A Real Personality Profile of a Lighweight Backpacker (instead of demographic sketch)

[Denis Hazlewood]

Calvin (of Calvin and Hobbs). What the he**, it's got me this far. Now, where did I put my Transmagorifier?

[Ali e]

Introverted 44
Sensing 6
Feeling 75
Perceiving 33

Artisan™ Portrait of the Composer (ISFP)

Brooke Shields
Britney Spears
John Travolta
Ashton Kutcher
Donald Trump

Completely different than the first time I took it. I retook it so my wife and I could take the marriage test. Damn, we passed. Guess we're stuck together. :)

[Huzefa @ Blue Bolt Gear]

I-67
I-38
T-88
P-22

* distinctively expressed introvert
* moderately expressed intuitive personality
* very expressed thinking personality
* slightly expressed perceiving personality

[Ken Thompson]

Introverted 89
Sensing 1
Thinking 38
Judging 44

Like it or not it pretty much sounds like me, more or less. Now I want to be alone and think about this before I pass judgement. Your opinion doesn't really matter to me ;-),

[Brian UL]

INTJ

Introverted 33
Intuitive 50
Thinking 1
Judging 22

Not that these test mean much, I mean most questions did not even have a clear yes/no answer like all questionnaires. Some question were not clear and needed further explanation.

-Computer Programming – who are they kidding? not me!
Natural Science ,Natural Science Education, Engineering (we have enough of those on here already),Management ,Entrepreneurship ,Law.
I studied art in college!

[Brian UL]

"Ben,
You could always go back and retake the test. ;}'

-Every time Bush wins something someone wants a recount!

[Ryan Jordan]

Ummm….another INTJ.

My goodness, we may need a support group.

[Timothy Cristy]

INTJ also. Good thing I am a scientist, unlike some above who are in the wrong profession :).

We have applicants take this test and 90% applying for one of our scientist positions are INTJ.

[Diplomatic Mike]

ISTP. Pretty much described me! :)

[Cayenne Redmonk]

INTP
It suggests careers like "Natural Science, Information Systems Specialist, and Computer Programmer". I do academic research in natural science, write software to solve my problems, and UNIX system administration.

Famous peoples include Newton, Bohr, Nostradamus, Descartes, Pascal, Einstein, and Tiger Woods.

INTPs are pessimist, continually haunted in our thoughts by all the ways things might fail.

[Jesse Glover]

INFJ

I 67%
I 38%
F 12%
J 1%

Counselors are scarce, little more than one percent of the population, and can be hard to get to know, since they tend not to share their innermost thoughts or their powerful emotional reactions except with their loved ones.

This sounds like me BUT I don't understand how I can be such an A-hole and still be INFJ.

[Miguel Arboleda]

INFP

Introverted 67
Intuitive 62
Feeling 88
Perceiving 17

Very much describes me. Even the famous personalities, all of whom I admire:

Immanual Kant, William Shakespeare, Ludwig Beethoven, Pearl Buck, Arthur C. Clark

I may not be able to get the tarp up, but I can guarantee that I can FEEL just how badly thw storm is going to keep us up all night!

[Daniel Fosse]

INTJ here. I'm so common. I am average height, I wear medium clothes and I live a middle/middle class lifestyle. I'm also nearly middle aged. I can never find shoes in my size because I have an average foot size. I drive a mid-sized car and I like my steak done medium. Now it looks like my personality is average. This does not make me upset or happy.

[Bill Fornshell]

ENTJ (corrected) – interesting.

Hey Ben,

Hillary Clinton, Napoleon, Margret Thatcher, — Bill Gates and a few others.

Fieldmarshall – sounds good to me.

[Brian Morgan]

INTJ

[Kathleen B]

ISTJ

I = 100 (Does this mean I should hike solo?)
S = 50
T = 75
J = 67

By the way Bill, there's no such thing as an "S" in the 4th category. Try a P or a J. Sorry, but the "S" in me focuses on details like that. I know another ISTJ, and we agree our conversations would drive anyone else nuts.

[Bill Fornshell]

Hi Kathleen,

I guess I need to learn how to read my own handwritting. You are right it is a "J".

You don't need to hike solo just bring along a set of ear plugs for each of the folks you hike with.

