Tuesday, February 01, 2005

It's been a little while since I've taken the Myers-Briggs personality test. I talked to one of my law professors about it, which prompted me to go back and look at it again. Historically, I've found myself to be an ESTJ.

However, I think I've moved over to slightly more "I" (as opposed to "E") and "N" (as opposed to "S".) That means I remain solidly in the "T" and "J" camps, but depending on how I feel at the moment, I can end up an ENTJ, an ISTJ, or even an INTJ! (Supposedly, C.S. Lewis and Jane Austen were both INTJs... I would not be ashamed to be among that company.)

Obtaining entirely accurate results in so-called personality tests is difficult in large part probably because we can't avoid the fact that, when we choose answers, they are a reflection of our own self-perception, and not how others perceive us. However, I think this inaccuracy can be mitigated when the test, such as Myers Briggs, attempts to measure our preferences rather than our abilities. That is, not that you act perfectly like the personality type, but that this tends to be your more natural disposition or the functions that you prefer to use most often. "E" types enjoy many social interactions, but this doesn't mean they can't sit down and spend quality alone time... it just takes more effort for them than the "I" types. Also, "S" types are also capable of abstract thought, but it is not as natural as the "N" types. And so on, and so forth.

Looking over the descriptions of the different types, I'm guessing I'm a good mix of ESTJ and ENTJ.


2 Comments:

At 3:41 PM, Blogger A Very Small Animal said...

Hi Anne,

In torts today, the professor mentioned a study that took the Myers-Briggs of first year law students and of faculty members. The students' profiles were evenly distributed among the sixteen possibilities, and the law professors' were clustered in one area (she didn't say which one). She concluded that law attracted a certain personality type, whereas a few of us questioned if law perhaps change people's personalities.

That being said, I retook the exam - INFP. We'll see how/whether that changes in the next two and a half years...

 
At 1:23 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi anne!

wow. my boss is a TOTAL entj. i kind of flipped out when i was reading the description! he has used several of the phrases on the page multiple times...

now i keep trying to compare him with you in my head -- it's kind of funny :) he's this zany guy with crazy, curly dark brown hair, glasses, walks with this rolling bounce, and shows up to work in dress shirts (and sometimes suit jackets too) but always ends up looking kind of rumpled. he's great!

nettie

 

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