Thinking about extroversion and how much I’ve changed this past year

source: plaaastic
I was perusing Thought Catalog this evening when I saw this article, “What Each Myers-Briggs Type Does If They Like You“. The article reported:
INFP: Writes about you on their secret blog while fantasizing that you’ve been following it all along and will write them back.
Woah. How did the website know?? Have they been watching me since like, junior year of high school?
When I took the Meyers-Brigg personality test back in November, I was an INFP personality type. I took it again tonight, 6 months later, and got ENFP as my personality type. Not much has changed, I’m just more extroverted than I am introverted. The article reported:
ENFP: Teases you mercilessly and uncharacteristically does not flake on any of your plans.
I’m not about to believe this article to a T, but it made me realize about how much I’ve changed over the past school year. I should have expected some sort of major personality change after transitioning to college, where I have a lot more freedom, get to meet new people, and purposely adjust my personality.
So Carl Jung thinks I’ve gotten more extroverted? I can believe that. I’m more outspoken, more aggressive, more outgoing, and overall more comfortable. One major factor is undoubtedly that I’ve found more people around whom I feel like I can be myself.
I still believe that as individuals we are constantly changing, and that fall was a major transition point for me, but I think that I’ve settled into college pretty well at this point. However, summer is just around the corner for us quarter system students…
I think personality tests don’t mean much, but they can give you a new perspective.
If you had previously read and believed (at least to some extent) that you were supposed to be quiet and thoughtful, and now are told that you should be loud and outgoing, are you going to be more outgoing and loud because you believe you should be, or believe you can be?
These are the questions that plague me at night.
Personality tests still aren’t very accurate, in my opinion. You can’t interpret every question as Jung meant to ask it and you can’t effectively judge your actions and opinions at one point in time.
Any personality change for me has been gradual. There’s no need, after taking this test again, for me to feel a dramatic transition to a new personality type.
However, this ENFP description gives me hope:
The ENFP personality is a true free spirit. They are often the life of the party, but unlike Explorers, they are less interested in the sheer excitement and pleasure of the moment than they are in enjoying the social and emotional connections they make with others. Charming, independent, energetic and compassionate, the 7% of the population that they comprise can certainly be felt in any crowd.
Check out the specific details, and try the test for yourself:
- You have slight preference of Extraversion over Introversion (11%)
- You have slight preference of Intuition over Sensing (12%)
- You have distinct preference of Feeling over Thinking (75%)
- You have moderate preference of Perceiving over Judging (44%)
I’ve taken the test three times over a few years–ENTJ twice, ENFJ once. Everything I read leads me to believe than I’m more an ENTJ.
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