Myers-Briggs Personality Type

Just for fun, take the personality test* and post your type!
http://www.16personalities.com/free-personality-test

What the letters mean: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator#Cognitive_learning_styles


I am an INTJ. I barely straddle the J, so I share many traits with INTP.

The learn about INTJ in depth click here.


Brief summary of INTJ personality from the website:

It's lonely at the top, and being one of the rarest and most strategically capable personality types, INTJs know this all too well. INTJs form just two percent of the population, and women of this personality type are especially rare, forming just 0.8% of the population - it is often a challenge for them to find like-minded individuals who are able to keep up with their relentless intellectualism and chess-like maneuvering. People with the INTJ personality type are imaginative yet decisive, ambitious yet private, amazingly curious, but they do not squander their energy.

With a natural thirst for knowledge that shows itself early in life, INTJs are often given the title of "bookworm" as children. While this may be intended as an insult by their peers, they more than likely identify with it and are even proud of it, greatly enjoying their broad and deep body of knowledge. INTJs enjoy sharing what they know as well, confident in their mastery of their chosen subjects, but owing to their Intuitive (N) and Judging (J) traits, they prefer to design and execute a brilliant plan within their field rather than share opinions on "uninteresting" distractions like gossip.

"You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant."
Harlan Ellison

A paradox to most observers, INTJs are able to live by glaring contradictions that nonetheless make perfect sense - at least from a purely rational perspective. For example, INTJs are simultaneously the most starry-eyed idealists and the bitterest of cynics, a seemingly impossible conflict. But this is because INTJ types tend to believe that with effort, intelligence and consideration, nothing is impossible, while at the same time they believe that people are too lazy, short-sighted or self-serving to actually achieve those fantastic results. Yet that cynical view of reality is unlikely to stop an interested INTJ from achieving a result they believe to be relevant.
In Matters Of Principle, Stand Like a Rock

INTJs radiate self-confidence and an aura of mystery, and their insightful observations, original ideas and formidable logic enable them to push change through with sheer willpower and force of personality. At times it will seem that INTJs are bent on deconstructing and rebuilding every idea and system they come into contact with, employing a sense of perfectionism and even morality to this work. Anyone who doesn't have the talent to keep up with INTJs' processes, or worse yet, doesn't see the point of them, is likely to immediately and permanently lose their respect.

Rules, limitations and traditions are anathema to the INTJ personality type - everything should be open to questioning and reevaluation, and if they see a way, INTJs will often act unilaterally to enact their technically superior, sometimes insensitive, and almost always unorthodox methods and ideas.

This isn't to be misunderstood as impulsiveness - INTJs will strive to remain rational no matter how attractive the end goal may be, and every idea, whether generated internally or soaked in from the outside world, must pass the ruthless and ever-present "Is this going to work?" filter. This mechanism is applied at all times, to all things and all people, and this is often where INTJ personality types run into trouble.
One Reflects More When Traveling Alone

INTJs are brilliant and confident in bodies of knowledge they have taken the time to understand, but unfortunately the social contract is unlikely to be one of those subjects. White lies and small talk are hard enough as it is for a type that craves truth and depth, but INTJs may go so far as to see many social conventions as downright stupid. Ironically, it is often best for them to remain where they are comfortable - out of the spotlight - where the natural confidence prevalent in INTJs as they work with the familiar can serve as its own beacon, attracting people, romantically or otherwise, of similar temperament and interests.

INTJs are defined by their tendency to move through life as though it were a giant chess board, pieces constantly shifting with consideration and intelligence, always assessing new tactics, strategies and contingency plans, constantly outmaneuvering their peers in order to maintain control of a situation while maximizing their freedom to move about. This isn't meant to suggest that INTJs act without conscience, but to many Feeling (F) types, INTJs' distaste for acting on emotion can make it seem that way, and it explains why many fictional villains (and misunderstood heroes) are modeled on this personality type.

Famous INTJs:
Vladimir Putin
Paul Krugman
Rudy Giuliani
Donald Rumsfeld
Colin Powell
Samantha Power
Lance Armstrong
Richard Gere
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Thomas Jefferson
John F. Kennedy
Woodrow Wilson
Augustus Caesar
Hannibal

Fictional INTJs:
"Walter White" ("Heisenberg") from Breaking Bad
"Gandalf the Grey" from The Lord of the Rings <--That's right. I am Gandalf.
"Katniss Everdeen" from The Hunger Games
"Hannibal" and "Clarice Starling" from Silence of the Lambs
"Professor Moriarty," Sherlock Holmes' enemy
"Gregory House" from House M.D.



*Please keep in mind that there are good reasons to doubt the accuracy of this test. Studies have shown the I/E dimension is most reliable, while the others are more questionable. Furthermore, personality is in fact more nuanced than these test results suggest. (If you want the test psychologists most commonly use for correlations see the big five personality test: http://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/take_test.php?idRegTest=1297)

I am also INTJ.

