Distinguishing INFJs from INFPs

Typo! Typo! You made a spelling error! Rawr! :lol:
 
I did a bit of waffling myself. I share INFJ and INFP traits, but INFJ is a closer match. I like to welcome others a lot, but I really like to analyze and discuss things. Honestly, the J vs P just states which is dominant - Ni or Fe. My Fe usually the dominant one, therefore INFJ.
 
I prefer analyzing and discussing things (mainly philosophically) to social niceties and introductions. I'm usually a grammar gestapo as well (mostly self-persecuting).
 
Hi everyone! I'm new here. I discovered about the MBTI last year, bought the book by Keirsey, and I scored highly Introverted, Intuitive and Feeling but 50/50 on the perceiving/judging. I decided I was Infj then (felt if fit better) but this year, I took another version of the test online and got P by 11%. The more I look into it, the more I get confused! Even on this thread, some posts make me think I'm P and others J , so much my head hurts :m097:
But TK*'s posts in particular made me feel more Infj. I fit all her description, especially the fact that I can't just drift through life, I need a purpose!! I can't not know where I'm going with my life.
I always have lists for what I want to do in the day/week/month/year! I feel uncomfortable when asked to do something unprepared.
One of the main things that made me feel J is that a lot of my friends (who are definitely P) stress me out because they don't have a plan or the plan keeps changing, and I tag along against my better judgment.
I overanalyze and love discussing and am all about the Why's (people hate that about me. My whole childhood can be summed up by "stop asking so many questions!" ) . I'm messy on the outside, structured in my head. I procrastinate (a lot) but never miss a deadline.
But on the warm/cold thing, I fit Von hase's description of Infp's. I'm always told "we thought you were very cold and stuck up but then when we got to really know you , and we discovered you're a really warm person" . A teacher once told me "you're ice on the outside, and a volcano on the outside" and told me I should share what's on the inside with others.
Lately, I've been doing things like getting out and walking with no idea where I'm headed, daydreaming all day,etc.. I don't know if this is just a phase I'm going through.
I lurked around a bit on the infp forum and most of what they said on "you might be an infp if.. "could have come out from my own mouth. so I'm definitely close to both.
Help? :mcute:
 
For the recond: I DETEST grammer, and could care less about it! :D
 
Sever, I think in some ways it's really up to you. Both INFP/Js waffle back and forth in type, but from what I hear INFJs will dither but they'll ultimately settle and say, "that's it no more - this is who I am, deal with it." The INFPs can keep questioning because they like the openness of it.

Think of it this way: What is your preference? Do you prefer having more open-ended options and wondering about possibilities, or do you wander a bit but once you decide, it's end of story and over and done time? Do you prefer more definites or more possibilities?

Are you happier imagining all the things that could be, or are you happier producing and finishing and wrapping up the "could be" things in your life?

What are you like when your emotional buttons get pressed? How do you react? Would people say you have an "explosive" temper after simmering? Do you love deep and love hard? What makes you YOU?

Anyway...good luck searching, Sever! It can take time to discover yourself. But fear not, we're all here. Also, know that you're never 100% one thing, or another. You use all your processes. All MBTI is doing is showing what processes you prefer using most often. I'm a big mess pot but I know where everything is, and I hate it when people clean my house messes because I can't find things anymore. I'm a lot neater at work. It's still fairly messy at work, but it's much more clean. And messes actually bother me, believe it or not.

One more thing: Know that you're not the only one "finding oneself" on here. You'll find friends and fellow travelers on the same path!
 
Sever said:
Hi everyone! I'm new here. I discovered about the MBTI last year, bought the book by Keirsey, and I scored highly Introverted, Intuitive and Feeling but 50/50 on the perceiving/judging. I decided I was Infj then (felt if fit better) but this year, I took another version of the test online and got P by 11%. The more I look into it, the more I get confused! Even on this thread, some posts make me think I'm P and others J , so much my head hurts :m097:
But TK*'s posts in particular made me feel more Infj. I fit all her description, especially the fact that I can't just drift through life, I need a purpose!! I can't not know where I'm going with my life.
I always have lists for what I want to do in the day/week/month/year! I feel uncomfortable when asked to do something unprepared.
One of the main things that made me feel J is that a lot of my friends (who are definitely P) stress me out because they don't have a plan or the plan keeps changing, and I tag along against my better judgment.
I overanalyze and love discussing and am all about the Why's (people hate that about me. My whole childhood can be summed up by "stop asking so many questions!" ) . I'm messy on the outside, structured in my head. I procrastinate (a lot) but never miss a deadline.
But on the warm/cold thing, I fit Von hase's description of Infp's. I'm always told "we thought you were very cold and stuck up but then when we got to really know you , and we discovered you're a really warm person" . A teacher once told me "you're ice on the outside, and a volcano on the outside" and told me I should share what's on the inside with others.
Lately, I've been doing things like getting out and walking with no idea where I'm headed, daydreaming all day,etc.. I don't know if this is just a phase I'm going through.
I lurked around a bit on the infp forum and most of what they said on "you might be an infp if.. "could have come out from my own mouth. so I'm definitely close to both.
Help? :mcute:
Click to expand...

