[yumchesspie]

I know I posted a thread before, but I got contradicting responses and after being on this forum longer and learning new info, I'm less sure. I do not know if I'm an intuitive or a sensor. I don't know if I'm a J or a P. And now I'm even considering that I'm secretly an extrovert, though I used to be nearly positive in regards to my introversion. I filled out this questionnaire and hope it helps.

0. Is there anything that may affect the way you answer the questions? For example, a stressful time, mental illness, medications, special life circumstances? Other useful information includes sex, age, and current state of mind.
Yes, I think so. I believe my sensing, probably Si, has become stronger in the last two years. It happened somewhat suddenly, along with more extreme introverted behavior than prior, and some other things such as paranoia. I suspect a mood or personality disorder, so I'm not sure if I would be highly sensitive otherwise.


1. Click on this link: Flickr: Explore! Look at the random photo for about 30 seconds. Copy and paste it here, and write about your impression of it. (Write down anything that comes to your mind when looking at the picture.)
Okay, this picture was first so I chose it: https://www.flickr.com/photos/eminte/14700940272/in/explore-2014-07-20
I see it as sort of a foreshadowing of a coming of age, so to speak. I would not be surprised if one or both of the girls in the photo experience a change in or questioning of morality. I also think of gargoyles and religious stuff, I guess because of the stone. Maybe there's some kind of inquisition taking place.


2. You are with a group of people in a car, heading to a different town to see your favourite band/artist/musician. Suddenly, the car breaks down for an unknown reason in the middle of nowhere. What are your initial thoughts? What are your outward reactions?
I'd be kind of annoyed and maybe even think the Universe willed it to happen on purpose just to sabotage my plans. But outwardly I'd probably be calm, but I might ask a lot of questions that passive aggressively reveal my distress. Or I'd just check out of the situation because it's kind of boring to just stand there and continue worrying about it.


3. You somehow make it to the concert. The driver wants to go to the afterparty that was announced (and assure you they won't drink so they can drive back later). How do you feel about this party? What do you do?
I don't generally like parties or feeling "trapped" by an obligation. I'd probably call a taxi after the concert if I had money.


4. On the drive back, your friends are talking. A friend makes a claim that clashes with your current beliefs. What is your inward reaction? What do you outwardly say?
It depends how assertive and rigid she is about the claim. If she's impassioned and closed-minded/overly sure of herself and I feel she's wrong and I'm also impassioned and sure of myself, then I probably won't be able to help but correct her. If her claim makes some sense I'll probably consider it and analyze both of our beliefs to see which makes more sense, or if there's common ground.


5. What would you do if you actually saw/experienced something that clashes with your previous beliefs, experiences, and habits?
I'd probably consider altering mine if I found the new experience something that could happen regularly and not just an exception. Usually if I have a feeling about something, for instance once of my "quasi-delusional" beliefs, I know deep down that they don't match external logical standards, but at the same time I can't fully let them go. So it's as if my logical and illogical sides are cohabitants in my mind.


6. What are some of your most important values? How did you come about determining them? How can they change?
I can't tolerate it well when people are manipulative or deceitful. I don't like erratic, two-faced people and I see it almost as a personal loss when one of them gets their way. It's like the Universe chose the bad guy to side with. I know logically there's really no "deserved", but emotionally I believe in it and don't think deceitful people deserve much mercy. But I've been manipulated for most of my life by narcissists that pretend to be martyrs so everyone will be on their side. They can't change because people will always be erratic. At this point I don't know if I even believe in consistent, objective truth because I've never gotten the luxury of it. So yeah, loyalty and honesty are very important to me. I also like when people are treated fairly and bias doesn't come into play with how they're treated unless you know them on an individual level and really don't get along with them.


7. a) What about your personality most distinguishes you from everyone else? b) If you could change one thing about you personality, what would it be? Why?
I don't really pretend not to be selfish. I'm not energetically gregarious, including with family, and I don't pretend my goal in life isn't to be in isolation. I think it's better to be honest and unapologetic about selfishness than to pretend to be a humanitarian just for approval, because that's one of the most selfish and deceitful things at all. When I do something for someone else, it actually makes me uncomfortable when it's acknowledged. I'd rather be secretly generous and have it go unnoticed. I think I also have the ability to connect one thing to another in a sequence or find a revelation in something that you wouldn't think contains it that people usually don't understand. Some people call it "loose associating", but I think it helps me see what could be from something else. I'm good at analyzing poetry and such for subtext, and I'm good at seeing how one event could cause a ripple effect. In some ways it makes me less selfish because I try to picture all the things that could result from a decision or action of mine and how it could affect others and myself before doing anything.


