Why is INFJ the rarest type?

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Hi,

I haven't read through this thread and so this may have been (and probably was) discussed.

OK, I know that both INFJ and ENFJ are rare and so what makes INFJ's so rare is less because of E/I which means it is the NFJ combination.

I think it makes sense that an N would more likely be coupled with T and P. Wouldn't abstract thinkers (us N folks) who are predisposed to thinking of stuff other than what they are perceiving with their five senses be more prone to being thinkers, what with all that abstract thought? And wouldn't N's be less prone to be real focused on closure (J) and rather have a P stream of consciousness?

I think this is so.

Which then leads me to wonder:
Why would an N gravitate toward F?

Why would an N gravitate toward P?

Unless in some cases, it is reversed.
Why would an FJ gravitate toward N instead of S?

And are these tendencies sometimes rooted in maladaption? (Like a traumatic response?)

Just wondering.
 
I think it has something to do with the Ni and the Fe being opposite. I have just started doing research on these things because my master's degree dissertation will be on the prevalence of Mood disorders and schizophrenia in people classified in the INFJ category. Challenging, as there is a lot of theories on the MBTI being the least accurate personality tests by some scholars. However, there's also plenty of evidence on the contrary from scholars.

No one said this would be easy for any of us! Personally, I find being an INFJ to be exhausting, and people that I know would probably agree.
 
I mis-wrote when I said why would an N gravitate toward P. I meant to say toward J, of course.

Sparkle, your post really resonates with me. I have a few disorders.

I got on this forum to understand things a bit better though at my age, 63, I am resigned to the reality that nothing meaningful will change primarily because I think inaccessible emotional trauma is by far the root issue and I can't seem to get any of it accessed and healed from.
 
To come back to this thread I have to say that part of it is from society in general where there is so much pressure to conform to something or worse becoming a clone of someone else and to perform in such society that there just isn't all that much room for types like this to develop. There are deeper layers to this as always but keeping it on the surface that the more one has to change in order to be functional much less fit in is likely a strong indicator of being one of the less common types much less there being any lasting issues vs the more common types that are close to or already the default for what passes for being normal.
 
Some of you guys make it sound a little bit like this:

One day when I was young, I was traumatized. The gifts given to me made it to where I could walk again, then live as normal of a life as I can."

Nothing that we have was not given to us.

In nature, the world around us most of us are drawn to, a creature may lose its sight. Maybe it could never see, though.
This creature has to protect itself, so it has a keen way of understanding things. Maybe it can smell for miles. Maybe it can see for miles. Maybe it can understand for miles. This compensation helps to balance that which was lost, or born without.
They are gifts, and we try to allow others to see. We try to allow others to see through our own visions of nature around us. We allow things to just happen, hoping we will see a better way of understanding. We are, then, the preachers of wisdom. We are the eagle in the sky when we observe it. We try not to make things TOO difficult for others, and hope one day someone will ask of us understanding. We stand up for the downtrodden. We protect our world.

Relating to the scoring on the tests, I feel one gifted and not knowing why has to be honest within their own minds to answer the questions honestly.

I Corinthians 1:27
But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

1:7
7 So that ye come behind in no gift;

17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.

18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
 
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I haven't read everything in this thread yet, and it may have already been brought up:

In this context, I would be interested to know how the statistical measurement comes about in the first place. Online tests are usually voluntary. But are these tests also used in the USA for recruitment tests, which are not directly voluntary?
Is there perhaps a difference in the result?

Because it could be that introverts would not particularly like to take these tests voluntarily. But they would be forced to do so in a recruitment test. This should cause a significant difference in the proportion of INFJs in the result.
 
Sorn said:
I haven't read everything in this thread yet, and it may have already been brought up:

In this context, I would be interested to know how the statistical measurement comes about in the first place. Online tests are usually voluntary. But are these tests also used in the USA for recruitment tests, which are not directly voluntary?
Is there perhaps a difference in the result?

Because it could be that introverts would not particularly like to take these tests voluntarily. But they would be forced to do so in a recruitment test. This should cause a significant difference in the proportion of INFJs in the result.
Click to expand...


MBTI has fallen out of fashion in favor of other tests, so the current most popular place the test is taken is online at the free testing sites. In the recent past, MBTI tests were given by employers to match employees with tasks and teams they would mesh with, in school, and by mental health professionals. So, in the recent past, these tests weren't necessarily sought out by the test taker. I do know of some companies and several psychologists who still use the MBTI test.


The free online tests and those who are attracted to taking them definitely skew the results. How people view themselves also skews the results.
 
Thank you for this information.
Do you think that somewhere you could find a comparison where you can see how the measurements relate to each other?

After all, it will also be the case that if you take a recruitment test, you are likely to fill it out in a more extroverted way. In companies, it's often about the ability to work in a team, and not about being able to do the same work alone.
 
larcipelago said:
Nothing paradox about them, they are just ...

(this is meant to be an unfinished sentences)


But she smiled? I dont understand
Click to expand...
Facial expressions show she actually dont mind, a smile still appears in her face, so she doesnt mean to say that, in fact, may be she likes it? Some potential conversation may be one man saying you have nice *censored*

Did I waste my time to try to understand that meme? Nevermind my useless thought, it just popped out of my mind.
 
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shaelyn said:
Ni doms are already a rarity. I think it’s more palatable when paired with Te (INTJ).

Ni/Ti doesn’t exactly lend itself to being understood.
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INTJs and INFJs have equal but different challenges. The latter are universal understanders, but have great difficulty bringing into the outer world what they understand. The former have a profound, instinctive sense of what is right but lack the means of expressing this effectively at a community level.
 
Ni in general is rare in itself as someone said above, it’s not likely to be focused on a world of ideals rather than the tangible. I wonder if it’s traumatic response as well, considering what is in the world is not only traumatic, but it would take out any possibility for genetics.
If we say it’s traumatic response, it can devalue the trauma that others experience, or even the experience of the person experiencing understanding in a way that others don’t understand, so I would conclude to traumatic experience though there are exceptions if it’s made a rule like anything else.
In general, seeing anything from an ideal rather than a tangible realistic experience isn’t what would be considered “ideal” and making a plan or decision when ideally nothing is in our control, let alone from a place of social experience due to our social survival understanding.
I still stick to the ideal that it isn’t about it being “rare” as we all have a place of being traumatized, feeling a need to withdraw and find decisive action, feel safe, and need to be created to begin with.
 
Yeah.

I tend to think the same. That some % of folks morph into introversion and intuition as maladaptive responses to trauma. I also tend to think an introvert /intuitive would generally be a thinker, but for the cases it is trauma-driven, intuition gets paired with F more so than T.

After all, trauma is a highly personal, human experience. It's not like being lost in the clouds over some physics problem.
 
Actually, come to think of it, after my trauma at 19 (the bio I wrote gets into that), my mind was like a laser with respect to INF. The J versus P part, I have no idea.

But, I was a walking, talking blast furnace with respect to a psyche being hyperactively INF.
 
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