I experienced a revelation about a week ago. I discovered I’m probably most like the Myers-Briggs INTP personality type.
INTPs are:
- Precise and sensitive to nuance.
- Easy-going in just about any circumstance (unless core principles are violated, in which case, an INTP is as stubborn as my sister).
- Fond of “playing” with systems like mathematics, languages and computer systems.
- Obsessed with logical validity.
- Reluctant to lead or control people.
- Not in tune with how people are feeling.
- Independent, unconventional and original.
- Shy around new people, but gregarious with very familiar people or when talking about something fully understood.
- Unimpressed by authority derived from office, credential or celebrity.
- Rare – comprising perhaps one percent of the population.
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
*cries*
Completely unrelated note: You wouldn't happen to know a good therapist in my area, would ya? ;)
My cousin forwarded me a 70-questio test and accompanying lengthy descriptions of each type. Want me to forward that on to you?
So now one is supposed to find somebody based on personality type and not just on genetics and lineage? :-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.
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.
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.