Distinguishing INFJs from INFPs

[DoveAlexa]

Aw, thanks hun!



I would call it sympathy, to be precise. Very similar. Empathy feels what others feel. Sympathy is aware of and cares about what others feel.

isn't it the other way around?

Well, sympathy and empathy aren't separate entities but actually part of a continuum of degrees of feeling for others and understanding how/why they feel. Sympathy is simply what happens when you've learned how to spot what people are feeling, and care about how they feel. (You can care about how people feel though without being so good at telling how they feel, but seeing it yourself makes you more likely to "believe" it and be stirred by it.)

Empathy encompasses this, but then adds another level where before you could just notice how people feel and reasonably understand why, now you can *know* how they feel by accessing your reservoir of emotional memory or sheer imaginative ability by creating their feelings within yourself. The fact that this happens so quickly that you can't tell that you're accessing or processing anything is what makes it look like a superpower.

Of course, you don't need to have empathy with a person to be able to properly tend to an ailing heart, but it does increase the likelihood of you doing it right. The last thing you need is if a person has just been through something and wants to be alone, is for you to instead choose to smother them with attention. Empathy would increase the chances of you realizing what they'd want with feeling the way they do.

Also, if anything thats has happened to the person has happened to you, you are bound to have an empathetic moment then, with the sympathy.

INFJ cares and is aware of what others feel
INFP feels what others feel (or think they are feeling this way)

Hmm, maybe more like in the beginning of developement, the INFJ is more likely to start along the continuum at the point where they learn to spot how people feel by observing them, but the INFP starts at the point where they feel what others feel by learning of a person's situation then referencing their experience/imagination to know what that must feel like, but both can somewhat choose to or to not care about the stimulus they receive. Though both find the stimulus so potent, having the F trait so near the top, that they usually end up reacting and thus caring. If they so choose they can proceed back or forth along the continuum to absorb the traits of the other side as they develop the other F.

Did any of that make sense?

 

[jewel]

I have been wondering lately if an INFJ is want I want to be and a INFP is truly what I am at the core.

I am wondering the same thing. I am even more confused now. !!

 

[jewel]

I tend to test both ways. I don't know for sure which I am. Honestly, when it comes to differences pointed out, I don't know which apply to me. I can't see myself that objectively.
Anyway, the more I read on this, the more confused I get!

Yes. ha the more i read i feel im trapt between the two. Then again i question myself all the time.

 

[DoveAlexa]

How about you think about this: Are you more inclined (feel better for having done, even) to render a set of possibilities into one general principle that you can reuse at ease, or take one idea and expand and expand it with more and more possibilities? If we can't figure the F's we can figure the Ns.

 

[jewel]

^^ now your description makes me sure i am INFJ.

 

[DoveAlexa]

^^ now your description makes me sure i am INFJ.

HURRAY!

 

[Morgain]

How about you think about this: Are you more inclined (feel better for having done, even) to render a set of possibilities into one general principle that you can reuse at ease, or take one idea and expand and expand it with more and more possibilities? If we can't figure the F's we can figure the Ns.

well I think this is a good way of looking at it.

I know I like to take one general principle and expand it, apply it on all possible feelds. Like for example I really like to apply quantum physics on eastern medicine. For most physicists this is unthinkable!

 

[Gaze]

well I think this is a good way of looking at it.

I know I like to take one general principle and expand it, apply it on all possible feelds. Like for example I really like to apply quantum physics on eastern medicine. For most physicists this is unthinkable!

[MENTION=1591]Morgain[/MENTION]. I've been trying to find someone who can give me the lowdown on quantum physics. How would you apply it to eastern medecine? I thinks it's interesting to apply concepts from seemingly disparate or unrelated fields?

 

[orangeappled]

I've had a thought, something which I've long suspected, but never voiced it here. I notice a lot of people who cannot decide between INFP & INFJ and who are aware of functions definitions will usually relate most to Fi + Ni. What are the only two introverted types who use Fi and Ni? INTJ & ISFP. So if you feel sure you aren't INTJ because you just know you're a Feeling type, then consider ISFP. Put aside the S stereotypes - ISFPs have been called the "intuitive sensors" because they often are forced to develop their tertiary Ni, as the Se realistic eye can be at odds with Fi idealistic feeling. It's just something to consider.....

 

[DoveAlexa]

I've had a thought, something which I've long suspected, but never voiced it here. I notice a lot of people who cannot decide between INFP & INFJ and who are aware of functions definitions will usually relate most to Fi + Ni. What are the only two introverted types who use Fi and Ni? INTJ & ISFP. So if you feel sure you aren't INTJ because you just know you're a Feeling type, then consider ISFP. Put aside the S stereotypes - ISFPs have been called the "intuitive sensors" because they often are forced to develop their tertiary Ni, as the Se realistic eye can be at odds with Fi idealistic feeling. It's just something to consider.....

They also like rainbows. ;D Though they live SO MUCH in the moment you have to check with yourself if your mind is stuck in visions of the future or if you're really more inclined to be in the here and now with little worry of past or future.

