[mp2]

I’ve been trying to figure out my type for a while, but keep going in circles. I’m stuck now between INFP, ISTJ, INTP, or ISFJ.

I’m fairly sure I use Ne and Si, but I can’t tell which I use more or prefer. I’m less sure about Ti/Fe vs Fi/Te, but I lean slightly towards Ti/Fe, so INTP/ISFJ or maybe even a reserved ENTP/ESFJ.

But I could very well be Fi/Te, so INFP/ISTJ or maybe even a reserved ENFP/ESTJ.

I’ve been reading a lot about functions, from Jung’s descriptions to different articles. Also, I’ve been reading a lot and trying to find my temperament, but can’t really narrow down beyond being able to probably rule out SP.

Though it is possible I’m confusing Ne/Si with Se/Ni, in which case I would think I’m either ISFP or ISTP. I have some issues with anxiety and avoidance too that can make things a little blurry. On dichotomy tests I almost always score INFP, while function tests vary. Usually, my top three functions on these tests are Si, Ni, and Ne and my lowest is Se. The others fluctuate more. When looking at dichotomy, I think I’m an introvert, but beyond that I can’t tell.

I’ve been leaning towards Si dominant.

Why I think I’m Si dominant:

I notice details often and how things change.

When solving problems or trying to figure something out, I reference the past first. I don’t always act accordingly to the past, but I always use the past as a starting point, sometimes just to remember what doesn’t work or to try to figure out a new way to do something.

I’m always wistful/nostalgic, pretty much everything and every person I encounter in a day can remind me of odd things, moments, or eras from the past in unexpected ways. I always enjoy re-living past moments and holding on to my own traditions and I view this as an important component to my well-being. I don’t necessarily remember much detail with these memories, but I’m focused more on the impression or feeling I had at the time, and how it makes me feel now; sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad.

I appear to be better and noticing slight differences in how something tastes or smells than other people.

I can remember small insignificant details about others without trying to. I remember way more random occurrences and events that happen that most people don’t, mostly because they’re not significant or sometimes not even interesting in anyway.

I think I’m fairly good at recognizing different internal body sensations and changes, like hunger, illness, etc. but I’m not sure how I compare to others on this. Even if I notice them how I respond to them is erratic.

Why I don’t think I’m Si dominant:

Stereotypes. Both ISTJ and ISFJs appear to be stereotyped a lot(as all types are to some extent), but then I have a difficult time drawing the line between stereotypes and accurate traits to go by. So all of these fall under this.

I don’t think I’m very traditional and I’m not really focused on duty. It appears that descriptions of Si dominants focus more on external traditions, like those related to family, religion, politics, groups, etc

I’ve never been traditional in that way and I broke with my family on many things at an early age and these are things I constantly re-evaluate.

But, I do think I am traditional in the way that I have favorite pens for different events, I like to go to the same restaurants on certain days or certain times of the year. I have a lot of these traditions, but I don’t think they would ever appear to be traditions to anyone unless I told them, as they’re all based on an internal network. So I can’t tell if it’s just that I’m misunderstanding what’s meant by “traditional”.

Feedback. People here and irl always type me as intuitive. So I can’t tell if that means I’m probably an intuitive or if I just give that impression without being an intuitive, or if people are going more by stereotypes, or if I’m just an atypical ISXJ.

I'm never really all that aware of my surroundings. I spend most of my time in my own head, daydreaming and fantasizing, to a point where I don't hear people speak to me and have to put forth a lot of effort to interact. This seems to be associated more with intuition, but I don't think it would be impossible for Si. I think it would be less likely for Se, but I think I could just be using Si in an intuitive-ish way, aided by lower Ne. But I can't tell if I'm just way off in thinking of Si in this way.

Ne. Ne does seem too high to be inferior, but it’s still possible. Which could just mean I’m a reclusive ESXJ with social anxiety and avoidant personality disorder.

Ne:

I notice Ne in the way I’m always toying with random possibilities. I seem to use this more for fun than anything else. I’m always running different ideas through my head, asking myself “what if this happened…”. It’s what I’m usually always thinking, and it’s based on my surroundings much of the time or just hearing something.

