN-types while anyone that really knows me wouldn't think twice about calling me an introvert. 



bearotter said:


> If this does not fully hit what was confusing in typing yourself, feel free to continue the discussion, will try to help. I have spent a bit of time thinking of the relation between the dichotomies and the functions interpretation simply for curiosity's sake, and of course much more on purely the latter.


But at the same time I feel that twisting MBTI to fit by redefining the whole thing defeats the purpose of having a personality type system with distinct different types with supposed integrity. So what is your idea here of my type? Atm I just feel like MBTI is a waste of time for me personally as I'm in between INFJ and ENTP. In socionics it all makes sense, but not here.


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## kitsu (Feb 13, 2013)

@_Inguz_ I remember a few times where I've read a post of yours and thought, ...I'd lean towards INFP because you seem to have a certain sense of ethics and desire to know yourself but then I don't know enough INTP's to know if they're all as oblivious to feels as the ones I know.I mistyped as extraverted for a long time because I wasn't completely curled into a ball over myself. I have fairly good social skills too, in that I can put up a social facade and give people a laugh by spewing absurd ideas and being a goof but at the forefront of my mind, Fi is still there and I'm at quite a long distance from it all, most of the stuff that's going around in my head is completely dissociated from my current situation.In social situations, do you have many "phase outs" where you suddenly unhook from your surroundings and get lost in thoughts?


> Bittersweet reflection of lost time. Beautiful but subtracting the vigorousity of life, giving one last impressive display before fading away into the cold winter.


Tendency to romanticize/make everything into a great symbol is very Fi


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## bearotter (Aug 10, 2012)

@Inguz

Where do you get your barometer of how non outgoing one must be to be an INP? I think no two introverts need be exactly the same though sharing some common properties. 

Also, we can avoid twisting the system by being clear where we get our ideas roughly. I can say my knowledge of the dichotomies is shaped by online excerpts from Gifts Differing on the dichotomies and this apparent official MBTI posted by reckful. @reckful, if you would like to comment on this thread, perhaps you can.

Type indicator

The only thing I will stand clearly by is typing by the functions is likely bound to get some people results incongruent with the dichotomies type for introverts especially...unless one does the requisite twisting to define the functions just right to force the right outcome, which I don't think you want to do.

Perhaps you can try that test. Reckful has thought of all this mountain load of statistics on what the dichotomies are that I could never hope to reproduce. I doubt from all you write that N is in doubt, and somehow vaguely I can see why you might be a P. 

When you say you consider ENTP and INFJ that seems to be only because the former amd latter are both N-Ti+Fe-S, and if you want a typing by the functions we could use Lenore. Better to do these approaches separately and see how well they correlate than assume they will correlate.


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## Psychopomp (Oct 3, 2012)

3. First image: N - Ni. The effulgence hints of Fe rather than Fi. Second image: Lots of stuff, I suspect. Definitely an aesthetic eye, though perhaps not well-developed.


4. Hrm... probably not Te.


5a. Very subjective. Hints Ni.


5b. Not much more here, except for more of the Ni. Maybe a slight hint of Fe/Ti-Ti/Fe .. or, rather, not the opposite. 


At this point the general terse tone hints a strong Pi. I think that you are clearly an Ni/Se already, so I will try to find something that could be Ne or Si.


6. Fe, Fe, Fe. Ni as well, I suspect. You approached this very generally and abstractly. Yes, you did.


7a. N. The way you spoke of the social interactions hints Se. Consider this, is the philosophizing socialized or the connecting and having fun? That's important.


7b. Not Si.


8. Again, connecting with people rather than brainstorming or swapping ideas like spit. 


9. Abstract thinker indicates Ti. The rest is horoscope material. Not useful, ultimately.


10. This question is meant to tease out your inferior. It worked this time. Se.


11. Not at all incompatible with INFJ. At all.


12. Supports the hypothesis. This is not incompatible or alien to INFJ typing.


13. Depends on what sort of things you are referring to. From this thread, I expect you do tend to control the nature of that feedback, if not the feedback itself.


14. Okie dokie.


Clearly, I think you are an INFJ. Ni and Fe were the most clear. You are definitely an iNtuitive. 

It's the dichotomies that got you messed up. INFJs identify as being very cerebral and logical due to Ni/Ti... makes many, especially of the male persuasion, fall out of 'F' stereotypes. Also, Ni/Fe is super conceptual and objective, and need not be mushy gushy or anything like that. 

The other problem with INFJ in a dichotomy perspective is P/J. INFJ types often don't fit the P/J dichotomy well, which I think was modelled around Si types (obviously, due to sheer sample size ... if MBTI stats are to be vaguely believed, the NJ contribution to the heuristic is insignificant. Lacking a strong theory behind those heuristics, MBTI would naturally cater them to the vast SJ majority, organically rather than intentionally).

Yes, INFJ.


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