[Carmaella]

Some websites say they are likely to enjoy it and others say they don't or that they're good at paying attention to small details, but only look at the big picture. I'm confused.

I'm trying to figure out if I'm in INFJ or INFP. I love researching/finding answers, but I HATE writing research papers/reports.

:dry:

 

[Coil]

I love researching topics that interest me! My strength lies in working with a large number of sources and seeing how everything fits together. So I guess you could say that my mind is always on the big picture when I explore the details.

 

[Rauder]

I also research topics just for the sake of interest. I can keep a straight line of thought, but keeping to the big picture and, as Coil said, seeing how everything fits together.

 

[Jamie.Ether]

I love researching! But I'm an Enneagram Type 5, which adds more to that. I think for INFJ's, it might just depend on the specific INFJ.

 

[ohnoezitsjoez]

i love researching and studying and learning, especially if it is about people and social situations.

My line of work involves a lot of troubleshooting which is fun for me.

 

[Krista]

Like others have said, I also love to research. I could spend hours researching a topic and making connections.

 

[ohnoezitsjoez]

Like others have said, I also love to research. I could spend hours researching a topic and making connections.

You said hours and it made me realize I am the same.

I then asked myself if this would explain, in part, my passiveness/timidity. I spend so much time researching and thats it. Just made me think, which I will then turn into (surprise surprise) more research!

 

[Krista]

You said hours and it made me realize I am the same.

I then asked myself if this would explain, in part, my passiveness/timidity. I spend so much time researching and thats it. Just made me think, which I will then turn into (surprise surprise) more research!

Lol, it's the same for me. Answers to questions only introduce more questions.

 

[jd_]

I like research to get new ideas... I wouldn't like writing a detailed point by point analysis though. One of the most tedious things I thought about research was citations/bibliographies.

What i like doing more is creating *based* on that research/gathered ideas. If I am not creating, I feel stifled. Researching for the sake of research with just "results".

I dislike discovering facts, for the sake of facts. Memorizing "terms"... They are unimportant to the big picture. I'd much rather write the essay based on the research than to *show* my research methods, tedious and pointless I think, if the big picture answer is there and the concept is understood.

For example...
Does it really matter if I know exactly what date the war started...If I know a 2-3 page background of *why* a war started?

And in IT... if I can get the project and systems functioning and stable, sometimes by using obscure methods? I hated code documentation / code reviews / SOX auditing...so damn tedious and besides the point, busy work, grunt work. Just those kind of detailed workings. I hated *reinventing* the wheel if there was already a known plugin/snippet for it, why the hell am I going to write it again, from scratch? Wasn't our purpose to help the users and create them a better interface? So damn what if it uses 5k more memory. Oh how blessed I was when I got pulled aside from my normal job functions so I could work on an interesting project. So many "not seeing the forest for the trees" people in IT... hated it.

So first I need the research *gathering* through the Ni process. Then I need to express that through an Fe outlet, showing my feelings to the world, and evoking emotions/thoughts in others.

The research part comes easy, so does the Ti analysis of it... And it is probably why I've been good at jobs, but hated those same jobs... b/c they never allowed my Fe Expressions/Interpretations.

 

[INFJigsaw]

Some websites say they are likely to enjoy it and others say they don't or that they're good at paying attention to small details, but only look at the big picture. I'm confused.

I'm trying to figure out if I'm in INFJ or INFP. I love researching/finding answers, but I HATE writing research papers/reports.

:dry:

I once worked as a research assistant doing psychology/ social research. I did it for a couple of years and I quite enjoyed it and I was good at it. I also met one of my main INFJ friends there. I decided it wasn't for me because there wasn't enough contact with people and the outside world and not enough opportunity to put the findings into practice. Obviously as it was social research there was contact with the subjects of the study while collecting data but that part actually only made up a very small percentage of the time spent working on a particular research project.

Like you, I don't particularly enjoy writing research papers which is obviously a big part of it. I knew that to progress in the career I would have to do a PhD and I just couldn't face it.

My INFJ friend also left and in her case she switched careers to become a counsellor although she now says that she sometimes misses the research and wonders if she has made the right decision. I have met another INFJ who came to do voluntary work at my workplace whose main job was social research for the government. She said she loved doing the voluntary work because she enjoyed seeing the practical application of the theoretical stuff she had working on.

In general I find it hard to pay attention to and remember facts, details and lists of instructions. This is has been a problem for me in many other jobs I have done but for some reason, not for research work. That's because research is about the theory, analysing data, finding trends and patterns amongst the data and drawing conclusions. All this comes naturally to me. I found it easy. I think compared to other INFJs, I have strong Ti so I don't know whether that makes a difference.

Good luck with working out whether you are an INFJ or INFP. Just forget about the P/ J thing (I always come out as slightly more P than J on these online tests) and instead focus on the difference between Fi and Fe and Ni an Ne.

 

[INFJigsaw]

I like research to get new ideas... I wouldn't like writing a detailed point by point analysis though. One of the most tedious things I thought about research was citations/bibliographies.

What i like doing more is creating *based* on that research/gathered ideas. If I am not creating, I feel stifled. Researching for the sake of research with just "results".

I dislike discovering facts, for the sake of facts. Memorizing "terms"... They are unimportant to the big picture. I'd much rather write the essay based on the research than to *show* my research methods, tedious and pointless I think, if the big picture answer is there and the concept is understood.


So first I need the research *gathering* through the Ni process. Then I need to express that through an Fe outlet, showing my feelings to the world, and evoking emotions/thoughts in others.

The research part comes easy, so does the Ti analysis of it... And it is probably why I've been good at jobs, but hated those same jobs... b/c they never allowed my Fe Expressions/Interpretations.

