Hey Ithie!

Well, it got it on the third try, at least. My high level of Ne doesn't surprise me at all. It amuses me that it registers my Fi so highly. I wonder why it thinks Ti – my actual dominant function – is so low.

Ugh, just when you think you find a useful quiz...

I usually get either INFJ or ENFJ when I take that, with INFP as the third option. I tend to score fairly high on Fi, but powerful subconscious Fi is why INFJs often test as INFPs and it's to be expected from a Socionics perspective. (For people that don't know, Socionics is a theory of information processing and personality type that was developed in the Soviet Union in the 70s and 80s, and I wouldn't recommend it to people who are very new to typology. It took me a few years to screw up the courage to tackle it. )

On the other hand, I can't really think of a model that makes sense for an INTP to have such high Fi, but it could just be that the testing apparatus is an imperfect tool. Hmmm, I'll have to think about it.

Ugh, just when you think you find a useful quiz...

It probably is a useful quiz. I had some other friends take it and it typed them correctly. I'm the only one it got "wrong" and it still got me right on the third guess. I'm probably just the odd one out. There are a lot of factors that could make me "weird" for an INTP.

On the other hand, I can't really think of a model that makes sense for an INTP to have such high Fi, but it could just be that the testing apparatus is an imperfect tool. Hmmm, I'll have to think about it.

What makes it even funnier is that Fi is the function I have the biggest love/hate (emphasis on the latter) relationship with. I am trying to develop all my functions, though, so...maybe I'm just doing a really great job?

But seriously, one idea I had is that maybe my Ti is manifesting itself in a seemingly Fi-ish way. Fi is often associated with self-reflection, identity, and trying to understand and embrace one's own feelings. As a Ti-Ne person, I'm fascinated with analyzing things, especially psychology. So, of course, psychoanalyzing myself is the easiest way to carry out that hobby. I will often do identity stuff as part of that. It could be the test just mistook that habit as Fi instead of Ti. I'm also very religious in a way that I try to live out on a daily basis. And I think a lot of typologists tend to unfairly label that as Fi because "making decisions based on ideals!!!1!11" Any of the 16 types can be religious, people.

The test gave me ISFJ first and ESFJ second. I understand its confusion since I was very borderline E/I when I took the MBTI (I've since realized I'm also an ambivert) and have been in a very introverted phase for a while now.

Cognitive functions mentioned in this post, put briefly:

Fi, or Introverted Feeling: your subjective impressions about people and things, living in accordance with your values, and empathetic caring for others.
Fe, or Extroverted Feeling: awareness of external emotional atmospheres, social cooperation, and sympathetic caring for others.
Ti, or Introverted Thinking: intensive logical analysis, building logical frameworks, and perceiving whether or not something is coherent with a logical framework.

It probably is a useful quiz. I had some other friends take it and it typed them correctly. I'm the only one it got "wrong" and it still got me right on the third guess. I'm probably just the odd one out. There are a lot of factors that could make me "weird" for an INTP.

I know that some of the questions are pretty nebulous, but in the FAQ they say that some of the phrases allow for multiple meanings and that it's deliberate for the purposes of testing, since some people are more comfortable with ambiguity than others. It also says that "It's fine if you didn't understand some phrases; they likely were not meant for you." (This guy uses EEG and other neuromapping equipment at UCLA to examine people's brains from a cognitive function perspective... interesting fellow.)

But seriously, one idea I had is that maybe my Ti is manifesting itself in a seemingly Fi-ish way. Fi is often associated with self-reflection, identity, and trying to understand and embrace one's own feelings. As a Ti-Ne person, I'm fascinated with analyzing things, especially psychology. So, of course, psychoanalyzing myself is the easiest way to carry out that hobby. I will often do identity stuff as part of that. It could be the test just mistook that habit as Fi instead of Ti.

That's an interesting theory and you could be right, but I'm not sure it seems like an intuitive answer to me. (Lowercase intuitive, not Jungian Intuitive. )

This is mainly because of my own relationship with Fi: it's very strong and is a powerful influence in my life, but I tend to disregard it in favor of Fe. This is because Fi is subconscious and Fe is conscious. This is also why I often have a difficult time listing what my "favorite" things are, even though I tend to be a pretty analytical person. I find it easier to analyze other people's feelings than my own, and feel like I'm floundering when I do try to do that. Picking favorites is not a situation where I can just shrug it off because I don't care: I do care because I know that I have strong feelings and opinions about people and things, it just takes me longer to excavate them than it does with some people. So if someone asks me what my favorite color is, they may have to call me back later and, after an hour of intense soul-searching, I'll tell them that it's sky blue. Okay, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but it's not that far off the mark.

In Socionics, INTPs have very weak subconscious Fi as compared to the very strong subconscious Fi in INFJs. It's something that they consider to be useful "in theory" but they're not very good at using it at all and it is not their tendency to engage it. This is how Socionists describe the INTP usage:

The [INTP] is acutely aware of social conventions, such as saying "please" and "thank you", and expends much effort to conform to these rules to maintain the status of a "polite" person. But he tends to overdo the conventions themselves, as opposed to the relationships they are supposed to establish, and so ends up stepping on other people's toes (violating some less easily definable convention which he would never really want to conform to anyways). He prefers an easy-going environment where such conventions don't exist in the first place. When in a heated argument, an [INTP] can alienate others by his natural tendency to hold and defend strong opinions (Ti).

