MBTI Nature or Nuture?

[Quinlan]

Do you think we are born as our types or do we become our types due to positive and negative interactions with our environment as we grow up?

Is type an inherent preference (like being left or right handed) or is it fluidic and ever-changing?

If the preferences are inherent and not a concious choice, wouldn't it be wrong to force a type to use it's weakest functions regularly (like forcing a left handed child to write with their right hand)?

Can you change your type, intentionally or unintentionally?

 

[Shaz]

I'd say nature.

There could be a part of nurture, maybe... I can only talk about my personal case and I don't think there's any nurture in it. Obviously my personality has been shaped by external factors also but as far as being an INFJ goes, I'm pretty sure it hasn't.

For example, I am what I am for a good part because of my autistic brother, who had a tremendous influence on my family's life when I was very young. I did a lot of digging into my early childhood emotions and memories a while ago (three months of psychoanalysis) and I realized the way I had perceived things at the time is probably due for a good part to me being an INFJ (I didn't know I was during the psychoanalysis, just that I was highly sensitive, but I knew myself pretty well already).

I've put the pieces together and I realize the way I experienced life as a 2 year old (or whatever) was already an INFJ way. Which wasn't so good for me :roll: .

 

[frozen_water]

I think nature too. I saw some home movies of me when I was about 2, or however old you are when you're just barely able to walk around, and I already wasn't in the least bit clingy to my parents like most kids are (walking around outside not paying attention to them). My brother, who's four years older, also kept trying to get me to look at stuff and play with him, and I just wasn't interested at all. I was just going off and examining things in the yard on my own, lol. My parents also told me I very rarely cried, even as a baby.
Both very INTP characteristics.

I know according to the MBTI theory, your type cannot change through life... but I have no idea why Myers or Briggs came to that conclusion, nor whether or not they were right.

 

[Inkling]

Jung believed your type should change and develop naturally throughout life. I know that my own type has "changed" (though i'm sure now that i was an INFP all along, and just thought i was INTP because of my circumstances) since I got into MBTI.

 

[Lurker]

I say nature although surroundings play a big part in development, it is not unusual for someone to take on another types characteristics in order to fit in with their environment.

 

[frozen_water]

Jung believed your type should change and develop naturally throughout life. I know that my own type has "changed" (though i'm sure now that i was an INFP all along, and just thought i was INTP because of my circumstances) since I got into MBTI.

from an faq site on mbti...

Can I change my type

The theory states that our type does not change over a lifetime. However we can develop the less preferred parts of our personality as life progresses.

http://www.adventureassoc.com/workshops ... -faqs.html