Meyers Briggs

[Enarr]

Myers Briggs didn't change my life. It didn't fundamentally alter how I perceive myself. But it did fundamentally change how I perceive my perception of myself because I scored INTJ. The first time I did it, I was fourteen. People change over time and most of my friends have gotten different scores at different times. I've taken it half a dozen times over the years, in one form or another but I've literally always scored the same INTJ rating.

It's theoretically one of the rarest types. That said, when I was seventeen, two of my best friends, who were to a certain extent highly compartmentalized and introspective, also claimed that it was their score. And one of my present day most online friends shares the same score. So if it's theoretically so rare, I don't understand why every time I've seemed to throw a rock, it seems to land on someone else who has the second/third (can't remember) rarest MBTI typing.

I would chalk it up to the fact that we're naturally drawn to people like ourselves but the friends I mentioned earlier, with the same typing, are about as different from my operational philosophies and personal value structure as two friends can reasonably be.

Anybody else have any similar experiences or any theories?

Also: For the record, I don't--for a single second--believe that human behavior can be chopped up categorically because the context in which an individual is offered a choice is often just as significant as the choice itself. For example, when asked a simple question about my preferences, I usually respond with more questions and the comprehensive answers that I would offer cannot be reflected "Yes," "No", or "Maybe".

[Zyshi]

Methinks that preexisting bias can exist so easily with online personality type testing - reading about the basic premise can affect one's scoring to a certain extent, even if an attempt is made to be impartial. I was a member at one of the major Meyers-Briggs forums for a few years, and there was such pride attached to categorizing oneself as a certain type, as if this wasn't supposed to be an objective assessment of personality and were instead cliques to join. It oftentimes seemed as if people gravitated toward the type they wished they were.

I agree about similar temperaments attracting one another, to a certain extent.

[Rogue Sloth]

I'm not sure if anyone is still checking this thread based on the date of the last reply, but I'm very into psychology and talk about this sort of stuff all the time with my friends in real life, so I thought I'd hop on.

I have to echo what Zyshi said about people "typing" as the personality they most admire or wish they were. Additionally, I agree that categorizing human personalities is difficult because there are so many factors that can change the way we behave. For example, I type as an ENTP (Debater) when I take the Myers Briggs test, but I don't always behave that way depending on what's going on in my life. What I don't like about the Myers Briggs is that it gives you no wiggle room to account for the fluidity of human nature. Instead, it puts you into one of 16 boxes and assumes you'll always behave the same way. People are simply too complex for that.

As an alternative, I highly prefer the enneagram. It's a personality diagram that was created about 1600 years ago and has proven accurate for every single person I know who's taken it. What's great about it is that instead of listing the behaviors of the 9 personality types it includes, it pegs each type's greatest motivations and fears, to which every person will respond differently because we're all different people. It also accounts for behavioral fluidity by describing the way each type may act when they're feeling emotionally stressed or secure or if they're immature or mature people. There's plenty of wiggle room for "context" because it was created as a tool to help people grow. I also use it as a reference when I make characters for roleplays because it helps me make them more realistic and unlike myself :)

It could be interesting if your friends who all typed as INTJs on the Myers Briggs turned out to be different types on the enneagram. After all, two people can act the same way but have very different motivations for doing the things they do. You could just be right about the fact that people tend to be drawn to others who are like them.

Anyway, I know it was slightly off topic, but that's my two cents on the Myers Briggs' reliability.

@Thrash Panda

[Rapid Reader]

I think most of the value of these sorts of things are that they are conducive to conversation and they can be pretty fun. Why wouldn't I want to know that my personality type is that I am a super awesome golden dragon or something awesome like that?

In terms of what they actually measure, I don't think they have much value as diagnostic tools for personality traits or really that they have any scientific merit at all. However, if you're just viewing them as a simple heuristic or fun way to broach a conversation about personality I don't see much harm.