Merging types

[Avengardh]

Ok, so I had wanted to post about this for a bit. My parents are both ENTPs, however, they told me that when they were young (my age + 1) they were not E's. I am finding this kinda hard to understand, growing up was hard for me because they were always so E.

With their feelings, everything, so now I am wondering if gradually, over time, I will also become an E? Or were they always E's? My mom did tell me that when she had me, she REALLY turned into an E, before she was just really Introverted.

I can already pass as an E if you didn't know me well enough, so, what's up with this? Anyone experience this before? Any other comments??

~*Aven*~

[MacGuffin]

I don't think you can change a lot. Maybe if you are on the borderline.

Maybe your mom was shy, and mistook that for being introverted.

[Johnny]

This is also a really good question. I think both Jung and Myers-Briggs wish to assert that we consciously "hone" certain functions at the expense of others by our nature, and that nurture is not the most significant determining factor.

Maybe you can think of MBTI as an air traffic controller radar screen, something that can trace your movement relative to a fixed point (the MBTI model here). It's really up to you to find which point on the screen is Avengardh and which direction you wish (or are meant) to go.

Or maybe you can't see yourself clearly on the screen yet...which is perfectly fine. Maybe it doesn't work for you at all, or you think it does but it needs some tuning, or the tech needs to come in and do an overhaul, or... :D

[Birdsnest]

Yes, I think you can develope anayltical thought and drop some feeling if it doesn't help you along the way, or learn to express feeling more under certain circumstances that might not have been there before. I think you can round yourself out by adapting more of one or another types, but that your core is probably still the same underneath. I think I can and do change as time goes on, from childhood to teenhood to adulthood, I metamorph into other facets of myself. I was probably more F as a child and more T as an adult.

[EternalCynic]

Technically it is not a personality type, but a brain type. However, a person can change by way of adaption to their surroundings and what they need to deal with, etc. At least that's what I've been taught and whatnot.

[Vagabond]

I voted for ": P". :P

[int]

I tested INFP as a teen and found it fitting at the time. INTP seems more relevant over time.

My father said he used to be an I when he was younger as well.

[Vagabond]

Like int, I acted like an INFP 4w5 during teenage too; but I can't really say my type actually changed later, because when I recall myself before teenage, I see a little 5w4 INTx. Actually, maybe I was even easier detachable back then than I am now. So I suppose teenage with its extra hormones etc makes us more 'emotional' anyway, regardless of our type. Beneath all though, and if the F/T thing defines the way we reach our decisions and such, I can see my natural tendency was always a T, despite my increased emotionality during teenage, or my efforts to act on my feelings like 'normal' people did.

[CosmicDust]

Personality type changes, I think, are small and rare except in the cases of major head trauma like losing access to emotional processing centers of your brain due to surgery or something. The degree of each dimension might change, and for people who were pretty even, this could put them over one edge or the other.

I don't think I was any more emotional as a teenager to speak of, although in my earlier adolescence I did experiment with slacking off in school. I think I've been an INTP the whole time.

[Avengardh]

I used to be typed as an INTJ...but that changed.

Thanks to everyone who replied, this really gave me more insight into eveything.

And to Vagabond:

:p

~*Aven*~

[NGene]

Interesting. My ENTP hubby claims he was an INTP when he was younger.

I'm wondering if that's an ENTP or ESTP thing? During the times when they use more their second function, Ti, they probably spend a little more time inside their heads. Or, in the case of an intuitive, he/she might feel alienated from other people of the same age, which causes introverted behavior.

These are just my theories. Of course, when an ENTP behaves like an introvert, he/she still has the basic needs of an extravert, so that doesn't mean a type change.

I personally was an INFP when I was a young kid, became an INTJ during high school, am an INTP now, but am very much like an ENFP sometimes. However, I still think my basic type has been INTP all the time.

[INTrPosr]

Like any personality system, there is room for growth and variances to type. Thus, I think that we always remain our true type, however, may become less of of one dichotomy and more of another. In essence we adapt.

[jyakulis]

I Don't think you can change the middle 2 letters. I think The E/I and J/P are more subject to change though. But I'm not sure.....

[garak]

Just because you're emotional as a teenager doesn't mean you're an F. Just because you were less social when you were younger doesn't mean you were an I.

Every example people give of type "changing" seems more like a misinterpretation to me.

I was emotional and angsty as a teenager, but if I think about what an INTP is, I absolutely was still an INTP. Confused, hormone-driven, and generally a bit crazy, but still an INTP. Actually it was during that period that I started to really make my ISTJ dad feel stupid in arguments. He'd just dismiss it and go, "oh mister logical!"

Maybe changing type is possible, but I'm pretty skeptical.

[Edmond Zedo]

I think both Jung and Myers-Briggs wish to assert that we consciously "hone" certain functions at the expense of others by our nature, and that nurture is not the most significant determining factor.
Realizing you said this months ago, I think you're severely mistaken, at least about Jung, Mr. INTP>INFP>ISFP. Read up, G.

[QrioCT]

i know an INFJ who turned kinda INTJ. i dunno, i think maybe feelers turn into thinkers when bad stuff happen to them and they lose sensitiveness(or maybe it is just because she was in a bad mood all the time and got grouchy and less sensitive temporarily)...thats what i heard about her. i heard that the girl started having family problems. and she turned less sensitive, i think.

[Solo]

I think you can change over time. When I was younger I used to be and ENTP. Now I'm not. I don't think the types are permenant at all. You can't just say I'm going to become and ENFJ(change is never that easy)but it could/can/does happen.

[Arioch]

Meybe you just learn to use certain functions better.
For example a INTP who learns to use his secondairy function (Extrovert iNtuition) may seem to have grown more extrovert and may think he's become a ENTP when he's really just more developed.

