Monday, September 15, 2008

ENFP or INFP?

So, I took this personality test last night and the result has been bothering me.

At this point, I've taken the test so many times that if I wanted to I could steer the result to any of the sixteen types. But this time I was trying to be as honest as possible. On the questions that I wasn't too sure about, I stuck with just the middle of the road choice since I couldn't make a hard decision one way or the other. In the cases of S vs N, I'm sure I had some bias towards N because I know that I am an N and that just felt right, but the rest I just let whatever my first impression was come through.

The interesting part of all of this was that I ended up with INFP as my type, which is different than the ENFP normal result. So I'm wondering, maybe I was wrong about the E, maybe I am an I. It wasn't like the I was a dominant result, it was pretty close to the border, but I could see why I would make the mistake of thinking I'm an E. Normally my Mom likes to analyze people and determine their types, but she's very introverted, so I imagine anyone that seems more extroverted than her she categorizes as an extrovert. She is the one who is very adamant about me being an ENFP, but that E could just be her personal bias.

Viewing things from my perspective, I do tend to be hesitant in crowds of new people, and in any groups greater than three. It's not that I don't enjoy outgoing experiences with lots of people, but I also don't jump in head first. One of my brothers and my sister are extroverts and they do seem to react very differently in crowds. They don't have the hesitance that I do, they just engage. I'm usually better with one on one conversations or groups of three people. I'm tentative about when to speak in a larger group and don't like to push my thoughts into conversation over other people. I tend to express myself more openly in my writing than I do when talking to people, and am very introspective about my thoughts.

The real kicker for this is that my Aunt is an ENFP. She and I are very different when it comes to social situations. She is always talking, and usually constantly pushing some viewpoint she has about whatever topic is at hand or on her mind. She likes to be the center of attention, but I actually like one on one conversations where I feel I have more control and can focus on different topics of conversations that I share interest with the person I'm talking to.

So I'm really starting to jump on the band wagon of this INFP thing. I realize there is a pretty big overlap between the two types, but at least this way I feel like I understand better why I have that tentative feeling in social situations that I imagine most (if not all) extroverts don't have. Plus I see why, even thought I don't like spending eight hours a day in a cubicle, I do like to have some time to myself to decompress rather than being up and out all the time during the day. Usually I'm good with social situations where I am introduced to the new people and have some common ground to start building on, rather than just the cold entry.

Anyway, here is the description for the INFP personality type:

http://www.personalitypage.com/INFP.html

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