Weird. I've always been an INTP or an ISTP, but I just took it today and came out as an INFP. Hey! Who said I had feelings? I don't have feelings. Stupid test.

Anyway, that makes me a healer. What are you? And what do you think of the Keirsey test?

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2000

Answers

I've taken the test more than once (or versions of it), with never any change in the results: ENFP, which comes out to Idealist: Champion.

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2000

i think that the theory is good, but the test is not very good for determining a person's type. the questions are phrased weirdly. i figured out my type by reading the descriptions of all the characteristics and finding the closest match. i'm an ISFP; the description is so similar to my personality, it's scary.

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2000

Depending on the day, I swing back and forth between INFP and INFJ -- Healer or Counselor.

I think that both are pretty good assesments of my character, especially since these two are closely related. I've never scored any differently on this test -- I'm always an INF -- always an idealist, it's the variance the uh -- varies! Heh.

At any rate, this sentence from the Counselor description, pretty much matches verbatim a description of me made by my elementary school teacher when I was 9 or 10:

"They have an unusually rich inner life, but they are reserved and tend not to share their reactions except with those they trust."

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2000

i waver between ISTJ-inspector and INTJ-mastermind, with the very rare INFJ-counselor thrown in when i'm feeling schmoopy. pretty accurate, in my opinion. but i hate being associated, however indirectly, with ayn rand. *shudder*

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2000

I usually test ISTJ, but this time I was INTJ. I do think that I am somewhere on that axis. It is VERY true that being around people drains my battery.

I have also have a soft spot in my heart for Ayn Rand, if she (and all her hero characters) was a chain smoker.

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2000

Well I took both tests just to make sure. The first test called me an INFJ, "Idealist Counsellor", and the second one a "Rational Mastermind". Do they seem contradictory to you too? Those results are completely different to the results I got any other time I've taken this test, though the INFJ assessment is the first time it's come close to actually describing me with some degree of accuracy.

As to what I think of the test well, I think it's basically a knock-off of C.G. Jung which hopes that you'll buy the "Please Understand Me" books. This latter part in particular is something we'd do well to remember when mulling over our results. But I'm just mystified at the list of famous people who accorded to these types. When did Aristotle, or Plato, or Buddha take this test? ? How did Jesus miss out on this survey? And I think Nietzsche would find his appearance on a list of famous Rationals as mystifying as I did.

Tonight We Sleep In Separate Ditcheswho are you calling rational?

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2000

Well, I took it again, and damnit... it told me I was an ISTP, the Crafter. Pish. I think its wonky.

I indentify most with INFJ still. Poo on that test

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2000

I usually test as an INTJ, which for most things is pretty accurate. Any test like this has limits, though. I worked at a place last year where they posted our results on our doors and any time I made a comment people dismissed it by saying "oh, you're just being a J". Drove me crazy. The letter that never quite feels right to me is the I, and in fact I'm usually right on the I/E border. My behavior is so situation dependent that it seems a little simplistic to think it can be completely described by a 4 letter code. What I do like is the concept that we all think differently and there's something to be gained by understanding how we think compared to those around us. Helps us learn to work together, I hope.

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2000

I'm an INFJ

and for the super curious, there's a whole 'burb of online journallers who took the keirsey test : http://nilknarf.net/keirsey/

.........

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2000

I'm an INFJ, and have tested that way since a career counselor administered the test to me in the early eighties. I do think the profile describes me pretty well, especially the part about how I'm like Gandhi! (but I don't think I have psychic powers.)

I was on the INFJ mailing list for a while, and the entry where I described the INFJ mailing list get-together gets some consistent traffic.

I do think the N (intuitive, imaginative) vs S (fact-based, down to earth) scale is pretty telling. In fact, you can see it in action when someone first hears about the Myers-Briggs stuff. N: ooh, cool. I wonder what type XXX is? how does this affect this that or the other? S: huh. what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? lot of useless, pie-in-the-sky frippery.

My sweetie is an INTP, and he says it does describe him pretty well, with his programmer's interest in building systems.

Anita of Anita's BOD and Anita's LOL

-- Anonymous, February 20, 2000

I took this test a few years ago when the URL [not sure whether it's the same one] was posted on the bb I was a member of. I was an ENTJ. A couple dozen of us made our results public and I remember noticing that my little code alone started with an E. Not too much of a surprise in an online community, perhaps.

