My MBTI Personality Part 2: ISFJ?

Hey, all! Thank you to everyone who read and commented on my last post. I wasn’t sure if anyone would find my introspective thoughts interesting and relatable or not, so I’m thrilled that so many of you did! Consequently, I am continuing with this theme today as I explore a second personality label that Myers Briggs has slapped onto my forehead. But first, a little background. I was so thrilled by my results the first time that I strayed away from taking the test again. I came to discover by way of a newsletter from my favorite author (I love you, Jill!) that my all-time favorite character of hers was also an INTJ… which definitely explains why I was ridiculously excited the first time I read about him. I never knew I could relate so much to a character. I adopted him immediately, because he’s awesome. In any case, Jill mentioned in that newsletter that INTJ is one of the rarest personality types, which I hadn’t realized. It made sense, though, with how rare it seemed for me to find someone who thought as I did. All of this subsequent realization led me to get… perhaps overly attached to the INTJ label. It just made me feel special, like an endangered species that is valued ten times more than the other animals who aren’t about to drop dead. Thus, when I wound up taking the test again on a field trip later in my senior year, I was kind of nervous that I would lose my endangered species status and return to being “normal.” And it turned out just as I had feared. ISFJ. “The Defender.” Not rare. Not exciting. Blech. But no worries. All I had to do was stubbornly cling to INTJ and ignore all counterarguments and I would be great. I could live the rest of my life convinced that I was an albino winged gazelle living my life tucked away in the depths of a remote rainforest, a rare discovery that would blow the minds of any explorer fortunate enough to sight me. Alas, it could not be, for the simple reason that I was only eighteen at the time and would like to live another half century at least, which seemed like a long time to go about blindfolded and batting away questions. I don’t have the time or mental energy for that nonsense (I am determined to wear this phrase out, apparently), so it seemed only reasonable to reopen the MBTI file and gather a little more information. Based on some haphazard research, here are two desperate attempts at remaining a spotted winged gazelle, or whatever I said earlier. Desperate attempt #1: My answers were swayed by past results. You heard me. In order to preserve my endangeredness, I conceded that I might have lied. Just a little bit. See, here’s what happened. MBTI is a big, complicated world with thousands of acres of territory to explore, and I was a busy high school senior who couldn’t afford to get lost in that kingdom. My research into the personality functions and terminology was minimal. Thus, I did not really understand the difference between Sensing and iNtuition. My general impression of INTJs was that they were straightforward and logical and well-grounded in the facts of life. As it turns out, though, the characteristics that gave me that impression were actually Thinking and Judging. Being grounded in the real world is a Sensing characteristic. INtuition, on the other hand, refers more to creativity and seeing what could be rather than what is. So, when I took the test, hoping for INTJ results, I think I leaned harder into Sensing rather than being objective. No wonder it gave me an S function instead! Desperate attempt #2: The site I took the test on the second time was different… and it wasn’t looking at the same characteristics. The site that gave me the INTJ results was a traditional MBTI site, drawing from Jungian concepts. The one that gave me ISFJ results was 16 Personalities. A couple of sources I’ve stumbled upon since have said that 16 Personalities is a merger between the Big 5 personality test, which is a more scientifically accepted measurement, and Jungian typology. The 16 Personalities site itself makes this distinction. On their page entitled “Our Framework,” the site creators state that their typing leaves out Jungian cognitive functions. As one YouTuber interpreted this, Jungian-based MBTI is a cognitive view of personality, while 16 Personalities takes a more behavioral approach and, consequently, might provide different results for the same person by measuring different traits. In that case, INTJ and ISFJ aren’t incompatible in the slightest. One is how I process situations internally and the other is how I present myself to the world. So, being ISFJ in 16 Personalities means that I am less sociable (which isn’t quite the same as introversion from a cognitive perspective), am more practical than imaginative, prioritize harmony over the truth in my interactions (which is true; while my internal values are the opposite of this, it’s often more practical to keep my mouth shut and not stir up conflict), and am conscientious. All this is very interesting (and… complicated; I hardly want to touch it, it’s so complicated), but what can that teach me about myself? Well, it occurred to me that these might be traits that I value and put conscious effort into. As imaginative and scatterbrained as I can be, I tend to idealize structure and the stability that comes from having all the facts, which would correspond to an S trait in 16P. I also tend to keep my thoughts to myself for the sake of harmony (F trait in 16P), in many cases because it would be impractical to disrupt group productivity over an issue that isn’t of immediate consequence; I am more likely to speak my mind if group productivity is already such a train wreck that I feel compelled to jerk it back onto the rails. So, in summation, getting an ISFJ score from 16P led me to considering the values that I project and how my behavioral personality might be different from my cognitive personality. It has helped me to recognize the parts of myself that I might have suppressed as unideal so that I can have a more honest self-concept and might be able to present myself more transparently to others. What about all of you? Do you think your behavioral and cognitive personalities differ, or are the same? Did you know that 16 Personalities is more closely tied to Big 5 typology than to MBTI? Let me know!

Here is one of the main resources I used to understand this topic more: https://youtu.be/LK-rrYqwnYg.

Thanks to YouTuber Cognitive Personality Theory for making such an educational video!