[Edmond Zedo]

All I wanna do is to thank you
Even though I don't know who you are
You let me change lanes
When I was driving in my car

[cjs55]

Maybe.

[EdwinJefferson]

I was an INTP, and slowly I have become an INFP. I think. Maybe. I can't make my mind up what type I was. Or am now.

[CreativeChaos]

The lastest I've read is that your brain does not actually stop growing until about 18 or so. So when you are a teenager, you and your brain are still developing. I'm not sure you can get a good typing at that time.

I was born INFP and have always been so. I've was a people pleaser and camelian more so when I was younger. The older I get the more objective I get and the less emotional. (Of course you could just say that's an INFP developing the fourth function, thinking. I'm 45 and my life has followed the type theory pattern.)

I don't know. I don't see why we can't change. Where is the neurological "proof" that one can't change types? And where are the stats showing types over time? Is type really that hard-wired? Doesn't seem likely.

My mother-in-law had some grave health problems a while back. She was very mus an ESTJ. Now, she acts like an ESFP. I like her a lot better now. She's really funny. But my answer is who really knows? I tend to question the assumption that we can't. But I haven't changed my type.

[MasterMerk]

The brain is plastic, who knows if we can truley change type. At this time I agree with onmymind_too's take on it. You don't "change your type", you just learn to utilise the less honed functions in your type more effectively. So if an INTP were to use his Ne and Fe more and more and more, Ti and Si may take a backseat and he may seem like an ENTP. It seems as though the I/E switch would be the most plausible if type change is possible at all.

[BoA]

I think that there is a bit of a biological component to the experience... I am convinced I have always really been INFP... however, I think via hormone changes over my life I've moved from INFP into INTP and back INFP. Its sort of like in my Teens, 20s and early 30's I flipped on the F/T axis and became quite T...

Bo...
Bo Ahlberg - Issaquah, Washington, USA ( 47n32 122w02 )
http://homepage.mac.com/bahlberg/BoBio.html
MBTI:........ INFp (I:60%, N:80%, F:70%, p:90%)
Enneagram:... 9w1/9w8 (Referee/Dreamer)
ANSIR:....... Visionary, Eccentrik, Scintillator
TickleUPT:... Seeker/Golden

[avidApathy]

Yes, theres a lot of talk about hormones and chemicals, but what about experiences. Over time everyone has new and radically different experiences from those they have had when they were younger. This can change the way we view the world. All those stepping stone memories affect our sceptisim or our impulsivness, change how emotional we are or how detatched. BUT i do think everyone has a type set up by our brains/bodies, and we tend to gravitate to this type the older we become. (im only 17 and know there are tons of changes i have experiences and will continue to/am right now, in my type, but i think deep down i am a INTP even when i am forced to function differently)

[INTrPosr]

Our types don't change, we simply become more proficient in using the certain type functions which produces our desired results. On most indicators, specifically the MBTI II, the administerer stresses that the test should be taken based not on how we think others see us or what we would like to be. The test suggest that you consider how you are when you are alone and at peace. All types are capable of adapting and as social animals we all attempt to assimilate in some form. I say this only to respond that my dad was totally different when I was growing up. Now, I see that it was his means of adapting to the environment he found himself in. Now in his twilight years with no external stresses he is so Fe-ish, as oppose to being IST-ish when I was growing up.

[Eileen]

My father is convinced that he's turned INFP from INTP, but I am almost positive that he's just learned to use his inferior Fe.

When I was a teenager, I tested as an ENFJ. I am not, nor have I ever been, an extravert, but when you're a teenager, that's what you think you're supposed to be.

[Clara]

Our types don't change, we simply become more proficient in using the certain type functions which produces our desired results.
... not on how we think others see us or what we would like to be.... consider how you are when you are alone and at peace. All types are capable of adapting and as social animals we all attempt to assimilate in some form.
Eventually, maybe this will have been said again, often enough... :blink:
Thanks, INTrPosr, for saying this so eloquently, as needed.

[Clara]

Avengardh, :blush: (sorry!) The question is well-put ( I just suddenly realized that my post, just above, might have seemed to suggest otherwise - I think it's both timely and well-phrased, and from the pages of response, so do others.)

[CreativeChaos]

My father is convinced that he's turned INFP from INTP, but I am almost positive that he's just learned to use his inferior Fe.

When I was a teenager, I tested as an ENFJ. I am not, nor have I ever been, an extravert, but when you're a teenager, that's what you think you're supposed to be.

Exactly, Eileen. I am INFP and in my 30's developed a much stronger S. I am much more "practical" oriented now. I "feel" different than I used to be because of this development. I know I have changed. My sensing side is much stronger, but I am a long way from having a sensing side as strong as a sensor. And I have NOT changed types. Sensing is the tertiary function of an INFP.

When I took the "who would you be attracted to" test. I found myself answering more S and more T than is really my type. That is because I have develped my S and am now working on my T. Being more "objective" in personal situations. So "T" is on my mind more. And I see it as MORE important than "F", but it's just because I'm at that stage of life to developing my weakest function Te (or Ti, I forget).

Thus, I would say it is more difficult for an older person to determine thier true type. The devlopment of the different functions would make that more difficult. I first took the test when I was in my late 20's. If I took the test for the first time, now, I think I would have some difficulties deciding what my preferences are.

[Architectonic]

I don't really believe anyone can change their fundamental type. You can certainly continue to develop the other judging and percieving preferences as you become more mature (which is an ongoing development throughout the whole of your life) though.

Any "flipping" between types is generally due to misdiagnosis of your type, immaturity (lack of development of your fundamental preferences) and so on.

A significant number of ENs that I have spoken to have also claimed that for a significant portion of their childhood and or teens that they were in fact rather shy.