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Being an INTP

I experienced a revelation about a week ago. I discovered I’m probably most like the Myers-Briggs INTP personality type.

INTPs are:

Those points describe me well, I think. I also read on one of those sites that many INTPs become journalists or editors, a factoid I’d never heard before. Funny, huh?

But it’s nice to know that all these random quirks that I thought were “just me,” simply a conglomeration of oddities, are not so randomly thrown together as I once thought.

Also, I’m glad to know there are personality descriptions that fit me better than the ones for the INFP did. I was tested and found to be an INFP at 15 years old, but have since read up on that type and was never fully comfortable with the descriptions (though many elements fit me to a T).

I also identified strongly with these INTP-related statements from a very long Myers-Briggs type assessment my cousin forwarded me:

INTP’s are not likely to have a very large circle of significant relationships in their lives. They're much more likely to have a few very close relationships, which they hold in great esteem and with great affection….

The problems that INTP’s have with regards to fitting into our world are not usually related to platonic friendships. Usually, the INTP has trouble finding and maintaining a love relationship….

Realize and accept that for you a satisfying relationship will start with the head, and move on towards the heart.

(As a sidenote: To work around some of the quirks of being an INTP, this document recommends that an INTP “pair yourself with an Extraverted Thinker (ESTJ or ENTJ) who is less likely to assume that the lack of feedback is the same thing as negative feedback.” Well, that’s solved.)

I consulted with a good friend from college, a Master’s student in psychology and three-year veteran roommate, on her opinion of this assessment. She thought that the INTP type fit me well, too.

What type are you?

Comments

da_baum said…
I do not know what type I am. I feel so lost. So confused. Like...like I do not know who I am anymore!
*cries*

Completely unrelated note: You wouldn't happen to know a good therapist in my area, would ya? ;)
da_baum said…
I suppose that was less of a note and more of a question...
readersis said…
Yes, that was definitely more of a question. :P

My cousin forwarded me a 70-questio test and accompanying lengthy descriptions of each type. Want me to forward that on to you?
Abby said…
I object to that statement. :-D

So now one is supposed to find somebody based on personality type and not just on genetics and lineage? :-D
Guitarlady said…
Well if I recall correctly, I'm an ESTJ or ENTJ (I think the S & N werre 50/50). That would make me the opposite of you. Interesting....... I took the MBTI several years ago and am not sure what happened to the results. :-(
readersis said…
Abby: To what statement do you object? :P Also, your question there made me chuckle. Genetics and lineage are such passe methods now, you know. (And I'm sure you detected the dry wit in the "Well that's solved." :D )

Mom: How funny! That makes some sense though. I knew you had to be extroverted, and thought I got much of my personality from Dad. I bet he's like an INTJ or something.
da_baum said…
Sure, send it my way! Gotta find something to fill in the gaps between practice sessions *coughtokeepmefromgoingtobedatadecenthourcough* now that I finished Star Trek: DS9 AND The Count of Monte Cristo (book) within one week of each other.
da_baum said…
Hm...well, I took the test, and here are my results:

E:5/I:5
S:11/N:9
T:11/F:9
J:16/P:4

So I am...pretty balanced, outside of Judging/Perceiving. Some of those questions could have gone either way, so it could just as easily have been more N/F than S/T (or probably more S/T than N/F as well). I didn't read all the categories, but of the ones I did read that seemed to correspond with my results (letter-wise), I only sort of fit.
da_baum said…
And by my parenthetical statement about "probably more S/T than N/F," I meant more than it already was...
readersis said…
Haha, I got what you meant. Yeah that's the only thing about these tests; they're very easy to predict and so dichotomous that it feels unfair to oneself to pick one answer because, very often, the other would be just as true. I usually have fun taking these tests five or six times over and trying different combinations of answers to see how many different results I come up with.

Well if you're that much in between letters (almost equally balanced) no wonder all the type descriptions only "sorta" fit. But it's pretty normal to find descriptions that kinda fit, I think. Everybody's unique, after all, and even the test makers acknowledge that somewhere.
da_baum said…
Yeah, I thought about taking it more times or reading through all of it to find one that fits me more. But I realized I don't have the desire to do that, since I can probably know my own strengths and weaknesses more easily than a personality test can figure them out. :P
readersis said…
Oh but it's SO interesting to read about the other types, too! Helps with figuring out interpersonal relations anyways. (Said by someone who identifies with the type that has issues understanding people. :D )

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