It seems like most everyone has had enough interest in personality types to have taken at least one of the tests related to it. The most common of these is Meyers-Briggs 16 Personalities Test(INTP, ENFJ, etc.). Almost everyone has taken this test and has some sort of guess of what their personality type is.

Well, first off, I must break some unfortunate news to you, odds are that what the test gave you isn't actually what you are.

The issue is that it is nearly impossible to take a test about your self and be perfectly objective. This is also why people believe that their personality type actually changes over time. Something as small as having watched an inspiring video an hour or two before taking the test can drastically change the results.

But I don't want to spend all my time telling everyone they're wrong, so let me get into the details of personality types and maybe help you understand how they work and what you might be!

Since this stuff gets very complicated very quickly I'll try to explain it using an example personality type: INTJ(which happens to be my personality type).

Starting very simply, the first letter, in this case 'I', is Introversion(I'm an introvert) as opposed to Extroversion(I'm not an extrovert), and the third letter, 'T', means that my personality type is Thinking dominated rather than Feeling dominated. Next, the second letter refers to Intuition, while the other option is Sensing. This is all very rapid fire and probably isn't that new or interesting but the last letter is where I have to get into what makes personality types difficult to talk about.

The last letter 'J' means that my primary Judging function is extroverted, instead of my primary Perceiving function('P'). So now everyone is confused as to what I mean by functions and Judging and Perceiving. Now this is the part where I tell you that the letters you connect to your personality are probably not what you think they are. Their primary purpose is to tell us what functions each type has and their order(sorry I'll get into what the functions are now). Functions are what makes personality types, they put all the different ways of thinking and seeing things into eight different categories.

What are these eight categories? I'm so glad you asked!(I actually feel very indifferent about whether you asked or not, but the show must go on) These categories are Sensing(extroverted and introverted), Intuition(e & i), Feeling(e & i), and Thinking(e & i). You may have noticed a trend here, they all have extroverted and introverted sides.

So let me trot back over to our example type, INTJ. Every personality type has four of the eight functions, one of each main category. So, as an INTJ, I have Introverted Intuition, Extroverted Thinking, Introverted Feeling, and Extroverted Sensing(in that order).

So first is Introverted Intuition, let me attempt to explain what that means. Introverted Intuition is the ability to see patterns within things and construct an image of something based on that pattern. However this is typically done subconsciously, not consciously, so when we try to explain why/how we got to the answer we did, it is nearly impossible to do so. For example, in a social interaction I may subconsciously notice a lot of minor details like eye movements, hand movements, patterns of speech, pauses in conversation, subjects that people seem to want to talk about, etc. All of these observations coalesce into an image of what I may think somebody is thinking or feeling. However I wouldn't be able to tell someone how I came to a conclusion even though I know on instinct that it is right. Introverted Intuition goes much deeper than that, but I am not qualified to go any further than that, soooo moving on!

Next is Extroverted Thinking. This function is all about applying ideas to the real world and assigning roles for the realization of those ideas. It also means that you will often bounce ideas off of other people in order to refine them. Essentially it is the ability to make decisions using logic.

Next is Introverted Feeling. Those who have introverted feelings tend to deal with their emotions internally rather than talking with other people about them. Introverted feelers have a strong sense of how their own emotions work. The entire point of this function is to overthink emotions and sometimes this can be a good thing, but other times, not so much.

Next is Extroverted Sensing. One of the easiest ways to get a basic understanding of this is to think of the typical college student who goes to parties and drinks and all that jazz. More generally though, Extrovert Sensing is related to taking in the world around you. Looking at the beauty of nature, enjoying the rush of wind across your face, etc.

In the interest of actually holding the attention of my readers I'll cut this article off here and, next week, I'll write the second part where I'll try to talk about the other four functions: Extrovert Intuition, Introverted Thinking, Extroverted Feeling, and Introverted Sensing. I'll also get a bit into how important the ordering of the functions are. But for now, thanks for reading!

And here's the link to the second part! https://www.theodysseyonline.com/personality-types-explained-part-2