The world's oldest meme
Feb. 7th, 2010 01:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pjthompsonOr maybe not, but the Meyers-Briggs personality test has been around a loooooong time. It used to be administered only by therapists and other mental health professionals of a Jungian bent (as it's based on Carl Jung's philosophy), but it's all over the place now. It's become just another meme—or perhaps the granddaddy of all memes.
I've taken it three times in my life, with several years between each takeage, because a therapist friend of mine once told me that it can sometimes shift as the years go by. It hasn't much for me. The first time, when I was pretty young, I was almost evenly split between Extrovert and Introvert, but it looks like I've gotten more introverted as time has gone by. I guess that's kind of natural. Being young is all about "social networking," even if one sucks at it, as I mostly have. One thing that was no surprise to me was that INFJ's are about 1% of the population. I'd known for some time that I wasn't like most of the people I knew. I didn't find it isolating so much as I found it liberating.
We did an amusing experiment back on the OWW mailing list some years back: everybody took the Meyers-Briggs to see what results came back. I seem to recall that most people came back as INFJ or INTJ. I guess they aren't lying when they say that one of the frequent professions for INFJ is that of writer.
This is one of those sites that requires you to register. "It's free!" Click on the graphic if you want to take the test.
INFJ - The "Confidant" Jungian Personality Types
INFJs, making up an estimated 1% of all people, are the most rare type (males even more so). They are introspective, caring, sensitive, gentle and complex people that strive for peace and derive satisfaction from helping others. INFJs are highly intuitive, empathetic and dedicated listeners. These traits tend to act as a "tell me what's wrong" sign on their forehead, hence the nicknames Confidant, Counselor or Empath. INFJs are intensely private and deeply committed to their beliefs.
(I had the "tell me what's wrong" sign removed from my forehead. When I was younger I thought it my duty to listen to every tale of woe, but I reached such a point of saturation that it threatened my own sanity. I like to think I'm still a sympathetic listener, but I'm a bit more selective who I listen to these days. Self-protection is not a sin.)
I've taken it three times in my life, with several years between each takeage, because a therapist friend of mine once told me that it can sometimes shift as the years go by. It hasn't much for me. The first time, when I was pretty young, I was almost evenly split between Extrovert and Introvert, but it looks like I've gotten more introverted as time has gone by. I guess that's kind of natural. Being young is all about "social networking," even if one sucks at it, as I mostly have. One thing that was no surprise to me was that INFJ's are about 1% of the population. I'd known for some time that I wasn't like most of the people I knew. I didn't find it isolating so much as I found it liberating.
We did an amusing experiment back on the OWW mailing list some years back: everybody took the Meyers-Briggs to see what results came back. I seem to recall that most people came back as INFJ or INTJ. I guess they aren't lying when they say that one of the frequent professions for INFJ is that of writer.
This is one of those sites that requires you to register. "It's free!" Click on the graphic if you want to take the test.
INFJ - The "Confidant" Jungian Personality Types
INFJs, making up an estimated 1% of all people, are the most rare type (males even more so). They are introspective, caring, sensitive, gentle and complex people that strive for peace and derive satisfaction from helping others. INFJs are highly intuitive, empathetic and dedicated listeners. These traits tend to act as a "tell me what's wrong" sign on their forehead, hence the nicknames Confidant, Counselor or Empath. INFJs are intensely private and deeply committed to their beliefs.
(I had the "tell me what's wrong" sign removed from my forehead. When I was younger I thought it my duty to listen to every tale of woe, but I reached such a point of saturation that it threatened my own sanity. I like to think I'm still a sympathetic listener, but I'm a bit more selective who I listen to these days. Self-protection is not a sin.)
no subject
Date: 2010-02-07 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 01:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 01:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 02:25 am (UTC)But I'm INTP, and pretty much definitely that's correct--I guess I'm a little bit INxP, which means that some days I score higher on the Feeling part, but mostly I have the eccentricities of an INTP. I'm a novelist/writer, though, and a musician, and that's why the F part breaks through fairly often. I used to be 50/50 E/I, but that's because I learned how to pretend to be an extroverted little cheerleader. Otherwise, my family would have had me "fixed" and so would the schools--"SHYNESS" was a FAULT and a HUGE PROBLEM in the early 1960s and they were determined to Bring You Out Of That Shell and Make You Popular. So you pretty much had to learn to fake it if you didn't want to go into years of therapy. Today they'd probably medicate you! No, they tolerate the shy ones better now. But back then, man! It was A Flaw To Be Repaired.
I suggested some years ago to my boss that our group take the inventory because we were having lots of problems within the group with different personalities and their combativeness. We got a psychologist to come in and administer it, and I got everyone's type. The psychologist did very little to explain to people, but once I knew where they were coming from, I could coordinate and cope a lot better. It was much easier once I got everyone on the same side of the battle! But mostly this is a tool for self-understanding and self-acceptance. My mantra became, "It's not because you're "broken" that you act that way--it's because you're made that way, and it's OK."
no subject
Date: 2010-02-08 03:28 am (UTC)Styles of Thinking was another helpful book for me for understanding what makes some people tick.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 01:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 05:18 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 06:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 06:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 07:09 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 05:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 07:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-02-10 07:56 pm (UTC)