[tylerjg33]

From a functioning standpoint, I believe introverted feeling as our dominating occupation seems to affect a lot of us into coming off as sensitive, complacent and weak. Many INFPs seem to help others to a self deprecating degree. They seem to be quiet pushovers. While I know this is a stereotype, I've observed it to be true.

I've noticed that I personally come off as undoubtedly introverted and well reasoned like the rest of us INFPs, but I don't fit the mold for sensitivity and complacency. I take criticism well and find competition to be healthy. To others I come off as friendly, but in it to win it. I think this is because my introverted feeling perhaps commands my feelings of self reliance and competition.

For those of you who don't fit this stereotype of sensitivity and complacency, does your introverted feeling dictate strong convictions for self reliance, and even perhaps selfishness? How do you come off to others?

I don't know if I've made my case. It's late and quite frankly I'm not positive this will make sense, but I'll go ahead and post it anyways because the first page of threads don't seem very essential to an INFP board.

 

[mimesis]

Yes I like to be self-reliant, independent and I aim to keep an open and free mind, allowing critical thinking and personal (e)valuation and emotions. I see life as a continuous proces of becoming, and overcoming, and I also have a lot of interest in this proces, or life-stories and -styles and personal development of others, as wel as in the history and development of human kind. People never stop to fascinate me.

I don't know if this is typical INFP. I think it's possible to find opposite traits in within one personality type. When I was 20 I wasn't perhaps so much a pushover, but I was a spineless creature, who thought he could pull it off by being assertive, display self-confidence and have a big mouth, and pride myself in having real values and true ideals. I could both feel godsend and a complete useless wanker on the same day. We could break up the relationship two times on one day, including passionate make-up sex somewhere inbetween. My pursuit of happiness was a recipe for disaster.

roud:

 

[illicit iridescence]

For those of you who don't fit this stereotype of sensitivity and complacency, does your introverted feeling dictate strong convictions for self reliance, and even perhaps selfishness? How do you come off to others?

Goodies :3 A topic in which I can involve some communication theory! I think we usually have an idea of what we 'look like' to others, but I'm skeptic about how often we actually are right about how others perceive us.

But first of all... The stereotype is that Fi stands up for personal values held high, whereas stereotypical Fe is actually more of a pushover; agreeing with the consensus of the group in order to have harmony.

In corporate communication land, there are things called 'corporate identity' and 'corporate image'. The first is the identity of the organization, as the organization wants it to be. Too often the ideal identity and the actual identity are mixed up, but I won't get too much into that. I suppose Jung's idea of "persona" comes close to actual corporate identity.

Theory goes, that the identity manifests itself in three ways: communication, symbols (the visual brand, associated brand colors etc) and behavior. How the identity of the organization is perceived and interpreted by the public is called the corporate image. Visualized, it comes down to something like this:

Often, there is not an exact fit between identity and image - I believe this to be true for human relationships as well. How we dress, behave and communicate is not always like we want or intend it to be, nor is it always interpreted by others how we would like it to be. For brands and organization, people often judge more by behavior than symbols and communication.

I'm sure you can only know how you 'come off' to others by asking them about it. I often do not bother asking since I don't have the need to really know, and you have to take into account that people won't always tell you the truth, or everything, and then there's the fact that one person won't have the exact same image of you like another person does.

I don't think that Fi dictates a strong sense for values - it is you who strongly values and that phenomenon (or: that type of cognition) is considered Fi. You choose those values yourself.

I don't think self-reliance and self-centered-ness (or selfishness, if you will) rule out sensitivity nor complacency - it is the behavior that goes with self-reliance and self-centered-ness that may black out / overshadow your sensitivity and complacency in the image that others have of you. And hey, since we're talking Fi, the sensitivity and complacency probably stay on the inside, don't get expressed/visualized/made perceivable much. Or in subconscious ways, like body language etc. And there are so many ways to misinterpret stuff. So yeah. ^^;

So... You may or may not be somewhat sensitive and complacent - either way, you don't show it.

 

[Adasta]

For those of you who don't fit this stereotype of sensitivity and complacency, does your introverted feeling dictate strong convictions for self reliance, and even perhaps selfishness? How do you come off to others?

Fi says that, if I'm involved in something, I give it a good go. I point out the flaws I see in any project, mainly so that people know if/why I totally disengage at a later date. I'm no ISTJ: I'm not going to give my best to something that is clearly malfunctioning. That's a waste of resources.

I come off as creative, dynamic, helpful, a bit moody and with slightly below average attention to detail.