Personality Types and well, a lot of things...

[Henry Dorsett Case]

Not surprisingly, I scored ESTJ - Supervisor Guardian. In my day-to-day life, it's rather obvious (I was a team leader who often shielded my team from those above while maintaining a good grip on them). As relates to my spiritual life, I think it's similar. My path is highly personal, but I think if my (for lack of a better word) deities told me it would be okay to teach another, I think I'd be more than able to take that role without question.

I'll say that I do have the fierce devotion that ESTJ's are apparently known for - though it's a fragile thing. Too much of a swing in the nature of a group and I'm out. I think this is why I want to look for a huge firm when I complete Law school (hopefully sometime before 2015) - "restructuring" at a 1500+ member firm is a multi-year plan with consultants and timetables and flowcharts and compensation for the inconveniences. "Restructuring" at a 35-member company is "we got someone in this position who will do what we tell them do, your contract be damned". But if you get too big, "restructuring" means "we're collapsing under our own weight and want to slow the death proccess". It's the same in my religious life - I don't enjoy being a part of a group that is too set in stone, but I also don't like the flighty.  

[Pelta]

TeaDidikai

missmagpie

The idea of one having a simple, single personality type is a little too boxed, I think.

I can't help but giggle when I read this. The only thing I can ever think of when I see this idea presented is "Four". mrgreen

Eh. The enneagram couldn't decide what I was either. I was an even split between five types.

As to how the ENFJ pertains to my spirituality, Idealism has easily ******** me over before. Otherwise, the personality type seems to have more in bearing to interpersonal relationships and dealing with social situations. These all have an indirect effect on my spirituality, but nothing too driving.

I'm a damn good listener, very good at doing what I'm told, and great at taking the initiative to do what needs to be done when the time is right. Intuition = heart .  

[Kal Eldritch]

Nuri

Sovereign of Darkness

INTP - Architect Rational

Introverted? hmm...

Other than that, they hit the nail on the head. It almost makes me feel like an easy first chapter book O_o

Introversion deals with whether being with people gives you energy or depletes it. For me, Introversion is a way of life!

I love how we have a bunch of people with the smallest percentage of personality types represented. Nice.

But I did want to know how you think this impacts your spirituality/religion. Kind of the whole reason, not just to take another interweb meme.

Quite simply, it makes it harder for me to believe in anything spiritual. Since everything that I believe in is mostly a proveable, mesureable thing, anything that is as abstract an idea as omnipotent beings, magic, ghosts, etc. is a questionable pursuit. But I try, because there are things that I do have faith in...I just seem to question them a lot more ninja

All in all, the skeptic in me drives myself to read. Read a lot. If I am to delve into the unfathomable plane of theology, I feel obligated to get it right the first time. I don't care if you're a high-priest of whatever. That doesn't make you immune to misinformation and your opinion any more right. So I always search, and I'm never satisfied because I question even the tiniest inconsistancy in an answer burning_eyes

But alas, I'm inherantly sluggish at anything not laid down right in front of me, so I'm kind of slow off of the line.  

[StrawberryGumiho]

INTJ

I like things to make sense.
I like organization.
I like facts and principles, because it makes it easier to expand my understanding when things have meaning. Rather than being worthless with no meaning. Without meaning and value, its nothing more than igiaheiafnofuth. Nonsense.

I like what works, and using what works as a basis to advance my understanding of it, how it works and how to make it work better.

This aids in my spirituality in that I percieve what works, how to make it work in todays standards so as to be practical and still effective.

It helps me to discern between the useful information and the bullshit people throw up every day. It helps me to function objectively, rather than stumble around cluelessly waiting for someone to dumb life and information down for me.  

[Starlock]

I took one of these a very long time ago... a real certified paper-and-pencil version. Nowadays I test as INTJ, which honestly pegs me pretty well. What's more fun is to take a variety of personality profiling tests; the Big Five is more commonly used nowadays and if people are interested I can post up a link to other personality tests that are used in the field.