I don’t often share these ideas with others, but when I do it appears to energize the whole process and energizes me in general. Though, when interacting with others I often feel a need to hide these ideas because it usually seems inappropriate or just might seem strange to others. The problem is that I’m not very good at interacting with others without this process so I usually just become more unsure of myself and remain quiet, because anything else seems forced and unnatural. It almost seems like I’m having to pretend to be someone else, which I really don’t like doing.

I also think Ne is part of the reason I’m unable to type myself after this much time and effort. It’s too easy for me to see different possibilities, each of them likely, that I have a difficult time telling which is more likely. I can have fun doing this, but it also becomes frustrating over time. It’s really easy to see myself in countless different ways, and to look at each of the 16 personality types and see how they could be true.

However, in other moments I have a hard time seeing Ne. I often get anxious and envision many different ways something can go wrong. Even if I’m not anxious or worried about something, I can be good at thinking of different ways things can go wrong and enjoy doing it.

When trying to figure out how to do something, I don’t notice as much Ne. I start with how it’s been before and then look for similar solutions that may help.

Fi/Ti

I have a really hard time narrowing this down. I really don’t seem to use either. I can see only glimpses of each, but can’t narrow down which I use, let alone where it would be in my stack. I can’t tell if I’m aware of what I’m feeling or not, or what the phrase even really means, or how good Fi users are compared to non Fi users. I also can’t really spot any values I have, behind basic values such as murder and genocide being wrong, which I think would be common to many people in general.

With Ti, I can’t tell if I’m fitting things into a logical framework or not. I don’t think I do, and I’m not usually all that concerned with accuracy or how things fit together.

So I would think that either Fi or Ti would be lower in my stack, either tert or inferior.

Fe/Te

I can’t tell at all. In a similar way to Fi/Ti, but even harder to tell. I can’t tell how I make external judgements at all. I lean towards Te in a way that I am always planning things and enjoy doing this, but I never take any action or do anything with this for the most part. When I do, it does feel very good. So I’m thinking it could be a diminished/unhealthy use of aux Te.

With Fe, I notice it more in the way that I’m concerned with what others think of me. I can spot and enjoy Fe in others, I admire it. But I can’t really notice it in myself. But high Fe is feedback I commonly get from others, so it could mean that I’m a weird Fe dominant or an ISFJ with underdeveloped Fe.

Ni and Se are still possible, but I can’t see either of these in myself at all, so I’ve got to be an Ne/Si user, I just can’t place them or figure out the other two functions.

Overall, I'm always changing my mind and going back forth, but now I'm leaning towards ISTJ. But still, between ISXJ and INXP first, then ENXP and ESXJ second.

If it helps, I think I'm either 4w5 or 5w4 on Enneagram and 459 tri-type (or maybe 469). I've been thinking that it could be the combination of ISTJ 4w5 that's confusing me.

Thanks for any input!

 

[atruebluescreen]

ahh this sounds a lot like the problems I had with typing myself. I'm not the biggest expert on it, but lemme see if I can help. Clearly you're a balanced individual, so it's easy to see a bit of you in a lot of the types. The stereotypes for SJs are also very offputting for sure, but when people automatically group anybody they perceive as narrowminded and/or ultra-traditional as SJ, it's not surprising you get that bad rap...anyway I wouldn't pay too much attention to it. By stereotypes, INxJs are all psychic :tongue:

From just this, I think between Fe/Te, you're a Te user. I don't think Te is really about doing things i.e. not procrastinating on things, but more like--do you think better out loud and/or by rearranging things through outlines, graphs, the all-classic lists?

Plus, Fe manifests through taking care of other people, sure, but it's not like only Fe users will care about how they're perceived or how other people feel. If people are telling you you have high Fe, it probably means that you have a good social grace, which can also be achieved by an awareness of your surroundings and what should happen (S functions) and an ability to manipulate it to match what you want it to be (T or N functions)

It's apparently quite common too for people to think of their inferior function as actually being their dominant function--the cited reason for this is because use of the dominant function is easy and intuitive, so when you use your inferior function, you will take note of it. I think a better way to figure out what your inferior function is is, what is your usual reaction when you are (a little? very?) stressed? What are things you start doing?

