My INFP friend challenged me

[Aryan]

It happened so one day, we were really bored and were just freaking out in our college, and this MBTI discussion popped
My friend, who is an INFP (which is why he really irritates me, although i'm not disturbed by all INFPs, any INFPs in this forum, sorry! :devil: ), said this MBTI system couldn't work.
I tried to explain to him how it was based on the preferences of our brain, and so on...
But he wont agree.
Guided on by his Fi, and impulses, he suddenly challenged me that he would become some other type, anything i would say. He said one can change and isnt confined to any type throughout his life. I said changes are temporary, and one returns to their normal personalities after sometime, but he wont agree (thats why he irritates me).
I said that he can just cover up his personality type but his inner mind would still be an INFP, but he didnt agree again.
I thought about suggesting a type change to ESTJ, but later gave in to ENTJ.

Will he ever succeed the challenge and become an ENTJ,
Who would win here the INTP :D (thats me) or the INFP ?

(Any INFPs here, plz dont try to support that guy, he's really a freak who carries on with his impulses, gosh i am still irritated! )

[Merkaba]

They say INFP's can put on the ESTJ suit without wasting considerable energy, though I doubt he could succesfully change. His Fi would probably hold him back. So I guess you would win.

[booyalab]

It happened so one day, we were really bored and were just freaking out in our college, and this MBTI discussion popped
My friend, who is an INFP (which is why he really irritates me, although i'm not disturbed by all INFPs, any INFPs in this forum, sorry! :devil: ), said this MBTI system couldn't work.
I tried to explain to him how it was based on the preferences of our brain, and so on...
But he wont agree.
Guided on by his Fi, and impulses, he suddenly challenged me that he would become some other type, anything i would say. He said one can change and isnt confined to any type throughout his life. I said changes are temporary, and one returns to their normal personalities after sometime, but he wont agree (thats why he irritates me).
I said that he can just cover up his personality type but his inner mind would still be an INFP, but he didnt agree again.
I thought about suggesting a type change to ESTJ, but later gave in to ENTJ.

Will he ever succeed the challenge and become an ENTJ,
Who would win here the INTP :D (thats me) or the INFP ?

(Any INFPs here, plz dont try to support that guy, he's really a freak who carries on with his impulses, gosh i am still irritated! )

NF's aren't impulsive, they're enthusiastic. (there's a difference). SPs are the impulsive ones. But anyway, even if your friend succeeds at being an ENTJ for awhile, it will have only proved that your friend can do it, not that anyone can. NFs are notoriously good at projecting themselves into other mindsets and superficially adapting someone else's emotional and/or mental state. The very fact that your INFP friend is capable of pretending to be another type, and their polar opposite- ESTJ, probably is not, speaks of the unique-ness of their type with relation to the other types. Find an ESTJ who would comply with this game and ask them to try to act like this INFP friend for as long as your INFP friend can act like them. If they're equally adept at it, then your friend is right. If your friend won't comply to doing their polar opposite type, it's likely they don't actually believe in their assertion...or they at least understand that Sensing and Intuition are inherent.

[Boneca]

The real question is why anyone would want to become an ENTJ... :ph34r:

[booyalab]

The real question is why anyone would want to become an ENTJ... :ph34r:

duh......the ability to do anything you want to people and not second-guess yourself or feel bad about it. *drools, then feels guilty*

[Aryan]

The real question is why anyone would want to become an ENTJ...
He wants to disprove the MBTI by changing his personality type, so i suggested him that 'cause i thought that would be too hard for him.

[Crazy]

Since the real change would have to come about in his inner mind, no one could ever know for sure but him

[Boneca]

The real question is why anyone would want to become an ENTJ... :ph34r:

duh......the ability to do anything you want to people and not second-guess yourself or feel bad about it. *drools, then feels guilty*
<rant> How nice can it be when all your projects fail, and you realise that everybody already told you that you'd fail and why, but you just never shut up long enough to listen? :D
Sorry, I just can't stand ENTJ's, that's all. </rant>

Anyway, I don't think it's possible to change your personality. But if you know a lot about MBTI, you could easily pretend to be another type. After all, that's what actors do, isn't it?

[ohnoaninfp]

My brother beleives the same thing that your friend said. I don't think you can change who you are no matter how hard you try.

[KoDeN]

I know 4 entj's my dad is one. He has a nasty habit of assuming that I know what he's talking about when he gives me instructions. And I have a nasty habit of second guessing even the parts that I do know. So we don't mix very well.

[evil kitten]

you could probably change yourself a little bit, but not entirely.

[Sackanaka]

I have wondered if it's possible to change personalities too, and whether or not I could at least change it on a superficial level with a convincing level of success. I started up a few other weblogs on xanga just to try it out. Too bad I quickly got bored and haven't touched them in a long while :p.

[Seraph]

No, a leopard can't change its spots...at least not for long. Well, anyway, the litmus test would be, throw him into a group of SJ's and see if he can take charge in 10 seconds flat.

[Jezebel]

With perhaps some rare exceptions, nobody is 100% I/E, 100% N/S, 100% T/F, and 100% J/P (I'm not talking about what some online test told you your percentage was, but saying that everyone uses both functions sometimes). It isn't as easy as putting everyone neatly into one of 16 categories and saying "this is what you're always like", because many people have tendencies of more than one type. Sometimes life events or realizations could even trigger someone to behave differently for a while. I also think the MBTI descriptions fit some folks more than others.

Maybe your friend is borderline on his preferences. Maybe he has good empathy skills and can relate to all the functions well. He could be a good actor. It doesn't really matter though, because I just don't think the bet is plausible unless you're planning on dragging this out for years. Short term change is easy-- it's what he prefers long term that matters.

[Arioch]

The real question is why anyone would want to become an ENTJ... :ph34r:

Because ENTJ's are far more capable then their sensor cousins.

Just kidding ;)

[Slider]

(Any INFPs here, plz dont try to support that guy, he's really a freak who carries on with his impulses, gosh i am still irritated! )

hmm, this is way off-topic but I think it's interesting, so I don't care. I don't think this is a correlation with T or F at all. Impulses, I mean. I follow whims all the time, I think it's more of a J/P difference. Maybe you mean that he let's his emotions run amuck? amuck amuck amuck. whims, yeeah.

[ohnoaninfp]

I am an INFP ad I don't support that guy. I know that you can't totally change who you are, no mater what you do.

[cuspuser]

i certainly think i've changed personality types ... as i read posts from INTP's who are in high school (or younger) and i think how hard it must've been to be this type of ours at that point in their lives as they do seem to have a certain sense of alienation that i didn't feel ... when i was younger i went from ESTX (very young) to XSTX (middle school) to IXTX (high school) and now INTX (university +) ... and i can't say for certain what changes might occur next ... i figure the S and N change came about after some formal training in philosophy and certain experiences that completely changed my world view from that of a naive realist ... the E to I i think is a natural change as most people are E's as children (aren't they?), mind you i don't think i could go back to being an E now, its just not in me, i think as you grow older that your type becomes more "set" but i wouldn't know that for certain yet ... thing is these surveys ask questions mostly about your opinions (and self-perceptions) and the opinions will change over time ... sometimes i think i could take the same test on two different days and get two very different results.

[Jezebel]

the E to I i think is a natural change as most people are E's as children (aren't they?)

I was definetly very 'I' as a child... even more than I am now.

[SensEye]

Same here. I dispute the theory that most people change as they age. Sure they may develop their inferior functions, but I doubt their core personality preferences change.