I need a conclusion on this.

Don't reply on the lists, blogs, Tumblrs, and free tests too much. Many of them are notoriously inaccurate. There is one list of INFJ traits that is at least half INFP traits, for example.

As @periodictoblerone stated above, you need to learn the cognitive functions.
Your type is based on your naturally dominant cognitive functions. Like others said above, you have all the functions, and you're going to use functions to varying degrees, but some of them are dominant.

In MBTI, you can't be more than one type. There are some other personality typing systems that allow for percents of type, but in MBTI you are one.
For different systems there is Keirsey, which seems most similar to MBTI to me, and Socionics, where INFJ and INFP are reversed because Ni is a perceiving function, and a bunch of others like DiSC, HPI, SHL, and Caliper. Some of these focus on learned behavior traits, too, instead of just "personality type".
MBTI goes in and out of style. (Personally, I think those who don't agree with it don't fully understand it. It doesn't claim you are ABCD and not WXYZ, or that you cannot choose to act AWBXCYDZ, it shows your default personal hierarchy of ABCDWXYZ.) Learning cognitive function will help you test accurately in other systems. MBTI is somewhat controversial because the people who invented it based it on Jungian theory, but didn't have degrees themselves. So, if you only know you tested as WXYZ in MBTI, it won't help you when society moves away from MBTI for a different testing system.

You also have to be really honest with yourself and not choose what you wish you were, or what you try to be. What is your default? (Random comparison of two types of people: Do you squeeze toothpaste from the bottom, or from the middle? If you squeeze it from the middle, maybe you try to roll the tube up later to make it look like you squeeze from the bottom, but you still squeeze from the middle.)
Try to learn the cognitive functions thoroughly. A lot of people don't realize that Fe is not only emotion focused on others, but also the desire to "go along with" society and not make waves, or that Ni and Ne dictate how we collect data and arrive at decisions and ideas.

INFPs can seem more loving and caring than INFJs, because INFP's first function is Fi, while INFJ's first function is Ni. This means that what INFPs do best is feeling, and what INFJs do best is "Intuition" (abstract thought.) INFPs care about other people and understand people based on their own experiences, and they're really, really good at giving others support, and being giving and thoughtful in general. INFJs may know how others feel due to Fe, but have trouble expressing it, or fail to act on it because of different factors.

INFJ and INFP don't share any functions, even if our functions manifest in similar types of personalities. We get along well, but we are very different.
INTJ and INFJ share two functions: Ni/Se. Personally, I find it much easier for INTJs and INFJs to get mixed up because our similarities are fluid, even if our differences are obvious.
 
Don't reply on the lists, blogs, Tumblrs, and free tests too much. Many of them are notoriously inaccurate. There is one list of INFJ traits that is at least half INFP traits, for example.

As @periodictoblerone stated above, you need to learn the cognitive functions.
Your type is based on your naturally dominant cognitive functions. Like others said above, you have all the functions, and you're going to use functions to varying degrees, but some of them are dominant.

In MBTI, you can't be more than one type. There are some other personality typing systems that allow for percents of type, but in MBTI you are one.
For different systems there is Keirsey, which seems most similar to MBTI to me, and Socionics, where INFJ and INFP are reversed because Ni is a perceiving function, and a bunch of others like DiSC, HPI, SHL, and Caliper. Some of these focus on learned behavior traits, too, instead of just "personality type".
MBTI goes in and out of style. (Personally, I think those who don't agree with it don't fully understand it. It doesn't claim you are ABCD and not WXYZ, or that you cannot choose to act AWBXCYDZ, it shows your default personal hierarchy of ABCDWXYZ.) Learning cognitive function will help you test accurately in other systems. MBTI is somewhat controversial because the people who invented it based it on Jungian theory, but didn't have degrees themselves. So, if you only know you tested as WXYZ in MBTI, it won't help you when society moves away from MBTI for a different testing system.

You also have to be really honest with yourself and not choose what you wish you were, or what you try to be. What is your default? (Random comparison of two types of people: Do you squeeze toothpaste from the bottom, or from the middle? If you squeeze it from the middle, maybe you try to roll the tube up later to make it look like you squeeze from the bottom, but you still squeeze from the middle.)
Try to learn the cognitive functions thoroughly. A lot of people don't realize that Fe is not only emotion focused on others, but also the desire to "go along with" society and not make waves, or that Ni and Ne dictate how we collect data and arrive at decisions and ideas.

INFPs can seem more loving and caring than INFJs, because INFP's first function is Fi, while INFJ's first function is Ni. This means that what INFPs do best is feeling, and what INFJs do best is "Intuition" (abstract thought.) INFPs care about other people and understand people based on their own experiences, and they're really, really good at giving others support, and being giving and thoughtful in general. INFJs may know how others feel due to Fe, but have trouble expressing it, or fail to act on it because of different factors.

INFJ and INFP don't share any functions, even if our functions manifest in similar types of personalities. We get along well, but we are very different.
INTJ and INFJ share two functions: Ni/Se. Personally, I find it much easier for INTJs and INFJs to get mixed up because our similarities are fluid, even if our differences are obvious.

Great post.

MBTI is based on cognitive functions, and the individual's relative preferences for using them.

Cognitive functions can be (and often are) drivers of behavior, but specific behaviors do not necessarily signal a certain cognitive origin.

This seems to be the hardest thing for people to understand about MBTI, and is likely the root of its harshest criticisms ("it's not scientifically provable!" "it's self-reporting and therefore invalid!" "it's no different than a horoscope!"). Well, yeah. Cognition isn't measurable, so of course it isn't scientifically provable (yet). That doesn't mean that the theory itself has no merit.
 
Last edited:
@Asa, great post indeed, thank you.

MBTI is somewhat controversial because the people who invented it based it on Jungian theory, but didn't have degrees themselves.

Seemingly unrelated but it isn't -
- among other things they talk about position power vs knowledge power (those who know better are better drivers than those who just happen to be in an established position - this is the secret behind Intel's success.) Though with apologies for not being able to find the segment where they talk about this so you might have to search the vid.

What interests me about the MBTI is that it seems to have been derived from astrology (which Jung was known to engage in when working with clients in his psychotherapy practice) - and that discipline does state our core personality is established at birth and then only "progresses" into variations throughout life but never changes at the fundamental level. This is despite what our parents or anyone else around us do as they actually have much less of an influence than they like to think they do.
 
Well as to the 70/30 thing, the dichotomies tests are tapping into something closer to the Five Factor Model of personality, which acknowledges a continuous spread on all personality. So being in between/balanced/some percent of either is normal there.
I'd separate this from talk of functions, which I view as better seen in the realm of philosophical psychology than empirical psychology, in that the dichotomies seem to have been chosen more out of ultimately conceptual motivations than just finding patterns, however prosaic they may be.

Jung also thought of cognitive functions in terms of degree. For instance he suggested the contrast between a Cuvier and Nietzsche is more pronounced than the contrast between Kant and Darwin in terms of Te vs Ti.

This has always been born out in my experience, too -- while you might have an overall best-fit type, I think some people are more X-ish where X is whatever function you
 
one of the biggest things about being an INFj is INFJ is at his heart is a constant contradiction. If you live in a state of contradiction that you are most likely and INFJ.

Than there is the idea of being ALONE while being totally surrounded.

of course there is being never understood. And DONT listen to those NT rationals. . . they will claim to high heaven to understand you, and they get it half ass right, since they usually too emotionally incompetent to understand an INFJ. But they make great friends in 3 hour increments!! lol
 
Back
Top