Personality

Personality

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a personality test designed to help people best assess and categorise themselves so they can identify and effectively apply their strongest skill set. This can be a helpful tool in both professional and personal environments as well as aiding an understanding of those around us.

What about you?

Now that formalities are out of the way and everyone is suitably well-informed as to the uses of the test, I can tell you that I am an INTJ. For those of you who know what I mean by that, you’ll no doubt be thinking how much sense this all makes now; and as for those of you who think I just invented some new millennial slang, worry not. The acronym for my personality type is based on a set of four sets of two options which I will endeavour to explain as succinctly as I can.

Back to the formalities

The MBTI has created a spectrum that encapsulates 16 possible personality types made up from a combination of the four sets of two options that make up human behaviour. The idea behind this is that every person can be put into one of these groups. The distinguishers are as follows:

1. Extravert or Introvert- Relatively straightforward with this one. Do you take in energy from social interaction or do you find socialising to be a draining task?
2. Intuitive or Sensing- intuition being the more abstract and imaginative train of thought, whereas sensing being a logical, ‘here and now’ school of thought based of facts and data
3. Thinking or Feeling- are you driven by your head or your heart?
4. Perceiving or Judging- perception refers to an adaptable, relaxed frame of mind, and judgement is a more rigid, structured thought process

With this knowledge in hand, you may wish to do the test yourself.

Personally…

As an INTJ, I am one of the approximate 2% of the population to be categorised in this group, and even more unusually, I am a woman which makes me one of 0.8%. Naturally, this means very little except to say that it explains away a lifetime of confusion as to the thought processes of others, as my own thought process is one that is very infrequently shared.

Another problem I found myself on the verge of tears over reading someone else explain was that of emotion. Any person who knows me well enough will know that despite being openly passionate about all sorts of factual things, and being very logical in my reasoning, not a single one of them would describe me as an emotional person. I have been called ‘cold hearted’, ‘robotic’, ‘detached’ and ‘empty’ more times than I could possibly recall. Whilst this is not something I have ever denied and will even play up to at times, I have only learnt to do this through an inability to accurately express my emotions in anyway that I don’t perceive as weak. This in itself makes people apprehensive of me but also very confident that in a crisis I can be relied upon to respond with the utmost level of calm. The underbelly of my personality is highly emotive and understanding to people’s feelings and I can assess a person’s mood with relative ease but I cannot bring myself to know how to respond, or how to express my own emotions to anyone other than myself.

That being said, do not be alarmed if you also find yourself in one of these groups; forever to be a mere rarity. Just being a more uncommon type doesn’t alienate you from peers, and in some cases can even supply you with an advantage. The jobs best suited to INTJs are not bad ones, with options such as lawyers, professors, and physicians being among our many options. Although finding a fellow INTJ would be a nigh on miracle, I did find a list of relatable INTJ things that I found comfort in and still read now when I need to be understood by anyone – even a list. And we aren’t completely cut off from the others either.

Relationships (UGH!)

Ah yes, the dreaded topic upon which we were bound to find ourselves touching upon as one so often does with any type of personal analysis. For once, I can claim to have good news (at least for myself) in such an area. My boyfriend is an ENFP, the natural partner of the INTJ which is just as well because I’ve introduced him to my mum and she thought he was alright. This being said, I didn’t go out there looking for my so-called “natural partner” but I did find myself drawn to qualities in him that I couldn’t explain, except to say that they made me a better person; and I found myself hoping I could help him to grow also.