Myer-Briggs...
So, I got into a discussion with a friend recently about personality tests, and I immediately remembered how back in the glory days of livejournal, everyone was taking the Myer-Briggs-Jung personality sorter. I seem to recall a time when everyone was identifying themselves based upon this test.
It was all honestly so long ago (back when I was a philosophy academic), that I began to wonder whether I would still score the same way as I used to. So, I decided to take it again, just for kicks.
Low and behold, I've changed. Only slightly, but after comparing my old personality type (INTP) with my new one (INFP), it became clear to me that the INFP was probably who I actually was all along. Obviously the difference between the two types lies only in the T/F axis (I am still a very strong I, N and P). I think the reason that I always scored in the 'T' axis when I was younger was that I was projecting myself through the lens of the ideal academic/philosopher type, which was my career at the time. I viewed that disposition as more of an ideal, and so answered the questions based upon how I would have liked to view myself-- not how I actually was.
But reading over the profiles of the two types, it's extremely apparent to me that I am not only an INFP today, but I was totally one back then too. In hindsight, I was basically in self-denial.
It's interesting that as we mature, we also become more honest about who we are. I guess if there's one thing that's good about this whole 'getting older' thing, it's clearer self-enlightenment.
Anyhow, I felt it was necessary to announce this here on my livejournal because I feel that I may have misled many of you in the past-- back when this ridiculous personality test seemed to matter. Though, perhaps, given that many of my arguments on here were so obviously more emotive than they were logical, perhaps I didn't fool many of you anyways.
I'd be curious to find out, however: Have any of the rest of you changed over time too? And if so, do you think that you really changed, or do you think you were just being dishonest with yourself when you originally took the test?
It was all honestly so long ago (back when I was a philosophy academic), that I began to wonder whether I would still score the same way as I used to. So, I decided to take it again, just for kicks.
Low and behold, I've changed. Only slightly, but after comparing my old personality type (INTP) with my new one (INFP), it became clear to me that the INFP was probably who I actually was all along. Obviously the difference between the two types lies only in the T/F axis (I am still a very strong I, N and P). I think the reason that I always scored in the 'T' axis when I was younger was that I was projecting myself through the lens of the ideal academic/philosopher type, which was my career at the time. I viewed that disposition as more of an ideal, and so answered the questions based upon how I would have liked to view myself-- not how I actually was.
But reading over the profiles of the two types, it's extremely apparent to me that I am not only an INFP today, but I was totally one back then too. In hindsight, I was basically in self-denial.
It's interesting that as we mature, we also become more honest about who we are. I guess if there's one thing that's good about this whole 'getting older' thing, it's clearer self-enlightenment.
Anyhow, I felt it was necessary to announce this here on my livejournal because I feel that I may have misled many of you in the past-- back when this ridiculous personality test seemed to matter. Though, perhaps, given that many of my arguments on here were so obviously more emotive than they were logical, perhaps I didn't fool many of you anyways.
I'd be curious to find out, however: Have any of the rest of you changed over time too? And if so, do you think that you really changed, or do you think you were just being dishonest with yourself when you originally took the test?