Alike, yet Different
How can INTJs have the same type code, yet be so different? Here’s some things to consider…
According to Dr. Harold Grant, we all develop proficiency with our conscious cognitive processes at different stages in our life.
According to Dr. John Beebe, our access to all 8 cognitive processes is a function of psychological necessity, possibly as the result of trauma.
According to Dr. Linda Berens, we exhibit learned behavior as a result of repeated use of the cognitive processes due to familial or societal norms. She calls this the “Adapted Self.” And we can also harness less-preferred cognitive processes depending on the needs of the moment, manifesting what she calls the “Contextual Self.” (Incidentally, it’s often the Adapted or Contextual Self that’s present when we fill out a personality assessment, leading to mis-typing, or apparent changes in type each time it’s done.)
Another factor to consider is that the cognitive processes are content-free, meaning that, (for example) just because all INTJs have Tertiary Introverted feeling, it doesn’t mean that the values stored therein are the same.
February 24th, 2009 at 11:56 am
I think there should be a page of quotes.
No plan survives its collision with reality. -S. Scott
February 24th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
Great idea!
February 26th, 2009 at 11:44 pm
This explains a lot. It appears to me lately that for various reasons, it’s been my Adapted Self — manifesting as INTJ — which has been showing up consistently in the MBTI results I’ve had over the years. But thanks to different lines of evidence I’ve been accumulating, it appears that I’ve been mistyped — that my “actual self” (if that’s the right phrase) is and always has been INFJ. But I’ve always been typecast (pun intended) into an INTJ role willy-nilly, whereas it never felt quite right to play that role. Comparing the two in greater depth and reviewing how I’ve actually applied the F/T dichotomy over the years (among quite a few other considerations) is helping me understand why.
One of the numerous clues (which I hope you’ll find amusing as I do) has to do with the way I respond to your Web site’s and your wife’s on the artistic level. I love the use of astronomical photography and appreciate the rigor of layout, content and writing style, but your wife and I both think and feel far more alike in the last three areas — as I believe our Web sites’ similar verbal, logical and artistic sensibilities show.
May 2nd, 2009 at 9:33 pm
John, wow, I have been feeling the same way! Pretty much all of my tests have shown me to be an INTJ. And I identify pretty strongly with the descriptions of this personality type. But I also identify very strongly with descriptions of INFJ, and I feel as though my core type is INFJ while externally I come across as an INTJ to most people. Though I guess it could be the other way around. At the moment I am not sure whether I favor one over the other.
How did you decide that your true type is INFJ? I’m not sure if I’ve ever met anyone who I’d describe as an INFJ, come to think of it…