Your exposure to mbti

10 years ago when I first took the test at a community college I got ENFP (I was very hyperactive at the time.) Although I liked people and social events at the time, I found out that they did not like me. Eventually a couple of disorders made me stop doing anything social, and now I'm practically anti-social, and actually, I could live without any social interaction except for that of my husband.

Also, I somehow but don't know how switched over from P to J. I think it was because I used to be always late to appointments, but then I realized that it was because my mother was the one driving me and that she was always the last person out of the house. If I were to be able to drive myself, I'd always be early. :/
 
I only know one other person in real life (QP doesn't count because I met him here) who knew about MBTI before I brought it up with them. He's an ENFP, and a true one in every sense of the word.

My Dad got into it because he had to for his job, and he's an ISTJ. We made my mom take it, and she is a mix between an ENFP and an ESFP.
 
A good friend of mine typed her characters in the stories she wrote.
that would be 4 years ago?
 
I wish I had rl exposure to MBTI so I could criticize it. :D

So far, my only exposure was online.
 
I believe I first came across it through a facebook application a couple of year ago, and then a better facebook application shortly after that.

About a year after that I was up late reading up on the various types on those applications when I was supposed to be reading a section of the textbook for General Psychology. We had a pop quiz on that material the next morning, which worried me at first because I had not read it yet. I was then pleasantly surprised to find that the passages we were supposed to read were on personality types. I got a 100 on the quiz as I had been studying all the right material, just from the wrong source.


I looked over it a bit more later that semester, and them happened to mention MBTI types in one of my early emails after getting back in contact with the INFJ girl who was my unrequited first love and now one of my best friends. Although I could see she had taken the test through one of those applications already she responded that she did not know what I was talking about but thought it sounded interesting, so I researched it some more to prepare for our next phone conversation. I just kept going from there.
 
In senior year of HS, two of my best friends were INTJs, and as they do, they got hold of the idea of MBTI, and really went into it. Because they introduced me, I took the test, and hearing them always talk about INTJf, I decided to find my own forum, and found this place. Then, in talking here and reading the topics I learned a great deal on the topic. Also, personality theories ave come up a few times in psych class, and next semester i should be taking a full formal course in personality theories.
 
I discovered MBTI when I was around 14 or 15 years old. From a very early age I was subjected to pretty much every kind of apptitude test you could possibly think of; I was a bit of a problem child. Because of that, I always found a strong interest in psych tests of any kind. I came across MBTI at some point and found it to be pretty cool. When I was in 10th grade when I really began to study it I tested as INFP at first. However it was not until I got into 11th grade that I tested as INFJ and realised "oh wow this fits a lot better then INFP". For some reason I saw the complete passive nature of P as an "ideal" I wanted to have in myself, so I actually was not being truthful with my responses (I was still coming out of some tough stuff I was going through as I was "coming of age" in effect).

I actually remember searching for INFJ forums when I was 16/17 or so in highschool, and again several times in my freshmen year of college. Never found anything though, as no such forum existed yet. I also didn't feel like I knew enough about other types so I refused to join any other MBTI forum (I'd feel inadequet). Ironically, I actually searched for and INFJ forum a month or so before they were actually created (april 08, and the INFJf were created may 08). Obviously, nothing came up at that time as there was nothing there. That summer was rough on me so I just sort of forgot about it. It wasn't until sophmore year of college that I randomly found an interest in MBTI again (it was always off and on with me since I discovered it). Decided once again on a whim to see if a forum existed, it did, and without any thought at all, I quickly joined up, and have been here ever since.
 
Most of the people here at the college have a very base knowledge of MBTI as it's a required part of a required class for all degree seeking students, but very few of us hold on to or look deeper into MBTI after the class in fact most people tend to forget anything thing they learned.
 
About 3 years or so ago I was on one of those "Helping you get a job" style courses, and one of the things we did there was the MBTI test (I tested INFP). I'd never heard of it before and I didn't think all that much about it at first, but a couple of months later I was rooting through some paperwork and found the test results. Looking over them again I realised they were pretty accurate, so I decided to do some digging and I haven't stopped since. :lol:

EDIT: Come to think of it, the only time I've heard about it since (outside of MBTI forums obviously) was a radio programme that aired on the BBC a few months back.
 
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The guys I worked with (mostly from America but some from Europe) were not really familiar with it. One guy was, the others were not.

Many US kids take the test in high school, but ignore it. I know I did.
 
