[Alexee]

I have been taking MBTI tests on and off for over fifteen years. I take them every year or two.

Fifteen years ago I was an ENFP and my personality showed it. I did however get a low preference of 5% for the E. I would then get ENFP or INFP depending but I personally leaned towards ENFP who just had to be alone at times!

Since I married (7 years ago), every test has come back INFP consistently. As if, now I have my 'true love', I don't care much for interacting like I used to or my interaction with my wife is enough for me. But in a smaller group setting, I can talk and talk! My wife read the descriptors for both ENFP and INFP and said, I am totally both of them depending on my mood and the moment.

I recently took the test and my 5% E 15 years ago is now a whopping 89% I. So I am very clearly an INFP according to the test.

So as we get older or more settled, do our types change? Do we go from extrovert to introvert? Or was I introvert all along, and just being extrovert til I found my soulmate?!

Has anyone else' type changed from ENFP to INFP over time?

 

[xezene]

Has anyone else' type changed from ENFP to INFP over time?

*raises hand*

Me me me!

 

[Psilo]

Never mind what the tests say. They aren't good for much more than a starting point to determining your type.

Anyway, with maturity comes with increased reliance on your auxilliary function. This function is in the opposite orientation as your dominant. So, as an ENFP you would use Ne-Fi. Maturation of the auxilliary is what gives the effect of going from E to I or vice versa. Using Fi more than you used to doesn't make you an I, but it provides a nice counterweight to your Ne.

ENFPs also tend to believe they are introverts. This has a great deal to do with descriptions of extraversion painting the picture of the gregarious social butterfly, to which ENFPs don't tend to fit.

 

[Alexee]

So I could be an ENFP thinking I'm introvert?! Mmm have to think about that one on my own!

 

[Aero]

I can't find any way to see if Ne or Fi is stronger. They both seem nearly impossible to quantify.

 

[Paradigm]

I have a shy ENFP friend who acts VERY much like an introvert and would probably even call himself one. His Ne is too strong to be an INFP, though. He'll create an elaborate story from one word, go off on tangents about green beans or floating islands, get easily distracted, become animated around people he feels comfortable with. Compared to INFP+INTP conversations (both being Ne-aux) I've had, ENFP+INFP convos tend to be much more... flowing, easily switching ideas, which is what an ENFP will do naturally because of Ne-dom.

Perhaps a better question to ask yourself would be: did Ne or Fi develop first? From your post, it looks like Ne did, which would make you an ENFP. Even if you're not as social now, that doesn't make you an introvert. I've noticed that a lot of people change their E/I scale with age... An extrovert will become more introverted, and an introvert will become more extroverted. People sometimes think themselves to be their opposite, but there are shy extroverts just as there are outgoing introverts.

 

[Alexee]

Though I believe I am an INFP my biggest 'high' at work are the rare moments I am presenting and training others - put me on a stage with a microphone and something magical happens - I am witty and know how to get a message across. But just don't ask me to introduce myself to other people I don't know before or after the presentation! I also don't want too much attention afterwards..just some recognition is fine.

is that consistent with ENFP, INFP or both?

I am thinking. How do you know the different between Ne and Fe? How do you separate intuition from feeling. Isn't intuition reliant on a feeling you have in your gut?

 

[Aero]

I am thinking. How do you know the different between Ne and Fe? How do you separate intuition from feeling. Isn't intuition reliant on a feeling you have in your gut?

It would be between Ne and Fi, neither type are big on Fe. It's really hard to explain. Check descriptions of Ne and Fi to see what they really are talking about. The problem is, in their specific case, they are some of the more difficult ones to tell apart. (They are distinctly different, but to know what you're feeling and understand which is which is where it can be hard, especially at first.)

The two types are really similar and could probably easily masquerade as the other.

 

[leannezinn]

I'm barely eighteen and I think that I've gone from ENFP to INFP. Though I was NEVER very good at making conversation with people I don't know, I used to be very charismatic around my friends, loved to make up stories, and had a good sense of humor. I was even voted class clown in high school. Now I don't really want to talk even when I'm just around friends, unless I feel that something has to be said. As far as jokes go, I have lost all of my wit. I'm not quick at all anymore. I don't know if I'm an ENFP in a slump or if I've actually become an introvert. Anyone else have similar experiences?