By the structure of this post I'm inclined to say INFP.
 
arbygil said:
Sever, I think in some ways it's really up to you. Both INFP/Js waffle back and forth in type, but from what I hear INFJs will dither but they'll ultimately settle and say, "that's it no more - this is who I am, deal with it." The INFPs can keep questioning because they like the openness of it.

Think of it this way: What is your preference? Do you prefer having more open-ended options and wondering about possibilities, or do you wander a bit but once you decide, it's end of story and over and done time? Do you prefer more definites or more possibilities?

Are you happier imagining all the things that could be, or are you happier producing and finishing and wrapping up the "could be" things in your life?

What are you like when your emotional buttons get pressed? How do you react? Would people say you have an "explosive" temper after simmering? Do you love deep and love hard? What makes you YOU?

Anyway...good luck searching, Sever! It can take time to discover yourself. But fear not, we're all here. Also, know that you're never 100% one thing, or another. You use all your processes. All MBTI is doing is showing what processes you prefer using most often. I'm a big mess pot but I know where everything is, and I hate it when people clean my house messes because I can't find things anymore. I'm a lot neater at work. It's still fairly messy at work, but it's much more clean. And messes actually bother me, believe it or not.

One more thing: Know that you're not the only one "finding oneself" on here. You'll find friends and fellow travelers on the same path!
Click to expand...

Thank you arbygil!
I prefer definites. For ex, I could wait and consider myself both Infp/Infj for now, but I can't stand not having things settled. It bugs me when I don't have a definite answer. I like wrapping up.
Yes, people have told me that I tend to "explode" after simmering for a while. They've even told me I can go from harmless to scary pretty quickly. :fear:. I've never really fallen in love before but I care about a few people deeply. And I 'm like you concerning messes : my mom complains I'm messy but I know where everything is. If she were to clean it for me, I'd be lost and couldn't function till I got my system back in place. I try to tidy everything up if there's company though.
Looking forward to meeting all the "fellow travelers"! ;)


Satya said:
By the structure of this post I'm inclined to say INFP.
Click to expand...

ah, what do you mean?
 
Sever said:
ah, what do you mean?
Click to expand...

INFP posts typically appear ragged and random in their formatting as compared to INFJ posts. Capitalization, punctuation, etc. are generally not heeded as much. And the line spacing that INFJs tend to use is their posts in generally not something you see in INFP posts.

I've seen enough of both that I have a pretty good idea of a mistyped member or two on this forum in this regard. Just look at arbygil's post as compared to yours and you can see what I mean. Your post is a clump and her post is carefully formatted.
 
Last edited:
I don't think it's a definitive measure of INFP vs. INFJ, but I've spent time on the INFP forum and now that I've been here as well, I agree there is a different mood to the communication.

INFP's don't always write a mash of misspelled words and grammatical errors and it seems INFJ's don't always have pristinely organized grammar absent misspellings. However, the difference in general style is certainly noticeable.

Both styles possess charms.
 
Poor grammar and misspellings annoy many INFPs too. I don't think that in itself is a good gage. I do agree that overall communication style is different. After reading both boards, I identified much more with the INFP way of expression.

One thing INFPs do obsess over is word choice. Many of us report looking words up in the dictionary before posting and agonizing over the post before hitting submit because we want to convey our meaning perfectly. I do this with words I already know just to make sure it is saying exactly what I want.
 
A question to INFPs:

when you are driving, do you occasionally, to frequently, have people impatiently trying to overtake you?

I ask, because today I had to follow an INFP friend in my car - and I thought I was going to have a case of mild road-rage because he wasn't driving like a J: he was going well below the speed limit, indicating turns at the last minute, changing lanes randomly, drifting in his lane, and I could see him looking around instead of looking ahead.