8. How do you treat hunches or gut feelings? In what situations are they most often triggered?
I get vibes about things all the time, usually negative. Like if there's a thunderstorm and someone around me seems mad, I might put the two instances together and get a feeling that the person will kill someone. Sometimes I get intrusive thoughts of random bad things happening. I can't go for a walk near a railroad track or hear it without picturing someone getting run over by it. I just picture them walking and think "What if the lights aren't working and the train doesn't make noise this time? This could happen in everyday life and there's no way to prevent it." This is just one example.


9. a) What activities energize you most? b) What activities drain you most? Why?
I pretty much feel tired and lethargic all the time except during and after vigorous exercise. I can be prone to exercise addiction. Swimming is my favorite. Socializing, listening to people talk, noise and sunlight, and being thirsty drains me. I get overstimulated easily. I'm almost 21 and I don't remember it being this way before I was 19, and I know you can't get asperger's as an adult, so I'm not sure what happened to me.


10. What do you repress about your outward behavior or internal thought process when around others? Why?
I'm usually calm and unexpressive because I guess I'm more pensive about my emotions than open, plus I'm often in a semi-trance or thinking about something. But occasionally I'll get vengeful and aggressive due to impatience, paranoia, or overstimulation and I tend to keep that to myself so I don't get into trouble. It's important to be to appear calm and rational so that I have credibility to use to my advantage. I also don't like to react to sentimental things in front of people, but the majority of my inexpressiveness is natural, or at least it seems that way.

 

[lightwing]

I'm going to suggest ISTJ.

Sometimes it's easy to forget, but in MBTI, I or E deals with the cognitive functions rather than how social we are.

 

[yumchesspie]

So you think Si is my dominant function? What does it look like compared to Se?

I say my Si seems to have strengthened over the past couple of years because I've become seemingly sensitive to things such as loud noises or internal situations such as thirst, and I'm almost intolerant to the slightest discomfort. However, I am not particularly good at memorizing information or following directions, especially verbal instructions. I'm more likely to find my way from place to place by getting a 'vibe' of where I should be heading, rather than by remembering the way. Because of this, driving is not my strong suit and I'm just now learning to drive somewhere without someone in the passenger seat pointing out where to go for me.

My dad, I believe, is an ENTP or INTP and my step mom, I believe, is an ISFJ. I find that I am somewhere in between the two of them when it comes to variety. I like to experiment or try new foods or ways of eating things occasionally, and prepare things more by ear than by following a recipe, but I'm still less adventurous than my dad. I've also noticed that she doesn't get his humor at all. He likes to make dry jokes or likes to give people "what if?" scenarios such as "Would you rather eat a worm or a cockroach, if you had to choose?". My step mom gets annoyed by these and also takes his jokes very literally, while I do not. However, I wouldn't say my dad's sense of humor is exactly like mine. I think mine tends to be almost campy. I like to be fake cocky and say obviously sarcastic things in an exaggerated, yet still deadpan way (it's hard to explain), which even my dad sometimes takes literally, though maybe he's just pretending to take it literally to troll me back. Anyway, I guess the difference between our humor is that mine is more deliberate can appear to be serious while his is pretty transparent unless you are really dense. (And I'm not calling sensors dense. My step mom is unusually dense for anyone. Most sensory people I know are not like her in that respect.)

 

[Deductive Logic]

I would have to second the notion of ISTJ.

Now, Si as a dominant function, in Jungian theory, focuses on nostalgia. So, let's say you have an ISTJ and and ESTP, right? Both are football players, and both are good at kicking footballs. Suppose someone hands them the exact football that was used in their first game, and asks them to explain their impression regarding the football.

The ISTJ, with Si, focuses primarily with their personal sensory impressions. So, when the ISTJ describes the football, he would describe his interaction with the football, personally, recounting exactly how he felt when he kicked the football and what he remembered about it, along with his personal impression of the football. As such, he would experience nostalgia towards the football, reliving his sensory impression as he explains how the football works.

However, the ESTP, with Se, focuses primarily with external sensory impressions, and as such, will probably talk about how they feel when the football is kicked by them. Because the ESTP is more preoccupied with external sensory impressions rather than internal sensory impressions, his impression of the ball in the current moment will override his past sensory impression, and he will not be totally filled with nostalgia, and as such, focus more on the feeling he has when the football is with him, IN THE CURRENT MOMENT.

Memory is totally different from Si in that regard. Memory focuses on your experience of the past, focusing on all of the events around you. Introverted Sensation focuses on your personal sensory impressions, and as such, focus on a feeling, rather than a total experience. Now, here's an example of Si at work, even for a person with poor memorization (stolen from http://personalitycafe.com/cognitiv...ted-sensation-function-si-misconceptions.html)

Let’s say we have an Si user who is standing in the kitchen with the recipe and ingredients for this sandwich at a table. This will be the first time the Si user will ever make a sandwich or even seen a sandwich and thus his mind’s slate is clean. The Si user will read through the recipe and attempt to follow the instructions one by one to construct this sandwhich.


