Just a Stranger in a Strange: Land Part 3 – Personalities, Please Understand Me!

Before you go any further please take both of these tests.  The first one is a little longer.   The second one is only 4 questions.  See if they agree as to your type.

Don’t think too hard about each question, go with the first answer that comes up for you. 

1-Jung Typology Test™  This free test is based on Carl Jung’s and Isabel Briggs Myers’ typological approach to personality :

http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes1.htm

2-This is a simpler 4-question test:

http://www.personalitydesk.com/story/personality-type-tool

I really like the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, based on the Meyers Briggs’.  However, it is longer and hard to get online for free.  You can find it in Keirsey’s book “Please Understand Me II.”   If you have his book you can take the test as listed in the book.  But be careful in scoring.  The method of scoring is not intuitive and it is very easy to make a mistake! 

Reading Keirsey’s book was a revelation to me.  It finally allowed me to understand why I felt like a stranger in a strange land.  I am an INTP:  Introverted (I) , Intuitive Thinker (NT), and a Perceiver (P). 

Intuitive Thinkers (NT) and Intuitive Feelers (NF) are only about 15% of the population.   Intuitives (N) get their information from inside themselves.  They have an incredibly strong inner compass.  They know when they are right.  It doesn’t matter what anyone else says.  Laws only are to be followed as far as they agree with their inner compass. 

Artisans (SP) and Guardians (SJ) get their information from outside themselves.  They are Sensing (S) individuals, and are the other 85%, about equally distributed in the population.  The Artisans get their information from living life fully in the world.  Guardians get their information from the all-important rules of the world. 

Artisans have a practical and fun loving approach to life.  They are the hedonists and artists.  They are the Sensory Perceptives (SP).   They want first-hand experiences.  They are in the moment, and are usually the most comfortable in their bodies. 

Guardians are Sensory Judging (SJ).  They are the rule followers and the rule makers.  They are interested in morality, hard work, and saving for the future.  Above all they feel responsible. 

Intuitive Feelers (NF) are the Idealists.  They want most of all harmony with everyone around them.   They search for the meaning of existence.  They strive for ultimate authenticity.   They are sensitive to everyone’s emotions.  They often know what you are feeling, sometimes before you do. 

Intuitive Thinkers (NT) are the Rationals.  For well-being they need to be seen as ingenious, autonomous, and resolute.  They love to learn things, but not with the joy of the Artisan.  They particularly rebel against the rules of the Guardians.   They aspire to be the Wizard. 

Within each of these 4 general types, are 4 subtypes.  This site nicely outlines the 16 personality types, click on each one for more info:

http://www.personalitydesk.com/personality-types

Carl Jung noted that these personality types were not something set in stone.  They were tendencies.  His idea was that you would investigate what are your basic personality tendencies, and then go on to better understand oneself.  With this information one can undertake experience and learning that might better balance the parts of yourself that are somewhat weaker, or less developed.    

The value of Keirsey’s book is many-fold.  It examines each type from several view-points, such as what is most of value to that type, and what is each type’s sense of time.  Fun parts include examples of famous individuals with each type. 

When you get an understanding of your own type and read about other types, you can see how easy it is to misjudge another’s motivations.  They are just not thinking and feeling in the same manner as you think and feel.  

Additional value rests in his information on how these various personality types interact with one another.  For example I am an INTP, and my wife is an ENFJ.  Luckily we have taken time to become more balanced. 

As an introvert, I can be interactive at parties, but I sometimes need to spend time with one or at most a few individuals.  Sometimes I leave for a break alone, often taking a brief walk outside, and I am tired at the end of any party.  Parties enliven my extroverted wife.  But she also knows how to be alone. 

For balance, I try to put myself in situations in order to develop my feeling emotional skills.   My wife spent time developing her cognitive rational skills.  We meet as mind-mates and soul-mates, communicating about the world of our interiors. 

There are a multitude of personality inventories.  I found the Meyers Briggs’ to be the most intuitive for me in seeing more clearly my own tendencies, strengths, and weaknesses, and those of the people in the world around me. 

Complementary to the Meyer’s Briggs’ is the Enneagram, we will take that up next.