If asked to express a unique, personal sentiment, such as a favorite color or football team, the [INTP] may find difficulty choosing if there is no "obvious" answer. He often feels like he has no real personal, subjective feelings at all, and usually has to make a conscious decision where other types could easily supply an instinctive reaction.

The [INTP] also is very sensitive about how other people see him, feeling depressed if he has affections that are not returned. For this reason, he tends to avoid expressing signals that show interest in certain people (as opposed to signals about his general mood and demeanor, which he feels to be much more natural), but of course it just aggravates his loneliness, instead of relieving it.

How does that resonate with you, especially the bolded part? Some people would say that Socionics isn't the end-all, be-all and I would agree, but I think it has a lot of extremely helpful insights into areas of personality that MBTI doesn't extend. (It answered a lot of questions about my own type and others that MBTI wasn't able to explain, anyhow.)

But still... if your connection with Fi is an unusual expression of Ti... how do we know that your connection to Ti isn't an unusual expression of Fi? It's just a thought that crossed my mind when I was looking at your test results... only you can verify your type in this case. I know that you've considered yourself an INTP for quite a while now and I'm not trying to invalidate your assessment of yourself.

The test gave me ISFJ first and ESFJ second. I understand its confusion since I was very borderline E/I when I took the MBTI (I've since realized I'm also an ambivert) and have been in a very introverted phase for a while now.

It's good to hear that it typed you correctly! My mom is an ISFJ and you guys are awesome people. If you ever want to read more about the differences between ISFJ and ESFJ, this is a pretty good, short article that highlights some of the key differences.

How does that resonate with you, especially the bolded part? Some people would say that Socionics isn't the end-all, be-all anyway, and I would agree, but I think it has a lot of extremely helpful insights into areas of personality that MBTI doesn't extend. (It answered a lot of questions about my own type and others that MBTI wasn't able to explain, anyhow.)

But still... if your connection with Fi is an unusual expression of Ti... how do we know that your connection to Ti isn't an unusual expression of Fi? It's just a thought that crossed my mind when I was looking at your test results... only you can verify your type in this case. I know that you've considered yourself an INTP for quite a while now and I'm not trying to invalidate your assessment of yourself.

None of the quoted part really resonated with me, and the bolded part especially didn't. But then...it doesn't really describe any other INTP I've met either. I've gone out of my way to meet INTPs ever since I found out I was one, and all of them can list their favorite everything right off the bat. In fact, they usually like to make lists like Top 10 This and Top 25 That. Pretty sure I've seen INTP descriptions say that's common for INTPs too, but I didn't save the links, so I can't prove it. As far as I can remember, the only people I've seen who couldn't list their favorite things easily were S's and people with Ni in the first or second place. Usually xxFJs or ESxPs.

It seems more like Ti manifesting in a Fi-ish way rather than the other way around. If Fi manifested itself in a Ti-ish way, it would probably be something like...researching, debating, going through strings of logic... all for the end goal of trying to validate its own subjective feelings. The subjective feelings would be the end goal, because Fi is the function at the root of the action. In fact, this is usually how it goes when I see Fi-dominants try to use Ti. It ends up being a "twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts" type of thing, all while sounding very logical and Ti-ish on the surface until you dig deeper.

Whereas, what's happening with me is the opposite of that. My end goal is data. I want to learn more about the human brain. I try to pick everyone's brain when I get the chance. But since my own brain is the most accessible, I end up analyzing myself far more than anyone else. And in the process of that, I end up learning a lot about myself, how I think, how I feel, and why I do what I do. The subjective stuff is a bonus that gets thrown in while I learn. But the data – Ti – seems to be what's driving it.

Add to that the fact that I relate well to almost every INTP I meet + almost every INTP description I read, and that I don't relate very well at all to the INFPs I meet or the INFP descriptions. It seems like INTP is the more likely.

None of the quoted part really resonated with me, and the bolded part especially didn't. But then...it doesn't really describe any other INTP I've met either. I've gone out of my way to meet INTPs ever since I found out I was one, and all of them can list their favorite everything right off the bat. In fact, they usually like to make lists like Top 10 This and Top 25 That.

Maybe all of the INTPs in the Soviet Union were too busy trying to survive communist rule to be able to pick favorites. That's a joke, but I'm kind of serious. One of the main Western criticisms of Socionics is its theory about compatibility—they believe that the most optimal relationships are between "dual" types, such as the INFJ and the ESTP. They have all the same cognitive functions, but the INFJ's weak functions are the ESTP's strong ones, and vice-versa. In the West, however, it's generally believed that pairing Intuitive types with Intuitive types and Sensing types with Sensing types is a better idea.

