submitted by the Department of the Obvious

[saffronhare]

and sponsored by Content-Free Friday. At least this person seems to know how to construct the darn thing to get the correct answer. I don't really want to *be* a scientist, engineer, or programmer...but the description, while very basic, is otherwise on target.

Also, a word that makes my brain go "yum" -- metastuff

You Are An INTJ

The Scientist You have a head for ideas - and you are good at improving systems. Logical and strategic, you prefer for everything in your life to be organized. You tend to be a bit skeptical. You're both critical of yourself and of others. Independent and stubborn, you tend to only befriend those who are a lot like you. You would make an excellent scientist, engineer, or programmer.

What's Your Personality Type?

Comments

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

You know, I hear that other people vary on MBTI-type instruments from day to day, according to how they're feeling, and what they've just come from doing before taking the thing. I don't seem to:
* * * * *
You Are An INTP
The Thinker
You are analytical and logical - and on a quest to learn everything you can.
Smart and complex, you always love a new intellectual challenge.
Your biggest pet peeve is people who slow you down with trivial chit chat.
* * * * *

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

Ditto that. Every single time I've ever taken any sort of MBTI-type test, I get INFP.

You Are An INFP

The Idealist You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world. Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships. It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close. But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop. You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist.

What's Your Personality Type?

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

Me too. I first took this test about 22 years ago, when my father was learning to administer it through the Naval War College.

Since then, I've gone through the big honkin' assessment a good half-dozen times and never had a different outcome...other than getting a bit more extreme on the introvert scale. :)

Yours really seems to be accurate. Maybe it only varies in people who are less consistent in their sense of self?

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

Ahem.

I'm one of those people that's all over the board, depending on the situation.

I wrote a long reply, then scrapped it because it was getting ranty.

This test, and the "right brain/left brain" tests, drive me nuts, because on each 'either/or', I want to choose "both". I can shift my consciousness at will depending on the situation, and that seems to be impossible for most people, so these tests don't have any way to deal with it.

[featherynscale.livejournal.com]

I think you're missing the point. The MBTI and related instruments are supposed to measure preferred functioning in the moment you are taking the inventory, not the One Domain In Which You Function All The Time and From Which You May Never Deviate. The theory behind MBTI is that all people can shift their consciousness at will between any of the function pairs, but are more or less comfortable with one of each pair most of the time. Not that if you're an F, for example, you can never do T things, or whatnot, but that you are more likely to want to do F things than T things at any given time (or that doing F things is easier for you than doing T things). Of course, if you've just come from a heavy-T activity, you may skew more T than usual on an instrument, but feel less comfortable doing it. If you are really 50/50 on one or more pairs (which could indicate either that you're very comfortable with both ends of the spectrum, or that you're very uncomfortable with both ends of the spectrum), the test will show that. As a rule, for example, on a real MBTI inventory, I will show INTP, but my I/E scale is marked near the centerline. I am relatively comfortable functioning in either I or E activities. The purpose of the forced-choice inventory is to make respondents choose the best answer, not the only answer (i.e. choose which is more true, rather than choose which is true and which is false). The number of questions on the actual inventory is large enough to allow for a much more refined picture than what you get with the silly internet quizzy thing.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

I was once at a workshop where the leader told us to write our name on the test paper. Then she pointed out to us that she didn't have to tell us which hand to use, we just used the more comfortable one. Then, of course, we had to write our names with our non-dominant hand, showing how we can accomplish it, but it isn't as automatic. Good object lesson, I thought.

[kittenpants.livejournal.com]

For example, the Sensing/Intuition scale baffles me. In what way are these opposites? How is this even a scale? Just because I can write a story, paint a picture, imagine future possibilities, think about patterns, work with abstract theories, and make intuitive jumps, does not mean that I have any trouble with appreciating the here-and-now, indulging my senses, come up with common-sense, practical solutions, have a good memory for detail, apply experience to current situations, or prefer facts to guesses.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

No one really knows what Jung meant by the terms Sensing and Judging, in particular. Sensing, on these tests, refers to the physical senses, and Intuitive refers to relying on hunches with no seeming physical evidence. S people would, for instance, be more likely to remember what people at a party were wearing, and N people would remember who was in a good or bad mood. It's on a continuum, and few people are all the way to one extreme or the other. That's the way I had it explained it to me anyway.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

I hear you. Good points.

In the full assessment, there are multiple possible answers (like, five or six answers in some cases) for each question and it's really clear -- at least it was to me -- that your answers aim for the one nearest to your own position even if it's not an exact match.

Or maybe you've already done the full version before. As with all things and Content-Free Friday quizziness, your mileage may vary. (shrug)

[zylch.livejournal.com]

My problem is too many psych classes. Ok, just one, but that was apparently one too many, because I always see which way the answers are pointing and then skew them according to how I think I "ought to be" that day, or whatever I think will keep me out of trouble in an actual evaluation. Unfortunately, none of these tests ever includes a question about "You're taking a psych test, would you a) answer honestly, or b) lie?"

Also, if you give me an either/or style right brain-left brain test, I'll come out about 98% right brained. If you give me one that says "Do you think X way?" or one that allows for a both/and, I come out 49%/51% L/R.

[saffronhare.livejournal.com]

I don't know if it's the psych classes, or a natural propensity to dissect and analyze the bejeezus out of everthing. I mean, just about all of us in this group have had one or more psych classes. Just sayin'. :)

[zylch.livejournal.com]

Oops, my language was unclear there. My natural propensity is to dissect and analyze the bejeezus out of these tests (and most other things, too...), and then, for various reasons, to screw around with the results. Psych class plus the bits of psych I've learned out of self-defense have given me the tools and information I need to act on that propensity.

[fionnabhar.livejournal.com]

There was also some information I heard once that categorized the positions of the letters. I think it went:

I or E: How you present to/participate in the world.
N or S: How you gather information from the world.
F or T: How you process or analyze that information.
P or J: How you work with/draw conclusions in life events.

Somesuch.