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hahahalessandra

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I'm an INFP. My dad and younger sister are both ESFP's, while my mom and older sister are both INTJ's. Moreover, my maternal grandfather is an INTJ. I'm 100% sure of all their types as I have done much research about cognitive functions. Do you have similar patterns in your families?
 
my dad is an ESTP and my mom is an INFJ. It's hard to determine my grandparents because they all passed away so it's all guesswork. But I think my grandfather on my dad's side was an ISTP (according to my father) and my paternal grandmother was an ESFJ (also according to my father). My maternal grandfather is only guesswork because I never knew him but he seems ESTPish from the stories and my maternal grandmother was an ISTJ, as far as I can tell. My siblings are INTP, INTJ, and INFP.

We grew up in a community that heavily valued N-type thinking, creativity and looking into the meanings of things. I'd say that our experience during our formative years and the decisions we made about ourselves had more to do with what cognitive functions we use than our genetics, especially considering the prevalence of Fe and Ti and general lack of Fi and Te, which me and two of my other siblings use. But that's a lot of guesswork.
 
Both Jung and Myers believed that type was largely inborn, and decades of twin studies strongly suggest that genes account for around half (or more) of the kinds of relatively stable personality dimensions measured by the MBTI and Big Five. But the genetics is complicated: an introvert's identical twin brother would probably be an introvert, but they might have two extraverted parents.

The most counterintuitive conclusion that's been drawn from the cumulative data is that how your parents raise you has almost no influence on your basic temperament — e.g., whether you'll end up an INTJ. Identical twins raised in the same household are not significantly more alike (in terms of temperament) than identical twins raised in separate households.

For more, see this post.

As for environmental counter-influences, the MBTI Manual says:

MBTI Manual said:
Environmental interference with type development can result in a "falsification" of type. Falsified individuals may become skillful in using an initially less-preferred function, but may also be less content, may feel less competent, or may be out of touch with their own best gifts. When an individual answers the MBTI, one cannot know the extent to which natural development has been fostered or thwarted.
Jung also believed in the possibility of a "falsified" type, and here's part of what he said:

Jung said:
Under abnormal conditions, i.e., when the mother's own attitude is extreme, a similar attitude can be forced on the children too, thus violating their individual disposition, which might have opted for another type if no abnormal external influences had intervened. As a rule, whenever such a falsification of type takes place as a result of parental influence, the individual becomes neurotic later, and can be cured only by developing the attitude consonant with his nature.
 
My father is an ENFJ, my mother an ESFJ. I get told on a regular basis how much I remind people of my Dad (I admit I wish I had inherited his social energy at times).

While I think we can inherit traits from our relatives, we're shaped by so many different aspects of life. We may be predisposed to particular characteristics, yet there's a plethora of variables that continue to mold us more than genes ever could. We are shaped by more than any singular internal or external experience and conflict, carved of more than the way we were raised or the mindset of our backgrounds (be we in compliance with it or not). Our social energy, way of thinking, decisions, and lifestyles do not define us, but to say they're primarily due to genetics would be a real stretch. Intriguing idea though. In short: People are complicated if they share your DNA or not.
 
Types are randomly distributed throughout the world, which suggests that it's not genetic or learned from people around us. Antenatal influences, such as hormones affecting the developing brain seems feasible.
 
I'm an INFP. My dad and younger sister are both ESFP's, while my mom and older sister are both INTJ's. Moreover, my maternal grandfather is an INTJ. I'm 100% sure of all their types as I have done much research about cognitive functions. Do you have similar patterns in your families?
Mom: ENFP
Dad: ENTJ
Sister: ESTP
Me: INTP

I expect it's largely genetic or else, for example, my sister would likely be an N after being raised in a heavily N environment. Plus, my parents always said our basic personality traits seemed to be pretty consistent from birth/a very early age. Certainly not completely discounting some early environmental influence, though.

And for fun, my mom's family:
Grandma: ISTJ
Grandpa: ISTJ
Aunt: ISFJ
Mom: ENFP

My poor mom, haha, she was quite the oddball of her family.
 
I highly doubt it. Your genes are just one small part of the picture; there are numerous other variables that push you in one direction or the other.

I mean, just look at my family. An ISFP and an ISTP = INTP, INFP, ENTP, and an ISFJ? How does that make any sense? Neither mum or dad are particularly reliant on Ne/Si in their function stack, yet they somehow produce four kids that are?

Not to mention, where the hell did the ISFJ come from?

Where did my extroversion come from?

All of my grandparents are Sensors, too. It's like a bunch of Intuitives suddenly decided they were going to invade the family lineage. Nah bro, I don't think MBTI is that heavily reliant on genes. There are much more influential variables at play.
 
Types are randomly distributed throughout the world, which suggests that it's not genetic or learned from people around us. Antenatal influences, such as hormones affecting the developing brain seems feasible.
Definitely hormones have an influence.I did tests as my Testosterone and Estradiol levels switched which took about 3 months.
My test results were changing between ESFJ,ISFJ and ENFJ and by month 5 I was back to INFJ .
 
I'm an INFP. My dad and younger sister are both ESFP's, while my mom and older sister are both INTJ's. Moreover, my maternal grandfather is an INTJ. I'm 100% sure of all their types as I have done much research about cognitive functions. Do you have similar patterns in your families?
I don't think MBTI type is genetic... I have an ISTP dad, ISFJ mum, ESTJ brother... and I'm an ENTJ... Even my grandparents, all S-types (not sure exactly which types, but surely S-types... maybe my mum's dad could have been an intuitive... I never met him, so no way to tell).
 
I think personality type is definitely inherited in that parents pass on their tendencies and traits, just like they also pass down physical features like hair colour and height (I'm sure the mechanisms are different).

But of course, with each individual having inherited a mix of traits from their ancestors- with some being 'stronger' than others (J,P,E, I, S, N etc) - there's no guarantee that you'll inherit your parent's exact personality type. You can inherit other traits that would be in the 'gene bag', passed down from your mother/father/grandparents etc.. So a child can be born with a completely different type from their same gender parent....perhaps taking on a combination of traits from their mother and father, or from a distant grandparent.

In my experience, when I look at children and their parents - I can see similarities in personality, as well as physical appearance. For example, my mother and I have similar features - we're both short with a snub nose, and have same fingers, arms, and feet. My mother is isfj, and I'm also isfj - my mother was in social work and I'm in counselling. My daughter is esfj - she's inherited her 'sfj' from me. She is caring and compassionate like me and her grandmother, but more extroverted like her father (who is istp but probably in between istp/estp). I don't think this is a coincidence.

I'm not sure how much environment plays a role, but I think genetics is the strongest contributor.
 
My parents:
Mom -ISFJ Dad -ISTJ

Their children:
Me - ISFJ
Brother -ISTJ (with strong F preference)
Brother - ISTJ, I think

My family:
ME - ISFJ Husband -ISTP (but close to ESTP side)
Daugther -ESFJ
Son - Possibly ISFJ/ISTJ (from the looks of it, he's only 3 though :))
 
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