Myers-Briggs Personality Test

[Dikiyoba]

While we're doing demographic polls, I thought I'd bring back an old tradition: the Myers-Briggs personality test.

 

Take the test! Post your results! Find out what all these weird letters mean! Ponder whether the test results fit your personality! Read through previous incarnations of this thread! Compare old and new results! Muse on the typical Spiderweb personality! Search for any threads that I missed! Complain about the misuse and abuse of psychology models in Western society!

 

Dikiyoba's results are in the next post, to keep this post easy to read.

[Dikiyoba]

Your Type: INTJ

 

Quote:

•You have strong preference of Introversion over Extraversion (100%)

•You have slight preference of Intuition over Sensing (12%)

•You have moderate preference of Thinking over Feeling (38%)

•You have marginal or no preference of Judging over Perceiving (1%)

 

Dikiyoba always scores 100% on introversion and switches between J and P depending on the version of the test or how Dikiyoba is feeling at the time of the test.

[Actaeon]

I took a professional Myers-Briggs a while back. I was perched between INFP and INTP.

[Dantius]

Ugh. I'm not particularly a fan of Jung or the neo-Freudian school in general, and the Myers-Briggs test in particular is pretty much useless- it lacks any sort of serious statistical validity other than test-retest. Furthermore, (much like the whole left/right brain thing that was done to death a while back), trying to actually define personality or list traits by a fifty-question test is ridiculous pseudoscience, and it's easy to demonstrate that. For example, here's two classifications I picked at random. Try to pick which one close matches yours:

 

Quote:

[X]'s are reliable, practical, methodical and ambitious, within a framework of obedience to superiors. They are at their best in routine positions of trust and responsibility, where there is little need of urgency and even less risk of change, and a pension at the end. Yet they are creative and good founders of enterprises where the rewards of their productiveness come from their own work and not that of others.

 

Quote:

[Y]'s have powerful intelligence and are of a broad philosophical, sometimes religious, turn of mind. Those who are devout may become very obstinate in upholding traditional beliefs and will cling tenaciously, but with complete sincerity, to practices and doctrines which liberal thinkers regard as absurdly out-of-date. These will be found as the lions of industries, and in the forefront of the cutting edge of technologies.

 

Do either of those seem familiar, maybe elements of your MBTI test? Well, they actually use the same techniques as MBTI types do, but those are horoscopes (Leo and Taurus, to be precise). All you really need to do to come up with a description of something that people agree with is true is to list a bunch of middle-of-the road, contradictory options, and people instantly zero in on the correct parts and ignore the wrong ones (For instance, just about everybody would agree that "You greatly enjoy being around certain people, but sometimes you just need to be alone" describes them, despite being an exercise in meaninglessness). All MBTI does is provide a thin veneer of intellectual credibility to a glorified horoscope, which is the reason that actually psychologists don't use them at all; certainly damning proof of what an utterly meaningless waste of time they are.

[Dintiradan]

Hey Diki, you missed one.

 

INTJ

Quote:

You have strong preference of Introversion over Extraversion (89%)

You have moderate preference of Intuition over Sensing (25%)

You have distinctive preference of Thinking over Feeling (62%)

You have slight preference of Judging over Perceiving (11%)

 

I have in the past scored INTP, but I tend to be INTJ now.

 

EDIT: Oh hey, my thread used the same test! Also, Dantius: yeah, I agree. At least with MBTI, you get to choose which type you are. Also, re-read Diki's post; arguing about the test is as much fun as taking it is!

[Callie]

Your Type: INTJ

 

You have strong preference of Introversion over Extraversion (89%)

You have distinctive preference of Intuition over Sensing (75%)

You have moderate preference of Thinking over Feeling (50%)

You have moderate preference of Judging over Perceiving (56%)

 

Edit: When I responded in the thread Dintiridan linked to I scored INTP with Perceiving 10%. Huh

[Balladeer]

ISTJ

Introvert(44%) Sensing(12%) Thinking(1%) Judging(44%)

You have moderate preference of Introversion over Extraversion (44%)

You have slight preference of Sensing over Intuition (12%)

You have marginal or no preference of Thinking over Feeling (1%)

You have moderate preference of Judging over Perceiving (44%)

 

I seem to remember getting an INFJ on a previous test but it was not for either of those threads.

