I took yet another one of those Jungian personality type tests today.

[randomness]

(They always remind me of wolfkitn, actually, because she was the first to adminster one to me, at least in person.)

Anyway, I'm a ENFP. I'm not sure anyone who knows me reasonably well is at all surprised by this.

Comments

[eac.livejournal.com]

Ha. I'm an IXXJ. Which is to say that everything in the middle is so borderline that it's hard to be sure.

[dpolicar]

I would have pegged you as more of an IJ, personally, but I'm not sure I know you that well.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I would have pegged you as more of an IJ

Really?

Interesting to hear how others see me.

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Huh. I'm a strong ENF, and half P, half J. I don't think of me as being all that similar to you -- I think you're way more laid back and accomodating than I tend to be (although I strive to resemble you more in this department!).

But, um, neat! Except the part about Myers-Briggs being Jungian. I don't think of it as being Jungian at all. :P

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

I think you're way more laid back and accomodating than I tend to be

Maybe that's the "P"? I dunno.

I don't think of it as being Jungian at all.

I pulled the Jungian bit from the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENFP...but of course it's Wikipedia. :)

[dianec42.livejournal.com]

I've heard it referred to as Jungian from other sources as well. Which I now, oh so helpfully, cannot remember. (-:

I *totally* see you as an extrovert. This is probably because you're more extroverted than me, which admittedly is not difficult.

[cathyr19355.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought of where you'd come out on the Myers-Briggs scale before, but frankly I'm not surprised. I'm more of an INTJ myself.

[wolfkitn.livejournal.com]

*grin* cool, i remember that day! and i'm certainly not surprised. fwiw, i'm an ENFX-ish, which has changed a bit over the year(s) (and the E/I is variable a bit depending on situation).

i'm in ohio, and in the last couple of days i've gone on no fewer than 6 roller coasters, none of which were actually *in* ohio. maybe more in the next couple of days. want to have muchables sometime after i'm back in ma? it's been awhile.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

That would be great! Call or text me?

Where were the coasters? I'm sure E would love to know details.

[yaleartificer.livejournal.com]

There's a section in "The Big Test," by Nicholas Lehmann, about the history of the Myers-Briggs. Basically the guy who started ETS was so pumped about the success of the SAT that he wanted ETS to have a test for personality, too. So he fell in with this failed novelist woman that provided him with just such a test. Only problem? No basis in science whatsofreakingever. Over the years ETS kept assigning psychometricians to the test to work on it, only to have them throw up their hands in disgust at the thing.

One tipoff is that the test acts as if these personality traits are boolean with this huge cutoff in the middle, when they're probably somewhat normally distributed. This is why so many people end up with X's for personality traits ... and yet, all the writeups for the various personality combinations act as if this is a rare case instead of the norm.

Even the best personality tests tend to be iffy, though, because people act differently under different circumstances, and because there are mathematical results that suggest that the traits you choose to put in your personality test can be pretty arbitrary, and you'll still get about the same amount of clustering and repeatability.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Over the years ETS kept assigning psychometricians to the test to work on it, only to have them throw up their hands in disgust at the thing.

Cute! I do think they've become so much a part of pop culture that they're a phenomenon of their own.

Even the best personality tests tend to be iffy, though, because people act differently under different circumstances, and because there are mathematical results that suggest that the traits you choose to put in your personality test can be pretty arbitrary, and you'll still get about the same amount of clustering and repeatability.

I had suspected something like the latter--well, the former, also--and would definitely be interested in any links if you have them handy.

(It would be amusing to put together a test with arbitrary traits and then post it as a meme...)

[havenstone.livejournal.com]

We welcome you to the joyous, laid-back world of ENFPs.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I like it here, too. :)

[kmhoofnagle.livejournal.com]

Like Eva, I'm borderline, but XNXP. I bet you're off-the-charts E, aren't you?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Actually not as off the charts as you might think. I'm shy in groups of strangers. I think it's a combination of a) my being a short Asian guy in a culture which doesn't particularly value shortness or being my particular ethnic minority (versus being tall and white, for example), and b) left over stuff from childhood.

In any case, I'm a lot more extroverted with people I've already been introduced to than with new ones.

[kmhoofnagle.livejournal.com]

Ah.. actually that makes total sense. Most of us do better with vetted people. I guess the big difference is that some of your life choices (the serious travel bug in particular) throw you in the way of wide acquaintance. That looks to the uncritical eye like daunting gregariousness, when in fact it's just that each acquaintance would be breaking through the wash of solitude that travel creates. (Or at least that's how it would work for me.) People are greater gifts when you've shifted out of your context, I find.

Eh. I'm babbling.

[wolfkitn.livejournal.com]

a jumping off point for future discussions, of course, but: i look around in nearly *any* social circumstance except when i'm at MIT (and even then, sometimes), and i don't see a majority of tall, white people any more. things have changed in the last 10, even 3 or 5 years.

i'm sure they haven't changed (as?) much in the financial worlds. but there are changes everywhere else, and so the financial worlds will have to change as well. things changing for minorities in general will eventually affect your particular minority, too. there isn't a particularly substantiable argument to make about that, but i do believe that it's quite true.

as a gastronomical aside (much more important than all of the semiexistential stuff above!) are you still in CA or are you back in MA? i'm free and hungry, was thinking of dim sum or something like it and so naturally, i thought of you. :) email or call me (mobile only) if you're around?