Wanted to share this :
"One of the problems with online testing is that there is no one to ask about the questions, which are sometimes confusing. Just by my first impression based on your difficulty with MBTI testing, I would guess that you are ISFJ or ESFJ. ISFJ would roughly be the equivalent of a Melancholy. A Melancholy with a little Choleric would tend to be ESFJ. My guess is based on my experience with ISFJ's, a group that often tends to over-think everything even though "thinking" is one their weakest functions. I didn't mean that as an insult, only as a statement of fact - Feelers don't think (use logical judgment) very well. This is especially true of some Sensing types because they take everything personally and have a hard time objectively answering questions. Intuitive types, while sensitive, take things in from a more global perspective - how it affects others, how it affects the system, how it affects the global nature of things, etc.
A good friend (Omar) has the same problem as you with these tests, only to a much greater degree. He is a perfect example to use on how the test questions can be misconstrued by your mind set. Although he is a text-book ISFP (Artist), he constantly tests ENTJ (Field Marshal). Here is why.
Omar is a very good musician and an extremely skilled finish carpenter. He entertains people and he has a position of esteem on a construction site because of his skill. He is often in a position to direct others on the job because he needs a certain quality of work from those that preceded him (the framers, drywallers, etc) on the job. He sees this as leadership when it is in fact nothing more than him demanding that everyone else meet his standard of performance. He is not a leader, he is just finicky.
Omar also thinks he is a J-type because he is neat and organized and answers all those Type questions as would a J-type. In truth, he is always late and rarely organized. His house, his music room and his construction sites are always spotless however. This is because any sort of mess offends his highly developed Sensing function. The fact that he wastes endless time cleaning and organizing does not make him a J-type. I left him on a jobsite once and came back 6 hours later to find that he spent the whole day cleaning the site up, sharpening and adjusting his tools and making a detailed schedule of the work he was going to do tomorrow. Of course he wanted to charge me $50/hour his time and could have cared less about the fact that we were now a day behind schedule. It is the difference between a set designer running a crew (as they try to paint a picture/scene for the audience) versus a CEO running a corporation - not the same motivation.
Omar is also a deep intellectual person and therefore must be a Thinking type, according to him. While he is on the surface fairly deep, he is not an intellectual. He is motivated by his Sensing function first and then his Feeling function. He has a desire to learn and is a voracious reader. He has a tremendous recall of facts and figures. What he lacks is the ability to apply logic and figure out the meaning of what he knows. When he is pushed to actually figure something out, he simply can't do it correctly because his logic is flawed. His quest for global knowledge is motivated by his need to impress/entertain people (Sanguine) not by the need to resolve the problems of the world. He mistakenly answers all the MBTI questions related to Sensing and Intuition incorrectly because of this. The common mistake here is to confuse "Thinking" with Intelligence. They are not the same thing. In fact, Feelers tend to me a little more intelligent than Thinkers.
Equally confusing to Omar and almost everyone in the world is the Extroverted/Introverted functions. One can be out-going and still be introverted (me, for example). According to most articles that I have read, it all has to do with how you recharge your batteries. In the truest sense of the work done by Isabelle Myers, it is also (if not more) about how you apply your dominant and auxiliary functions to the world around you. An ESFJ would have their dominant function Extroverted Feeling, caring about the world around them (i.e. remembering birthdays). Their auxiliary function would be Introverted Sensing (the deep personal meaning to the information that they take in thru their senses). An ISFJ would be the total opposite. Their dominant function would be Introverted Sensing (awareness of their surrounding) and their auxiliary would be Extroverted Feeling (concern for others). A great source for a deeper explanation of this would be Isabelle Myers Briggs book, "Gifts Differing." I could probably write another 100 pages on this alone because it is the true meaning of the MBTI is usually neglected by most writers.
This dissertation was not intended as a platform for slandering someone, or to show that one type is better than another. I was simply meant to be a vivid example of how the questions can be manipulated or misunderstood. This is a very common mistake and the reason that most MBTI professionals don't like online tests."