[tommy d]

I don't know about anybody else, but the results thus far have been really interesting to me. Clearly, when a personality type is found in just 1% of the general population, yet occurs in a much higher percent of this ULB population, it seems like something is different here in this community. I look forward to sitting back and watching more results get posted.

vino vampire!

[t.darrah]

54-1-57-73

[Greg Mihalik]

INTJ

The 'career path' reads like my resume.

[Jack H.]

ISFJ

You are:

* slightly expressed introvert
* moderately expressed sensing personality
* slightly expressed feeling personality
* slightly expressed judging personality

[Joe Westing]

Here's something I found that is helpful in understanding the test results:

Many versions of the MBTI and related instruments reveal a “strength of preference” score beside each of the 4 letters in the code. This score is simply an indication of how sure you were about answering the questions the way you did. These scores are primarily intended for the type professional administering the instrument to use when assessing the true type of the client. They are NOT an indication of how “strong” you are at “doing” any of the functions!

The MBTI is based on Jung’s theory of psychological type, which posits a dichotomous preference between the pairs of functions. A low score on any dimension does NOT mean that you can easily flip between them, or that you’re not sure which you are — all it means is that the prevailing conditions that influenced the way you answered the questions meant that you were unsure about some of the answers you gave. It simply means that your contextual or developed self was intruding into the answers that your core self would have given.

If you answer the instrument more than once over a period of time, you may find that you get different values in these scores. This is normal and is merely an indication of the different environmental factors at work — it does NOT mean you are “becoming more INTJ” or “less INTJ”. What’s significant is that the basic code should stay the same.

[Joe Clement]

I'm just glad is didn't turn out a –

DORK

Wait, maybe I did.

[Jim Sweeney]

Another INTJ here.

A quick search on the internet yields:

"To outsiders, INTJs may appear to project an aura of "definiteness", of self-confidence. This self-confidence, sometimes mistaken for simple arrogance by the less decisive, is actually of a very specific rather than a general nature; its source lies in the specialized knowledge systems that most INTJs start building at an early age. When it comes to their own areas of expertise — and INTJs can have several — they will be able to tell you almost immediately whether or not they can help you, and if so, how. INTJs know what they know, and perhaps still more importantly, they know what they don't know."

This may explain why these forums are so useful, so full of freely given, good, "non-positional" information. I think the INTJ type is as eager to learn something new as he is to impart something he knows.

Of course, this is not to minimize the contribution of other types. I don't really know much about the various permutations– Meyers-Briggs is not one of my specialized knowledge systems! :>)

[Tim Cheek]

Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are just trying to be nice?

If so, do you tell this person he is "too serious," or ask if he is okay? Regard him as aloof, arrogant, rude? Redouble your efforts to draw him out?

If you answered yes to these questions, chances are that you have an introvert on your hands—and that you aren't caring for him properly. Science has learned a good deal in recent years about the habits and requirements of introverts. It has even learned, by means of brain scans, that introverts process information differently from other people (I am not making this up). If you are behind the curve on this important matter, be reassured that you are not alone. Introverts may be common, but they are also among the most misunderstood and aggrieved groups in America, possibly the world.

I know. My name is Jonathan, and I am an introvert.

Oh, for years I denied it. After all, I have good social skills. I am not morose or misanthropic. Usually. I am far from shy. I love long conversations that explore intimate thoughts or passionate interests. But at last I have self-identified and come out to my friends and colleagues. In doing so, I have found myself liberated from any number of damaging misconceptions and stereotypes. Now I am here to tell you what you need to know in order to respond sensitively and supportively to your own introverted family members, friends, and colleagues. Remember, someone you know, respect, and interact with every day is an introvert, and you are probably driving this person nuts. It pays to learn the warning signs.

What is introversion? In its modern sense, the concept goes back to the 1920s and the psychologist Carl Jung. Today it is a mainstay of personality tests, including the widely used Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. Introverts are not necessarily shy. Shy people are anxious or frightened or self-excoriating in social settings; introverts generally are not. Introverts are also not misanthropic, though some of us do go along with Sartre as far as to say "Hell is other people at breakfast." Rather, introverts are people who find other people tiring.

