Personality What's your MBTI personality?

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I question the validity of this test, but it proved useful to me some years ago. I was in a 3 month course of study (in research, development and manufacture). The class was divided into 8 member work groups which would be required to produce a number of reports/papers together over the term of the course. We started with the MB test and while most of us were ESTJs (the majority of us were military so that was no surprise), one was an ISFP. And yes, he was a touchy-feely guy that drove us crazy. But, in the months to come, it continually amazed me that while the rest of us methodically, logically slogged our way to a solution, the ISFP effortlessly performed intuitive leaps to the correct solution. Once we learned to trust his instincts it greatly sped our efforts (though as ESTJs we had to go back and verify his insights the old-fashioned way).

 

[Vandemonian]

(T)he ISFP effortlessly performed intuitive leaps...

I don't know that intuitive leaps would be expected of someone who isn't intuitive; INFP would have made more sense. The MBTI isn't useless, but I do wish more people knew about the HEXACO.

Psychology is, in many ways, a struggling science. The few things it has rigorously discovered often turned out to be political minefields (e.g. IQ, the heritability of personality) while the most sensational claims didn't pan out well (handwriting analysis, lie detection, and lately, stereotype threat).

Students of the human psyche, beware what knowledge awaits: "And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you."

 

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As to my intuitive buddy, I suspect the difference was more that the rest of us were so methodical, going down the route of A-B-C-D, that his A-D leaps surprised us. To a truely intuitive person he may have seemed stodgy and plodding; he was a government worker after all.

The pragmatic thing I got out of MB was learning to identify and use the different abilities of the team. You rarely get to choose the members so you have to learn to play the hand that's dealt you, and sometimes a Jack is more useful than a King.

I think Psychology has changed for the worse since my days in college, turning too much to the political and unable to replicate so many of its published studies. I found my favorite courses in behavioral psychology (this was way back in the 1970's) to be useful throughout my life, but 'rat lab' is probably frowned upon today.

 

[Vandemonian]

The pragmatic thing I got out of MB was learning to identify and use the different abilities of the team. You rarely get to choose the members so you have to learn to play the hand that's dealt you, and sometimes a Jack is more useful than a King.

Do you have other stories to tell about this?

I think Psychology has changed for the worse since my days in college, turning too much to the political and unable to replicate so many of its published studies.

What you describe feels like the psychology I grew up with. In fact, I psychology today is finally beginning to come into its own, in a way far surpassing the findings in the 70's. Part of this is the way many fields will gradually find their way over enough time. But the rest came from being so abjectly shamed by parapsychology, a discipline which began employing proper experimental controls (such as preregistration of study results, or more careful statistical analyses to avoid false positives) in response to harsh and probably unfair criticism.

To be specific, psychology languished because it was never scrutinized by academics the way parapsychology was. Parapsychologists smelled like religious nuts, while Psychologists kept on putting out studies showing that they were good liberals upholding the status quo, and everyone thought that was pretty swell. In fact, for a long time psychologists lead the charge against parapsychological upstarts who dared to claim to be good "scientists" like psychologists. But eventually, they could no longer avoid the obvious:

J. E. Kennedy (2016) Is the Methodoloical Revolution in Psychology Over or Just Beginning?

Significant results from parapsychological experiments using standard psychological research methods motivated psychologists to recognize some widespread methodological deficiencies and the need for preregistered well-powered confirmatory research. Psychological researchers have not yet recognized several other common methodological weaknesses that can be expected to cause this cycle to be repeated. When confronted with the choice between psi versus overlooked methodological deficiencies, psychologists will recognize the need for methodological improvements. These overlooked methodological factors include: (a) deficient study registration practices, (b) bias from dropouts and incomplete data, (c) the need for software validation, (d) measures to prevent experimenter fraud, (e) appropriate statistical methods for confirmatory research, (f) failure to consider inferential errors with Bayesian analyses, (g) the weaknesses of retrospective meta-analysis and strengths of prospective meta-analysis, and (h) problems from statistical dependence for the outcome variables in statistical analyses. Psychological and parapsychological researchers can easily avoid this inefficient process of methodological evolution driven by controversies about parapsychological findings. Research practices that address these methodological deficiencies are available and will eventually be recognized as needed for psychological and parapsychological research. Recommended practices for addressing these methodological weaknesses are described.

Whether parapsychology's psi effect will turn out to be genuine telepathy and precognition as opposed to some other form of anomaly, I don't know. But psychology is finally blossoming by following parapsychology's lead.

 

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Other stories to tell? I’m an old man, I’ve could bore you for hours, but I think I made the point I wanted to. Figuring out how the “oddball” can contribute is one of the most interesting aspects of leadership.

In addition, I think a little left-field thinking, while it might be just as nutty as you thought it was at first sight, mixes things up and gets new ideas flowing. I found that a group that is too agreeable accomplishes less.

 

[Demetrios]

I am INTJ.

 

[Juju003]

I’ve taken it twice and got INFJ. Definitely accurate.

 

[Juju003]

Very cool. I didn’t realize there were different types of INFJ. Mine is INFJ- the advocate