[thestrangewarrior]

I know for a fact I'm introverted and thinking. I've always tested that way. I used to test more N (a loose one), but have become more S and have stayed an S taking the tests more recently. I used to think N and S were the hardest, but know I think J or P is the hardest to figure out. I'm always on the fringe of both.

- I'm not exactly a neat freak. I have a lot of material possessions, although I can clean up if I want to, which isn't often.
- I stick to my own rules and stay true to myself.
- I think more about short-term stuff than long-term stuff.
- I consider myself pretty consistent in what I do.
- I'm not the greatest planner in the world and I have been known to do the job improvising and planning and I am pretty indifferent.

Either way, I'm not a stereotypical example for either ISTJ or ISTP. I guess you could say I'm distinct.

If anyone else wants to add anything, let me know.

 

[Edmond Zedo]

J seems the better fit offhand. I wouldn't stake my life on it, maybe three dollars or so.

 

[thestrangewarrior]

Looks like I'm back to the drawing board again. This may require someone else to help me with this.

 

[Functianalyst]

This question only becomes a problem when attempting to decide through forced dilemma. The question should be do I prefer introverted thinking (Ti) or introverted sensing (Si) as my dominant function, not what dichotomies you prefer. People assume that we have use of our secondary (auxiliary) function. That is far from the truth. I am not a sensing type, I am a thinking type and ISTJs are vice-versa. The same goes for INT types, one is a natural thinker and the other naturally uses intuiting. However we do use a dominant function and these are considerably different.

Taken from the Lenore Thompson Wiki site:

p. 169: "When we use Introverted Sensation, we don't adjust to our surface perceptions. We package them and take them with us--in the form of facts, numbers, signs, and memories."
p. 170: "When we use Introverted Sensation, we stabilize our immediate sense impressions by integratng them with the ones we remember and care about. We "find ourselves" in whatever is happening, because our perceptions are anchored by what we already know."
p. 170: "Introverted Sensation gives us the will to accumulate information--names, dates, numbers, statistics, references, guidelines, and so forth--related to the things that matter to us. ... Such facts are highly selective. ... They're part of our self-experience. They define the specific nature of our passions and interests. They become our basis for taking in new data."
p. 171: "From an Introverted Sensate viewpoint, immediate conditions have no stable meaning. They're just an influx of data impinging on the senses. And our response to these impressions depends on our mood, our state of mind, our desires, our feelings. It's our commitments and priorities, the facts we hold inalienable, that give our circumstances enduring significance."
As a dominant attitude:
p. 174: "ISJs...don't believe for a minute that the universe is inherently rational. For these types, the outer world is a jumble of ever-changing perceptual experiences, dictating ever-changing behavioral responses. What ISJs maintain, and maintain unconditionally, is their priorities, which stabilize perceptual reality and give it consistent meaning."

-OR-

p. 42: "When we use Thinking in an Introverted way, we get a mental image of the logical relationships in an entire system. For example, if we're crocheting an initial into a sweater, we're likely to draw a picture rather than work out the logical relationships analytically."
p. 342: "Introverted Thinking is a right-brain form of judgement that makes us aware of a situation's many variables. When we use it, we recognize our power, as individuals, to exploit some variables at the expense of others."
p. 343: "This kind of awareness is not only impersonal: it's graphic, immediate, and wholistic. It prompts no predetermined categories of good and bad. Variables that have unusual or perverse potential are accorded the same consideration as variables that assure a socially appropriate outcome."
p. 287: "As a right-brain function, Introverted Thinking is not conceptual and linear [contra Extraverted Thinking]. It's body-based and wholistic. It operates by way of visual, tactile, or spatial cues, inclining us to reason experientially rather than analytically."
p. 288: "The right brain, with its all-at-once approach to life, doesn't require exact predictability before it takes action. Its decisions are based on probabilities, and it leaves room for the random and the unexpected."
p. 290: "These perceptions aren't peripheral. They're crucial to our intended effect. And they aren't reflexive. They're unspecified. As we're selecting and responding to them, we're not defining them and telling ourselves about them in a left-brain way."
As a Dominant Function:
p. 292: "Introverted Thinkers understand reality only in terms of their ability to 'converse' with it, to take part in its 'becoming'."

Also the decision can be made through determining your temperament. SP types know without a doubt that they are not SJ. They may struggle with NT (STPs) or NF (SFPs), but they have no doubt that they are not SJs. That is why Keirsey made the split. So I would encourage you to scan the SJ and SP descriptions in those sub-forums.