Am I the first of my type to post here? I know I’m a rare type, about 2% or so, but usually I come across more of them in a group than has shown themselves here.
ENFJs are the Idealist-Teacher type. This is quite appropriate as I teach 5th grade! (One line I remember in my description is “ENFJs are the benevolent pedagogues of society.” Mmm…pedagogue…)
I also have very strong NT traits–it’s like my secondary personality. It sucks though, because despite what you’d think, NT is the opposite of NF (I know you’d think ST, but the book Please Understand Me explains this). Basically it means that I have a lot of emotion and feeling, and the rational, logical side of me is constantly arguing them, dismissing them, etc. Nothing like a little self-invalidation.
I was looking on a completely different site and was surfing to some career change planning info when I saw the test. I remembered seeing the name here, so I figured WTF, I’ll take the test.
Initially, I found myself reluctant to answer some of the questions honestly because I end up looking like not bright job prospects. In the end I figured, just answer honestly.
Way back in the Cretaceous era I took an English course in college called Writing About the Self. I am pretty self-aware (yeah, like that’s a good thing), so I wasn’t that surprised. I’m an NF idealist. What does the NF stand for? No Future? I wish I tested as a go-getter, power-mad, step-over-the-corpses-on-the-way-to-the-top type of guy.
Chrome Spot,
I’m an NF idealist like you…what I’m doing with it is working with emotionally disturbed teens…and though it is nerve wracking at times,it is also enlightening and rewarding beyond words. I sincerely hope you find your niche, because I have a feeling you’ll be invaluable to many.
The first time I was asked for a Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, I did a search to find out what it was all about. I found this article in The Skeptic’s Dictionary, which concluded that
“Psychological tests such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® seem to be little more than sophisticated parlor games. They will be validated by their seemingly good fit with the data, in the same way that astrologers and biorhythmists find predictive patterns fitting their readings and charts, i.e., by confirmation bias and the ambiguity of basic terms and the Byzantine complexity that ultimately allows any kind of behavior to fit any personality type.”
I took the online test anyway. The program basically asked me what I found important and admirable, and then at the end it told me exactly what I wanted to hear – I’m a Mastermind (INTJ).
Still, I suppose it tells what you’d like to be, even if it doesn’t tell what you are.
saepiroth, X is not a possible result from the MBTI. However, it is a possible result from the Keirsey, and it just means you’re perfectly balanced in that attribute. Since you have to get exactly equal scores on one measure in order to get an X, it’s not surprising that relatively few people get them.
As for the accuracy of the results - I can be an INTJ or an ISTJ, and I don’t consider myself an enormous amount like either of them. However, when I read the descriptions to my friends, they say - oh, yes, that’s you. Make of it what you will.
What I think is interesting is the number of Ts that are showing up here. I could be remembering incorrectly, but I think T/F is one of those measures that 50/50 in the population. We’re way over 50% T here. Hmmmm.
The Meyers-Briggs system is rightly criticized for relying on the Barnum Effect just as much as horoscopes do. If it provides an overall positive description, then people will tend to gloss over the inconsistencies, and give extra credit to the accuracies, so that they give biased confirmation of the validity of the system. Proponents of the MBTI wave away complaints of its similarity to astrology by pointing out that the connection between the MBTI types and the method for sorting people into them is less spurious than the connection between zodiacal archetypes and the position of the stars at the time of one’s birth. And I’m sure it is. Then again, so is the theory of the four humors. But again, most of the confirmation available is tainted by the Barnum Effect.
It’s a pseudo-science, though one that involves a lot less math than astrology. It’s harmless in the sense that it encourages people to tollerate differences and try to understand eachother. It may also be harmful, because people quickly learned to use it as an excuse rather than as a description for their personalities. The MBTI is a lot of fun to talk about, and it certainly seems like a more practical way of dealing with the mysteries of personality than any of the previous archetype systems.
But the nice thing about astrology is that at least it’s public domain.
It cracks me up that these sort of things never have a “galley-slave” or “trash collector” category. Everybody has amazing potential. But I think they are valuable for a) helping you figure what’s important to you so you can get where you want to go, and equally importantly b) understand what other people want, so you can motivate them (or understand them or whatever your interest) appropriately.
I’m a Fieldmarshall (ENTJ), with occasional tendancies to Inventor (ENTP).
Hmm. I did this test for the first time when I was in second year at uni - about 9 years ago, I suppose. I was an ISTP back then. I did the test again a few years later, to find, much to my surprise, that I came back as INFJ. I did it again a few years ago, ISTJ. Now I’ve done it again I’m back to ISTP!!! LOL I guess some things (the I) never change
I’m an IN(X)P. Used to be a stronger F, but I’m becoming more rational in my old age, it seems.
I have a problem with these sorts of personality tests because they score you on a continuum but then lump you into categories. In some of the versions of the MBTI tests I’ve seen, for example, if your score 1-5 on the Extroverted-Introverted scale, you are an Introvert (6-10 for Extrovert). This means, according to the test, that someone with a score of 5 is completely different from someone who scored a 6, and likewise is the same as someone who scored a 1. Clearly not true.
To my knowledge, the most sensitive personality test used professionally is the NEO - http://cac.psu.edu/~j5j/test/ipipneo1.htm The NEO uses a continuum for each of the 5 personality traits it measures, and (as these traits are supposedly normally distributed) most people fall in the middle of each continuum.
