ESFJ and ENFJ differences?
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"Grey" had a great answer to this:
"ENFJs and ESFJs are as much an enigma to me as many other sensing types. The difference of sensory versus intuition, however, can be fairly obvious.
'Sensing' types are defined by 'being' in the present moment, fully engaged and attentive to their surroundings. This can come in the form of Introverted Sensing, or Extroverted Sensing. Extroverted Sensing is the more standard sensing description, focused on the here and now and everything in the present. Introverted Sensing is comprised of a bit more obscure details -- that is, Introverted Sensing deals with the present by referring to the past.
Two basic examples would be:
Extroverted Sensing: Playing sports.
Introverted Sensing: Deciding not to put your hand in the fire again because it burned you last time you did that.
As an ENFJ, you may be more familiar with Intuition, but the functions are not popularly explored by many users of the Jung and MBTI theories. Intuition is considered a more unconscious process, judging the present world by all of the patterns beneath it. Essentially, it might be described as taking in the play of the theatre, but seeing the people behind the curtains operating the machinery and focusing on them. Intuition comes with two functions: Introverted Intuition, and Extroverted Intuition. Introverted Intuition addresses patterns much like Extroverted Intuition, but acts more as sudden foresight, primarily because it is focused on the introverted world. Extroverted Intuition would be more about addressing the patterns and trends of the extroverted world."
"ENFJs and ESFJs are as much an enigma to me as many other sensing types. The difference of sensory versus intuition, however, can be fairly obvious.
'Sensing' types are defined by 'being' in the present moment, fully engaged and attentive to their surroundings. This can come in the form of Introverted Sensing, or Extroverted Sensing. Extroverted Sensing is the more standard sensing description, focused on the here and now and everything in the present. Introverted Sensing is comprised of a bit more obscure details -- that is, Introverted Sensing deals with the present by referring to the past.
Two basic examples would be:
Extroverted Sensing: Playing sports.
Introverted Sensing: Deciding not to put your hand in the fire again because it burned you last time you did that.
As an ENFJ, you may be more familiar with Intuition, but the functions are not popularly explored by many users of the Jung and MBTI theories. Intuition is considered a more unconscious process, judging the present world by all of the patterns beneath it. Essentially, it might be described as taking in the play of the theatre, but seeing the people behind the curtains operating the machinery and focusing on them. Intuition comes with two functions: Introverted Intuition, and Extroverted Intuition. Introverted Intuition addresses patterns much like Extroverted Intuition, but acts more as sudden foresight, primarily because it is focused on the introverted world. Extroverted Intuition would be more about addressing the patterns and trends of the extroverted world."
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Yea I mean intuition as Jung intended is basically having a gut feeling about things. Extraverted Intuition deals with how this manifests in the outside world. Possibilities in the outside world, basically. You can think of Ne-type as the person who is always sniffing around the corner trying to uncover something new. Many investigative journalists are Ne-types, always checking out hunches and 'instincts' about what something might possibly be or where a story might be found. A lot of sports agents would fall into this category too, being able to appraise an athlete's potential without necessarily having the real-world data to back it up (on ESPN Mel Kiper Jr, is probably an ENxP and Todd McShay is an Extraverted Sensation type, so they often come to similar conclusions but for very different reasons. Kiper is far more speculative).
As far ENFJs go, their Intuition is used in conjunction with their Feeling to typically give them a sense of the underlying implications or machinations as they relate to people. With ESFJ its much more immediate as they would often downplay their intuition, or it might even manifest more negatively, as their tertiary Ne might come out as rumors, or gossip or negative speculation (though nothing like a Si-dom). The ENFJ is a little more pointed with their Intuitions and would trust them far more. They may even have built up their sense of Intuition to the point where it rivals their dominant Feeling. This is often the case with a lot of teachers or preachers who just seem to know what a student or parishioner's needs are. They can quickly assess a situation without much outer data and come to an often accurate assessment of what the underlying issues are, where the ESFJ would tend to not do this, or be much, much more speculative (maybe getting it right sometimes, maybe not). Because the ENFJ relies on Intuitions more, their intuitive abilities will be sharper.
The other thing with ENFJ's is they can have a bit of a hedonism streak because of their Tertiary Se. You can imagine that having a sixth sense about how people work combined with a healthy gravitation toward experiencing the object, can push some of them into some pretty wild areas. Often ENFJs end up in jobs like club promoter where they thrive, both instinctively knowing how to promote, what the patrons will want and indulging in the atmosphere themselves. Where in my experience, the ESFJ is probably the drunk one trying to look cool by buying a VIP table for all his buddies, the ENFJ probably either owns the club or is throwing the party (and will know just what to do at closing to keep the good times rolling).