More questions if you don't mind: What difficulties do you have when explaining things to people? What tactics do you use to get around it? In the workplace (or school, if not that), how might you mitigate group drama? How do you deal with your boss telling you to do something you don't want to do? Why?

 

[mp2]

ahh this sounds a lot like the problems I had with typing myself. I'm not the biggest expert on it, but lemme see if I can help. Clearly you're a balanced individual, so it's easy to see a bit of you in a lot of the types. The stereotypes for SJs are also very offputting for sure, but when people automatically group anybody they perceive as narrowminded and/or ultra-traditional as SJ, it's not surprising you get that bad rap...anyway I wouldn't pay too much attention to it. By stereotypes, INxJs are all psychic :tongue:

From just this, I think between Fe/Te, you're a Te user. I don't think Te is really about doing things i.e. not procrastinating on things, but more like--do you think better out loud and/or by rearranging things through outlines, graphs, the all-classic lists?

Plus, Fe manifests through taking care of other people, sure, but it's not like only Fe users will care about how they're perceived or how other people feel. If people are telling you you have high Fe, it probably means that you have a good social grace, which can also be achieved by an awareness of your surroundings and what should happen (S functions) and an ability to manipulate it to match what you want it to be (T or N functions)

It's apparently quite common too for people to think of their inferior function as actually being their dominant function--the cited reason for this is because use of the dominant function is easy and intuitive, so when you use your inferior function, you will take note of it. I think a better way to figure out what your inferior function is is, what is your usual reaction when you are (a little? very?) stressed? What are things you start doing?

More questions if you don't mind: What difficulties do you have when explaining things to people? What tactics do you use to get around it? In the workplace (or school, if not that), how might you mitigate group drama? How do you deal with your boss telling you to do something you don't want to do? Why?

Thanks for the response!

I don't think I really think better out loud, but it's hard to tell. Often times it seems like I can flesh things out more that way and organize my thoughts. Outlines, graphs, and lists can help, but I only do them when I have a lot of information to sort.

For the most part, I'm always making mental lists and outlines and rely more on memory. I make lists and outlines more for long term things, like goals or tasks that would take longer than a few weeks. I always seem to underestimate and forget the value of lists and outlines, so I don't really do them that often.

I can get a little stressed and bothered if I'm planning something with someone else and change things up a lot, like a meeting time, but I never really care about it too much and never want to say anything in order to better get along with people.

Sometimes though I get too caught up with lists and planning things out that I can even forget about the task I'm planning for. Often times I'll spend time planning something only to do something else entirely. But, in general, I usually have a good mental outline for each day, with what I'm going to be doing around certain times of the day.

When I'm stressed, I can just sort of shut down(when I'm very stressed) and become sort of a deer in the headlights. I just freeze up and lose the ability to think and I become more unsure of things and fail to act.

Also, when I'm really stressed, I can get too caught up with thinking of different ways out of things and start changing plans, sometimes running through new ideas of what to do in a single day and just becoming much more scattered and impulsive in general. I can also start to sleep and eat less. This is more rare though. I'm a lot messier and unorganized when stressed. I can also just try to forget about/distract myself from the thing that causes stress.

What difficulties do you have when explaining things to people?

Sometimes I have trouble articulating things. I can have something organized internally, but trip up when trying to explain it or sometimes explain it out of order, where it's difficult to explain my process but easier to explain the conclusion.

What tactics do you use to get around it?

I just try to imagine myself explaining it ahead of time and try to have a good idea of what I'm going to say ahead of time. This makes it more difficult to explain things to people in the moment, where I haven't had time to prepare.

In the workplace (or school, if not that), how might you mitigate group drama?

