Tuesday, July 26, 2016

My Personality (Elizabeth)

You’ve heard both about how my parents met, and how I was when I was younger. Now, I’d like to introduce you to the present me :) I thought the best way to do so would be by using MBTI (or the 16personality types) to define my personality.


First of all, I’ll give you a mini introduction to MBTI. Every personality has four letters. The first letter determines whether I’m an introvert or extravert. The second letter tells me whether I’m more intuitive or sensing. The third letter tells me if I’m more thinking or feeling. And the fourth letter is judging or perceiving. I’m an ENFJ, meaning Extraverted iNtuitive, Feeling, Judging.
Most people don’t go any more in-depth than the letters, but thanks to Hannah, I learned about personality functions. Every personality has four functions: one feeling, one thinking, one intuitive, and one sensing. The function is either introverted or extraverted. I would tell you how to figure that out yourself, but that would require a much longer explanation. My functions are: Fe-Ni-Se-Ti, since I’m an ENFJ. These are simply the abbreviations, so you would read them like this: Extraverted Feeling, Introverted Intuition, Extraverted Sensing, and Introverted Thinking.
If you’d like to know more, try checking out these websites:



Now, I’m going to show you how I use each function of my personality.

Fe (Extraverted Feeling)
When a function is extraverted, it means external, so you could think of this as feeling external. This means:

Others’ feelings is often one of my first considerations in making a decision
I get my values from my environment—those around me
I’m very expressive and open

As you can see, my feeling function is external, very other-oriented. If they were internal, I’d be more in tune with my own feelings. Here are some other ways I express my Fe function:
I like making others happy
I’m good at sensing others’ feelings
I’m outgoing and social
I have a strong influence on others’ emotions
I can be sensitive and sometimes offended easily
Group unity is important to me
I believe the best about people, sometimes to the point of naiveté, I’m afraid
I love helping others (though sometimes that can come in conflict with my Ni)
I adjust my behavior to make others comfortable
Someone else’s mood often affects mine
I’m responsible
I’m empathetic
I can struggle to say “no”
I like teasing—without being offensive
I take advice from others
I often struggle to understand my own feelings
Sometimes my default is to conform to what the group wants
Sometimes, I minimize my own opinion
I’m romantic (but practical, thanks to my Ni)

Ni (Introverted Intuition)
Those with introverted intuition often come up with lots of ideas, but have to pursue a few of them to completion. This is my second strongest function, so it keeps my Fe in check. Here are some ways my Ni function expresses itself:

I think ahead (for example: when I go to a summer camp, I double check my packing list, check the weather report, and print out a camp map)
I consider how my behavior will affect others
I have a plan of action (which is probably why I like outlining my stories)
I change after realizing my faults
I work tirelessly towards my life-goals
I have a profound understanding of others and how they think
My focus is sometimes narrow
I try to apply the ideas that I brainstorm

Se (Extraverted Sensing)
Those with this function are very observant and in tune with their five senses.

I’m spontaneous
I can be impulsive.

This is one of my weaker functions. You can tell, because:
I prefer planning to improvising
I don’t always pay attention to my surroundings.

Ti (Introverted Thinking)
I lapse into silence when I think deeply
I’m learning to think more for myself, since I have tendencies to conform
I think very independently when it comes to my principles
Sometimes, things that don’t align with my inner logic confuse me
I have trouble accepting criticism, though I apply it
Sometimes, I have trouble separating truth from opinion
I’m not afraid to voice my beliefs, if my beliefs are strong enough
I tend to act more on my feelings (which is why Ti is my weakest function)
I like to work my ideas out on paper rather than aloud


Do you have any of these same tendencies? Have you ever taken the Myers-Brigg test? What did you test as and how accurate did you find it?

Thank you for reading!

14 comments:

  1. How fun, Liz, I enjoyed getting to know you better through this post! I'm INFJ, so we're pretty close! I've never heard of the introverted and extroverted functions, though, I'll have to look into that.

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    1. Laurie, INFJ is one of the rarest types, but it is the type of the protagonist in my current novel. Ever since I started writing it, I've been meeting INFJs all over the place! I am an INFP, so I'm a bit closer to you than to Liz.

      ~Brenna

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    2. That's so fun that I'm the same personality type as your protagonist! I'm excited to read it someday, to see how similar we are :) And we must be pretty close, since if I remember right I was pretty far towards the middle on the J - P scale.

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    3. Laurie, I am INFJ as well, and haven't met any others that aren't in my family!
      : ) No wonder we work so well together! : )

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    4. Thank you, Laurie! I have a few INFJ friends :) So that's good to know!

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  2. Liz, I really enjoyed this. I could relate to some of the things you mentioned under extraverted feeling- even though I am actually Fi. But I am definitely not Ni. :)I can also relate to the Ti tendencies, which are probably stronger in my personality than in yours. Writing is definitely an easier way for me to express myself than talking!

    ~Brenna

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    1. Writing is easier for me too ;) You know, we have perfectly opposite functions. Sometimes, INFPs confuse me, but I also think they're interesting since they work differently than I do ;)

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  3. Great idea for a post! I love psychology, and the MBTI test is very in-depth and surprisingly accurate. I can definitely see how your type affects your behavior and personality. :) I am INTJ, and that is very apparent in my life.

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    1. Thank you, Hannah! And I appreciate your help on this :)

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  4. I love this post! It's so interesting to get to know people through their personalities like this. Great to know more about you, Liz. I am an INFJ, like Laurie, and one similar to you, Brenna, and Hannah.

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    1. Really, what are the odds 3 of us would be INFJ? : ) Maybe INFJs are more widely represented in the author world?

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    2. So, your blog team consists of three INFJs, an ENFJ, and an INTJ? Impressive. Most impressive. :)

      ~Brenna

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    3. Thank you! Wow, we've got a lot of INFJs on here :)

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