Extroverts are energized by people, and wilt or fade when alone. They often seem bored by themselves, in both senses of the expression. Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cell phone. In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially "on," we introverts need to turn off and recharge. My own formula is roughly two hours alone for every hour of socializing. This isn't antisocial. It isn't a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating. Our motto: "I'm okay, you're okay—in small doses."

How many people are introverts? I performed exhaustive research on this question, in the form of a quick Google search. The answer: About 25 percent. Or: Just under half. Or—my favorite—"a minority in the regular population but a majority in the gifted population."

Are introverts misunderstood? Wildly. That, it appears, is our lot in life. "It is very difficult for an extrovert to understand an introvert," write the education experts Jill D. Burruss and Lisa Kaenzig. (They are also the source of the quotation in the previous paragraph.) Extroverts are easy for introverts to understand, because extroverts spend so much of their time working out who they are in voluble, and frequently inescapable, interaction with other people. They are as inscrutable as puppy dogs. But the street does not run both ways. Extroverts have little or no grasp of introversion. They assume that company, especially their own, is always welcome. They cannot imagine why someone would need to be alone; indeed, they often take umbrage at the suggestion. As often as I have tried to explain the matter to extroverts, I have never sensed that any of them really understood. They listen for a moment and then go back to barking and yipping.

Are introverts oppressed? I would have to say so. For one thing, extroverts are overrepresented in politics, a profession in which only the garrulous are really comfortable. Look at George W. Bush. Look at Bill Clinton. They seem to come fully to life only around other people. To think of the few introverts who did rise to the top in politics—Calvin Coolidge, Richard Nixon—is merely to drive home the point. With the possible exception of Ronald Reagan, whose fabled aloofness and privateness were probably signs of a deep introverted streak (many actors, I've read, are introverts, and many introverts, when socializing, feel like actors), introverts are not considered "naturals" in politics.

Extroverts therefore dominate public life. This is a pity. If we introverts ran the world, it would no doubt be a calmer, saner, more peaceful sort of place. As Coolidge is supposed to have said, "Don't you know that four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still?" (He is also supposed to have said, "If you don't say anything, you won't be called on to repeat it." The only thing a true introvert dislikes more than talking about himself is repeating himself.)

With their endless appetite for talk and attention, extroverts also dominate social life, so they tend to set expectations. In our extrovertist society, being outgoing is considered normal and therefore desirable, a mark of happiness, confidence, leadership. Extroverts are seen as bighearted, vibrant, warm, empathic. "People person" is a compliment. Introverts are described with words like "guarded," "loner," "reserved," "taciturn," "self-contained," "private"—narrow, ungenerous words, words that suggest emotional parsimony and smallness of personality. Female introverts, I suspect, must suffer especially. In certain circles, particularly in the Midwest, a man can still sometimes get away with being what they used to call a strong and silent type; introverted women, lacking that alternative, are even more likely than men to be perceived as timid, withdrawn, haughty.

Are introverts arrogant? Hardly. I suppose this common misconception has to do with our being more intelligent, more reflective, more independent, more level-headed, more refined, and more sensitive than extroverts. Also, it is probably due to our lack of small talk, a lack that extroverts often mistake for disdain. We tend to think before talking, whereas extroverts tend to think by talking, which is why their meetings never last less than six hours. "Introverts," writes a perceptive fellow named Thomas P. Crouser, in an online review of a recent book called Why Should Extroverts Make All the Money? (I'm not making that up, either), "are driven to distraction by the semi-internal dialogue extroverts tend to conduct. Introverts don't outwardly complain, instead roll their eyes and silently curse the darkness." Just so.

The worst of it is that extroverts have no idea of the torment they put us through. Sometimes, as we gasp for air amid the fog of their 98-percent-content-free talk, we wonder if extroverts even bother to listen to themselves. Still, we endure stoically, because the etiquette books—written, no doubt, by extroverts—regard declining to banter as rude and gaps in conversation as awkward. We can only dream that someday, when our condition is more widely understood, when perhaps an Introverts' Rights movement has blossomed and borne fruit, it will not be impolite to say "I'm an introvert. You are a wonderful person and I like you. But now please shush."

How can I let the introvert in my life know that I support him and respect his choice? First, recognize that it's not a choice. It's not a lifestyle. It's an orientation.

Second, when you see an introvert lost in thought, don't say "What's the matter?" or "Are you all right?"

Third, don't say anything else, either.

[Author]

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