Newbie here! I have taken this test a couple of times. The last time I took it I was an ENFJ, I believe. I am a definite E and a VERY strong J. I am borderline N/S and T/F. I think that I tested T (Thinking) than F(Feeling) the first time that I took the test, which I personally think was pretty accurate. I believe this test should change as you take it over the years because you change over the years.
I found the test also helpful with other people because it gives me a little bit of insight into how they work. For example, a person who is a “P” will handle a situation different than me, a “J” sometimes. Both ways are OKay, but it makes it easier to communicate and deal with the other person, I think, if you are aware of the differences.
Unfortunately, none of this lends it any credence. Most pseudo-sciences have long histories, just like con games. Even after movies like The Sting, The Flim-Flam Man, Paper Moon and The House of Games publicized a lot of the classic cons people still fall for them. In fact, some people, after the police have gotten them away from con men who were in the process of rooking them and explained the scam and shown the perpetrator’s criminal history, basically given them more than enough to clearly see that they are being conned, will go back to the con men and give them money. It is therefore no suprise that people would continue to believe in something like Meyers-Briggs in spite of its shabby methodology.
As for the corporate world, you know they’re apt to buy anything claimed to improve productivity. Meyers-Briggs is a product well-tailored to such a market. Corporations have heaps of money to throw away on gimicky snake oil. And speaking of wasting vast amounts of money, did someone mention the millitary?
Ask anybody why they support it, you’ll get a lot of anecdotal evidence from people who will insist that Meyers-Briggs is valid because it’s `scientific.’ But anecdotal evidence is not scientific. Unfortunately, it’s the only kind of evidence available for the system.
INFP here, even though I feel I’m more thought-oriented than feeling-oriented.
The glaring problem I see with the test is that some of the questions have no definite answer. Sometimes you can’t choose between extremes.
Somebody mentioned “True Colors” earlier. We’re doing this in school right now. By rating groups of words in order of how they apply to you, you find that you’re one of 4 colors. Green means you are logical, blue is emotional, gold is organized, and orange is spontaneous, to use the general terms. They try to group us by colors, placing one of each in a group, but in 9th grade, I was one of about 20 “green” people in the school, IIRC, which caused problems.
There you have it, my personality
“Of course, that’s just my opinion; I could be wrong.”–Dennis Miller
I’ve taken the test several more times, and I keep coming out as INFP. The e/i term is close to borderline, but the rest are very one-sided spikes. I have no idea how I managed to end up as ENTP the first time.
So the test rates me as a “Healer”, bordering on “Guardian”. Oddly, this description is quite similar to one I was given a year ago, when I got a computer analysis of my aura. You can interpret that coincidence in any way you want.
Of course I don’t fit in; I’m part of a better puzzle.
The way it’s designed, it has a lot of descriptive value. But it doesn’t have a lot of predictive value.
That’s the short form. Here’s the long one: The four axes/16 types that the MBTI breaks people up into make sense. And it makes sense that if you take the test honestly, it’s going to refine and reformat your responses and spit back at you exactly what you told it, only in a slightly more coherent form. The problem is (and I argue this with my dad, who’s heavily into MBTI, all the time) that it doesn’t tell you anything about your basic motivations, your state of mental health or who you really are. In fact, the ultimate goal of self-development, according to MBTI theory, is to become no type – that is, to bring all your functions into balance, so that you don’t skew one way or the other. (In MBTI jargon, you want to become an “XXXX,” where “X” represents an axis on which neither function predominates – for example, an XNTP is evenly split between ENTP and INTP.)
That being said, I’m a fan of what skeptics will probably say is an even more bogus system, the enneagram as articulated by Don Richard Riso. There are lots of different enneagram theories floating around out there, nearly all of them half-baked at best. But Riso’s, while utterly lacking in scientific rigor, nevertheless displays an astonishing amount of empirical consistency. Disregard his theories on childhood origins and his celebrity type identifications, and you’re left with a very powerful, flexible theory with excellent predictive value and a nice, clear road map to self-betterment, if you’re into that sort of thing.
I aam an ENFP scored exactly the same with E/I. Not many of us out there as an ENFP, 3% of the population in fact. As my fellow phouka said, “we are most likely to have psychic powers”…so beware.
Hheheh
SC
“People’s Poet don’t die, we’ll kill ourselves if you do, but first we’ll take off all our clothes.” The Young Ones
How about this for a cultural shock: I’m the first ESTP listed on this board. Am I also the only Dutchman ?
I’m a Promoter, as the site sayzzzzzz… I’m being compared to the likes of Franklin Roosevelt (wasn’t he Dutch, orignally ?) and… Madonna ! YEAH Baby, YEAH !
Seriously, the fact that I’m the first does surprise me. I suspect there COULD be some underlying cultural barrier, e.g. people in Holland being more outspoken, less inclined to be PC, or something. Any opinions on that, my fellow posters from across the ocean ?
So Geenius,
I really liked your point about the ultimate goal of MBTI. I think that’s where it really adds value, and the point that I missed when I brought it up.
When I do the MBTI, I’m an ENTJ. I did the enneagram thing, in a women’s group to which I belong, and came out a “1”. As you seem to have a good understanding of both do you see parallels or patterns between the MBTI & Enneagram types (ie: do most ENFP = “4”, etc)?
