how do you 'get' your meyers-briggs types

[Zoe Girl]

in the sense that how do we become that type, are we born with it, are we more likely to have people in our family with same/similar types, does the zodiac overlap, early conditioning?

i am making a non-scientific guess that we are generally born with a predisposition and we go back to that over our lives however some aspects may change over time. And i think we are more likely to have similar people in our family. i just don't know if there is any study on this.

Besides that i often don't like being my type, it just seems hard in the world to me. (INFJ) we have a new task force/committee at work that i am on and i love it and it is so rare. i was just thinking how wonderful it is to have a work meeting where we start by grounding ourselves in the moment. that is like room to be and breath for a change. i think my kids are all very similar, at least they all are I and dad is super E, which is an interesting struggle. what happened a lot was that we would go to an activity and all the introverts would have 3 hours of energy and dad would not feel satisfied until he had been there 5 hours and it would end with major grumpiness.

just deep thoughts on saturday

[rodeosweetheart]

Zoe, you might want to take a look at this article in Psychology Today:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/give-and-take/201309/goodbye-mbti-the-fad-won-

Personally, I don't hold much stock the test so I don't worry about it.

[Ultralight]

While tests repeatedly tell me I am an INFJ, I am dubious about the tests accuracy and meaning across large populations and over long periods of time. Like what are the trends among test-takers in certain demographics? At various life stages? In various moods? Times of day? And so forth...

[kib]

I couldn't get to an article with that link, rodeosweetheart. My perception from reading is that our personality is partially genetic, but also "nurture based", in other words we absorb what we are exposed to in early childhood as the way 'normal people' think and interact, and we also form defenses and patterns of interaction based on what is most effective in dealing with those people. As a person with a very analytical father, I learned that being analytical is "the best way" - the best way of being, and the best way of interacting (with him, and therefore by proxy, with everyone). While I may have learned differently as I grew and gained exposure to other people's ways, that's still my go-to behavior.

What I wonder is whether that had a genetic component - if I weren't genetically programmed toward being analytical, would I just not have had as viable a relationship with my father?

[bekkilyn]

I've always end up getting INTJ no matter how many times or when I've taken a test. I don't view MBTI as being completely without value depending on what one is trying to get out of it, but I wouldn't use it as any sort of sole indicator of personality when many other factors may be involved. In general, I haven't really noticed a lot of people drastically changing their personality over the years (barring medical conditions and medications), but heavy social conditioning and the high need for many to "act as if" in the workplace and other social places can mask more default behavior and preferences. There's another assessment called DISC that is interesting in the sense that it recognizes between public and private image. Someone may seem more of a C to other people, but in reality they are a D but publicly suppressing it.

None of these tests are particularly scientific, but I do find them interesting and fun.

[rodeosweetheart]

Sorry, Kib, here's another link to the same article:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-grant/goodbye-to-mbti-the-fad-t_b_3947014.html

[JaneV2.0]

I get my personality/sense of humor from my father, and my artistic/collector bent from my mother. I'm pretty sure genetics holds sway over most characteristics. Identical twin studies bear that out. INTJ describes me perfectly.

[catherine]

I think it's fun, and certainly more accurate than a horoscope reading.

Basically, I think people are the same--as Jane said, most of your personality and how you approach the world is probably encoded in your DNA. One of my kids once asked me, "Mom, of all the kids, which one are you most surprised at how we turned out?"

My response was, there were no surprises. My first baby who would simply not go to sleep until he passed out because he was so stimulated by everything around him still has a million irons in the fire, and that's how he thrives. My other baby would not accept the sloppy way I put his socks on, and so he would pull them up and then turn them down very neatly over the top of his sneaker and he is my now a well-dressed metrosexual today (at the wedding last weekend, he was the one who insisted the bridegrooms all wear tie clips). My other baby who would cry every time we yelled at a sibling and who thanked me profusely for tube socks when he was 6 now gets accolades for his compassion and attitude of gratitude at work. My baby girl who punched her brother when she was sedated and on her way to an operating room to have her appendix removed still will take cr*p from no man.

We're all different, but I think the best we can do is adapt to the personality we have. I could no more be the life of the party like my DH than he could sit quietly with a novel all afternoon.

[rodeosweetheart]

" My other baby would not accept the sloppy way I put his socks on, and so he would pull them up and then turn them down very neatly over the top of his sneaker and he is my now a well-dressed metrosexual today (at the wedding last weekend, he was the one who insisted the bridegrooms all wear tie clips)."
I had one like this, Catherine! He once went to show and tell and showed the other kids how to comb their hair correctly, to look cool. I am not kidding.

[Gardenarian]

Hey Zoe girl,

It sounds like you feel trapped in your psychological type?

I feel like I have changed a lot in the way I perceive and interact with the world, though when I take the test I always get the same answer.
Whether we are born this way or not, who knows?
I do think it's possible to change yourself on a fundamental level. (See my signature - you can kill dragons.)
And also to love yourself exactly as you are right now :)

[Zoe Girl]

I actually love how I am but am working out some old stories about how I fit in the world and how that is appreciated (not). I do have have positive interactions with people of course, but maybe it is just middle age when you realize you are not going to get where you want to be. More and more I learn that it is personal relationships, and relationships are personality, which has me looking at ways to work with personality whether you describe it with M-B or horoscope or whatever.

I test INFJ every time for many many years. It makes sense overall, however I have moved more towards E over the years. The NF is very stable and not in the middle ground but P and J are mixed depending on the situation. Of course one of the descriptions of INFJ says that we love personality tests!

[Tammy]

I think it's mostly genetic, with influence from parents. Consider how some kids will imitate their parents, while others will do anything to do the exact opposite.

I'm entj but over time I've moderated more the to the center of all four traits. I'm more 60/40 on each of them now, instead of strongly entj.

One thing that changed me was a year of depression about 18 years ago. During that year I actually presented and lived as the opposite - isfp. It was odd and difficult, but it's what brought balance to my life in the end.