[Tyranicus]

ISTJ. I have scored INTJ in the past.

[In Half Now]

I thought everyone knew not to take internet personality tests seriously? They are fun though. I like doing them just to see what I get, even if ultimately they tell me fairly little about myself. Although this time I'll pass as I've taken that test three or four times now and the results don't vary much. Quick recap through my saved files reveals: ISFJ, ISTJ, and the last one is INTJ. 'Nurturer', 'Duty fulfiller' and 'Mastermind', respectively.

 

Those aside: have we ever had a topic about personalDNAs? I can't remember whether it was through here or some other site I did that one. I thought it was slightly more interesting - or at least more colourful than the Myers-Briggs.

[Mod.]

Its been almost 2 years since I took this, so:

 

 

INFJ

Introvert(78%) iNtuitive(12%) iNtuitive Feeling(12%) Judging(33%)

 

You have strong preference of Introversion over Extraversion (78%)

You have slight preference of Intuition over Sensing (12%)

You have slight preference of Feeling over Thinking (12%)

You have moderate preference of Judging over Perceiving (33%)

 

It doesn't seem very accurate though. Maybe if I had some sleep and took time on it.

[Triumph]

Introvert(89%)

iNtuitive(25%)

Feeling(25%)

Judging(78%)

 

This time it says I'm an INFJ. I'm pretty sure that previously I've been an INTJ.

[Alorael at Large]

INTJ from enough previous tests that I inevitably horribly skew the results of new tests towards that out of expectation.

 

—Alorael, who would rather know everyone's Big Five personality types. Sadly he doesn't know of any applicable online tests.

[Slawbug]

The Humanmetrics test is awful. If everyone's going to take the test, I highly recommend this longer, but subtler version.

 

Dantius:

 

1) "Jung" and "Neo-Freudian" are not the same thing. But that's irrelevant because

 

2) the Myers-Briggs typology was built on some ideas Jung wrote about, but Jung had nothing to do with it other than supplying a few concepts: mainly the introversion/extraversion distinction, plus dividing up mental processes into information-gathering processes versus decision-making processes. It wasn't developed by Jungian analysts, nor any psychologists at all.

 

Myers-Briggs is in kind of a weird position. There is actually theory behind the test that is interesting and makes sense, but it's very different from the crap that gets written about it on the Internet -- or pushed forward by the non-non-profit that now holds trademark over the test. It makes sense if you take it as a descriptivist proposal, a lens for viewing behavior, rather than a prescriptivist system.

 

The heart of the typology's theory, and the one thing that makes it more interesting, in my mind, than systems like the Enneagram, is the theory of functions and sets of functions. But most people who encounter MB never even hear about functions. The whole concept of the 4 preferences, the thing that is always presented, is quite superficial dumbing-down of what MB is really about.

 

So I agree with most of what Dantius says, so long as the criticism is levered at MB as it is almost always presented.

 

As for the typology: I am an INFP, light on the F, heavy on the other three.

[Lilith]

reminder: Myers and Briggs literally believed that Intuitive types had powers of extrasensory perception

[VCH]

extra senses are useful

[Dintiradan]

I knew you were going to say that.

[Slawbug]

Lilith: really? citation?

[Dikiyoba]

Originally Posted By: Slarty

The Humanmetrics test is awful. If everyone's going to take the test, I highly recommend this longer, but subtler version.

It's certainly longer and gives more choices, but I don't see how it's better. Or at all subtle.

Plus, Dikiyoba took it twice and got two drastically different results, which is not encouraging.

[Rowen]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

reminder: Myers and Briggs literally believed that Intuitive types had powers of extrasensory perception

Every time I see the name Briggs, I think of Briggs and Stratton and what a kick ass lawn mower they make or made, as the one in the family has never needed to be replaced in 20 years.

As for the test I took three of them two years ago and the results differed so much from test to test that I was told that no conclusive data could be drawn. I'm going to see if I can find those non conclusive results.

