PHQ | QUESTIONS: Are INFJs The Rarest Type?

24 comments

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  • Kristi
  • November 12, 2015 at 2:12 pm

  For me the answer is kind of simple: INFJs struggle to connect with others of like type/people who understand them and the way they think – so seeking it out online only makes sense. It is the best, fastest way to collect and collate as much feedback from other INFJs or personality professionals on being an INFJ. So we can start making those patterns! I am voracious for information on any subject that interests me or in which I need to make a decision… with the “Perspectives” model I finally see why.

  Another podcast (the one with Introvert, Dear as co-host) also gave me a huge light bulb moment – I have struggled so often with word retrieval, I literally started to worry I was developing some sort of early onset memory problem. Now I know it is because my brain needs to access long term memory. What an aha moment.

  Have been learning so many helpful things from the podcast – specifically as an INFJ. I have been stuck for awhile, and listening to your podcast is really helping me splay it all out, so I can make the connections I need and start implementing changes – particularly in the way that I am thinking (about life, about being an infj, about happiness.) Many many thanks for your focus on INFJs… Now I really need to learn as much as I can about ENTPs – my husband’s type. I know a lot of our struggles come from how differently we think and approach the world… but I need to better understand HOW he thinks and particularly how to help him when he is stressed.

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  • Antonia Dodge
  • November 5, 2015 at 7:14 pm

  Cool, thanks for the comment. I’m still not 100% convinced that even the official MBTI instrument has a high enough degree of accuracy to call them ‘hard’ numbers, but it’s still the best we’ve got and I’m totally okay relying on those stats.

  A

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  • Chad
  • November 5, 2015 at 7:00 pm

  First, I value the MBTI as a useful tool for self-understanding, career guidance, job enrichment, and relationship help.

  Second, I’m a psychologist and researcher and familiar with the psychometrics of the MBTI (official). There are no perfect psychological instruments in terms of reliability and validity. I think the MBTI can be difficult to successfully identify at first, particularly around teens and young adults. There are errors and distortions in self-understanding, problems with self-reports, etc. I think some degree of outside, objective reports can be very useful for a person attempting to identify his or her true MBTI. Once a person reliably establishes his or her MBTI, it then becomes quite useful. That being said, the frequencies reported for the 16 types are usually those found by the official MBTI records, which is a massive database. I would not say these numbers are fuzzy or soft and would actually argue that they are pretty accurate reports of the distribution of the 16 types using the official MBTI in the general population. Remember that a large number of people take online tests which have no supported psychometric properties and are not included in peer-reviewed research reports on the frequencies of MBTI types.

  Third, I believe INFJs seem overrepresented in online communities for a number of reasons like those mentioned in this podcast. I expect the biggest reason is because it is in the nature of INFJs to be more interested in self-understanding and personality. Thus, they are more likely to visit online communities, listen to podcasts on personalities, and take online tests.

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  • Steven
  • October 31, 2015 at 2:31 am

  Sorry if I read too much into that. It kinda hit me in a soft spot of my own, and I couldn’t help myself. .

  > What bothers me a bit is that I see people who haven’t accepted me and are still so surrounded by themselves that they can’t see beyond themselves. For me, it’s all about learning from everything that happens.

  That is something that can really get under my skin too. However, if I am able to remove myself from the situation, I start to wonder if maybe I am misunderstanding them too? How did this person grow up? What lessons did they learn from their own experiences? Who made their life hard, and is it possible that they are now a shadowy representation of that life?

  I like to think that every person is inherently good, and that most of us are simply at the mercy of circumstance—it affects us all in strange ways. I would love to fix the system which produces such alienation. At the same time though, I like to think that the system is currently producing en masse people with a deep motivation to see that system changed.

  I think that is what groups like Personality Hacker, et al. are trying to accomplish, and why I have so much admiration for organizations like them and the people who make them up.

  I really wish I could talk more with you in length, but I feel like I’m already talking way too much for the comments section here. .

  Hopefully I’ll see you around elsewhere though! Take care! =)

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  • Nora
  • October 30, 2015 at 12:19 pm

  Hi Steven, Oh, I’m definitely at a sort of peace with it – I’ve learned to be more comfortable with myself, accept myself. What bothers me a bit is that I see people who haven’t accepted me and are still so surrounded by themselves that they can’t see beyond themselves. For me, it’s all about learning from everything that happens. The reason why I wonder why I wasn’t tested for Myers Briggs as a young person is because I hope that others don’t have to go through the same trauma that I did, believing that there’s something “wrong” with them, when it’s other people projecting what they “should be” onto them. That’s why I had both my sons do the test, and why I accept them – one’s VERY social, and that’s cool; the other is introverted, and that’s also cool. BUT – I see family members who cannot accept the introverted one’s introversion, and still act like it’s a malady that needs to be changed.