[Trinox]

In your opinion, what are minor/major factors that influence one to become an INTJ?
(This question is very very challenging. Let's be considerate of our peers and have a good discussion.)

Covering broad scopes:
* Chemical / Biological / Psychological (Religious) / Social

 

[Yours]

One doesn't become INTJ. One simply is INTJ. Awesome people are born awesome.

 

[DrEpicFail]

One doesn't become INTJ. One simply is INTJ. Awesome people are born awesome.

I shall second this.

 

[perennialurker]

All of the Lelouch-likers agree; personality type is determined by biology, not choice.

 

[Trinox]

Oh, interesting to see three people in a row arguing strongly for genetic factors.
Is any of you either psychology/biology majors?

 

[bionic]

I came out of the uterus this awesome.

 

[taylor2005]

Oh, interesting to see three people in a row arguing strongly for genetic factors.
Is any of you either psychology/biology majors?

:laughing:

 

[Trinox]

Hmm, I would say my mother is INFJ (nurse) and my father is ENTP (doctor).
Should this be why I am INTJ? lol
Or can INTJ spring out of ESFP x ESFP, too?

 

[taylor2005]

Hmm, I would say my mother is INFJ (nurse) and my father is ENTP (doctor).
Should this be why I am INTJ? lol
Or can INTJ spring out of ESFP x ESFP, too?

I was the epitome of daddy's little girl. I loved my mother, but I often found her to be over-emotional and irrational. I was very close with my VERY unemotional father, who to this day I have never seen cry or seem sad.

Could this have a factor in my type? I wonder.

 

[Peter]

Hmm, I would say my mother is INFJ (nurse) and my father is ENTP (doctor).
Should this be why I am INTJ? lol
Or can INTJ spring out of ESFP x ESFP, too?

You´re born with your personality. If it's just genetics or sheer luck (! :happy doesn't really matter. The point is that you´re born with it.

Most of the connections in your brain are formed before you´re born. That there isn't a lot of information in there yet has nothing to do with the cognitive functions, since those are mostly based on the wiring.

The question that always follows this is: "How do you know that cognitive functions depend mostly on wiring?"

The answer is pretty simple. Nobody experiences drastic personality type changes. (mentally healthy people of course.) This means that information does not change the processing preferences of your brain. Using the word brain here is important as well. The preferences for using one cognitive function before another is not your personal preference. If you´re an INTJ or INFJ for example, you do not choose to use Ni as your first funtion, you do not have that choice. Not even your brain makes this choice as it can not even do so. Your brain isn't conscious, it does not have a sense of self, it does not have needs. Only you do. Your brain is just a machine and simply wired for it. This is also why brain damage (mental illness) can be used as a reason to be found not quilty in court as it wasn't the owner of the brain that made the choices.

Political preferences for example can and do change. You´re not born with a political preference and your political preference may change drastically many times. This means it's based on information, it's not wired into your brain.

 

[taylor2005]

You´re born with your personality. If it's just genetics or sheer luck (! :happy doesn't really matter. The point is that you´re born with it.

Most of the connections in your brain are formed before you´re born. That there isn't a lot of information in there yet has nothing to do with the cognitive functions, since those are mostly based on the wiring.

The question that always follows this is: "How do you know that cognitive functions depend mostly on wiring?"

The answer is pretty simple. Nobody experiences drastic personality type changes. (mentally healthy people of course.) This means that information does not change the processing preferences of your brain. Using the word brain here is important as well. The preferences for using one cognitive function before another is not your personal preference. If you´re an INTJ or INFJ for example, you do not choose to use Ni as your first funtion, you do not have that choice. Not even your brain makes this choice as it can not even do so. Your brain isn't conscious, it does not have a sense of self, it does not have needs. Only you do. Your brain is just a machine and simply wired for it. This is also why brain damage (mental illness) can be used as a reason to be found not quilty in court as it wasn't the owner of the brain that made the choices.

Political preferences for example can and do change. You´re not born with a political preference and your political preference may change drastically many times. This means it's based on information, it's not wired into your brain.