In short, he was driving in the opposite way that I do. I am very destination focused and place what is probably inordinate concern in never going below the speed limit, staying in the centre of my lane and executing precision turns.
 
orangeappled said:
Poor grammar and misspellings annoy many INFPs too. I don't think that in itself is a good gage. I do agree that overall communication style is different. After reading both boards, I identified much more with the INFP way of expression.

One thing INFPs do obsess over is word choice. Many of us report looking words up in the dictionary before posting and agonizing over the post before hitting submit because we want to convey our meaning perfectly. I do this with words I already know just to make sure it is saying exactly what I want.
Click to expand...

I agree it's hardly a good gauge. :)

I do the word choice thing pretty much how you describe. It is about wanting to communicate precisely what I mean as best I'm able. I ponder sometimes though about how the perfect word choice to communicate externally what I mean from my mind doesn't always translate into that word choice meaning exactly what I want it to mean to the recipient.
 
Flavus Aquila said:
A question to INFPs:

when you are driving, do you occasionally, to frequently, have people impatiently trying to overtake you?

I ask, because today I had to follow an INFP friend in my car - and I thought I was going to have a case of mild road-rage because he wasn't driving like a J: he was going well below the speed limit, indicating turns at the last minute, changing lanes randomly, drifting in his lane, and I could see him looking around instead of looking ahead.

In short, he was driving in the opposite way that I do. I am very destination focused and place what is probably inordinate concern in never going below the speed limit, staying in the centre of my lane and executing precision turns.
Click to expand...

I'm frightened when my boyfriend, who types INFP, drives. He is a very aggressive (but also precise) driver. Sounds much like your driving actually.
 
Sever - when it comes to INFJ vs INFP, what it really comes down to is this: Are you Fe Ni (Fe dominant) or Ni Fe (Ni dominant)? That's all the difference MBTI gives between INFJ and INFP. Personally I don't think it's a very accurate method of describing people in general. Sometimes I'm Fe Ni, sometimes I'm Ni Fe. I go with INFJ because that's most correct for me.

Question for everyone: According to MBTI, are the INFJ cognitive functions (in order of dominance) Fe+Ni Ti+Se Fi+Ne Te+Si? I believe it pairs a sensing function with a perceiving function, and an internal with an external. Have I got the pairs right?
 
Milon said:
Question for everyone: According to MBTI, are the INFJ cognitive functions (in order of dominance) Fe+Ni Ti+Se Fi+Ne Te+Si? I believe it pairs a sensing function with a perceiving function, and an internal with an external. Have I got the pairs right?
Click to expand...

Introverted types are introverted function dominant so INFJ is Ni Fe (Ti Se Ne Fi Te Si) while INFP is Fi Ne. ENFJ would be Fe Ni.
 
Last edited:
Flavus Aquila said:
A question to INFPs:

when you are driving, do you occasionally, to frequently, have people impatiently trying to overtake you?

I ask, because today I had to follow an INFP friend in my car - and I thought I was going to have a case of mild road-rage because he wasn't driving like a J: he was going well below the speed limit, indicating turns at the last minute, changing lanes randomly, drifting in his lane, and I could see him looking around instead of looking ahead.

In short, he was driving in the opposite way that I do. I am very destination focused and place what is probably inordinate concern in never going below the speed limit, staying in the centre of my lane and executing precision turns.
Click to expand...

I've been told by a good friend that I usually "drive like I know where I'm going," despite the fact that I have a terrible memory and sense of direction. I'm very capable at going straight and considerably above the speed limit.

But yes, people do still try to pass me at a furious rate. I think a lot of them are istps who have no sympathy for anything or anyone.
 
Last edited:
Lurker said:
Introverted types are introverted function dominant so INFJ is Ni Fe (Ti Se Ne Fi Te Si) while INFP is Fi Ne. ENFJ would be Fe Ni.
Click to expand...

Good point, Lurker - it's tricky, but it's Ne Fe versus Fi Ne. That I/E combo can really make a huge difference, because one is introverted feeling and the other is extroverted feeling. It's why sometimes INFPs can have that emotional "flip switch" and have a fierce emotional reaction to things (it becomes personal), and it's why the INFJ can ponder a bit longer while trying to figure out what's going on before reacting (they're watching for external cues for confirmation).

At least that's how I view it. I could be wrong, though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top