How to understand this blog

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

introversion sensation feeling perception/judgment

I feel a little confused about my own personality, sometimes. I've never taken 'grown-up' personality tests like Myers-Briggs, but of course I was obsessed throughout my teens with taking multichoice personality quizzes in the high-quality magazines I perused. Was I a Britney or a Christina? An extrovert or an introvert? One of the weirder ones I remember taking was this particular test, which labelled you a lion, a beaver, an otter or a labrador. I was so labrador.

I had to take a personality test for a job I was shortlisted for recently. I found the whole experience incredibly annoying, because the test was misleading and flawed, I have no idea what my results were, and I was rejected!! So I've been feeling some scepticism when it comes to personality tests in general.

Last night, though, I decided I'd try and find an online personality test in the Myers-Briggs style. I thought it would be funny to be told a bunch of patently false things about myself and to be given some strange combination of letters as a label. I found this one, which is free, unless you want to buy a very long report at the end.

Some of my 'results' follow. Here are the personality type labels, and the ones I match most closely are highlighted:

Each letter stands for one of the following options:

And here is a short description of the two personality types that most matched my test answers:


It was quite a shock to me not to laugh at the test but actually look at it and see myself. Here are some things I liked about it:

1) It clarifies a few confusions I've been feeling. I always feel confused when in personality tests they ask you straight out, are you a rational person or an emotional person. I'm confused because I AM a very rational person. For instance, unlike many other people, the aftershocks we've been experiencing in Christchurch have absolutely no effect on my emotions, because I know it's very unlikely my house will fall down or that if it is there's very little I can do to stop it falling down on me. In reacting to things, I generally have a firm control over my emotions. And yet... in other cases I am entirely emotionally-driven. The decisions I make for the future are often driven by my introversion and my emotions.

So it was very interesting to me to see the way they have divided Sensation (deals with facts, practical outcomes) is not incompatible with or opposite to Feeling (makes decisions using personal or shared values). It seemed contradictory to me, but now I can understand how both could co-exist.

2) I liked that it emphasises that most people are not one single personality type. This makes a lot of sense.

3) I liked that I read the descriptions of ISFP and ISFJ and saw myself in them. I think it was actually helpful and eye-opening.

So - I'm feeling a lot less sceptical.

Which personality type are you?

6 comments:

Sarah @ In Pleasant Places said...

LOL! I so remember taking those tests with you - they seemed so important at the time!!! I'm pretty sure I was an otter. Ah, those were the days of immature brilliance...

Sarakastic said...

I am an INFJ which I think is the most likely type to be a psychic. I am not.

Anonymous said...

You are plain INFp. Believe me, the way you speak, is pure speak of Ni, and there is also no doubt that you are also Fe.
First, only Fi is confused and says so, only Ni blames others for their failures. Only beta types are liking tests describing them as one of the animals and remember it, only Ni doesnt like to be definitely labeled. Also only INFp scores results so high above 50% on the personality test, because they are the only to believe that all positive aspects are belonging to their only true unique personality. Now look at Paris Hilton eyes and yourself and you will see it.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, when I said Fi I meant Ni. Refer to socionics website for details.

Anonymous said...

You will not like it, but you ARE always just a stricte defined type and never half something half something else. You are all just INFps, with different age and level of education. But your looks, the way you think and talk is just the same INFp.
You will never be like ISFp and never like ISFj even a little bit.

Anonymous said...

It was very wrong of them to reject you, with only the results from an unreliable test to use as judging criteria.