That makes very good sense Peter

 

[Trinox]

Well-said.

You´re born with your personality. If it's just genetics or sheer luck (! :happy doesn't really matter. The point is that you´re born with it.
Most of the connections in your brain are formed before you´re born. That there isn't a lot of information in there yet has nothing to do with the cognitive functions, since those are mostly based on the wiring.

Yes, most key neural connections do form prenatally and are highly genetically influenced.

Scholarly source:

Comparing mono- and dizygotic twins, they have found that most areas of the brain, with the exception of the cerebellum, are highly heritable—more alike in monozygotic twins than in dizygotic siblings. The cerebellum, in contrast, is the least heritable—identical twins are no more alike than fraternal twins with respect to cerebellar size, suggesting that this particular part of the brain [cerebellum] is more sensitive to environmental cues.

In children aged 3 to 6, the greatest growth occurs in the frontal lobes, which are responsible for learning new skills and being able to think ahead. In older children, 7 to 15 years, the isthmus, which houses the language centers, showed the greatest activity. The growth rate in this region dropped off abruptly at puberty, coinciding with the end of a well known critical period for language learning.

Wikipedia:

The cerebellum (Latin for little brain) is a region of the brain that plays an important role in motor control. It is also involved in some cognitive functions such as attention and language, and probably in some emotional functions such as regulating fear and pleasure responses.

Cerebellum does grow until around 25 of age, and other parts also postnatally grow and is influenced by environmental cues (somewhat).
Could we regard the postnatal brain growth as only a minor factor?

 

[SouthEastAsia]

So do genetics play a part in the prenatal formation of the personality type (ie. the personality of the mother and father) ? Some people can be very "similar" to their parents.

Very interesting.

 

[Trinox]

So do genetics play a part in the prenatal formation of the personality type (ie. the personality of the mother and father) ? Some people can be very "similar" to their parents.
Very interesting.

Yep, I knew this topic will intrigue a lot of INTJs.

In my opinion, acting like one's parents is mostly by years of parental influence when you are growing up;
observing and unconsciously absorbing parents' behaviors.
(Although personality may be similar, adopted children seldom act like their biological parents.)

 

[taylor2005]

Yep, I knew this topic will intrigue a lot of INTJs.

In my opinion, acting like one's parents is mostly by years of parental influence when you are growing up;
observing and unconsciously absorbing parents' behaviors.
(Although personality may be similar, adopted children seldom act like their biological parents.)

Great observations

 

[ImNoTJustletters]

So do genetics play a part in the prenatal formation of the personality type (ie. the personality of the mother and father) ? Some people can be very "similar" to their parents.

Jung seems to suggest that genetic ancestry plays a large part in personality make up.

I'd be interested to find out if there are strong similarities in the self schema of a particular type, and if those schema vary drastically from that of other types.

 

[Trinox]

Shall we move on to the topics:
1. why evolution chose INTJ to exist.
2. why there are so few INTJs among population.

 

[ImNoTJustletters]

What did you change in the original post?

 

[ZeroDay]

Yes, most key neural connections do form prenatally and are highly genetically influenced.

Scholarly source:


Wikipedia:


Cerebellum does grow until around 25 of age, and other parts also postnatally grow and is influenced by environmental cues (somewhat).
Could we regard the postnatal brain growth as only a minor factor?

Would you mind posting the scholarly source?

 

[Trinox]

Would you mind posting the scholarly source?

Sure.

"Brain development during childhood and adolescence: a longitudinal MRI study"
http://www.math.tau.ac.il/~dms/Longitudinal/brain_MRI.pdf

"Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood"
Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood ? PNAS


Summary found here:

"Watching How the Brain Grows"
The Scientist - Watching How the Brain Grows


Still, well-estimated ratio of environmentally-cued to gene-determined neural connection is unknown.
What they compared was the sizes of the functional sectors in the brain in identical twins,
showing that each brain sector has different sensitivity to environmental cues.