I totally agree with everything you said here. Yes, I forgot to mention in my above post that another reason I left research was that it didn't allow me enough opportunities to be creative. Definitely it's more fun learning from other people's research and applying it to the real world than meticulously carrying out the research project yourself and writing it all up. At the same time, I think I would have been reasonably content if I had stayed in research work. However, I would probably have had to have had some hobbies, outside interests or voluntary work that allowed me to use my creativity and gave me opportunities to help people directly in order to fulfill that side of my personality.

 

[ibage]

I love researching! But I'm an Enneagram Type 5, which adds more to that. I think for INFJ's, it might just depend on the specific INFJ.

I'm the same way. I spend hours researching for my hobbies and future purchases. When I built this current PC, I spent upwards of 20 hours looking for the best bang for my buck. I've spent the passed few weeks learning about my personality and such as it's the first time I've taken an interest inward as well. I suppose it depends on the topic. When I start school however, I wonder how much I'm going to like research...

 

[jd_]

I totally agree with everything you said here. Yes, I forgot to mention in my above post that another reason I left research was that it didn't allow me enough opportunities to be creative. Definitely it's more fun learning from other people's research and applying it to the real world than meticulously carrying out the research project yourself and writing it all up. At the same time, I think I would have been reasonably content if I had stayed in research work. However, I would probably have had to have had some hobbies, outside interests or voluntary work that allowed me to use my creativity and gave me opportunities to help people directly in order to fulfill that side of my personality.

Before I eventually quit IT for good, I did look for those outlets, I was volunteering on the side... which led me to eventually quit b/c the contrast of being stifled and enjoyment from volunteering was so much it prompted me to quit altogether. At least I was helping people at that point which helped to satisfy the Fe, but I still didn't have a creative outlet, which for me with Artistic/Investigative interests on the Holland code is better suited for me.
My main goal now is to create works of art (novels/short stories/plays/screen plays), while employing theory behind it from philosophy, critical theory, literature etc. I find it suits me really well, but I'm really just getting ramped up. The combination of both is *CRITICAL* however... Either the art for the sake of art, or the scholarly study just to be a professor...neither interests me.
I still volunteer on the side, but I didn't need to be doing that full time... I think it would be better suited for FeDom folks, and other extroverts in general.

 

[jd_]

I'm the same way. I spend hours researching for my hobbies and future purchases. When I built this current PC, I spent upwards of 20 hours looking for the best bang for my buck. I've spent the passed few weeks learning about my personality and such as it's the first time I've taken an interest inward as well. I suppose it depends on the topic. When I start school however, I wonder how much I'm going to like research...

Highly depends on the classes, some classes I had to FORCE myself to just do it eventually. Where as freshman year I straight up failed a few courses out of sheer disinterest (Calculus for Business/Accounting) So had F's (in these low level 100 classes I hated) meanwhile having A's in high level 300/400 level classes in things like literature/film/theater in the same semester taking courses with mostly junior/seniors. Then came back later and passed with A's in other tedious classes...So it was obviously my interest level, and not the material.
Looking back it should have been an early warning sign to stay far away from the business world but I was hard headed then and didn't learn from my mistakes.
For some reason I was stuck with doing an Information Systems degree... b/c I was forced into the idea of "having to get a job", "being successful", "being practical" ... yada yada. Well, being practical doesn't work if you hate it so much you quit your damn job

I do have something to fall back on at least, but... I'm trying and gripping the walls to not have to go back there.

 

[ibage]

Highly depends on the classes, some classes I had to FORCE myself to just do it eventually. Where as freshman year I straight up failed a few courses out of sheer disinterest (Calculus for Business/Accounting) So had F's and A's in the same semester. Then came back later and passed with A's in other tedious classes...So it was obviously my interest level, and not the material.
Looking back it should have been an early warning sign to stay far away from the business world but I was hard headed then and didn't learn from my mistakes.

This sounds like my one semester I did back when I tried the first time. In my English classes, I got A's. In whatever math course I had, I failed. The other class was a computer science course. She forced us to do group work and I couldn't stand it so I lost interest completely.

 

[Pier 56]

Some websites say they are likely to enjoy it and others say they don't or that they're good at paying attention to small details, but only look at the big picture. I'm confused.

I'm trying to figure out if I'm in INFJ or INFP. I love researching/finding answers, but I HATE writing research papers/reports.

:dry:

I LOVE research!

 

[jd_]

To expand on research, I think both INTJ and INFJ would both like research, where INFJ would *like* to have a finished product expressed through Fe, either artistically or socially usually... for a cause. INTJ would be just as good, but their finished product would be expressed through Te... inventing something, changing a system in the world, creating a new idea out of old ones, etc.

 

[mimi4383]

I hate forced research. If there's something that really interests me, I can research for hours - looking for commonalities, contradictions, taking into account the bias where the info came from.
Key is that I have to be personally interested in a subject to research it.

I don't love the idea of writing or documenting my research. However, I'm usually pretty good at putting my thoughts in writing as opposed to speaking.

 

[Serrintine]

Researching as in finding tons of articles on what I'm interested in so that I can learn more and more about awesome things? Yes, of course.

Researching as in doing labwork and conducting the same basic science experiments over and over? No, thank you.

I don't mind writing papers. I thought writing the paper for my internship at a disease research center (where I pipetted cancer cell suspensions all summer) was more fun than doing the experiments themselves. I enjoyed reporting my findings. It would have been better if I enjoyed the process leading up to the report as well. The kind of research I really want to do is polling and surveying, retrospective studies, experiments in the social sciences. I want to know the changing attitudes of people on a global scale, or the way diseases rise and spread (epidemiology), and things like that.

 

[angularvelocity]

I am always googling some random topic that crosses my mind. Google is my best friend. :hug: