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I appear to be ESFJ, but there were MANY questions that I could’ve gone either way on. I took the Facebook test. hiJOlly
The official MBTI is $55 to take. The facebook version (I just took it) was definitely an abbreviated one. It’s hard to find a reliable abbreviated version. The Kiersey Sorters tend to be fairly good: http://www.keirsey.com/sorter/register.aspxhttp://www.keirsey.com/sorter/register.aspx” class=”bbcode_url”> http://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.htmlhttp://www.personalitypathways.com/type_inventory.html” class=”bbcode_url”> I came out ENTJ on the FB version. I usually come out either ENTJ or ENTP.
I have a question about my Myers-Briggs type for anyone who may have an answer. I was talking to my husband tonight about my church calling and about my position at work and noted that I seem to be a follower rather than a leader. With respect to church callings, I love teaching either Relief Society or Gospel Principles. I would absolutely hate serving in the presidency of any of the organizations — ward level would be bad enough; stake level would pretty much be unbearable. At work, I’m a computer systems designer and senior programmer. I make a good income and it’s a position of some responsibility. But the last thing in the world I would aspire to would be the Director of IT. I feel as if I am intelligent and competent and yet I simply do not have any leadership interests or potential (at least not that I’m aware of!). I’d say that this particular trait plays pretty predominantly in my overall personality. How does it tie into my Myers-Briggs type, which is ISFJ? Katzpur – ISFJs are also known as the shyest of the types, the most likely to want to not be the center of attention. My mother is an ISFJ as is my assistant at work. Although my mother has been auxilliary presidents (all 3) during her time in the church, she is always nervous addressing crowds, and doesn’t like to be the one out visiting. She’s not crazy about bearing her testimony in front of people because she doesn’t want to become a spectacle if she is crying. She prefers to be on her own turf, and she definitely likes to have everything “just so.” Once when they were visiting us, she refolded all my towels in the linen closet because she said they fit better. I don’t know how much of that resonates for you. ISFJs tend to gravitate toward jobs where they can follow rather than lead, where they can do “behind-the-scenes” work, especially administrative tasks that require organization and attention to detail. ISFJs are also typically the most loyal of the types. Well, it looks like from what I see among those participating in the group, the results can be summarized like this: Name / Main Score / SometimesHeber13 /
ENFJHawkgrrl /
ENTJ / ENTPTom Haws /
ENTPINFPHiJolly /
ESFJValoel /
INFJWhat? /
INFPadamf /
INFPINTPJMB275 /
INTJ / ENTJOrson /
INTJ / INTPquietblue /
INTJKatzpur /
ISFJThere are no reds. Does that mean we’re all boring?
Almost everyone here has the N letter and the J letter, with a few exceptions. The differences are the combinations of E/I’s and F/T’s.
Hawkgrrrl…what do you think this says about us?
Heber13 wrote:Well, it looks like from what I see among those participating in the group, the results can be summarized like this:
Name / Main Score / SometimesHeber13 /
ENFJHawkgrrl /
ENTJ / ENTPTom Haws /
ENTPINFPHiJolly /
ESFJValoel /
INFJWhat? /
INFPadamf /
INFPINTPJMB275 /
INTJ / ENTJOrson /
INTJ / INTPquietblue /
INTJKatzpur /
ISFJThere are no reds. Does that mean we’re all boring?
Almost everyone here has the N letter and the J letter, with a few exceptions. The differences are the combinations of E/I’s and F/T’s.
Hawkgrrrl…what do you think this says about us?
Yes, it means we’re very boring!!
jmb275 wrote:Yes, it means we’re very boring!! After all, we’re all here talking about life, while the SPs are out enjoying it!!
😆 😆 Well said, JMB275. Let’s discuss how we can find the meaning behind this statement.
hawkgrrrl wrote:Katzpur – ISFJs are also known as the shyest of the types, the most likely to want to not be the center of attention. My mother is an ISFJ as is my assistant at work. Although my mother has been auxilliary presidents (all 3) during her time in the church, she is always nervous addressing crowds, and doesn’t like to be the one out visiting. She’s not crazy about bearing her testimony in front of people because she doesn’t want to become a spectacle if she is crying. She prefers to be on her own turf, and she definitely likes to have everything “just so.” Once when they were visiting us, she refolded all my towels in the linen closet because she said they fit better. I don’t know how much of that resonates for you. ISFJs tend to gravitate toward jobs where they can follow rather than lead, where they can do “behind-the-scenes” work, especially administrative tasks that require organization and attention to detail. ISFJs are also typically the most loyal of the types.
That’s extremely interesting. This whole subject fascinates me, even though I really don’t have a whole lot of knowledge about the individual types, including my own.
I don’t consider myself shy, actually, but your statement about us being the shyest of all the types leads me to ask you another question. (I hope you don’t mind; I have a lot of them!) I find that I can strike up a conversation with a total stranger quite easily. If I’m standing in line next to someone I’ve never met, for instance, I can get a good conversation going with very little effort. On the other hand, I actually find it more difficult to start a conversation with someone I feel I should know but don’t — like a relatively new ward member or a fellow employee I don’t often have occasion to interact with.
