[personalitvcult]

Hi! So I'm currently writing a TV drama about some LAPD detectives. I did personality tests on my characters because 1. I'm an MBTI nerd. I was curious. 2. because I want to develop my characters in the best way possible and I figured that by finding out their personality types, I'd be able to do so and make them more three-dimensional. However, I'm a little unsure about my protagonist, and I would really appreciate a second opinion.

APRIL (Possibly an INFJ?)
- April has wanted to be a police officer since she was a kid - it was a dream that she shared with her older brother Sonny (most likely an ENTJ). He wanted to arrest bad guys and bring them to justice whilst April wanted to make the streets a safer place and save people, and eventually the whole wide world. The first season of the show is set when she's 21 and has just been promoted to the role of detective. She's hard-working and idealistic; small but still fierce. She does break the rules on a few occasions though: for example when she saves a teenage prostitute from a killer, she gets her a job at the dry cleaners her uncle owns so that she can have a steady income even though her captain tells her to move on, and she saves a kitten from a dumpster one day on her way to work on inspection day and keeps it in the tech office until it's time to go home. This being said, she's a perfectionistic and very determined. She likes order and organisation, and when she moves in with her boyfriend Alex (her main love interest, a definite INFP) it causes tension between them as he's a little bit of a slob and she's not used to anything other than tidiness. She comes across as quite confident and makes friends in her workplace quickly - moving in with Natalie after having only known her about a month, which is why I toyed with the idea of ENFJ or even ENFP for a while but in reality, she much prefers the company of one person at a time, and this is when she thrives and her personality comes out the most. When she's raped in season 2, she has a bit of a breakdown - she shoots a suspect without reason, before drinking herself stupid, going back to her apartment and leaving her engagement ring on the table with a note saying "I'm sorry" and checking out for two months and coming back, hooked on drugs. She eventually gets herself cleaned up and goes to therapy but I don't know if there's a cognitive function explanation for her breakdown? Possibly a Se thing? Or maybe she needed time to flip out? Who knows?

 

[An Undead Wanderer]

Only thing I'm sure of is that she's a feeler; though Fe doesn't seem entirely obvious from here. I should add that I'm fond of Socionics, and therefore I'm approaching this on the premise that both Fe and Fi are strong functions; which one is she valuing? I'm not sure.



I struggle with the idea of dominant intuition for the character. I anticipate an Ni-dom to have a rather conceptual focus; I don't particularly get that impression from the character.

In fairness being an 8w7, something I'm really not ruling out from this description isn't going to make an INFJ obvious. If I'm leaning towards anything from this description it's xSFP, but it's really too vague to be sure. Definitely not sold on introversion, though the description's not really conclusive enough for me to firmly suggest either side.

 

[daybreak]

APRIL (Possibly an INFJ?)

Coming from a functions perspective, Je dominant seems clear to me. You really did not describe anything close to Ni dominant. So, Te or Fe dom.

Te, the main function of an ESTJ and an ENTJ:

 

We will first discuss the extraverted thinking type. In accordance with his definition, we must picture a man whose constant aim -- in so far, of course, as he is a [p. 435] pure type -- is to bring his total life-activities into relation with intellectual conclusions, which in the last resort are always orientated by objective data, whether objective facts or generally valid ideas. This type of man gives the deciding voice - not merely for himself alone but also on behalf of his entourage - either to the actual objective reality or to its objectively orientated, intellectual formula. By this formula are good and evil measured, and beauty and ugliness determined. All is right that corresponds with this formula; all is wrong that contradicts it; and everything that is neutral to it is purely accidental.

Because this formula seems to correspond with the meaning of the world, it also becomes a world-law whose realisation must be achieved at all times and seasons, both individually and collectively. Just as the extraverted thinking type subordinates himself to his formula, so, for its own good, must his entourage also obey it, since the man who refuses to obey is wrong -- he is resisting the world-law, and is, therefore, unreasonable, immoral, and without a conscience. His moral code forbids him to tolerate exceptions; his ideal must, under all circumstances, be realized; for in his eyes it is the purest conceivable formulation of objective reality, and, therefore, must also be generally valid truth, quite indispensable for the salvation of man.

This is not from any great love for his neighbour, but from a higher standpoint of justice and truth. Everything in his own nature that appears to invalidate this formula is mere imperfection, an accidental miss-fire, something to be eliminated on the next occasion, or, in the event of further failure, then clearly a sickness.

Fe, the main function of an ESFJ and an ENFJ:

 

When extraverted feeling possesses the priority we speak of an extraverted feeling-type. Examples of this type that I can call to mind are, almost without exception, women. She is a woman who follows the guiding-line of her feeling. As the result of education her feeling has become developed into an adjusted function, subject to conscious control. Except in extreme cases, feeling has a personal character, in spite of the fact that the subjective factor may be already, to a large extent, repressed. The personality appears to be adjusted in relation to objective conditions.

Her feelings correspond with objective situations and general values. Nowhere is this more clearly revealed than in the so-called 'love-choice'; the 'suitable' man is loved, not another one; he is suitable not so much because he fully accords with the fundamental character of the woman -- as a rule she is quite uninformed about this -- but because [p. 449] he meticulously corresponds in standing, age, capacity, height, and family respectability with every reasonable requirement. Such a formulation might, of course, be easily rejected as ironical or depreciatory, were I not fully convinced that the love-feeling of this type of woman completely corresponds with her choice. It is genuine, and not merely intelligently manufactured. Such 'reasonable' marriages exist without number, and they are by no means the worst. Such women are good comrades to their husbands and excellent mothers, so long as husbands or children possess the conventional psychic constitution. One can feel 'correctly', however, only when feeling is disturbed by nothing else. But nothing disturbs feeling so much as thinking. It is at once intelligible, therefore, that this type should repress thinking as much as possible.

This does not mean to say that such a woman does not think at all; on the contrary, she may even think a great deal and very ably, but her thinking is never sui generis; it is, in fact, an Epimethean appendage to her feeling. What she cannot feel, she cannot consciously think. 'But I can't think what I don't feel', such a type said to me once in indignant tones. As far as feeling permits, she can think very well, but every conclusion, however logical, that might lead to a disturbance of feeling is rejected from the outset. It is simply not thought. And thus everything that corresponds with objective valuations is good: these things are loved or treasured; the rest seems merely to exist in a world apart.

You can see that both are concerned directly with their "formulations" and seeing these expressed and enacted in reality. By formulation, consider it their conclusions. Their Judgements. Both are concerned quite a bit with ideals and values, and both Te and Fe are driven to engage reality and enmesh themselves in it.

 

[La Bella Luna]

April - xSFJ. Her brother sounds Te dom, for sure.

 

[snowpetal]

Yeah I don't think anything can really be conclusive about her type from this brief description, but if I had to guess I'd say some kind of FJ. There's nothing overly intuitive from this description. If you go by function theory, then her behavior might be attributed to inferior Se, but it wouldn't be completely unusual for any type to act that way after going through a traumatic experience.

In any case, you know your characters the best, so you are ultimately the one who can type them best. I also wouldn't recommend using MBTI to help write your characters unless you have a pretty good understanding of it and are certain you know your characters' types. They can easily turn into stereotypes that way, or go from being one personality to another (if you were to accidentally write your character as a personality type they aren't part way into the show). I find that starting off with a personality type in mind before writing can give me a good overall picture of what I want the characters to accomplish, what their flaws and desires will be, etc. But then after that, after I've gotten a good idea/feel for writing the characters, I write mostly based on my own intuitive understanding of the characters and their personalities, while sort of using MBTI as a vague guideline.