I did this once for gata, will totally do it for myself.
BEHOLD:

INFP

I – Introversion preferred to extraversion: INFPs tend to be quiet and reserved. They generally prefer interacting with a few close friends rather than a wide circle of acquaintances, and they expend energy in social situations (whereas extraverts gain energy).
N – Intuition preferred to sensing: INFPs tend to be more abstract than concrete. They focus their attention on the big picture rather than the details, and on future possibilities rather than immediate realities.
F – Feeling preferred to thinking: INFPs tend to value personal considerations above objective criteria. When making decisions, they often give more weight to social implications than to logic.
P – Perception preferred to judgment: INFPs tend to withhold judgment and delay important decisions, preferring to "keep their options open" should circumstances change.

INFPs are driven by a strong sense of right and wrong and a desire to exercise their creativity, even if only behind the scenes. Their weaknesses include sensitivity to criticism, poor organization, and low assertiveness. Keirsey referred to the INFPs as Healers, one of the four types belonging to the temperament he called the Idealists.[2] INFPs are one of the rarer types, accounting for about 4-5% of the population.
(...)
According to Myers-Briggs,[10] INFPs focus much of their energy on an inner world dominated by intense feeling and deeply held ethics. They seek an external life that is in keeping with these values. Loyal to the people and causes important to them, INFPs can quickly spot opportunities to implement their ideals. They are curious to understand those around them, and so are accepting and flexible unless their values are threatened.
(...)
For illustrative purposes, Keirsey and his son, David M. Keirsey,[13] have identified well-known individuals whose behavior is consistent with a specific type. Unless otherwise noted, the categorization of the individuals below, whether living or dead, as INFPs is a matter of expert opinion rather than the result of the named individual taking a personality type inventory.

Isabel Myers
Diana, Princess of Wales (who reportedly self-identified as an INFP)
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Albert Camus
Frank Lloyd Wright
J.R.R. Tolkien
Edgar Allan Poe
William Blake
John Lennon
Jim Morrison
Kurt Cobain
Ian Curtis
Tim Burton
Johnny Depp
Björk
David Lynch
Lisa Kudrow
Jim Henson

Correlation with Enneatype
According to Baron and Wagele, the most common Enneatypes for the INFP are: The Individualist (Fours), The Loyalist (Sixes), and The Peacemaker (Nines).

Statistics
In his 1990 Ph.D dissertation, C.F. Gibbons of the University of Arkansas found that the INFP type was the most common among musicians.

Cognitive functions

Using the more modern interpretation, the cognitive functions of the INFP are as follows:
Dominant: Introverted feeling (Fi)
Fi filters information based on interpretations of worth, forming judgments according to criteria that are often intangible. Fi constantly balances an internal set of values such as harmony and authenticity. Attuned to subtle distinctions, Fi innately senses what is true and what is false in a situation. With Fi as their dominant function, INFPs live primarily in a rich inner world of emotion.

Auxiliary: Extraverted intuition (Ne)
Ne finds and interprets hidden meanings, using “what if” questions to explore alternatives, allowing multiple possibilities to coexist. This imaginative play weaves together insights and experiences from various sources to form a new whole, which can then become a catalyst to action. INFPs engage the outside world primarily with intuition. They are adept at seeing the big picture, sensing patterns and the flow of existence from the past toward the future.

Tertiary: Introverted sensing (Si)
Si collects data in the present moment and compares it with past experiences, a process that sometimes evokes the feelings associated with memory, as if the subject were reliving it. Seeking to protect what is familiar, Si draws upon history to form goals and expectations about what will happen in the future. This function gives INFPs a natural inclination toward "other-worldliness" and makes them more easily distracted.

Inferior: Extraverted thinking (Te)
Te organizes and schedules ideas and the environment to ensure the efficient, productive pursuit of objectives. Te seeks logical explanations for actions, events, and conclusions, looking for faulty reasoning and lapses in sequence. This function helps INFPs focus on external details, but being the inferior function, requires the expenditure of greater energy and is not as reliable.

Shadow functions

For INFP, these shadow functions are (in order):

Extraverted feeling (Fe): Fe seeks social connections and creates harmonious interactions through polite, considerate, and appropriate behavior. Fe responds to the explicit (and implicit) wants of others, and may even create an internal conflict between the subject’s own needs and the desire to meet the needs of others.
Introverted intuition (Ni): Attracted to symbolic actions or devices, Ni synthesizes seeming paradoxes to create the previously unimagined. These realizations come with a certainty that demands action to fulfill a new vision of the future, solutions that may include complex systems or universal truths.
Extraverted sensing (Se): Extraverted sensing focuses on the experiences and sensations of the immediate, physical world. With an acute awareness of the present surroundings, it brings relevant facts and details to the forefront and may lead to spontaneous action.
Introverted thinking (Ti): Ti seeks precision, such as the exact word to express an idea. It notices the minute distinctions that define the essence of things, then analyzes and classifies them. Ti examines all sides of an issue, looking to solve problems while minimizing effort and risk. It uses models to root out logical inconsistency.

sometines I get ENFP too.

