i dont believe that at all. dna and genetics may have an affect on some of ur thinking and abilities, like it does on intelligence. but not everything. its experiences, relationships, social situations, living situations, and pretty much anything and everything that make up a personality.

if u have two E parents, who will probably raise u how they are which is E then yeah theres obviously a bigger chance u will be E but not necessarily. i mean there are things that are more likely to happen because of the people u are surrounded by but its not a golden rule.

Am I understanding correctly that you're asking if there is a possibility that MBTI is genetic? If I am, then I've sort of wondered this as well. If it was possible that MBTI is genetic, then could it maybe present as this? (just a theory).
E=dominate
i=recessive
S=Dominate
n=recessive
T=Dominate (Y chromosome), recessive on ( X chromosome)
F=Dominate ( X chromosome), recessive on ( Y chromosome)
Yes, I know these are some problems here.. I'm not a geneticist, I just know T is more dominate in Males and F is more dominate in Females... (yes, maybe it's environmental).. or maybe it's either TT or Tf for male Y chromosomes and FF or Ft for females X chromosomes?
J= Dominate
p= recessive

So given the above premise.. going with your parents: father ISTJ & mother ISFJ = you INFP

Your parents could only be double ii (if it's recessive) to give I for you.
Both parents would be need to be dominate S and recessive n (Sn) to both give you N
Your father would need to be dominate T with recessive f (Tf) and your mother (FF) to give you F
Both parents would need to be dominate J and recessive p (Jp) to give you P

Does that seem possible to anyone else? This has been an intriguing theory in my head for awhile.

I think that dna would be a factor myself. I know this is circumstantial evidence (with a confirmation bias as well) but from my experience there are a number of INFP I have seen online who have SJ parents (mostly ISTJ or ESTJ) and these have the same cognitive functions as the INFP, only inverted in order (one of the weaker functions for one being one of the stronger for the other.) I'm tempted to say it may be occur in the meiosis stage with the sperm or egg, or perhaps the interaction of a sperm and an egg having different "types" would derail the results the bit, warping the type into another that. Other than that, it may change during development in the womb, due to stress/hormal conditions.

But all my theory is based off introspection alone and nothing else so believe it or humour it with a large pinch of salt, its your call.

I always kinda thought as type being similar to fingerprints. It's something you're born with but it's not something you inherit from anybody. It just forms randomly. I certainly didn't inherit my personality from my parents - they're ESTJ and ESFJ and I'm INFP. There aren't even any other introverts in my entire family. But type is just supposed to explain your natural preferences, not your behavior. Your temperament is the part of your personality you're born with, but it's only half of the picture. Your full personality is the sum of your temperament and the effects of your environment and personal experiences, which is why there can be big differences even between people of the same type if they grew up in very different environments.

I see cognitive functions (and therefore type) as innate, but I don't necessarily think it is "inherited" like eye color or something. Cognitive functions are only one aspect of personality, which has many different factors.

MBTI itself does not seem as if it would be genetic. And I don't agree with representing types purely as I/E, N/S, F/T, or J/P. Cognitive functions are much more reliable. You can have an ENTP and an INFJ parent and say that the child is more likely to be an N. But the fact of the matter is, ENTPs are dominant Ne and INFJs are dominant Ni so that intuition will not be the same.

If you stray away from defining types as a bunch of traits and behavioral characteristics and all that shit, what is it? It's a definition of how you think and how you look at things. That's what I think is genetic. Fi>Ne>Si>Te defines how you think and look at things, atleast, that's how I look at it. It makes sense that that's genetic or something you're born with.

Please understand I'm not arguing your point of view.. I'm just curious if my working theory holds up and still works out for you. So "if" MBTI were actually genetic and given the premise that:
E=dominate
i=recessive
S=Dominate
n=recessive
T=Dominate (Y chromosome), recessive on ( X chromosome)
F=Dominate ( X chromosome), recessive on ( Y chromosome)
or maybe TT or Tf for male Y chromosomes and FF or Ft for females X chromosomes?
J= Dominate
p= recessive

Your ESTJ father and ESFJ mother would be something like this to = you: INFP

Both parents would be (Ei) in order to donate ii for you to = I
Both parents would be need to be dominate S and recessive n (Sn) to both give you N
Your father would need to be dominate T with recessive f (Tf) and your mother (FF) or possibly (Ft) but mother donated f to give you ff
Both parents would need to be dominate J and recessive p (Jp) to give you P

It does still appear to work. I'm not saying it is... just that it still works.

katerp said:

I always kinda thought as type being similar to fingerprints. It's something you're born with but it's not something you inherit from anybody. It just forms randomly. I certainly didn't inherit my personality from my parents - they're ESTJ and ESFJ and I'm INFP. There aren't even any other introverts in my entire family. But type is just supposed to explain your natural preferences, not your behavior. Your temperament is the part of your personality you're born with, but it's only half of the picture. Your full personality is the sum of your temperament and the effects of your environment and personal experiences, which is why there can be big differences even between people of the same type if they grew up in very different environments.

Click to expand...

Orbital, your theory has some promise. But this is an NP form, both recessive types. You'd need to ask Sensors and/or Judgers if their parents both have the recessive genes. For an example, an ESTJ couldn't be born to an INFP+INTP couple if one used your premise.

I think it's good to remember that everyone uses all 8 functions to some degree. It's just that 2 dominate your mindset greatly, being preferred, and the others play a much smaller role & are subordinated to the dominant functions. In which case, if cognitive function is "genetic", then any set of parents may be capable of producing children with different functions, particularly if you add in concepts like recessive & dominant traits.

