Am I an INFJ or an INTP?

TreasureTower said:

I relate to both Ni and Ne. I like Ne to see how things are interconnected and how it leads to different but Ni comes more naturally to me. If I am genuinely interested in something; I want to understand it fully I break it down and observe and examine all of the interconnected patterns, until I thoroughly understand something.

If I am an INTP, than how do you account for my having such high Fe? INTP fears Fe because they don't always know the proper emotional response to things. INFJs can fear Fe because they tend to absorb everyone else's feelings. If this is correct; then my fear of Fe is definitely the latter, not the former.

I wonder how many INFJs are E 5s, because it would be extremely helpful to get an E 5 INFJ's perspective on this.

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Hi again, TreasureTower

I've got to say that I'm getting decidedly strong P vibes (intensely strong, really) from your posts in this thread and elsewhere, while F/T seems less clear. What do I mean about strong P vibes? I mean the direction of your posts is toward expansion rather than narrowing down. When I do "type me" threads with J types, there's a pretty clear sense of "Ok, here are my thoughts about type, is this X or Y? Oh, you think it's X? Well I can see X. Let's move on to this other issue, is it A or B?" With P types, it just... goes in a much less directed way.

Looking at your exchange here with @Aquarian. She got uncomfortable because she didn't think you were treating her words in the way that she thought you should treat them. That shows an investment in an existing structure on her part (the structure that she has in her mind), and expectations about how she and others ought to treat that structure. That is classic J right there, and a great example of INFJ, to be even more specific. I don't see that in your posts. I see divergence from structure.

Ok, so if you are an INTP, how do we explain your relationship with Fe? Well, first, I'd point out that your scores on the function test show a much, much stronger preference for Ti and N in general than for Fe. Fe was way down that list. So do you really have "such high Fe"? (Also should mention, in that same thread, @bearotter mentioned that he felt a kindred connection with you, and I've always picked up NTP vibes from him.)

What I see happening is that, if you are (as I see it) a female T type, you show the same general trend/pull toward being less "stereotypically T" than a male T type would be. As you might know, there is a consistent gender bias in the F/T dimension, and some evidence that this is related to biology. If you are an INTP, it wouldn't surprise me to hear that you have more awareness of other people's feelings and place a greater emphasis on being open to feelings than a male INTP might show. But this level of Feeling would be much less than a female F type (who tend to be the most F of the Fs).

TreasureTower said:

But what about all of the descriptions of INTPs being emotionally detached and lacking in emotional expression? While I do tend to feel very awkward in new situations - being an IN; when I do feel comfortable with people; they have described me as "a lot of fun", "charming", "caring", "warm" and "insightful". Is this true for the average INTP?

Also, on many of my tests; I have scored as an F about 45% of the time. And while female F types, might be "the most "F of the Fs"; I remember reading somewhere that INFJs were "the least F of the NFs". . . so . . .

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1. Thinkers can definitely be fun, charming, warm, and insightful. Feelers do not own those traits. I don't see those comments as an indication that you are an F type rather than a T. Anecdotally, I have an INTP boss/mentor who I find to be pretty fun, warm, and insightful. But he's clearly a T.

2. If you are in fact a female T type, it's possible that you still share some subset or cluster of traits with F types because of the gender influence on the F/T dimension, so, again, it might not be a clean distinction for you, and that's ok. Consider reading over this post about the messiness of F/T for some insight into F/T and gender.

TreasureTower said:

Are you suggesting that I may be an INFP? I looked at the descriptions on Personality Junkie and I related far more to INFJ and even INTP, than I did INFP. In fact, the site compares and contrasts INFPs with INFJs and that made it abundantly clear to me that INFJ fit me far better than INFP. I also get INTP a little more often than INFP but on a couple of really complex and thorough tests; I had a very clear preference of INFJ. I also completely relate to Ni. I much prefer to understand one thing ins depth, then many things in depth.

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I strongly recommend against believing everything you read at Personality Junkie. A. J. Drenth is often wrong on the facts, and the articles that get posted on his website are pretty crummy, in my opinion.

It might help you if you treat the 4 letter MBTI preferences code as a separate system from the cognitive functions, mostly because they truly are separate systems. If you want to find your "functions", I'm afraid I will not be able to help you much, as I'm not really into the functions these days. If you want to find your MBTI preferences (including the possibility that you have preferences near the middle on one or more dimensions), then my post above applies.

So let me ask you this: Ignoring the functions entirely, do you think you're a P or a J? Why? What is your understanding of P vs. J and how you fit into it?

bearotter said:

@Teybo: could you suggest what are good F v. T dichotomy descriptions like you did for J/P?

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For now, I can give you the best (statistically) item summaries from the MBTI Form F. The way to look at these is that the more of these statements you agree with, the more likely you are an F (for the first list) or a P (for the second list). For the items that are in the form "something > something else", the question is: "Which word in each pair appeals to you more? Think about what the words mean, not about how they look or how they sound." So if you pick the item on the left (so, for example, compassion > foresight is the item and you pick compassion) then that's a "point" for F, so to speak. If this doesn't make sense, I can clarify. Just ask.

Here is a sample of items from Figure 26 in Gifts Differing. The thing to focus on is that F/T seems to come down largely to a people-orientation. Feelers are people oriented, while Thinkers are not. This doesn't mean that if you're humanitarian, you're an F. If you are humanitarian but the way in which you want to help others is, for example, by solving engineering problems like designing new ways to give people access to clean water, you might be more T than F.

Finally, you can take the MBTI Step I here, and you can take a Big 5 inventory here (ignore the description/list at the end of the Big 5 test and focus on the % scores).

@TreasureTower

If you find a group of people that you feel comfortable around, then who cares what the label is. :happy: