I've been looking at the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator test the last few days to determine my personality type according to the test. Of course this is not infallible and there is a small error margin, but I find my result accurate.

For those who don't know, the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator test filters you into one of 16 personality categories [attached for ease of understanding]. It uses eight letters to give you a personality type which is four letters long. For instance, mine is INFP. This means

I have more introverted traits than extroverted
I understand information though intuition rather than more practical sensing
I make decisions more on feeling than on strategic thinking
I prefer to live my life through perception of the world rather than planned judgment of things.

This INFP type is called a Mediator. I am technically INFP-A [the 'a' is for assertive, the other option for INFPs is 't' for turbulent]. More info here if you want to dissect my character. But in short, all you need to know is that I'm creative, idealistic, emotional, confident and observant. It's a little fluffy with some sharpness thrown in. If I were a coffee I imagine I'd be a cortado.

It would be interesting to see what others here have. I imagine we would get more 'i's than 'e's.

https://www.16personalities.com/

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I'm no good on tests that require you to grade your responses. I took a quick look and, if it had been a simple Agree-Disagree, I would have gone further, but I just don't know how to evaluate the extent of my agreement or disagreement. I'm sure there's a personality type that exactly fits that criterion!

I participate in a medical experiment on factors that might prevent dementia and it requires me periodically to carry out online mind games. Before each session, I have to fill out a questionnaire on how I'm feeling at that moment. I must admit I can't work out the answer to most of those questions and I just tick boxes at random.

INTP-T (Turbulent Logician)

I like this kind of test, but take it with a pinch of salt - how much of it is about my personality, and how much about my perception of my personality? I suppose that depends partly on the quality of the questions.

FWIW I got INFJ-T (Turbulent Advocate). Some parts of the (long) description do fit extremely well, others less so. The name "advocate" was a surprise: it seems to agree with an assessment made in my early childhood, but not with the way I see myself. A lot of the traits fit, including some that (afaict) either developed or emerged relatively recently.

Dunno about 16 types - maybe just 2; those that need to classify everybody, and those those don't ... :shrug:

Out of morbid curiosity, I took the test... and my "personality type" is (according to the test): INTJ-T (Architect) :shrugs:

But some of the questions didn't really have a black and white answer, and really depends on the situation - so I just went "neutral" with a few of them. Although for the "Energy" category it was a 51% (intuitive) and a 49% (observant) split. And for the "Identity" category it was also a 49% (assertive) and a 51% (turbulent) split.

Agree totally with your analysis Pasty!

It has been my experience and within my education that given enough question/answers it is possible to develop reasonably accurate results but nuance is impossible so the results are coarse. It is coarse to say Trees and Broccoli are similar but it is still true to some extent and that's how I perceive such personal testing.

My results were Entrepreneur ESTP-A/ ESTP-T which is fairly accurate as in my lifetime I have gravitated to jobs where I have had considerable autonomy or gone into business for myself, sometimes at the same time. Looking back I really don't know how I found the time to do everything I did other than continual sleep deprivation

I could put it quite simply relative to the old cliche. I don't want to lead anyone else, but I will if required. I don't want to follow anyone, but I might provisionally for a time. I won't get out of anyone's way if I'm there already. They can just go around me and I will go around others since I'm rarely dissuaded or deflected by a person but I can be by ideas.

Nothing wrong with knowing yourself, even being your own analyst to some extent!
But entrusting some system to whittle it down to 16 choices cannot be right.
It sounds more like "it makes me feel safer to have myself sorted in a box with many peers" - in other words, these sort of systems really play on our insecurities.

I recently listened to a podcast that has some things to say about this: The Sorting Hat:

Apparently I'm a slightly worried nurse labelled "Defender ISFJ-A"?

Defender--ISFJ-a. I printed the results out to review at my leisure. I did not give them my email address.

Back when I did management training, we put little stock in the MBPTI for our purposes. We considered it more suited for therapy than for helping business persons deal with co-workers.

We used a test similar to the one described here, because it focused on behavior, not on personality, because behavior can be externalized and changed; I think it was called the Personality Profile. (Though in our day, what the site describes as "conscientiousness" was termed "compliance," in the sense of complying with rules and precedent, not in the sense of complying with others' wishes).

If such a test is well-constructed and if persons taking it answer in good faith, it can yield surprisingly accurate and helpful results.

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/p/im-...yABEgKi4PD_BwE

Just two choices.

Neutral good.

Advocate
INFJ-A

Double post

I usually get INTP but I think it's a partial fit at most. Maybe the questions just aren't specific enough, or something.