-- David DeVaughn
INFJ
"One of the problems with online testing is that there is no one to ask about the questions, which are sometimes confusing. Just by my first impression based on your difficulty with MBTI testing, I would guess that you are ISFJ or ESFJ. ISFJ would roughly be the equivalent of a Melancholy. A Melancholy with a little Choleric would tend to be ESFJ. My guess is based on my experience with ISFJ's, a group that often tends to over-think everything even though "thinking" is one their weakest functions. I didn't mean that as an insult, only as a statement of fact - Feelers don't think (use logical judgment) very well. This is especially true of some Sensing types because they take everything personally and have a hard time objectively answering questions. Intuitive types, while sensitive, take things in from a more global perspective - how it affects others, how it affects the system, how it affects the global nature of things, etc.
A good friend (Omar) has the same problem as you with these tests, only to a much greater degree. He is a perfect example to use on how the test questions can be misconstrued by your mind set. Although he is a text-book ISFP (Artist), he constantly tests ENTJ (Field Marshal). Here is why.
Omar is a very good musician and an extremely skilled finish carpenter. He entertains people and he has a position of esteem on a construction site because of his skill. He is often in a position to direct others on the job because he needs a certain quality of work from those that preceded him (the framers, drywallers, etc) on the job. He sees this as leadership when it is in fact nothing more than him demanding that everyone else meet his standard of performance. He is not a leader, he is just finicky.
Omar also thinks he is a J-type because he is neat and organized and answers all those Type questions as would a J-type. In truth, he is always late and rarely organized. His house, his music room and his construction sites are always spotless however. This is because any sort of mess offends his highly developed Sensing function. The fact that he wastes endless time cleaning and organizing does not make him a J-type. I left him on a jobsite once and came back 6 hours later to find that he spent the whole day cleaning the site up, sharpening and adjusting his tools and making a detailed schedule of the work he was going to do tomorrow. Of course he wanted to charge me $50/hour his time and could have cared less about the fact that we were now a day behind schedule. It is the difference between a set designer running a crew (as they try to paint a picture/scene for the audience) versus a CEO running a corporation - not the same motivation.
Omar is also a deep intellectual person and therefore must be a Thinking type, according to him. While he is on the surface fairly deep, he is not an intellectual. He is motivated by his Sensing function first and then his Feeling function. He has a desire to learn and is a voracious reader. He has a tremendous recall of facts and figures. What he lacks is the ability to apply logic and figure out the meaning of what he knows. When he is pushed to actually figure something out, he simply can't do it correctly because his logic is flawed. His quest for global knowledge is motivated by his need to impress/entertain people (Sanguine) not by the need to resolve the problems of the world. He mistakenly answers all the MBTI questions related to Sensing and Intuition incorrectly because of this. The common mistake here is to confuse "Thinking" with Intelligence. They are not the same thing. In fact, Feelers tend to me a little more intelligent than Thinkers.
Equally confusing to Omar and almost everyone in the world is the Extroverted/Introverted functions. One can be out-going and still be introverted (me, for example). According to most articles that I have read, it all has to do with how you recharge your batteries. In the truest sense of the work done by Isabelle Myers, it is also (if not more) about how you apply your dominant and auxiliary functions to the world around you. An ESFJ would have their dominant function Extroverted Feeling, caring about the world around them (i.e. remembering birthdays). Their auxiliary function would be Introverted Sensing (the deep personal meaning to the information that they take in thru their senses). An ISFJ would be the total opposite. Their dominant function would be Introverted Sensing (awareness of their surrounding) and their auxiliary would be Extroverted Feeling (concern for others). A great source for a deeper explanation of this would be Isabelle Myers Briggs book, "Gifts Differing." I could probably write another 100 pages on this alone because it is the true meaning of the MBTI is usually neglected by most writers.
This dissertation was not intended as a platform for slandering someone, or to show that one type is better than another. I was simply meant to be a vivid example of how the questions can be manipulated or misunderstood. This is a very common mistake and the reason that most MBTI professionals don't like online tests."
-- David DeVaughn
INFJ