 

[arbygil]

I've had a thought, something which I've long suspected, but never voiced it here. I notice a lot of people who cannot decide between INFP & INFJ and who are aware of functions definitions will usually relate most to Fi + Ni. What are the only two introverted types who use Fi and Ni? INTJ & ISFP. So if you feel sure you aren't INTJ because you just know you're a Feeling type, then consider ISFP. Put aside the S stereotypes - ISFPs have been called the "intuitive sensors" because they often are forced to develop their tertiary Ni, as the Se realistic eye can be at odds with Fi idealistic feeling. It's just something to consider.....

Very good advice!

Typing is just...typing. Remember, folks, there is no "good" or "bad" MBTI type. You are who you are; revel in it!

 

[88chaz88]

Very good advice!

Typing is just...typing. Remember, folks, there is no "good" or "bad" MBTI type. You are who you are; revel in it!

Except INTP of course.

 

[NeverAmI]

Except INTP of course.

 

[orangeappled]

They also like rainbows. ;D Though they live SO MUCH in the moment you have to check with yourself if your mind is stuck in visions of the future or if you're really more inclined to be in the here and now with little worry of past or future.

See, I think that is a misconception about ISFPs. ISFPs are Fi-doms. Their main thought process is to evaluate based on an inner ideal, which is quite imaginative in nature, often occurring in forms of feeling tones & images, etc. Since they are heavily motivated by and concerned with Fi ideals, ISFPs will not always seem as practical or grounded as the stereotypical sensor, and they may lapse into moments of introspection a lot, where they are not aware of their surroundings so vividly. It's how they channel their ideals & interact with their environment that is the big clue as to whether a Fi-dom is S or N. Plus, they have tertiary Ni to support Se, to find an innovative way to manage the current reality so as to be more appropriate to Fi ideals. It's like the bridge between Se & Fi.

 

[magister343]

Except INTP of course.

How uncharacteristic of you to declare mine the only good type.

 

[88chaz88]

See, I think that is a misconception about ISFPs. ISFPs are Fi-doms. Their main thought process is to evaluate based on an inner ideal, which is quite imaginative in nature, often occurring in forms of feeling tones & images, etc. Since they are heavily motivated by and concerned with Fi ideals, ISFPs will not always seem as practical or grounded as the stereotypical sensor, and they may lapse into moments of introspection a lot, where they are not aware of their surroundings so vividly. It's how they channel their ideals & interact with their environment that is the big clue as to whether a Fi-dom is S or N. Plus, they have tertiary Ni to support Se, to find an innovative way to manage the current reality so as to be more appropriate to Fi ideals. It's like the bridge between Se & Fi.

 

[DoveAlexa]

See, I think that is a misconception about ISFPs. ISFPs are Fi-doms. Their main thought process is to evaluate based on an inner ideal, which is quite imaginative in nature, often occurring in forms of feeling tones & images, etc. Since they are heavily motivated by and concerned with Fi ideals, ISFPs will not always seem as practical or grounded as the stereotypical sensor, and they may lapse into moments of introspection a lot, where they are not aware of their surroundings so vividly. It's how they channel their ideals & interact with their environment that is the big clue as to whether a Fi-dom is S or N. Plus, they have tertiary Ni to support Se, to find an innovative way to manage the current reality so as to be more appropriate to Fi ideals. It's like the bridge between Se & Fi.

This.
Chaz (my boyfriend) is ISFP, and what I said is what he has told me about himself. So......

 

[Billy]

http://infjorinfp.com/

 

[acd]

See, I think that is a misconception about ISFPs. ISFPs are Fi-doms. Their main thought process is to evaluate based on an inner ideal, which is quite imaginative in nature, often occurring in forms of feeling tones & images, etc. Since they are heavily motivated by and concerned with Fi ideals, ISFPs will not always seem as practical or grounded as the stereotypical sensor, and they may lapse into moments of introspection a lot, where they are not aware of their surroundings so vividly. It's how they channel their ideals & interact with their environment that is the big clue as to whether a Fi-dom is S or N. Plus, they have tertiary Ni to support Se, to find an innovative way to manage the current reality so as to be more appropriate to Fi ideals. It's like the bridge between Se & Fi.

I think I'm an ISFP.. actually..

Can you do a bit more of comparing ISFP/INFP?

 

[orangeappled]

This.
Chaz (my boyfriend) is ISFP, and what I said is what he has told me about himself. So......

I have many ISFPs in my life, and I was raised by one. No doubt many do not see themselves in such conceptual terms (many probably would not see themselves clearly in Jung's description for Fi for the same reason), but many also would not relate to being an extremely literal person without any thought outside of what is going on in the moment. That is at odds with the very nature of introverted feeling, which is turn inward to evaluate based on ideals.

Its aim is not so much to accommodate to the objective fact [external things] as to stand above it, since its whole unconscious effort is to give reality to the underlying images [ideals]. It is, as it were, continually seeking an image which has no existence in reality, but of which it has had a sort of previous vision.

....Primordial images are, of course, just as much idea as feeling.

Conscious Orientation[/I] ]The introvert of feeling-type finds support and guidance by shaping his own feeling-attitudes in accordance with an inner ideal. ... Feeling aims more especially at an inner harmony, trying to discover what under various circumstances should be the right relationships between people if life is to be beautiful and well balanced.