I hope this question doesn't come across as rude, but here it is: what do you get out of this type of personality test? It seems as if you know what your answers to the questions are going to be, you already comprehend yourself well enough not to require a prewritten description to better understand what you're like. Tests like this ask questions such as whether you are likely to introduce yourself to a stranger at a gathering. If you say yes, you get an E, and the definition of this E- type says "You're outgoing." But you were already aware of this about yourself, because you already knew that you approached uninvited that cute guy you saw at the Crazy 8s show last night. The results are just rewordings and condensations of your answers, which you presumably arrived at the test with.

More succinctly: How could you not know what your own personality is already?

Sorry, I'm all hopped up on codeine and I'm having a hard time finding the words. I'm not trying to diss the Keirsey and other tests of its ilk [although my use of the word "ilk" may sound as if I am. Why does ilk get such a bad rap?], I just feel like I'm not getting what I'm supposed to out of it. Is it so that you have a shorthand code that you can glue to yourself to assist *others* in understanding you after you've revealed what it is?

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

Tests like this ask questions such as whether you are likely to introduce yourself to a stranger at a gathering. If you say yes, you get an E, and the definition of this E- type says "You're outgoing."

As far as I know, extraversion does not mean you are outgoing. Outgoing is a sign that you are consciously extraverted. Extraversion and introversion are functions of the brain. Beth claims to have no feeling, but that isn't how Jung meant the catagorizations to be interpreted. If Beth is a thinking type, that isn't supposed to mean that she has no feelings, or even that she feels less than a feeling type, but that her thinking is a conscious function, and her feelings are her subconscious function. She may very well enjoy baby-talk with Jeremy, but if she's tired, it's harder for her to show him warmth.

The Keirsey profiling seems inferior to how Jung catagorized personalities. The Keirsey profiling downplays the distinction between extraversion and introversion, which, compared to what Jung has to say, is weak.

Extraverted consciousness constructs the world objectively, and intraverted consciousness constructs the world subjectively. Extraverted consciousness calls it like it is. Intraverted consciousness calls it like I see it. Descartes said "I think, therefore I am." Ambrose Bierce said "I think I think, therefore I think I am.

Oliver Sacks (Robin Williams played the fictionalized Oliver Sayer in the movie adaptation of Sacks's Awakenings), reported in An Anthropologist on Mars about a man who survived a car crash, but absolutely achromatopic color-blind. Formerly color-sighted, they had discovered damage to some bean-sized areas of his brain.

The working theory is that these areas of the brain construct color perception from the light the eyes pick up. One of the conclusions Sacks came to, as far as he could observe the change in this man's brain, was that there is no reason to believe there is such a thing as color. It is simply something that is constructed in the human brain.

This comes as evidence to 18^th century George Berkeley's idea that perception does not prove existence of what you perceive. This idea, referred to as "subjective idealism" or "immaterialism" is considered an affront to common sense, which is an operation of extraversion.

How could you not know what your own personality is already? Who is the you that wants to know?

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

Sorry, I'm all hopped up on codeine and I'm having a hard time finding the words. I'm not trying to diss the Keirsey and other tests of its ilk [although my use of the word "ilk" may sound as if I am. Why does ilk get such a bad rap?], I just feel like I'm not getting what I'm supposed to out of it. Is it so that you have a shorthand code that you can glue to yourself to assist *others* in understanding you after you've revealed what it is?

Kim, I hope you don't think I'm picking on you, but in these forums you ask these questions, and make these observations, I would never consider making. I like that a lot.

To me your questions are like, what good is knowing my height, or how much I weigh, or do I have enough money to pay all of my bills this month? You maybe asking what good is all of this catagorization, because you've already foung you best relationship with the world. But if someone is dissatisfied with their relationship with the world, this information may reveal the parameters within which one may find satidfaction. It'll save an individual from spending too much time with ideas that don't suit him or her. Not all of us can walk into a room like you and say, No need to panic, I'm in charge (and some of us would be ill-advised to try).

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

You know I think I prefer my posts with the typos. They're much less boring than I am.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

interesting, mine turned out I.N.F.J nf/ I-5/9,j-7/9. my nf was a 26. so the counselor and idealist descriptions got me down to a-tee, even the changes that are dependent on who we are with at any given time. lets see on the other test I had the result of guru..? a connecting theme? eh, whatever.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

ESTP - promoter.

