Hello all! Assistance required: am I INTP or INFP?

633 Views 21 Replies 6 Participants Last post by Necrofantasia, 11 d ago

Space_Ace_Android

Discussion Starter · 15 d ago

Just realised I posted this in the wrong forum so I'm moving it here:

Hello everyone!

I hope you're having a great morning afternoon/evening/night.

I read that INFP and INTPs often mistype as each other and I'm curious if I'm a INTP who's been mistyping for an INFP for a while. I've taken many Myers Briggs tests and they all said that I'm INFP, but when I take tests on "how to tell if you INFP or INTP" I get mixed results.

I'm guessing that's because those tests are mainly based on testing how much you value logic, and I love theoretical questions, philosophy, science, and overthinking. It's a bit jarring to read descriptions of INFPs as people who dislike science and organisation (definitely not true for me), but I don't fit the usual description of INTPs either since I try to make everyone happy even if that means hiding what I think the truth is.

I think I've mostly answered my own question. I'm reasonably certain (about 90 percent) that I'm an INFP who has an approach to logic that's typical of INTPs. I could just be an emotional INTP who greatly values making others feel valued however.

Does anyone have advice on how to gain greater clarity? And personality type would you peg me as and why?

Some random facts that I hope will be helpful if you want to accurately type me:

My best subject in school was English, but I also got A's in every single science based subject like Chemistry and Biology. In the fantasy novel I'm writing, I want to create a very detailed conlang that's realistic enough to be a naturally evolved language, make a map complete with tectonic plates, and other assorted sciencey/pedantic-y stuff, but the reason I started writing the novel in the first place was to understand people on a deep level and explore different emotional states and ideas.

Aaaand now I'm uncertain again. Help. At least I know I'm I, N, and P for sure -- it's reassuring to have that certainty.

Thank you for reading all of this. Please enjoy a photo of a sea sheep, an adorable type of nudibranch. (Also you are permitted to enjoy the cute sea sheep even if you did not read all of this and just skimmed straight to the cuteness.)

Plant Leaf Terrestrial plant Feather Grass

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Freyz

· #9 · 15 d ago

As others have suggested, you need to learn more about cognitive functions and determine whether your dominant function is Ti (Introverted Thinking) or Fi (Introverted Feeling).

Ti and Fi are pretty similar at its core, but they differ in how they process information. Ti users have their own logical framework for understanding the world. They enjoy analyzing things logically, but their logic is subjective and personal. This contrasts with Te (Extroverted Thinking) users, who base their logic on objective data and facts. Te users are known for being efficient because they can think quickly without having to examine everything in depth.

Fi users have their own emotional framework for evaluating the world. They value their feelings, emotions and moral code. They like to explore their feelings in depth and understand themselves better.

So the question is whether you live your life through logical, or feeling lens:

- Do you have your own logical explanations to everything you experience? For example you might use your Ne to find abstract connections, you then logically examine these connections to your logical framework for your own understanding.

- Or do you have your own sets of personal values, things like "wrong/right" and "bad/good". It is a judging function and they might be stubborn in some ways, but if they're healthy they can achieve a lot in life following their own sets of personal values/morals no matter what. Also, due to their emotional depth, they can be very creative, combining both abstract connections through their Ne and using Fi as the emotional depth.

Of course, this is some generalization, you have to research more on these cognitive functions concept.

Also, I'm not trying to make you doubt yourself, but please consider and take time to understand all cognitive functions, as you said that you're pretty new at it, because I'm assuming you took MBTI test, not Cognitive functions test

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Freyz

· #16 · 15 d ago

@Space_Ace_Android

There's a chance that you might be an IxFJ instead, assuming that you're an introvert.
From what I've seen so far, your feeling and thinking preferences seems to be 60/40, and that's what usually happens for IxxJ and ExxP.

You're not Te valuing as well, so that's off the mark now.

How thoughts are presented

It says that INTPs usually present their thoughts in a more linear, easy to follow fashion. I adore writing like this because it gives a clarity that my mind usually lacks. My thoughts usually don't have coherence and it's a big effort to order them. The draft of this was very messy and had lots of typos and blunders/trailing ends. It had no sections, just an idea dump to later be sorted into something that actually made sense. I've never liked poetry much, especially abstract poetry, because the vagueness hurt my brain. I'm glad that other people can appreciate the vibes though. Ti wins by a landslide due to my preference for clear writing that makes sense.

This ^ is giving me Ni dominant-Ti tertiary vibes. I know its subjective, but a Ti dominant people usually isn't like this, they often have a clarity of thought and follows in a linear logical processes. You might be either Ni or Si dominant, but I'm not sure.
You seemed to care a lot about what other people think, and what you thought that "personal values" is more or less like Fe for me, you care about the external values of people outside of yourself.

Now to figure out whether you value Ni or Ne is a little difficult, but I'll try:

Which can you relate more?

a. You love to ponder and reflect. You like to give meaning to something you experience, as your mind becomes flooded with abstract patterns and connections. You might or might not realize that everything is interconnected in the grand scheme of things.
Sometimes your mind feels like its processing abstract information behind the scenes. It's always automatic, you cannot seem to stop but perceive everything in an abstract/meaningful way, and it connects to your subjective framework of everything. You often to "realize" things and reaches an insight out of nowhere.

b. The world is endless. You are swimming in an endless sea of possibilities about what to do/experience/think about next and I want to try them all. You're creative, you have many ideas and projects that you wanted to achieve. You might be quick witted and often connects things in an unrelated way.
You like possibilities, it fascinates you. You love to experiment a bunch of things.
Your ideas are expansive, and keeps moving on and on.

Again, this is a generalization based on my current understanding of Ne and Ni. I might be biased towards Ni since I'm an Ni dominant, so for sure I understood it more :v
Please do more research and confirm the validity incase I'm wrong in some areas.

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Freyz

· #18 · 14 d ago

Space_Ace_Android said:
Thank you so much for the insights and thoughts.

Sorry if I was late to respond -- a bit overwhelmed with all the feedback!

For Ti -- I'm autistic and often struggle with executive dysfunction/burnout. Sometimes my thoughts are extremely coherent and linear but it's rare -- usually it's a mess of exploring three or so ideas at once and sometimes not in order. It used to be a lot more coherent before burnout.

I took a test on cognitive functions -- both my Ti and Ni are very high.

View attachment 918351

a) I often get lost analysing theoretical situations I'll never be in/experience. I only get random bursts of insight when it comes to my writing, otherwise nada.

b) I think this is a lot more accurate, and it's a beautiful way of describing this manner of thinking. Thank you for sharing. I'm writing a novel about alien mermaids with an eclectic bunch of main characters because I want to explore as many ideas as I possibly can. We've got: an undead, autistic diplomat, a drag queen who's great with throwing knives, and a more standard archetype of an arrogant Royal (Even though she fits a cliché she has hilarious interactions with the other characters and has a great deal of depth and honour despite her screwed up beliefs/sense of superiority.)

Here's a drawing of Lumin (I tried including Asran as well but he made my browser crash XD).

Have a nudibranch of appreciation as well.

View attachment 918352 View attachment 918353

Interesting, now I don't even know which type you are lol.

You seemed to have a preference for Ti/Fe axis, but your latest response is aligning more with Ne/Si.
IF that's the case, then you could either be xSFJ, or xNTP, which is odd.

Well, try to research more on either you value Ne/Si or Ni/Se. Also, try confirming whether you prefer Ti/Fe or Te/Fi. Please note that contradictions often exists in typology, and no one can fit in perfectly to the labels.

Cheers, and good luck!

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