Friday, February 16, 2007

Just checking.

As seen over at Young Female Scientist. One last procrastination.

I think the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is hokey but amusing. Lots of businesses use it to learn about potential or current employees. My opinion of the test is mixed to say the least. I took it a long time ago in college and found out I'm an INTJ. It fit. I was never much of a J though, scoring on the low end/borderline, so it is no surprise that I'm an INTP by this test, which is not the real MBTI, btw. The description given rings true, every bit of it, except the suggestion I'd be a good programmer. Maybe behavioral! But not what I think they mean. The description YFS got for INFP also fits me to a T (plus confirmed I'd "make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist"), so either this is astrology or the test lacks validity ;-)

You Are An INTP

The Thinker

You are analytical and logical - and on a quest to learn everything you can.

Smart and complex, you always love a new intellectual challenge.

Your biggest pet peeve is people who slow you down with trivial chit chat.

A quiet maverick, you tend to ignore rules and authority whenever you feel like it.

You would make an excellent mathematician, programmer, or professor.

9 comments:

Field Notes said...

I wonder what the INTJ description says. It probably fits me too. And, for that matter the ENTJ, the ENTP, and the ENFP...

Anonymous said...

A few years ago, for work, I took the M-B and found that I was an ISTJ.

Upon reviewing some of the personaility traits here, I find that it still fits me and my role as a Project Manager. Of course, I'm not perfect there are always traits of the other personality types that might make better project managers.

Alasdair said...

I suspect that to write their description, they just followed you around for a while... pretty accurate. Maybe next time, you should write something on your palm first, to see if they'll read that, too.

MWR said...

Is it just me or are the subtitles that third parties attach to the type indicators getting more and more absurd? "The Gentle Idealist", "The Serious Gardener", "The Vichy Collaborator", etc.

This is a nice INTP profile. You can bet no ESFJ would put such a thing together.

Chase said...

ummmm, not meaning to step on any toes but also not usually one to hold back...the trivial chat thing....your husband - motor mouth....hmmmm....just pondering...... he he

Field Notes said...

Hey mwr, thanks for the link. That was a nice description. I read all of it. Parts were scary true, but other parts were scary in just how wrong they were. This business of personality assessment and description is endlessly fascinating to me.... no surprise. I *will* get bored with it when there's nothing more to figure out. That part of INTP is very true :-)

Field Notes said...

Mr Motor Mouth is different because he rarely prattles about trivial things... it's all about the content. There are definitely times though...

MWR said...

I have a high level of skepticism about personality tests that ask you what you are like and then tell you what you are like. But I did find there were a few things in that profile that are very accurate and had never occurred to me. Most notably, the bit about always choosing music that matches my existing mood, and how it would never occur to me to do otherwise.

Field Notes said...

I agree about the personality tyests acting like psychics. Now psychologists are using another approach that seems to be growing in popularity - ask the best friend. That part about music stood out to me too, but only because I think that may be true of most people. There were other parts that stood out because hadn't thought about it before, but one of the ones that seemed accurate was the tendency to say something I don't really 'believe' just to see what the reaction of the person is. I thought that was really interesting.