[Cairo Jim]

It's interesting how everyone so far has got the introverted thingy in their score. Anyways, I got ISTJ.

You have slight preference of Introversion over Extraversion (22%)

You have moderate preference of Sensing over Intuition (25%)

You have distinctive preference of Thinking over Feeling (75%)

You have moderate preference of Judging over Perceiving (33%)

[Student of Trinity]

I haven't thought about MB in years, but I remember thinking that it was absolutely unlike horoscopes, in that most of the descriptions of types seemed utterly alien to me, to the point that I had a hard time believing that people like that really existed. Only a few of them seemed like obvious descriptions that would surely fit a lot of people, but those were the (apparently relatively rare) types that fit me and my family members. But then I did meet some people who claimed to fit the categories that seemed to me to be unbelievable.

 

I went through a phase where I thought MB was really cool, and got most of my family and friends to try it. Other than a few acquaintances that I didn't feel I knew well, everyone fit into a small range of types. The MB theory for this is that my family is unusually similar in temperament, and I've been selective in friends, such that only people rather like me seem to me to be friends; everyone else, I feel I don't really know.

 

The alternative explanation for my personal observations is that MB is a set of about four horoscope one-size-fits-all profiles, differentiated by a couple of hot issues, plus a big pile of fake types that never actually occur, and only end up getting picked by people who don't understand the test. The purported rebuttal for this claim is that what seem to me to be 'fake' profiles represent about 90% of the population, and the test has been taken by a lot of people by now.

 

Obviously the whole thing can only go so far. There are a lot more than 16 types of people. And the fifth category could well be simply, How well does MB work on you? But my own anecdotal impression seems a bit hard to square with the supposed general statistics of this widely used system, except on the theory that there is indeed at least a bit of something to it.

[Galactic Maiden]

ENFJ

You have strong preference of Extraversion over Introversion (89%)

You have moderate preference of Intuition over Sensing (38%)

You have moderate preference of Feeling over Thinking (50%)

You have slight preference of Judging over Perceiving (11%)

 

I tend to take internet quizzes with a grain of salt. This one happened to give me a pretty accurate result, though I'm not sure about the "judging over perceiving" bit. I'm certainly extroverted offline, though I've been a little shy on these forums so far.

 

Am I the only extrovert so far? Interesting.

[nikki.]

ISFP

 

Introvert(11%)  Sensing(1%)  Feeling(88%)  Perceiving(22)%

You have slight preference of Introversion over Extraversion (11%)

You have marginal or no preference of Sensing over Intuition (1%)

You have strong preference of Feeling over Thinking (88%)

You have slight preference of Perceiving over Judging (22%)

 

I don't feel that it's all that accurate. I might try again tonight, when I've forgotten how I answered.

[Erebus the Black]

After the first 3 questions I already hate this test because of how shallow they are. What does that make me?

[Actaeon]

Well, you're certainly high on the "J" scale. Like everyone here but Nikki and I.

[Student of Trinity]

Hmm. This one makes me come out INFP, though only rather weakly P, and just marginally F. Twenty years ago I was decidedly INTP. I think it's true that I've become more comfortable with emotions over the years, and probably also become a fair bit more decisive, having had to cope with a lot more responsibility. I'm not sure I really buy the F thing, though, since the way in which I deal comfortably with emotional issues is to analyze them intellectually. This is the sort of nuance that the test doesn't handle well, at least not in a short version like this. On the other hand, maybe it doesn't really matter how I do it; perhaps I have in effect come to have a bit more respect for feelings than for thoughts.

 

Only 72 questions is a rather minimalistic version of the test, I think. That's only 18 questions per axis, if they're distributed evenly, so I'd expect an uncertainty of around 25% or so — even on the assumption that it's not just all crap.

 

I faintly remember reading that there is supposed to be a tendency for everyone to age toward the middle. If so I guess maybe I'm on my way.

[Balladeer]

Originally Posted By: HOUSE of S

The Humanmetrics test is awful. If everyone's going to take the test, I highly recommend this longer, but subtler version.

Gave me INTP.

