Personality Types and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

As you know, I am studying to be a Christian Counselor. So, naturally I love psychology and understanding people. I love observing people and coming up with my own perceptions and theories about them. Not judging mind you, just wondering. (Oddly, enough I'm often right, but that will be explained later. Lol.) The other night I happened to take a Personality test and after viewing the results, being completely and utterly shocked at how accurate they were, and doing some research I decided to write an article about The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and my Personality Type "The Protector". So here goes, enjoy!

"The Protector" is one of the sixteen Personality Types assessed by The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Before we get into my Personality Type let's go through a little bit of the background. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was created by Catherine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs-Myers. (See, women are smarter!) The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, abbreviated MBTI, is a psychological assessment designed to help in identifying the psychological differences among individual people. The creation of this assessment is based on the "typological theories" of Carl Jung, a psychiatrist and the founder of analytical psychology.

In his book, "Psychological Types", Jung classified people into what he called four "functions of consciousness"; Sensation and Intuition (Perception) and Thinking and Feeling (Judging). Two attitude types, Introversion and Extraversion, were later added to these functions. He then combined these functions to form eight psychological types, or personalities: Extraverted Sensation, Introverted Sensation, Extraverted Intuition, Introverted Intuition, Extraverted Thinking, Introverted Thinking, Extraverted Feeling, and Introverted Feeling.

Although Jung only constructed eight psychological types, Myers-Briggs expanded these functions to include Perception and Judging as separate functions, creating sixteen types. Each of these types is based on four preferences that every individual possesses:

Where do we prefer to receive our energy? Either internally creating an introverted personality or
externally creating an extraverted personality.
How do we prefer to take in outside information? With our fives senses or with our intuition?
How do we prefer to make our decisions? With our thoughts or with our feelings?
How do we prefer to live our daily lives? By Judging or Perceiving? (A lot of info, I know. I'll do my best to explain it as best as I can) The theory for this is that for every one of these four areas every individual has a natural preference that falls into one category or the other. Please, keep in mind that these "types" do not attempt to completely define someone because face it, no one can truly define us but God. Instead these Personality Types simply try to indicate how we are likely, not will, react in certain situations and in what environments we are probably most comfortable. These personality types attempt to help us identify our natural strengths and weaknesses.

These sixteen types are most commonly referred to by an abbreviation of their four type preferences such as Personality Type ENTJ for Extraversion, iNtuition, Thinking, and Judging or Personality Type INTP for Introversion, iNtuition, Thinking, and Perceiving. Each type has a corresponding description and name, for example my Personality Type INFJ (Introverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Judging) called "The Protector" is described as someone with Introverted Intuition and Extraverted Feeling. INFJ's are kind yet complex, and very intuitive individuals. They love order, in fact they practically thrive on it. (Yep. I love to sit and organize things for no reason, just because I find it ridiculously fun. I really do.) INFJ's have extraordinary insight into both people and situations because they function within themselves on an intuitive level. Because of this they possess a very rich and vivid inner world. Life is full of so many different possibilities for them. Their high level of intuition also gives them the ability to sense the emotions and intentions of an individual often even before the person themselves is aware of them. They tend to just "know" things without knowing why and with no prior knowledge. This intuition also causes the INFJ to often experience what they call "feelings" and because of this some INFJ's are even known to report psychic experiences. The funny this is that most INFJ's don't even understand their intuition at a high enough level to actually explain it. (I can't even begin to explain how true that is.) The high intuition of the INFJ gives them good communication skills, especially written.

Because of the Introverted part of their nature INFJ's tend to be very secretive and complex individuals. They reveal only what they want when they want, and this behavior causes them to sometimes be very difficult to get to know and understand. (This is absolutely so true. I honestly know in my spirit that no one can or ever will truly understand me. There's just something to complicated and complex within me to explain. It's more than being anointed or called. So much more. Not even I can or ever will be able to completely understand me. There is only one person who can understand me slightly better than most and that's my mom, and not even she would claim to completely understand me.) This also makes it very hard for them to establish relationships with new people. They are more comfortable either alone or in one-on-one situations rather than in groups.(Again, guilty.) Furthermore, because of their complicated nature they are able to understand complex problems and individuals.