I know a lot of employers are having job candidates take the test.
That scares me. There are so many stereotypes already among people who are interested in the theory and I really do not like the idea of someone even partially basing their hiring on the test.
I honestly do not think that you can get a good impression of who I am and what I'm capable of (and you too!) by reading the mbti description.
 
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bananaphone said:
I know a lot of employers are having job candidates take the test.
That scares me. There are so many stereotypes already among people who are interested in the theory and I really do not like the idea of someone even partially basing their hiring on the test.
I honestly do not think that you can get a good impression of who I am and what I'm capable of (and you too!) by reading the mbti description.
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Well I don't think they are doing it at fast food joints and the like. It makes sense to me that employers would want to investigate candidates prior making a considerable financial investment in an employee. At a certain employment level you should expect a considerable amount of hoop jumping before you get hired on board. This is especially true in a rougher economic environment where it is a buyer's market vs a seller's market.
 
I knew of Jung and the cognitive functions in the late 70s when I was 9-10 years of age as a result of exploring the books in my parents' library. That said, I didn't learn of MBTI proper until Please Understand Me was first published in the 80s (1984?).


cheers,
Ian
 
I stumbled on MBTI last year when searching for a personality test. I took it along with a few friends.

I tested as INFJ initially, hence why I originally joined these forums.

On Facebook's test I got ISTJ initially. I was answering according to what I was modeling myself as.
 
Sonyab said:
Well I don't think they are doing it at fast food joints and the like. It makes sense to me that employers would want to investigate candidates prior making a considerable financial investment in an employee. At a certain employment level you should expect a considerable amount of hoop jumping before you get hired on board. This is especially true in a rougher economic environment where it is a buyer's market vs a seller's market.
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They are doing it for retail jobs. For cashier jobs. Regardless of whichever job.. I still don't think it's fair or reliable. The only way to come close to accurately judging someone's character is face to face.. I expect to jump through hoops. This is not hoop jumping.
It's going to prove ineffective. It's just laziness on the employers part. It's bad business culture. And what is the accuracy of those tests anyway? How many people do you see on this forum alone questioning their type over and over again?
 
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I came across the test online, forgot about it, then came across it again on Facebook. A bunch of my friends took it, too, so it was fun to see who I tend to hang out with (or else didn't.)
 
bananaphone said:
They are doing it for retail jobs. For cashier jobs. Regardless of whichever job.. I still don't think it's fair or reliable. The only way to come close to accurately judging someone's character is face to face.. I expect to jump through hoops. This is not hoop jumping.
It's going to prove ineffective. It's just laziness on the employers part. It's bad business culture. And what is the accuracy of those tests anyway? How many people do you see on this forum alone questioning their type over and over again?
Click to expand...

I agree with you bananaphone. I don't think it's a good idea to use typecasting (heh) for job hiring. To me, that smacks of an employer's laziness. If you want to know if they're qualified for a job or what their personality might be on a job, ask complicated questions that include cognitive problems (problems that won't get you in trouble with the government). Like one of the lifeboat games. Or creative games that force you to work in a group to accomplish a goal. Something that allows you to see more of the person in action, and how they really are. I'd make it diverse, though, so it would include all types, not just one extroverted type.
 
Well, interestingly enough, my mom brought home a huge book about personality types when I was about 12 or 13, so 5 or 6 years ago. I found it interesting, but at the time, it seemed like something that just wasn't made for me. I understood it well enough, I just didn't really connect with it well. I'm almost 100% certain it was MBTI, though.

Throughout highschool, I became very fascinated with personality tests, but wanted to find ones that were more in-depth. Basically, my Google searches brought me to PersonalDNA, which I absolutely loved. Soon after I found HumanMetrics, and through those sites I got a pretty basic understanding of personality.

Early on year, I got wrapped up in a family conflict that was quite complicated. Everyone was totally misunderstanding everyone else, and not taking into account the differences in personality that were causing the problems. When looking through my church's library, I came across a book entitled "Why Can't I Be Me" which talks about how people can be misunderstood and wounded by others who don't accept their personality differences. It walked me through the basics of MBTI, and I was amazed at the accuracy of the INFJ profile.

I wanted to make sure other people saw their INFJ type similarly to myself, so I looked on YouTube and found some great videos, some of which were of people here, and decided to find this 'INFJ forum.' So, I joined. Then I got into all the in-depth stuff.

Since then, I've kind of been telling people about MBTI here and there, since I find most people don't know much about it. Actually, I find that the people that do know it don't like it, since they don't understand it in detail and think it's much more superficial than it actually is.
 
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