Like I said, I actually love to teach adults. I’m not nervous in front of a group, but I absolutely have to be well-prepared. I don’t do well leading a discussion that may or may not go the direction I want it to. Consequently, I do much better at giving a talk where I can know in advance exactly what I’m going to say than I do teaching a lesson where the class members don’t end up saying what I want them to say! I’m generally very focused on what I want my class to get out of my lessons, and the comments have to go where I want them to go or I get flustered. Obviously, when you open up a topic for discussion, you lose some control and that’s really hard for me. This might be one reason why I really don’t like teaching children. Let’s say I’m teaching a Primary class. I say, “Heavenly Father has given us our parents and our grandparents. Do you like to go visit your grandparents?” One of the kids responds by saying,”I went to my grandma’s house and I saw a big bug. My brother stepped on it and smashed it and got its guts all over my grandma’s carpet!” Before I can think of how to respond, another one says something equally unrelated and my whole train of thought starts to unravel. Typically, I’m terrible with children.
It’s interesting that ISFJ’s typically like to follow rather than lead. That’s where I’m comfortable. My job requires an immense amount of attention to detail, and that’s one of the things I like most about it. I am most happy being left alone to do my job PERFECTLY. I am comfortable being part of a committee, but I would rather die than chair a committee. And the idea of being “the boss” just doesn’t appeal to me at all. I just have no desire to boss anyone else around. Maybe I just don’t want to have to be the responsible party. Maybe I’m just insecure.
And yes, I am loyal. I am so loyal it isn’t even funny. I guess that’s one of my best qualities. You’re lucky to have an ISFJ mother. We ISFJ’s are neat people!!!!
INFP here… Only 4.4% of the population….no wonder I feel strange….
Bruce in Montana wrote:INFP here…
Only 4.4% of the population….no wonder I feel strange….
Well, given the fact that there are 16 possible types, none of them constitute a huge percentage of the population. Perhaps hawkgrrrl can give us a breakdown by type. That would be interesting.
I finally took a couple of these things. I’m
ENFJ. Fascinating topic. I am NOM and am an ENFP. Hubby is still active LDS and is INTJ. FWIW, I am also a type 2 on the eneogram. My general observation would be that NOM types tend to be overwhelmingly NTs and NFs, which is very different from the majority of the population. Here’s a breakdown by Kiersey Temperament (4 groups rather than 16 types): SJ – 50-55% of population
SP – 35 – 40% of population
NF – 8-10% of population
NT – 3-5% of population
Given that breakout, it is telling that so many NTs and NFs (the least common temperaments) seem to congregate on these online forums. Is that because they feel a bit disenfranchised at church?
All organizations tend to be run by SJ types (because of their natural administrative abilities; also SJs are the preservers of tradition, creators and enforcers of rules and norms, and the ones who tend to be loyal the organization over time). Churches are no different, and our church in particular has many SJ types in leadership roles. SJs also value authority (follow the prophet), even their own authority. They tend to be hierarchical.
SPs are kind of flaky and don’t like to stick around in organizations. They prefer their own pursuits. SJs tend to be critical of SPs (this argument in the church might sound like: they left the church to go sin, or they just couldn’t follow through on their beliefs). When that argument applies to SPs, it’s truest. SPs might leave to go have fun. It is not typically the correct assessment for an NF or NT.
An NF might be disenfranchised if they feel the church doesn’t align well with their causes or values, or if they feel the church is cold toward people or too corporate. They might try to find a place with values or causes they feel more closely align with their own. I would think they’d be most likely to defect to another church if they can’t resolve their feelings.
An NT might be disenfranchised if they are viewed as too intellectual (and frankly they may tend to be more intellectual which can erode belief in what is essentially unprovable). Also NTs have no use for authority without competence, so if the organization (or enough members) are lovers of hierarchy and respecters of hierarchy, protecting the incompetent, NTs might get turned off. NTs are probably most likely to defect to atheism or agnosticism rather than another religion. But there are also actually quite a few NTs in the Q12 (again, I’m sort of guessing). ENTJs tend to become high level execs and leaders.
@hawkgrrrl I hope by now you just have this written somewhere and can just copy and paste it in each time it gets brought up. I think I’ve seen this from you in one form or another about 5 times
Given that breakout, it is telling that so many NTs and NFs (the least common temperaments) seem to congregate on these online forums. Is that because they feel a bit disenfranchised at church?
I think this is interesting, because I searched for this outlet to help me during times I was deeply thinking of things, and couldn’t find a place at church for this need I felt I had. Certainly the internet forums provide a place for someone like me wanting to ask questions, and feeling frustrated at church when they aren’t addressed. Many are told at church to “just follow the leadership” or “just follow the rules” when I wonder why the rules are there in the first place, then I’ll follow them if they are of meaning to me.
Certainly God knows these different personality traits all need to be allowed to be nurtured in the gospel. But if the church leadership is of certain types, or the majority of followers are of certain type, it begins to create a culture of what the “norm” really is. I when I’m a part of the minority, the answer isn’t to tell me just to conform or change. This is who I am, and should be allowed to be this way in the church, and in fact, should help provide my strengths to the group…not be told to change.
Interestingly, I can think there might be some comparison to my feelings of personality (I’m born this way) vs someone else telling me to change (personality is a choice) and how that compares to the argument about SSA (born vs choice).
Can’t the organization accommodate all? Hawkgrrrl, do you use this in your profession on how organizations need to capitalize on strengths of each group to succeed? Can the church learn from that?
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