We have encountered all types of personality tests out there. Frankly, they mostly range from unreliable to silly to just plain absurd, if not irrelevant. Sometimes, either out of curiosity or for fun, I take them, just to see the results. I mostly don’t believe them simply because anyone can just create his/her own test and pretend to be an expert. But last week, it was different. I got to take the actual Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test.
The MBTI “is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.” Developed by Katharine Briggs and daughter Isabel Briggs Myers, it was based on Carl Gustav Jung‘s typological theories on what he said were the four principal psychological functions: sensation, intuition, feeling and thinking.
These are the 16 Personality Types. Which is You?
“The purpose of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) personality inventory is to make the theory of psychological types described by C. G. Jung understandable and useful in people’s lives. The essence of the theory is that much seemingly random variation in the behavior is actually quite orderly and consistent, being due to basic differences in the ways individuals prefer to use their perception and judgment.” (MBTI® Basics, The Myers & Briggs Foundation)
The MBTI is often used by companies and organizations to test or understand more their people and is considered as the best by psychologists, it seems. Don’t quote me on that last one, though, as I am basing on my findings and impressions alone. If you know of an actual research or comparative study that should confirm or disprove what I said, kindly direct me to it and I will very much appreciate it.
Those of us in the office who were interested in knowing our types–most of us, it turned out–took the test. Me being me, I guess my tendency to overthink caused me to have two results, a borderline this and that type. Of course, I read on both.
When I read the first one, I knew immediately it wasn’t me. It was…”too big” for me, for lack of a better term. I wish I had that personality’s strengths, but no matter how hard I wanted to pretend, it just wasn’t. Besides, what was the point of taking the test if I were only going to pretend about something I wasn’t? Who would I be fooling but myself? Much of the negatives weren’t even me either.
When I read the second one, I realized, wow, this is me! Both the strengths and weaknesses. Of course, nothing is 100% accurate as we are all unique individuals still, but the description was almost uncanny.
That said, my own sister said that maybe I answered according to what I thought the answers should be that’s why I got a borderline result. Definitely I denied it, but I was bothered. Then when I was trying to make someone answer the test himself and I surprisingly struggled to explain in words he could better understand, I realized that while I probably did overthink, I must have gotten the context of some words wrong.
So I did a retake, answering carefully and even consulting the online dictionary to make sure I got the context right. The result? Still a little bit borderline, but this time, the first result I got changed to something that still wasn’t me, but at least, I know that if I were anything like this or that, I probably would’ve been that after all.
Meanwhile, I have to say I was right when I first determined my personality type. I recognized myself, understood myself more and took mental notes of the warnings given. They basically say, as well for the other 15 types, that anything excessive can also be harmful to you if you’re not careful. Also, personality types can still change, depending on what one has gone, is going and will yet go through.
My personality type is ENFJ, which is not hard to remember: just put the J in front and that really is ME!!! LOL!!! Of course, since nobody’s perfect, I don’t have all the strengths and weaknesses expected of an ENFJ, just the majority.
How about you, have you taken the real MBTI personality test? What’s your personality? If you haven’t taken a test yet, do choose to get the MBTI one ( but I think you will need accreditation for that unless you have a way to get hold of a copy). For a more thorough description of your result, I recommend 16Personalities.com.
Remember, no type is right or wrong. What happens in your own life is up to you 😉
The End Justifies the Journey 
I had taken the test ages ago, but a few years back a colleague of mine told me that I needed to take it again. I must take it, she said, it was like astrology, but for smart people or something like that. So, I took it and I did it from several sources and I got INFJ. And the funny thing is I’ve met 2 other bloggers who are the same type!
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If you always got the same result even when the source was not exactly MBTI, then that means you are totally it! I take it the description of the type fits you? I think my sister said the other day that she’s INFJ as well. Will check again.
Meanwhile, the more I read my type, I am realizing that it’s my mother’s type as well. Which tells me that aside from her strengths that I should emulate, I should also avoid her weaknesses because right now, I’m seeing some of them in me as well….I never really knew how much we were alike. maybe that’s why we also used to butt heads.
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“it was like astrology, but for smart people or something like that.”
I sort of LOL’d :))
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Just checked. My sister is ISTJ, not INFJ. So basically, she’s more of sensing, you’re more of intuition. You’re more of introverted while I’m extraverted.
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What I like about the INFJ personality description is it gets me. “People think you are extroverted, but you are really introverted” – type of thing.
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Yeah. You do seem more to be an extrovert. Well, I don’t know how people see me, but my sister had to ask the other day if I was sure I’m an ‘E’ rather than ‘I’. I had always thought I was an ‘I’ and the very first time I took a personality type test, I was surprised I got the opposite, and it never changes every time.
But my friend who shared the test said that ‘E’ means you get energy from your surroundings while ‘I’ means you get it from within yourself (dunno if I explained that enough or properly, though). Not one is better than the other; we just have different ways.
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Agreed. And your explanation makes sense 🙂
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I am now curious. Will definitely check your personality out 😉
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Oh, I just read on your personality type and realized how much similar our types are! I wondered why I didn’t get INFJ as well at first. Then I found differences as well, which is probably because you are an ‘I’ while I’m an ‘E’.
Also, I thought I was rare, but you’re more rare than I am! Now I understand why you said, “And the funny thing is I’ve met 2 other bloggers who are the same type!”
But I am happy to find we are more alike than different 🙂
What floored me when I read the ENFJ description was this: ENFJs are genuine, caring people who talk the talk and walk the walk,… It was surprising because for many years now, my motto has been “If you can talk the talk, you gotta walk the walk.” Wow, isn’t it?
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