I just took the Myers-Briggs test that was linked to in one of my previous posts because I wanted to see if anything had changed. Nope. Still an INFJ, with a strong tendency towards being introverted (78%), slightly more intuitive (12%) over sensing, moderately more feeling (50%) over thinking, and slightly more judging (22%) over perceiving. This is pretty much exactly how my results looked last year with the Keirsey test I give to my students.
The first time I took this in college, I was an ISFP. And the only part that has ever changed after I tested as an INFJ was the second part. I once tested as an ISFJ, which would put me in the Guardian temperament instead of Idealist.
The best thing about all this, however, is that I have rarely been too similar in overall personality to the other INFJs I’ve known. I try to make sure that my students understand that while this typology does help us to understand some of the core aspects of our personalities, it doesn’t tell us everything we need to know about ourselves. They know to take these results with a grain of salt, and to look at them as snapshots of who they are. It’s a tool that can empower and encourage them to accept their greatest assets, and to help them understand why there are so many different types of people out there.
Once they understand themselves a little bit more, I think they can learn to be more accepting of people who are very different from them.