I can see how that might be true. I just don't know how to work out the Dominate & recessive representations for that. Maybe someone who understand that aspect would be able to figure out how that might be able to be represented genetically?

Lara Croft said:

MBTI itself does not seem as if it would be genetic. And I don't agree with representing types purely as I/E, N/S, F/T, or J/P. Cognitive functions are much more reliable. You can have an ENTP and an INFJ parent and say that the child is more likely to be an N. But the fact of the matter is, ENTPs are dominant Ne and INFJs are dominant Ni so that intuition will not be the same.

If you stray away from defining types as a bunch of traits and behavioral characteristics and all that shit, what is it? It's a definition of how you think and how you look at things. That's what I think is genetic. Fi>Ne>Si>Te defines how you think and look at things, atleast, that's how I look at it. It makes sense that that's genetic or something you're born with.

Click to expand...

Good thought! I made a thread in MBTI general to see if it happens to hold true or not across the line. If it doesn't.. someone I'm sure is going to let me know! :shocked: It's just an intriguing thought for me.

Paradigm said:

Orbital, your theory has some promise. But this is an NP form, both recessive types. You'd need to ask Sensors and/or Judgers if their parents both have the recessive genes. For an example, an ESTJ couldn't be born to an INFP+INTP couple if one used your premise.

Click to expand...

I think it is possible that very small aspects of personality all combine create the parts of your bigger, recognizable personality(example: millions of mimi preferences in genes combine in such a way that you end up with Fi), but i dont think it works in such an overgeneralized way as each mbti preference as a whole(example: you either inheriate Fi from your mother or Ti from your father).

Maybe you're on to something Orbrial, my mom's an ESFJ and my dad's ExTJ... interesting

I have to say MUCH about this.
Tomorrow I'll write a long long thread about this, this makes much sense with things of my own life.
You've knocked the door right.

Ectoplasm said:

I think that dna would be a factor myself. I know this is circumstantial evidence (with a confirmation bias as well) but from my experience there are a number of INFP I have seen online who have SJ parents (mostly ISTJ or ESTJ) and these have the same cognitive functions as the INFP, only inverted in order (one of the weaker functions for one being one of the stronger for the other.) I'm tempted to say it may be occur in the meiosis stage with the sperm or egg, or perhaps the interaction of a sperm and an egg having different "types" would derail the results the bit, warping the type into another that. Other than that, it may change during development in the womb, due to stress/hormal conditions.

But all my theory is based off introspection alone and nothing else so believe it or humour it with a large pinch of salt, its your call.

Click to expand...

I'm all about The DNA and what's contained within Teh DNA that humans haven't discovered yet. Can't really defend what I say, w/scholarly articles and such, cuz I'm too damn lazy but the DNA thingy... yeah, it's just about the end all be all for me regarding temperament, health issues, sexual preference, etc.,,, just my feelings on it.

I am a very strong believer that personality type is almost completely rooted in DNA.

Genetic traits aren't as simple as "my mom and dad are these types so I should be this type." Nor is there any reason that genetic traits have to be inherited at all. It could be (and statistically it would seem to be the case) that personality type is random based on a species-wide distribution which was figured out by evolution.

In any case, we'll just have to be patient. So far there has only been one genome-wide association study looking for personality traits. The results were inconclusive, but then again simple genetic traits like height aren't expressed by only a few genes, but many.

scarygirl said:

There is a theory that says something that types have to do with DNA, so they are genetic.
I can't buy that theory. Because I can't see it in myself, but let's see what you guys say.
My father is an ISTJ (if so an ESTJ or an INTJ, but strongly Extroverted Thinking) and my mother is an ISFJ. Well, my mother can look like an ISFP many times, but she's not INFP or INTP.

And then I appear. I can see how hard our relationship is, and I think it has to do a bit with types.

Click to expand...

This sounds very nature vs nurture type of discussion. Each can override the other, so it can be argued in any way.

Actually, I've been wanting to do a project where I collect data of people on the forums about their personality type and their parents', to see if there is a predictable pattern.

My family tree:
Brother - ISFP
Mother - ISFP
(Bio) father - ISTJ
Adoptive father - ISTJ

Mother's mother - ESFx
Mother's father - ESFP
Grandmother's mother - ESTJ

(Bio) father's mother - ESFJ
(Bio) father's (bio) father - ???? (guess from what I've heard: ISTJ)
(Bio) father's stepfather - ESFP

Adoptive father's mother - ESTJ
Adoptive father's father - ESFP
Adoptive father's 1st brother - ISTJ
Adoptive father's 2nd brother - ISTJ

So the recap:
My ISFP mother + my ISTJ (bio) father = INFP (me)
My ISFP mother + my ISTJ adoptive father = ISFP (my brother)
My ESFx grandmother + my ESFP grandfather = ISFP (my mother)
My ESFJ grandmother + my ISTJ (bio) grandfather = ISTJ (my [bio] father)
My ESTJ grandmother + my ESFP grandfather = ISTJ x 3 (my adoptive father and his two brothers)

Knowing these people personally, I have to say I think personality is influenced most not by genetic factors, but by natural temperament + which caretaker one favors the most growing up.
EDIT: But then, maybe which caretaker is favored is largely due to one's temperament. Hmm.

I think that is is completely to do with out environment, although our parents would have a major factor in how we turn out so I suppose from that angle we would be more like our parents because they would nurture us to be like them.