My theory is that life in the Soviet Union was so difficult on account of the artificial, unnatural scarcity that was brought on by communism, it was more necessary to have pairings that "balanced each other out" in a practical way. So while an INFJ and an ENTP might starve to death while thinking about abstract ideas all day, an INFJ and an ESTP would make a better go of it and extreme poverty wouldn't put quite as much of a strain on their relationship. But I digress.

As an INTP, i have trouble picking favorites. I can make a list of all the stuff i really like, but i certainly couldn't tell you which TV show/musician/video game/etc. was my absolute favorite.

Something i'm curious about: with the partial exception of Christmas, i don't really get a lot out of traditions, especially wedding traditions. I've tried to picture what i would like my own (theoretical) wedding to be like, but while i know i don't want to just go to a justice of the peace and have a purely legal arrangement, pretty much everything i've heard of or seen done gets only a "meh" from me. Does anyone else have this experience?

As an INTP, i have trouble picking favorites. I can make a list of all the stuff i really like, but i certainly couldn't tell you which TV show/musician/video game/etc. was my absolute favorite.

That seems to be in line with a lot of INTPs from what I've seen from a few Google searches. That's not to say that INTPs don't like a lot of things or aren't capable of listing those likes, as you said, but they find it difficult to boil it down to absolute favorites.

Something i'm curious about: with the partial exception of Christmas, i don't really get a lot out of traditions, especially wedding traditions. I've tried to picture what i would like my own (theoretical) wedding to be like, but while i know i don't want to just go to a justice of the peace and have a purely legal arrangement, pretty much everything i've heard of or seen done gets only a "meh" from me. Does anyone else have this experience?

Well, I'm an INFJ and I've never been one of those girls who has a Pinterest board of wedding ideas. (Well, I don't have a Pinterest at all, but you get the point. ) I've never really thought much about what my wedding would be like... maybe it seemed to me as getting ahead of myself. That's not to say that I've never looked at wedding dresses in the past and I'm sure I would try to do something meaningful and nice if I end up getting married, but having a "perfect wedding" has never been something I've dreamed about. From a personality type perspective, I think this makes sense because INFJs tend to be big picture, futuristic thinkers, and placing a huge focus on one day seems a little counter-intuitive to that mindset.

I'm honestly surprised I haven't been able to find many articles about "Wedding Planning According to Your MBTI Type"... given all the things that people try to use MBTI for, you'd think that this would be one of them as well. I did find this blog post on wedding themes. (Bird theme for ENFJs? What would that even look like?... Er, maybe I should be thinking doves instead of Big Bird. )

An amusing MBTI-related anecdote...

My brother has this running gag where he'll randomly shave off his beard and then see how long it takes for me to realize that he's clean-shaven. I feel like this is a good example of one of the differences between Sensing and Intuitive types... sometimes it will take me as long as a day to realize that the beard is gone. I'll be talking to him and be completely oblivious until I start wondering why his eyes are twinkling in amusement, and then I notice what's obvious to everyone else. (Or at least obvious to the other Sensing types in my family.) It's interesting to me that I pick up on a small detail of his expression sooner than notice something as glaring as whether or not he has a beard anymore! That would be expected of an INFJ, though, as we're very attuned to other people's emotions, but not so attuned to the physical details of our environments.

Of course, my brother thinks all of this is very funny because he's a Sensing type and is quick to notice these types of details. I used to think he was an INTP, then an INTJ, then an ISTP, and finally I figured out he was an ISTJ this past year. (I freely admit that I'm not very good at typing people, especially when they aren't very interested in typology themselves. )

I am an INFJ. It helped so much to discover this -- things started to make sense. INFJs are apparently the most extroverted of the introverts, and that describes me really well: definitely introverted, but can be chatty, especially in one-on-one conversations. And I am definitely an idealist

Has anyone ever taken the Sociotype.com test? Lately it's been causing some seismic activity in my perception of personality, or at least my own.

I've taken it three or four times and I keep getting either INFP with a Ne subtype or ENFP with an Fi subtype. (I should mention that, in Socionics, INFPs are INFj, and INFJs are INFp... confusing, I know.) Normally I would shake this off and assume that I was just getting faulty results because tests are imperfect, but I read a description of the INFP-Ne subtype a few months ago and was kind of unnerved by how familiar it was to me — especially compared to the INFJ subtype I had previously assumed was my type.

I wouldn't care so much, but I've identified as an INFJ for well over five years now. I don't understand what's happening. I've never said that I was great at typing people, but good grief.

One interesting note about the Sociotype quiz: in the final phase, you pick between pictures of random people based on who you'd rather be stuck with on a desert island. I'm not exactly sure what they are gauging there, but supposedly it eliminates bias in the test taker.

Was bored and looking for something to do, so I took the test and this is what I got:

INTJ
Introvert(44%) iNtuitive(6%) Thinking(6%) Judging(22%)

You have moderate preference of Introversion over Extraversion (44%)
You have slight preference of Intuition over Sensing (6%)
You have slight preference of Thinking over Feeling (6%)
You have slight preference of Judging over Perceiving (22%)

Frankly I just prefer to be referred to as "Crazy Cat Lady", but whatever