 

[Alexee]

I think ENFPs like smaller groups than big social crowds. I'm starting to think I may be an ENFP afterall..

 

[xezene]

I'm barely eighteen and I think that I've gone from ENFP to INFP. Though I was NEVER very good at making conversation with people I don't know, I used to be very charismatic around my friends, loved to make up stories, and had a good sense of humor. I was even voted class clown in high school. Now I don't really want to talk even when I'm just around friends, unless I feel that something has to be said. As far as jokes go, I have lost all of my wit. I'm not quick at all anymore. I don't know if I'm an ENFP in a slump or if I've actually become an introvert. Anyone else have similar experiences?

When I was around 17 and 18, I could have typed every word you said! Yes, for awhile that happened to me. Luckily I'd like to think that now as an INFP that I've somehow retain my wit from way before, but we can only hope. :laughing:

 

[Eliza Jane]

~

 

[ineffipy]

This happened to my ENTJ friend who, even though I thought he was gregariously outgoing and completely an extrovert, claimed he had really clammed up and became an INTJ.

I tend to think the type means less and less the older you get because your other cognitives functions mature relative to your dominant function. I associate myself as an INFP because my preference has always been Fi>Ne, but as I grow older, I can exercise more control so that Fi doesn't take over and dominate the other functions as it used to do.

Most of my life I have benefitted from being socially active - so you could say that reward systems, personal goals, and peer pressure have incentivized me to be social, and that incentive is stronger than my innate preference to be anti-social. I still like being anti-social, but aside from it being very, very comfortable, it doesn't add much value to what I currently want to achieve.

 

[Stardustgalaxies]

Has anyone else' type changed from ENFP to INFP over time?

This is me. When I was a toddler, I was all bubbly and I literally just talk to everyone. I am okay with the spotlight on me, and often do things to entertain people! When something new is up, whether it be an object, a new person, or a new place, I just have to know about it. I was extremely random, one second I'm talking about this little bird I've seen in the field, the next I'll be talking about the airplanes and the stars and how they're flying among the gods there. Classes are dull to me because the teacher literally wanted me to sit down all the time because I often wandered around, going out of the classroom at random times just to see what was happening outside and how the weather feels to my skin.

I used to be very charismatic, charming everyone with my enthusiasm and my talk about 'Wow! The world out there!' When people ask me what I want to be when I grow-up, I told everyone how much I wanted to be a "fairy! Or a mermaid! Or a doctor! Or a fairy mermaid doctor! Wait! I want to have wings so I can fly! I want to be an angel, too! A fairy mermaid angel doctor, then!" :laughing:

However, things started to quiet down. My ISTJ dad didn't like how random and 'unstable' I was. He started training me to be more 'practical and to do things according to time' and everything was just... in order.

My ideas were practically shot down to the ground, the minute they started pouring out of my mouth because he didn't like these 'ideas' and wanted something concrete like 'the real deal'.

I'm not saying all ISTJs are like this. It's just, my father just didn't want how enthusiastic I am about everything. He always tells me to calm down, to sit down at the back and start focusing and working on this big, new thing he wanted me to accomplish. Everything is about efficiency and purpose and time-pressured and I became insecure because my dad's berating me for being who I am.

So, I learned to become quiet. Also, my personality seemed to always be the target of bullies (I guess?). In third grade, my classmates shunned me for being weird and random and I, then, found out that me and my ideas weren't really accepted anywhere because I have to be 'normal' enough for the society because if I'm not, they'll think I'm crazy and diagnose me with something I didn't really have.

In my third grade, I've then started using my Fi as my dominant function. I was always silent and alone because I knew that people didn't like me, and I like being with myself. :sad: I explored the new school I was in and I actually often talked to myself while carrying my lunchbag and walked while I unturned every stone in the new school. (This was one of my favorite memories, though. I felt like I'm in a quest to discover the underground society of faeries in my school, or something :tongue

You can't imagine the relief I had when I found out my type, though. roud: It was like, finally seeing the world for the very first time, and understanding everything because finally there's an explanation to what was happening in me and that there are people out there, the other INFPs, that may have been experiencing almost the same things that I feel. I don't use my type as an excuse, though. More of like an explanation as to why I am like this when people don't understand my cognitive functions.

So there! It's quite long, but there you have my transition of ENFP to INFP! :wink: