I felt as if someone was peering into my mind, listening, nodding to, and understanding my innermost thoughts. It knew me better than any of my closest friends, parents, or relatives. My expressions swayed like a pendulum from uncontrollable bouts of laughter to almost tears and I'm still not exactly sure why. I'm describing my first real experience with The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
You probably took the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, also known as the MBTI personality test, sometime in high school; I remember taking it in ninth grade. Although I had already completed the test years ago, I now believe my personality was not yet fully-formed in ninth grade so the results really didn't seem to align with my thoughts or actions. The test didn't leave much of an impression on me and I soon forgot about it.
That is, until this past weekend. I can't remember how I stumbled upon the online MBTI test, but I fatefully decided to take the ten minutes to complete it again. The results amazed me.
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I am an INTP personality, the letters standing for introversion, intuition, thinking, perceiving. The first element, introversion (I), means someone who is mostly quiet or reserved. Intuition (N) means a person wishes to look at the big picture/ideas rather than focus on details. A Thinking (T), as opposed to feeling, oriented person prefers to act on reason or logic instead of feelings or personal preference. And finally, perception (P) refers to a person who likes to keep open options in favor of sticking to a rigid plan.
I do agree that these adjectives would be good to describe me, but this is not the part of the results that seemed so incredible. After all, "introverted, intuitive, perceiving, thinking"... these are words that could be applied to a huge variety of people. I didn't yet realize that these words were just mere overview.
The results then began to delve into my everyday mannerisms, core values, and inner thoughts. It knew how incredibly disorganized I am, my shyness in front of strangers, and my need to spend time alone. It knew how I always tend to assiduously "drill" complex ideas and actions down to their bare, core, logical frames. It knew about my adept skill at reading people, analyzing their every spoken word, behavior, gesture, article of clothing, subconscious tick, etc. until I determine the subject’s actual motivations or intentions. The test knew my preference for candor and my disdain for strong displays of emotion, my seeming ineptness at providing emotional comfort, and my tendencies to make short, sometimes humorous quips at the little, absurd things in life (like why is so much emphasis put on the spoken word, when so much action is determined by the unspoken thoughts, thoughts lying just…beneath…the surface).
Perhaps the results amazed me so much because I haven't really talked to anyone about these elements of my personality. Yet, after a mere ten-minute questionnaire, this test understood me so thoroughly well.
I often have felt like a foreign body, alone and removed, as if I'm looking in on everyone else from afar. But now, I've learned that INTPs make up around three percent of the population. This has given me both a sense of pride because I'm part of a small group, and a warm feeling of belonging because, as it turns out, there are others like me out there.
I implore anyone who hasn't taken the MBTI personality test to try it out; maybe you'll learn something extraordinary too.
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