Although the description makes it sound like I lead a *much* more interesting life than i actually do....

And even tho' I can't stand her personality, madonna showed up on the same list, and I know we see some things the same way. :-)

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

I'm an INFP too. I don't know quite what to make of it -- a lot of what the test told me made sense. But for some of the questions, I wouldn't have chosen any of the options.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

ESFP -- performer artisan. Always wisecracking, outgoing, not comfortable alone. Well, yep to the first two, but I don't know about the last. Being alone lets me recharge my batteries. On the other hand, I have two pets that I talk to all the time. Conversationally. Hmm. Maybe my rating should be "certifiable" instead...

http://home.mebtel.net/~kirchner

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

I usually come out as an ENTJ, the Fieldmarshall type, which puts me with Maggie Thatcher and Bill Gates (the horror, the horror...). I'm right on both the I/E and N/S borders, though. (The T and J are pretty much set in stone.) The ENTJ type seems like a fairly close, although simplistic, description of me, and the INTJ type isn't too far off either. I occasionally test as an ESTJ, a reliable, upstanding, pillar-of-the-community Guardian type so far removed from my actual personality that it is literally laughable.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

I came out as ISTJ-The Inspector, which has the same basic profile as that what kind of dog are you test--I came out as a German Shepherd, your basic dependable working dog.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

Wow, every time I ever took this test before I scored INTJ -- all through high school and college, EVERY single time I was INTJ.

Now I'm INFP, "healer", like Beth said. According to the test that means that now I'm more tender-minded than tough-minded, and more spontaneous and less planned or something to that effect. I can really see that, and was sort of expecting it, actually. Ever since I graduated and moved in with my boyfriend, I've been a lot easier-going and less judgmental of others. So, I can only think of this as a good thing.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

I'm an INFP too. So now I am thinking to myself, healer, heal thyself. ;-)

Judy

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

Wierd,

I was always an eNTj (fieldmarshall), but this time when I took it my Scheduling thing turned out evenly split between j types and p types (it assigned me as a j though). I'm also only slightly more "Rational" than "idealist." So I have eNTj and eNTp (inventor) evenly split with eNFj (teacher) and eNFp (champion) coming close behind.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

I don't think the subconscious functions are meant to stay submerged completely for your lifespan. I think the inferior functions start to assert themselves around 30, and more emerge after middle age.

-- Anonymous, February 21, 2000

I took both quizes. On one, I am an INTJ. On the other, I am an ISTJ. I've taken it several times before and have always come out as INTJ. In reading both descriptions (such as they are) the INTJ is closer. I read the information on the Sensation or Intuition and thought this was interesting:

In contrast, Introspectors (N) might be called "extraterrestrials," abstract beings who live with their head in the clouds, strangers in a strange land who wonder about the curious antics of the earthlings. Absorbed as they often are in their internal world, Introspectors tend miss a great deal of what's right around them -- current reality is merely a problem to be solved, or a stage of development toward some future ideal. Not only can they miss details, they can also lose track of where they are, and for instance drive right past their highway turn-off. "It's only reality" they sometimes say, to register their relative disinterest in the merely concrete. But more than disinterest, Introspectors can be discontent with reality, even bothered by it, and speculate about possible ways of improving it.

I've felt that "stranger in a strange land" feeling more often that I probably should admit.

That's it: I really am an alien, and that Intergalctic Explorer test is pointing me toward my destiny. Now where did I leave those parts for the warp drive?

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2000

i take this test every year. i don't know why i do it. i'm always an infp.

-- Anonymous, February 22, 2000

ENFP, I only saw one other person that posted here with this classification. A friend told me that only 7% of the populace is an ENFP's. But I still seem to get along with plenty of people!

-- Anonymous, February 25, 2000

I'm an INFJ, and what I like is doing the test while 'in character' for friends, family etc - then, when I read their descriptions, I know how to deal with them better! Guess that means the test is right about me anyway...

-- Anonymous, March 16, 2001

What do I think of the Keirsey test? I'm impressed.

It says I'm an ISTJ yet the Myers-Briggs says I'm an ESTJ. My family and friends say I'm definitely an E not an I, so I recommend doing both tests if possible and going with the one you think is more accurate.

-- Anonymous, April 11, 2001