First, it tells him to use mustard and mayo on one side of each bread slices. Then it tells him to place lettuce, tomato, swiss, and finally ham in that exact order on top of one slice of bread with the condiment side facing upward. Lastly, it tells him to top it off with the second bread slice with the condiment side facing downward. He finishes.


Now he is to make a second sandwich without the help of the recipe. The Si user’s memory is poor, unfortunately, so he can’t remember the recipe from heart, HOWEVER, he can “feel” out the sensation as he makes it. The Si user will have a sensation that tells him, wasn’t it the bread slice first that needs to be covered with mustard and mayo? He does not need to even say this. His gut feeling will tell him that probably is the first correct approach. His gut feeling will also tell him it was probably lettuce and tomato next in that order. Now he is almost finished but he is stuck. He can’t remember the next step. He tries to put ham on, but wait!


A sudden shock in his system.


“This doesn’t feel right,” the Si user says. He decides to try another item and places the swiss on top instead. Suddenly, his body tells him “This feels right,” and finally proceeds to place the ham on the sandwich. So far, it all feels “correct”. The Si user then continues to finish the sandwich with the final bread slice.


So the Si-user I used in this example has terrible memory. He cannot remember the recipe step by step, what items go in what order, how to start, or how to finish, at least in a differentiated manner. His body, however, remembers the sensation because he did it before. The first time he makes a sandwich was his development of an internalized sensation blueprint and so the next time he makes a sandwich, he has this internal sensation to utilize as a guide.

So yes, I do believe you are an Si dominant for sure.

 

[yumchesspie]

I don't really get the sandwich analogy. I don't think I'm nostalgic and I don't think I'm as deliberate/perfectionist as that when preparing food. A lot of times I just take a lean cuisine, or something, toss a bunch of spices in it and hope that enhances the taste. I remember the way certain things I like taste, but I think my memory of physical experiences in general is poor. I think I relate more to the ESTP in the football analogy. That's how I feel after I swim. And when I go swimming again, I'm not thinking that I'll relive the moment. It feels like a chore until the moment after comes. But I think with some things my mind is like a dry erase board. For instance, although I am not a virgin, and I know that my experience was fine and not uncomfortable, I am now afraid of sexual activity because even though I know the last time wasn't painful, I can't recall the actual sensation so I still fear that it will be painful each time in the future, and no matter how many times, it's like the sensation wouldn't register and I'd forget what it feels like and assume the worst.

I'm also not very past oriented either. I feel like I'm more worried about the present or future. When I swim, I use it as much, if not more for self-improvement as I do for fun. I just swim my laps as efficiently as possible then leave, and the goal is to prevent myself from gaining weight. Even though logically I know that it takes more than a day for that to happen, and it's never happened before, it's like I can never be fully assured that it won't that time. I'm always worried about all the possible things that could occur in the future if one small string unravels. I do see ripple effects, and a lot of my daily though process is planning ahead and predicting how one event could alter a course. However, I'm not sure if my goals are as forward and intricate as a typical Ni dom. I do think I'm an intuitive person though, and I definitely theorize, including in ways that seem like shots in the dark to other people. I also tend to look for hidden meanings in what people say, but that could just be paranoia. I like to scan a room though, and picture what could happen or what could be secretly going on with one thing/person or another. Whenever I see a knife I immediately get a vivid image in my mind of how someone could accidentally be killed by it. When my mom chops vegetables I'm imagining it slipping out of her hands and flying into me. I can't just see it as a knife. I'm thinking of the possibilities as well as the ripple effect of one small mistake. And I've never had a bad experience with a knife before. This isn't based on experience. It's just a random phobia and I get many if I can't keep my imagination under control. I know ISTJs have Ne, but it's inferior and I think I use intuition more than that. But I don't think my sensing function is inferior either. As a kid, I was oblivious to my environment and I can still be oblivious to certain subtle changes if I'm not looking for them (like when my mom gets a new table and set of chairs for the dining room, it was right there but I didn't notice). But the reason I think I use Si is because I'm subjective about it. I don't like being thirsty because I feel thirsty and it feels bad. I don't like loud noises because they are scary to me. Since that seems subjective and about my own feelings, I presume that's Si. However, it isn't past-oriented or nostalgic. It's me feeling uncomfortable in the immediate.

Do some ISTJs have a stronger inferior function than others? And what are more examples of Se because I think I use that close to as much. I'm all about immediate comfort and daily indulgence. But only if I also have a plan of how to prevent it from negatively affecting me in the future. Could I be an ISTP? Or am I definitely a J?