At their worst ENFJs can be some of the most manipulating types out there. Vito Corleone, the Godfather, is such an ENFJ, who doesn't even have to raise a finger of his own but is pulling strings many layers up from afar (that's Ni helping Fe). When he talks about making a offer they can't refuse, he already knows what the outcome will be well ahead of time, so the offer is just a pleasantry. This is typical ENFJ gone bad stuff. All the Fe social graces, but a lot of string pulling behind-the-scenes. Where the ESFJ's manipulation is usually more in your face as @simulatedworld puts it, when talking about dom-tert looping ESFJ
As far ENFJs go, their Intuition is used in conjunction with their Feeling to typically give them a sense of the underlying implications or machinations as they relate to people. With ESFJ its much more immediate as they would often downplay their intuition, or it might even manifest more negatively, as their tertiary Ne might come out as rumors, or gossip or negative speculation (though nothing like a Si-dom). The ENFJ is a little more pointed with their Intuitions and would trust them far more. They may even have built up their sense of Intuition to the point where it rivals their dominant Feeling. This is often the case with a lot of teachers or preachers who just seem to know what a student or parishioner's needs are. They can quickly assess a situation without much outer data and come to an often accurate assessment of what the underlying issues are, where the ESFJ would tend to not do this, or be much, much more speculative (maybe getting it right sometimes, maybe not). Because the ENFJ relies on Intuitions more, their intuitive abilities will be sharper.
The other thing with ENFJ's is they can have a bit of a hedonism streak because of their Tertiary Se. You can imagine that having a sixth sense about how people work combined with a healthy gravitation toward experiencing the object, can push some of them into some pretty wild areas. Often ENFJs end up in jobs like club promoter where they thrive, both instinctively knowing how to promote, what the patrons will want and indulging in the atmosphere themselves. Where in my experience, the ESFJ is probably the drunk one trying to look cool by buying a VIP table for all his buddies, the ENFJ probably either owns the club or is throwing the party (and will know just what to do at closing to keep the good times rolling).
At their worst ENFJs can be some of the most manipulating types out there. Vito Corleone, the Godfather, is such an ENFJ, who doesn't even have to raise a finger of his own but is pulling strings many layers up from afar (that's Ni helping Fe). When he talks about making a offer they can't refuse, he already knows what the outcome will be well ahead of time, so the offer is just a pleasantry. This is typical ENFJ gone bad stuff. All the Fe social graces, but a lot of string pulling behind-the-scenes. Where the ESFJ's manipulation is usually more in your face as @simulatedworld puts it, when talking about dom-tert looping ESFJ
Imagine someone who invites everyone over for a party, sends out a bunch of passive-aggressive texts to guilt trip anyone who didn't show up, then continually insists on leading the whole group in a variety of particular activities she s/he has planned specifically to show off how unique his/her party activity ideas are. There's no pause for internal reflection or subjective opinion on any of this; everything is designed specifically to manipulate people into giving positive feedback/reaffirming the FeNe ESFJ's overwhelming importance to the group. If anyone doesn't comply, the standard response is passive-aggressive guilt tripping designed to oust that person for being "disloyal to the group." If you don't agree with the ideas the FeNe ESFJ sees as crucial to the ethos of the group, you've already personally offended him and you're probably on his shit list now.
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Those were some good explanations of Ni/Se versus Si/Ne. I would think that a ENFJ's secondary Ni might make them more optimistic about the future, as opposed to a ESFJ's Si making them prefer what they are used to.
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Yea I mean they can both be future-oriented in their own ways, its just that the ENFJ will have a much more robust (and probably accurate) sense of the future than the ESFJ. The ESFJ might get caught up (because of Ne) in something off-the-wall, or a degree of negative prognosticating (think Rick Santorum). But we should be careful to point out that Si doesn't mean "not future-oriented". That deals more with how Inferior Ne in a Si-dom might manifest (as a littany of negative possibilities about how things might unfold -- but this can still be future oriented especially in the case of say a Si-dom who obsesses over stuff like the future implications of the national debt, or global warming).Those were some good explanations of Ni/Se versus Si/Ne. I would think that an ENFJ's secondary Ni might make them more optimistic about the future, as opposed to an ESFJ's Si making them prefer what they are used to.
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Okay, I see what you mean. I suppose a ESFJ's Si combined with Ne could be used to predict the future, but not in the same way ENFJs do it.
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Yea if you ever watch the show TMZ where they're all just speculating about some celebrity or gossip, that's sort of how Tertiary Ne might manifest in a Feeling type (not saying the journalists themselves are ESFJs, many are ENPs, but I'd be willing a good chunk of TMZs target audience is ESFJ). General unseriousness and a throwing out of possibilities, some on the mark, some way off the mark crazy, with no real motivation for accuracy (because in the Tertiary position the Ne-function will be downplayed as 'unserious' because its closer to the Inferior and shadow).Okay, I see what you mean. I guess a ESFJ's Si combined with Ne could be used to predict the future, but not in the same way ENFJs do it.
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