Thursday, July 14, 2005

Please Understand Me

We are moved into the new place. The major moving took place on Friday, with the movers moving the big stuff in, and then on Saturday I sent Jaycel back to the old apartment to gather the little things up. I have managed to unpack and organize most everything, except a pile of clothes sitting in the bedroom.

So I am writing an entry in avoidance of the pile that awaits me.

I was reading J's blog this morning and felt compelled to take the Keirsey temperament sorter test. For those of you who may be unfamiliar with this, David Keirsey wrote this book that divides people into four main temperaments (based on the sixteen personality types set out in The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). Basically, you answer seventy questions and find out what your personality type is. I rediscovered the book as I was unpacking, and decided to take the test again. When I took the test in high school, I was what they call and ENFP - which told me all sorts of interesting things about my personality, things which were dead on, so I thought I would check to see if I had changed at all over the years.

Taking the test again, I discovered that I am now teetering between an INFJ and ENFJ (I and E represent introversion and extroversion by the way)

What does that tell us about me?

Well, one, I have changed somewhat as I have grown older. My temperament (NF) has remained the same, which makes sense, as this should be the core of who you are. But other aspects of my personality have changed. For example, I was very strongly an extroverted personality when I was younger, but I have withdrawn a bit as I have aged, and I no longer thrive off of social interaction. The change from P to J was also an extreme one, jumping from a person who hated deadlines and organization, to a person who prefers leading a scheduled, organized life.

Those traits combined with my Idealist temperament (N stands for intuitive and F for friendly) make me apt to be a teacher or counselor (hmmmm....what profession have I been involved in most of my adult life?).

Some other descriptions of my "type":

- "preoccupied with how those around them are feeling about themselves...want to do everything they can to keep people feeling good about themselves, to lift their spirits, to brighten their mood, to boost their morale"

- "seek out occupations in mentoring and advocating"

- "can be uncanny at discerning the nature of others' distress, at soothing those of low self-esteem, and at helping uncovering their latest potential"

- "can become caught up in others' troubles...can tire out"

- "believe in things easily...see good everywhere and in everyone"

- "hurt rather easily by those around them"

It is interesting to read, as many more of the descriptions in the book seem to fit (or at least that is what Jaycel tells me).

What personality type are you?


Listening to: Run, Freedom, Run by Urinetown: The Musical (Original Cast Recording)
Current Mood: strangely serene
Currently Reading: rereading Please Understand Me II by David Keirsey

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

so it seems I'm ESTJ... really it all seemed pretty accurate. Though the questions were hard to answer b/c alot of the answers I felt were both accurate & couldn't choose between the two.

Dee

Anonymous said...

INTJ here :) I took a huge personality profile last year through work that printed out a 40 page report with pretty graphs and the whatnot... send me your email address and I will send you a copy :)

jad3

amber said...

My sister, husband, and Dee are all the same personality type. I wonder what draws you people to my life (we really technically shouldn't be compatible). Perhaps it is the whole opposites attract thing. :)