I do my best to avoid it. It makes me anxious and I never know what to do, so I usually just withdraw and try to avoid it. I have a hard time understanding how drama even develops in the first place.

How do you deal with your boss telling you to do something you don't want to do?

It really depends on what it or why I don't want to do it. Often times I'll just do it anyway and may be a little frustrated about it. I'm not good at telling people I don't want to do it(especially a boss) and wouldn't want to explain myself. So instead of telling my boss I don't want to do something I tend to make alternate suggestions (if it's something I really don't want to do) such as "How about I..." or "Do you think it might be better if I..." or "Well, I'm still doing this but once I finish..." or "What about....".

 

[amelanchier]

You seem to have higher Ne than an ISFJ or ISTJ due to the thoughts expressed your post, along the fact that you're having some trouble typing yourself. That being said, if you're leaning towards the idea that you're Si dominant, you shouldn't be worried about specific stereotypes (there are types within types based on whether or not they're healthy, how they're raised, etc.). You seem to already have a good understanding about the functions, so I would read about each specific type more in detail, unless, of course, you already have. What characters do you relate to? I've found that that's another good place to start when you're trying to determine your MBTI.

I don’t often share these ideas with others, but when I do it appears to energize the whole process and energizes me in general. Though, when interacting with others I often feel a need to hide these ideas because it usually seems inappropriate or just might seem strange to others. The problem is that I’m not very good at interacting with others without this process so I usually just become more unsure of myself and remain quiet, because anything else seems forced and unnatural. It almost seems like I’m having to pretend to be someone else, which I really don’t like doing.

If sharing ideas and thoughts with others energizes you, and if you tend to reserve aspects of yourself from others in fear of what they may think of you, that's usually a sign of Fe. The fact that you're unsure whether or not you have Fi or Fe makes me lean towards your MBTI being INTP (if you were Fi dominant, you would know; as most INFP's do).

That being said, only you yourself will be able to determine your type. I've found that taking a few different tests, looking at characters, and reading the personality profiles to be the most beneficial. It also might be helpful to focus on the dominant functions of each of the types that you're looking at (Si vs Ti vs Fi) to see what fits. I hope this helps!

 

[atruebluescreen]

Mm I'll have to respectfully disagree with amelanchier. An inferior function isn't necessarily weak, especially in older/more mature individuals. I also doubt that all Fi-doms have an easy time typing themselves, but I admit I don't have any knowledge on this front.

I think it's quite possible that you have inferior Ne, based on your stressed response. You report thinking of all sorts of new things, become more impulsive and scattered (a loss of Si-function and a misuse of Ne). I wouldn't entirely rule out inferior Te based on just this, as what might also be happening is that you recognize a need to withdraw from other people, and brainstorming a little may be a way to help you destress. I'm still heavily leaning inferior Ne, though.

I would say the one type you mentioned that I would rule out is INTP. This is mostly because you appear very different from any INTP I've ever met hehe, but also that your response to stress and your response to the boss question are both highly incongruent with typical INTPs. I might also rule out ENFP, but I know that this is only because you are very different from the (fewer) ENFPs I know, rather than any additional support from theory.

Based on your responses to the workplace questions, I would have said ISFJ, but ISTJ with 4w5 (or 5w4) makes a lot of sense to me. Si-doms look for harmony in things, yes? It's a bit naive for people to talk about it as though a team working together is mutually exclusive with a team working well. ISTJ instead of ISFJ would also make sense as to why you don't even know where the drama comes from, because that's not something you're focusing on as much with your Si.

(And for full disclosure's sake, I admit I also lean on a type closer to my own (ISTJ) because when I took the keys2cognition test, my results were similar to yours--extremely low Se, pretty high Ni/Ne, and it typed me as a probable INFP. However, the strong importance I place on people getting along and not causing strife is because I want things to run smoothly and I don't want to burn bridges for short-term satisfaction, and also sure, I don't want to be an awful sort of person, but I think my reasoning is not F-oriented, even though the outcome is F.)

 

[amelanchier]

Somehow I completely missed your responses to atruebluescreen's first post; she's correct.