Yesterday I was checking my
referrer log and came across a weblog called PTypes, which rates famous people,
and bloggers, by personality type, and also draws linkages between
three well-known personality typing schemas. I have commented
before that the majority of bloggers seem to be INTPs or INFPs on
the Myers-Briggs personality test, but the PTypes blogger list contains
more 'Counselors' (INFJ) than either 'Architect' (INTP) or 'Healer'
(INFP) personalities.
More surprisingly, How to Save the
World is identified as an 'Inspector's' (ISTJ) blog, which
surprised me. I had always been a strong NT, and right on the line
between E-I (to quote Neil Young, who seems to have a similar
personality to mine, "I need a crowd of people, but I can't face them
day-to-day"), and right on the line between J-P (I'm a compulsive
list-maker, but I hate inflexibility). So I couldn't understand how the
author of PTypes assessed me as ISTJ.
Rather than argue, I decided to re-take the Myers-Briggs test. I
Googled 'Myers-Briggs' and took the first four tests that came up,
including this
quite detailed one, which all produced the same answer: my personality has changed markedly since
I started blogging. I've plotted the shift on the charts above.
Using a small letter instead of a capital for close-to-the-border (less
than 55-45%) scores, I've gone in one year from iNTj (a Thinker) to
eNfP (a Change Agent), after not moving on the test for a decade. I
suspect my blogging is more a reflection of changes in my 'personality'
rather than a cause of them. But it's interesting -- is anyone else's
personality changing, and why? Are personality changes fundamental and
enduring, or situational and transient?
Oh, and there is a 'disorder' associated with each of the 16 personality types
when that personality becomes extreme or pathological. For INTPs it's
schizoid (disengagement) behaviour, for INFPs it's histrionics, for
INFJs it's avoidant, for ISTJs it's depression (maybe that's why the
author of PTypes pegged me as ISTJ), for INTJs like I was last year
it's schizotypal (social anxiety), and for ENFPs like I've apparently
become this year it's paranoia.
Not sure I buy this last stretch, since if I were borderline paranoic I
would have self-censored some of my recent blog posts.
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