[Slawbug]

FWIW, SoT, I'd put money on you as INTP.

 

I am occasionally willing to do that, even though I like the typology but not the test itself so much.

 

Also, Lilith, I've done some looking and can't find anything; if you have a link re the crazy psychic thing I'd actually be interested to read it.

[Dintiradan]

Yeah, I did some Google-fu myself, and while I found sites that say that intuitive people are more likely to have ESP, I couldn't find any that clearly cited Myers or Briggs as the source.

[Death Knight]

Edit-Wrong Thread

[Slawbug]

What I am kind of suspicious of is that a quote describing one of the intuitive functions, probably from Isabel Myers's book, was taken out of context; the wrong sentence could certainly sound like it was describing ESP, even though it was really just describing the process of arriving at a new conclusion indirectly based on existing evidence. That's really what the S/N dichotomy is about anyway, getting new information directly (e.g., through the physical senses or by definition) versus indirectly (e.g., through association or abstract reasoning).

[Dire Hobbit]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

Ugh. I'm not particularly a fan of Jung or the neo-Freudian school in general

Me either. But at least it's not as irretrievably wrong-headed as Freud himself.

[Prince of Kitties]

In Freud's defense, he at least tended towards provable forms of wrongness (at least from what I know of his ideas). That's much better than can be said of some schools of psychological thought, IMHO.

[Alorael at Large]

I took the new test, and I'm still overwhelmingly I, strongly N, overwhelmingly T, and slightly J.

 

—Alorael, whose friends have almost all at some point gone through the MBTI craze. They run the gamut of types. Yes, people will proclaim that even the most outlandish (from his perspective) types describe them. In many ways the self-diagnosis is less useful than the description of other types so you can get insight into what makes very different people tick.

[Acky]

Quote:

INFP
Introvert(56%) iNtuitive(62%) iNtuitive Feeling(25%) Perceiving(22)%
You have moderate preference of Introversion over Extraversion (56%)
You have distinctive preference of Intuition over Sensing (62%)
You have moderate preference of Feeling over Thinking (25%)
You have slight preference of Perceiving over Judging (22%)

Not very surprising.

[Harehunter]

INTJ

Introvert(44%) iNtuitive(62%) iNtuitive Thinking(50%) Judging(33%)

 

You have moderate preference of Introversion over Extraversion (44%)

You have distinctive preference of Intuition over Sensing (62%)

You have moderate preference of Thinking over Feeling (50%)

You have moderate preference of Judging over Perceiving (33%)

 

I have no idea how accurate these things are. For all I know they may be as accurate as astrology or bio-rhythms. Still, I am curious to see what these things say.

 

I have heard that when a couple has been together for a period of time they develop the ability to finish each other's sentences. My wife and I were doing that from the first month we dated. When we were bringing our dog home from the SPCA, we were pondering what we should name her. After a while the name Missy popped into my head. After a few seconds, I asked my wife what she thought we should call her. She said "I don't know. How about Missy?"

 

Does ESP exist? I have yet to see incontrovertible proof of it, but I do have the sense that there is a good probability that it does, at least to some small extent.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Dire Hobbit

Originally Posted By: Dantius

Ugh. I'm not particularly a fan of Jung or the neo-Freudian school in general

Me either. But at least it's not as irretrievably wrong-headed as Freud himself.

To be fair, Freud certainly did get some things right- the existence of non-conscious factors in decision making, how childhood experiences shape our emotional development, and, of course, defense mechanisms. He can't really be faulted for trying, especially given how poorly suited the tools he had at the time were to in-depth mental or behavioral analysis of humans.

I think that the really fascinating thing about Freud is how shockingly effective psychodynamic therapy actually is, especially given how, as you put it, "irretrievably wrong-headed" the framework he assembled to work in was (I mean, penis envy? Really?). Granted, it's ridiculously expensive and takes a long time, but it's certainly as good, if not better, at treating serious, long-term depression and other psychological disorders than most other alternatives.