I got INTP so blah:

INTP PERSONALITY

Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed the chicken depends on your frame of reference.
Albert Einstein
The INTP personality type is fairly rare, making up only three percent of the population, which is definitely a good thing for them, as there's nothing they'd be more unhappy about than being "common". INTPs pride themselves on their inventiveness and creativity, their unique perspective and vigorous intellect. Usually known as the philosopher, the architect, or the dreamy professor, INTPs have been responsible for many scientific discoveries throughout history.

THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING

INTPs are known for their brilliant theories and unrelenting logic - in fact, they are considered the most logically precise of all the personality types.
They love patterns, and spotting discrepancies between statements could almost be described as a hobby, making it a bad idea to lie to an INTP. This makes it ironic that INTPs' word should always be taken with a grain of salt - it's not that they are dishonest, but people with the INTP personality type tend to share thoughts that are not fully developed, using others as a sounding board for ideas and theories in a debate against themselves rather than as actual conversation partners.

INTP personalityThis may make them appear unreliable, but in reality no one is more enthusiastic and capable of spotting a problem, drilling through the endless factors and details that encompass the issue and developing a unique and viable solution than INTPs - just don't expect punctual progress reports. People who share the INTP personality type aren't interested in practical, day-to-day activities and maintenance, but when they find an environment where their creative genius and potential can be expressed, there is no limit to the time and energy INTPs will expend in developing an insightful and unbiased solution.

WISDOM BEGINS IN WONDER

They may appear to drift about in an unending daydream, but INTPs' thought process is unceasing, and their minds buzz with ideas from the moment they wake up. This constant thinking can have the effect of making them look pensive and detached, as they are often conducting full-fledged debates in their own heads, but really INTPs are quite relaxed and friendly when they are with people they know, or who share their interests. However, this can be replaced by overwhelming shyness when INTP personalities are among unfamiliar faces, and friendly banter can quickly become combative if they believe their logical conclusions or theories are being criticized.

When INTPs are particularly excited, the conversation can border on incoherence as they try to explain the daisy-chain of logical conclusions that led to the formation of their latest idea. Oftentimes, INTPs will opt to simply move on from a topic before it's ever understood what they were trying to say, rather than try to lay things out in plain terms.

The reverse can also be true when people explain their thought processes to INTPs in terms of subjectivity and feeling. Imagine an immensely complicated clockwork, taking in every fact and idea possible, processing them with a heavy dose of creative reasoning and returning the most logically sound results available - this is how the INTP mind works, and this type has little tolerance for an emotional monkey-wrench jamming their machines.

LET THOSE WHO WOULD MOVE THE WORLD FIRST MOVE THEMSELVES

Further, with Thinking (T) as one of their governing traits, INTPs are unlikely to understand emotional complaints at all, and their friends won't find a bedrock of emotional support in them. People with the INTP personality type would much rather make a series of logical suggestions for how to resolve the underlying issue, a perspective that is not always welcomed by their Feeling (F) companions. This will likely extend to most social conventions and goals as well, like planning dinners and getting married, as INTPs are far more concerned with originality and efficient results.

The one thing that really holds INTPs back is their restless and pervasive fear of failure. INTP personalities are so prone to reassessing their own thoughts and theories, worrying that they've missed some critical piece of the puzzle, that they can stagnate, lost in an intangible world where their thoughts are never truly applied. Overcoming this self-doubt stands as the greatest challenge INTPs are likely to face, but the intellectual gifts - big and small - bestowed on the world when they do makes it worth the fight.

Famous INTPs:

Socrates
Rene Descartes
Blaise Pascal
Isaac Newton
Carl Jung
Albert Einstein
James Madison
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Gerald Ford


And now for Jhala: ENTJ

ENTJs are natural-born leaders. People with this personality type embody the gifts of charisma and confidence, and project authority in a way that draws crowds together behind a common goal. But unlike their Feeling (F) counterpart, ENTJs are characterized by an often ruthless level of rationality, using their drive, determination and sharp minds to achieve whatever end they've set for themselves. Perhaps it is best that they make up only three percent of the population, lest they overwhelm the more timid and sensitive personality types that make up much of the rest of the world - but we have ENTJs to thank for many of the businesses and institutions we take for granted every day.

(Thinking in reality Jhala may be more of an ENFJ)


And for Mo'jahi: ISTP

ISTPs love to explore with their hands and their eyes, touching and examining the world around them with cool rationalism and spirited curiosity. People with this personality type are natural Makers, moving from project to project, building the useful and the superfluous for the fun of it, and learning from their environment as they go. Often mechanics and engineers, ISTPs find no greater joy than in getting their hands dirty pulling things apart and putting them back together, just a little bit better than they were before.

(Sounds relatively correct)

I'm pretty close to being an INTP, so I think it's pretty cool that you are an INTP.

Also, it doesn't get much cooler than that list of famous people.

I am a very solid INTJ. Being the first time I ever took this test, it has been very eye opening and shockingly accurate. It explains so many things I always wondered about. I actually bought the full profile just to learn more. Thanks for sharing this!

Another INTJ! Congrats.