MBTI - MBTI, types and dichotomies (for those new to MBTI and all that stuff) | INFJ Forum

MBTI MBTI, types and dichotomies (for those new to MBTI and all that stuff)

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  1. Sure, there are places on the internet that offer sound descriptions.
    This article is just an option for something alternative.

    I intend it to merely be a place where you can get an overview to mull over in order to get your head around the basic concepts.

    This article will be rather informal. Let us begin.

    1.0 What is MBTI?
    MBTI is a theory that describes how everyone possesses one of 16 personality "types".

    1.1 What is the history and background of this thing?
    MBTI stands for the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, as Myers and Briggs helped develop a part of Carl Jung's old classic psychology work into what we encounter in most MBTI today.

    1.2 So whats going on?
    The usual way this typing process seems to go is you sit a test, (under an MBTI professional rather than just the internet if you can help it, and they will describe your type in a reasonably neutral and ethical way.) Your type may be described by something called a portrait - which gives you a general idea of the quirks and nature that your type brings to the table compared to the other fifteen.

    1.3 Should I care?
    That is probably beyond the scope of this article. Understand, then make your own call - that is my bias or philosophy for this situation.

    2.0 What are the types?
    For the purposes of an introduction to MBTI, how should we describe this?

    It has to do with functions. That is one rather important part of it.

    The second part is this. You can think of type as something you have managed to stuble into and keep falling back into as a matter of pattern.

    Combine the two and type is almost like just 'the the way that you use functions that you keep returning to because it makes you feel at home'.

    Despite my reasoning seeming entirely dubious at this point, lets run with it because honestly it's a pretty good introductory idea for what is going on. If you still have doubts, ask the folk on this forum if the description is fair.

    Although it may be simple. But hey, we are building on it after all.

    Since there are sixteen types, expect to eventually run into people who don't have your type, and everything new, exciting and crazy that may entail.

    3.0 What are the dichotomies?

    Type, as far as the labels go, consists of four letters for identification between them.

    3.1 The first letter can either be I or E. I means introvert and E means extrovert.

    3.1.1 Now let me try to esoterically blend the pop definition with something that will manage to stand up to further serious study. Extraversion means it's a part of who you are that is positively orientated by something object-like, (and other to yourself). Introversion contrasts that - it is a part of you that has a kind of... less than fully open relationship with that object. Okay, some describe it as negative. You don't need no stinking object to orientate you.

    3.2 The second letter can either be S or N. S means sensing and N means intuition.

    3.2.1 In this case intuition means that one of your first two functions is the function of intuition. It goes similarly for sensing meaning a sensing function is present in the two first functions. The first two functions are the ones you seem to end up keep running back to as a default. Anyhow, Sensing and iNtuition are kind of like information intake or pooling rather than evaluation or reasoning based. That last sentence may be the most dubious thing I have written so far, so consider it a temporary idea until you encounter something better. But it has its merits - merely that things become more complex the more you learn.

    3.3 The third letter can either be F or T. F stands for feeling, and T stands for thinking.

    3.3.1 This doesn't mean that thinking types cannot feel and feeling types can't think. Both refer to functions. If you have F it means you have a feeling function in your first two functions. A similar deal goes for T. Lets try for another dubious explanation. Both thinking and feeling functions kind of assess or evaluate or make decisions. That sets them aside from S and N. F and T sort of has to do with the information sort they prefer to deal in and manage, rather than the information sources they are observing, consolidating or pulling from.

    You can think of the difference between F and T as value management preference vs a colder sort of pragmatic management preference.

    3.4 The fourth letter can either be P or J. P stands for perceiving, and J stands for judging.

    3.4.1 There is no P and J function, just as there is no I or E function. If you have the letter P in a type, their second letter is extraverted and their third letter is introverted. For example, if the type is INFP, the N is extraverted and the F is introverted in nature. Handy, huh? Likewise, J means the second letter is introverted and the third letter is extraverted. So for example, with INFJs the N is introverted and the F is extraverted.


    You got to the end of the article. Success. Hand shakes all around.

    I hope this helps someone out there.

    One thing to take away is there is jargon that means strange stuff.
    Or more to the point, it may not mean what you naturally assume it means. For example the whole P and J deal.
    LunaRebelKatt and poita like this.


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