It all reflects on my practice seeing as how its who I am. There's much that could be said, but I'll spare you a text wall about me and just point out one thing.

Quote:

the essence of INTJs is builder - a builder of systems and the applier of theoretical models.

The application of systems and models in religion would be building the theology and a working system of magic and metaphor. I started in Neopaganism knowing that ultimately I'd be constructing my own system and that's the fun of it. I love the research that goes into doing that. If something in the system doesn't jar, throw it out and revise it. The theoretical part is teh awesomeness.... whee

To speak more broadly on the issue, it's good to keep in mind that generally personality accounts for the minority of a person's behavior; the majority actually goes to the sittuation (or at least that's what much of modern psych is indicating). We all know we act differently in different sittuations, so it IS possible that your general personality pattern signified by this test does not well reflect your religious practice. Descriptions for the types are also somewhat different depending on where you look; I'm not sure if I wholely trust the site Nuri provided given the URL of origin. The good temprament sorters you generally have to pay for. sweatdrop  

[maenad nuri]

Starlock

To speak more broadly on the issue, it's good to keep in mind that generally personality accounts for the minority of a person's behavior; the majority actually goes to the sittuation (or at least that's what much of modern psych is indicating). We all know we act differently in different sittuations, so it IS possible that your general personality pattern signified by this test does not well reflect your religious practice.

Which I have repeatedly said throughout the topic. smile

Quote:

Descriptions for the types are also somewhat different depending on where you look; I'm not sure if I wholely trust the site Nuri provided given the URL of origin. The good temprament sorters you generally have to pay for. sweatdrop

I compared the descriptions to the ones in my book (I own several copies). It's not word for word, as that would be plagiarism, but it is the same. I used to have a really good sorter, but it did go pay, so I went looking for one that was pretty much the same as well.

What is the big 5?  

[Starlock]

Nuri

What is the big 5?

Aah... sounds good. The Big Five is one of the more commonly used personality tests nowadays that measures you on what is now believed to be the five main dynamics of the human personality which are:

1) Extroversion --> a people person
2) Agreeableness --> cooperativity as opposed to antagonistic
3) Concientiousness --> duitifulness as opposed to randomness
4) Neuroticism --> tendancy to suffer from unstable states (ie, depression)
5) Openness to Experience --> culturedness and curiosity

Sometimes they're described a bit differently (ie, extroverison might be reversed-scaled as introversion instead) but that's the basic layout. There are a few other personality test formats as well out there, the one you provided being one of them. There's also Cattell's 16PF test (I kinda like that one for some reason, not sure why) and the NEO-PI which is basically an expanded version of the Big Five. Probably a few more but those are the ones I'm most familiar with.  

[Deoridhe]

Note: extroversion in the big five and extroversion on the Myers-Briggs scale have different meanings. Myers-Briggs works from a Jungian standpoint; the big five don't.

In terms of Jung, the introversion/extroversion split is between where you get your energy from. If you like being around people, but are tired afterward and glad to escape to your quiet room and some seclusion, you're an introvert. If you get tired and drawn while alone but gain energy from going out and about with people, you're an extrovert.

The big five meaning is the more traditional friendly/outgoing versus quiet/shy/ingoing.


The two have a wide overlap, but some introverts can scan as extroverts on the big five test due to the difference in what they're measuring.

Now, Deo's tedious psychology rant over...

I'm an INFP and a Four (three wing) on the Enneagram. However, I was raised by and with INTJs, so despite my rather extreme F I have a real appreciation for T skills and utilize them as much as I can.

The biggest impact my personality has on my spiritual practice is along the P/J line; I have real difficulty getting anything done in a timely manner. I'm always adding things in, changing things at the last minute, etc... It's a major weakness, and one I've barely made inroads in. Left alone, I'll putter along gatheirng up stuff until the end of time and be shocked when Odin comes and says, "Enough, wrap it up!".