INFJ's are very dear to those that are closest to them because of their natural capacity for genuine kindness. This kind nature causes them to avoid confrontations at all costs because of their concern for the feeling's of others. Due to the fact that they can often perceive others' emotion they can be easily hurt, although because of their introverted nature they may not verbalize this. Because they can't tolerate conflict very well, when a confrontational situation does arise it can cause the otherwise peaceful INFJ to become quite distraught and furiously angry. (Yes, my friends. I have a temper.) Furthermore, because they are naturally secretive individuals, INFJ's often contain their conflict within themselves and when the stress levels rise too high this can create health problems. (I am anemic and often lack energy as a result. There is a continual internal battle waging within me and on days that it's really bad I tend to be easily exhausted and sleep for hours. For some reason I personally believe that when that battle finally ends the anemia will disappear. Obviously, there is no proof for that, but I don't need it, because I know it's true).

Because of their intuition INFJ's occupy an outer world that is filled with hidden meanings, contributing to their rich inner world. They put tremendous stock into their own instincts and intuitions, in fact they trust them above everything else. Because INFJ's are often right and they tend to know it, they can be very stubborn and they may even have a tendency to completely ignore the thoughts and opinions of other people. (Yep, guilty again. Once I observe and assess, pretty much my mind is made up. Someone says something different, and I pretty much stop listening. What can I say? I'm not perfect. Lol) INFJ's often face a conflict between their inner and outer worlds. This conflict is created because of their tendency to completely trust their own instincts and others' tendency to not trust them. When others don't trust the intuition of an INFJ, this may be a reason why they are so secretive. Why open up and reveal yourself if others aren't going to trust that what you have to say is true? (Sometimes I get so upset when I'm trying to tell someone something and they don't believe me. I just want to scream "Shut up and listen! I'm trying to help you!" Alas, contributing to my temper. No wonder I need Jesus. Lol.) Their orderly and meticulous nature is often overridden by this conflict which usually manifests itself in a continuously messy desk or room. (So, guilty it's unbelievable. Just ask my roommate. She lived with me for two years at ORU. She still loves me though. Lol.) Because INFJ's are natural perfectionists they are in a constant state of inner turmoil. They are constantly doubting that they are living at their fullest potential and this mindset makes life in general very difficult for an INFJ because they rarely ever experience moments of true peace. Continual growth is something they strive for.

Because of their strong values and unwillingness to compromise, INFJ's have a strong need to live their life in agreement with their beliefs. This need causes them to have high expectations not only for themselves but for their family as well.

Overall the INFJ possesses gifts no other type has, making them the rarest of all types, only occupying 1% of the population. Because they are content to do jobs that require solitude and complete concentration, possible occupations for an INFJ include the following: religious work, teacher, medical doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist, counselor, musician, and photographer.

Now, with all this information you may ask, "Yeah, but how accurate is the MBTI?" That's a good question. I myself didn't really think much of it when I took the test, because come on how many tests are there? Like a bazillion, right? After taking the test, I thought "Okay, that's a pretty accurate description of me." Now fueled with fascination and curiosity I decided to do some research on my alleged personality type. One thing grabbed my attention. One thing made me believe it's accuracy 100%. And that's the name of my Personality Type, "The Protector". Why? You ask. Because of my actual name, Alexis. The name Alexis is of Greek origin and it just so happens to mean "The Protector". Actually it literally means "The Protector of Mankind"or "The Defender, The Helper". I found this out when I was in sixth grade, so when I saw the name of my Personality Type I knew it's accuracy. I have always believed that a persons' name had great prophetic influence on a persons' true nature (which is why I plan to be very picky when choosing my children's names), but now I know it's true. I mean what are the odds that the name my parents just happened to pick out for me is in total agreement with the personality God gave me? Coincidence? I think not.

I hope this article was as informative as I wanted it to be and more importantly I hope I articulated it well enough. Even though this is meant to be an informative article I intentionally wanted it to be as personal as possible. I like the idea of keeping the audience drawn in and entertained by adding side notes and thoughts. I hope I succeeded. (Besides, it took me like forever and a day to put this together. I re-wrote it and re-wrote it like four times, honestly. So please be kind. Lol)

If you are interested in taking the test and finding out your Personality Type click this link:

Take The Personality Type Test!

After taking the test I suggest visiting Personalitypage.com. This site has an in depth description of all sixteen Personality Types. Keep in mind that just because my results happen to have been accurate for me, that doesn't mean it will be the same for you. If you don't agree with your results I suggest reading through the personality descriptions on this site and deciding for yourself which Type fits you. (mind you, each description is about a page long) I also suggest researching the meaning of your name and seeing just how close your name fits your true nature. I beg you, to insure closest accuracy, please be honest with yourself. Take a good look within yourself while taking the test, really think about each question (there are only four anyway) Clicking on choices that you wish were true about yourself will not help you and will only give you false results.

INFJ." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. 4 Jul 2008, 14:58 UTC. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 18 Jul 2008 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=INFJ&oldid=223540735>.