[Slawbug]

Freud gets a bad rap. Penis envy was an idea that, in the context of the psychoanalytic framework, does not sound as crazy as it does to us. And he recanted it! Yes, Freud changed his mind about penis envy, among other things. That's one of the reasons he gets such a bad rap: he was a pioneer in a new field and was actually willing to stick his neck out and propose theories without being sure about them. But he was also willing to revise them when they turned out to be wrong -- in fact, he did so constantly. However, because the field of psychology has been full of charismatic theorists who want everyone to use their theories and their framework, and because Freud was the big thing for so long, it became useful to dump on him. Penis envy also was not really a big part of said psychoanalytic framework. Psychosexual development writ large was... but so were talk therapy, the unconscious, repression, and transference, among other concepts that are play a big role in most major psychotherapies today.

[Matanbuchus]

I seem to have scored both ESFP and ISFP in 2003. Now it's given me INFP twice, so I guess I'm that.

 

Quote:

INFP (1st)

Introvert(44%), iNtuitive(25%), iNtuitive Feeling(50%), Perceiving(44)%

 

INFP (2nd)

Introvert(33%) iNtuitive(12%) iNtuitive Feeling(50%) Perceiving(44)%

 

"Idealistic, loyal to their values and to people who are important to them. Want an external life that is congruent with their values. Curious, quick to see possibilities, can be catalysts for implementing ideas. Seek to understand people and to help them fulfill their potential. Adaptable, flexible, and accepting unless a value is threatened."

 

Yeah, sure, fits me. But then again, many of the other types do too.

 

 

Oh, and since we're doing tests: I'm an advocating artist according to the test Riibu linked to.

[Alorael at Large]

As the father of psychiatry, Freud's role is somewhat overstated. There were certainly others. As a psychotherapist, Freud's record is mixed. Psychoanalysis has many critics, and many are passionate, but it also still has its practitioners. As a psychiatrist, Freud still deserves a lot of recognition. His creation of the concept of conversion disorder ushered in the possibility of physiological symptoms with psychological origins, and that's a hugely important concept for good practice in both medicine and psychiatry.

 

—Alorael, who acknowledges that Freud also got some things wrong. Sometimes very wrong. But he's not alone in being brilliant and also sometimes incorrect, and many of those other people get more clear credit for creating the diagnosis and outlining the therapy.

[keira]

INTJ

You have strong preference of Introversion over Extraversion (78%)

You have strong preference of Intuition over Sensing (88%)

You have moderate preference of Thinking over Feeling (50%)

You have moderate preference of Judging over Perceiving (44%)

 

same as what I got the last time I did it, which was some time ago.

[VCH]

Do I win because I have a 1% extravert score?

 

ESTP

 

Extravert(1%) Sensing(25%) Thinking(38%) Perceiving(33)%

 

You have marginal or no preference of Extraversion over Introversion (1%)

You have moderate preference of Sensing over Intuition (25%)

You have moderate preference of Thinking over Feeling (38%)

You have moderate preference of Perceiving over Judging (33%)

 

NVM: Peach wins that contest.

[Dintiradan]

Well, that depends, maybe the goal is to be a well-balanced individual. I think you're the only one here with all scores under 40%, so props to you.

 

(Everyone: I still think I won the Political Compass thread. )

[VCH]

We should all do one of those horrible job placement tests that US highs-schools used to, or maybe still do, make students fill out.

 

Just have to find a "good" and free one.

[keira]

They still do them, I'm pretty sure I still have my results packratted somewhere. iirc it said I was supposed to be an accountant.

 

For the record i have neither the need nor the desire to become an accountant, and i would be a terrible accountant.

[Slawbug]

I was supposed to be a funeral home director.

[Student of Trinity]

I was supposed to be an economist. I've always wondered whether that might have been right.

[Alorael at Large]

I've never done one of those, but I was supposed to go to the US Merchant Marine Academy. I didn't.

 

—Alorael, who would have made a terrible marine and a pretty bad merchant. He can only imagine that he'd be worse than the sum of those parts.

[Dintiradan]

We tease my dad about how he was supposed to be a taxidermist.

[Student of Trinity]

Man, how many questions were even on that thing? How did they get the bit count high enough to decide among that many career options, even just arbitrarily?