I think my heavy IN influences my somewhat poetic nature. I think in metaphor and symbol and abstract meaning (which is hellish for trying to memorize things, let me tell you). When I say something like: "Come drink with me," it carries with it not only the "here, have some liquid," but also "here, I offer hospitality" (with all hospitality implies) and "here, I share with you my spirit" (I identify greatly with water and have a number of tiny rituals around it which I've done for years) and "here, I sacrifice this to you". A lot of what I say and do has underlying meanings which I don't think many people pick up on, and which - to be honest - I'm rather glad most people don't. I'm also drawn to symbols - masks, keys, coins, fans, snakes, roses - which is part of a deeper dialogue I'm having with myself all of the time, primarily symbolically. I am a mystic, and I think this is reflected in my registering as IN; mystics tend to be selfish, self-centered, introverted sorts, who aren't quite sane.  

[Fiddlers Green]

I'm not particularly fond of this test...
For some of the questions, I am directly in the middle.
I tend to favour the ones wiht a more sliding scale, or at least a middle option...

ENFJ Teacher Idealist.
Your 70.0% Extroverted and 30.0% Introverted
Your 10.0% Sensing and 90.0% Intuitive
Your 30.0% Thinking and 70.0% Feeling
Your 55.0% Judging and 45.0% Preceiving

The bits about guilt and idealization are fairly spot on tho... sweatdrop

Usually I come up ENFP, Social Philosopher.
However, it is always a close run on the Judging/Percieving scale.  

[Poisen_Lotus]

Your type is: INTP - Architect Rational

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Your 40.0% Extroverted and 60.0% Introverted
Your 35.0% Sensing and 65.0% Intuitive
Your 70.0% Thinking and 30.0% Feeling
Your 25.0% Judging and 75.0% Preceiving  

[Verene]

I came up as a INTJ - Mastermind Rational, however in the past when I have taken this test. (and I've taken it several times) I usually end up either an INFJ or INFP. So I think perhaps my personality varies by the day and by what I have been exposed to recently in my life.

I'm afraid I can't really comment on how this has affected my spiritual path, becaue "What" that spiritual path is is something that I am still trying to decipher.

Perhaps this quote from the INTJ type explains it. " This type is not likely to succumb to he magic of slogans, watchwords, or shibboleths" I may see a blurb about a religion or about a belief set, but I want to find out more, because I have issues trusting the surface impression, and the deeper in I get, both the more intrigued and often times disquieted I am. Whenever I find something that "looks" promising a direction that I feel I can try, when I learn more I begin to see all of the pieces that I can not make mesh and that pluck a sour note with in my very being.

I guess I do agree with the description of "They will trust their intuitions about others when making choices of friends and mates, even in the face of contradictory evidence and pressures applied by others." Because I can't alwasy say "why" I believe something is right or why I believe it is wrong, sometimes I have conrete evidence, but many times I don't, there is just something in my gut feeling that tell me it is so.  

[Secret Of The Moon]

I took the test and heres my results

Your type is: INFP - Healer Idealist
Your 50.0% Extroverted and 50.0% Introverted
Your 15.0% Sensing and 85.0% Intuitive
Your 30.0% Thinking and 70.0% Feeling
Your 35.0% Judging and 65.0% Preceiving  

[With Motion]

I'm also an INFP- Healer Idealist.
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Your 20.0% Extroverted and 80.0% Introverted
Your 15.0% Sensing and 85.0% Intuitive
Your 10.0% Thinking and 90.0% Feeling
Your 10.0% Judging and 90.0% Preceiving

I'm reading the description...I love it ^^ It's also giving me some introspective things to ponder.


This would probably influence my religion...if I had a religion... crying  

[Aki Norikaeru]

Wow I got ENFP. I feel special being part of only 5% of the population. It is right on the head and it can explain why I was drawn to the practice of learning/finding the reason behind events and my “inability” to do things regularly. Thanks, this helped me understand myself a little bit more.
(On a personal note I think the fact that I’m already in mid-life mode is very funny. Also I thought I was an INTJ but now I'm not that sure.) xd