Been looking a bit at the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. According to my test, I am INTJ. According to my friend, I am INFJ. Essentially, I waver on the thinking / feeling scale. When asked for a direct answer as to which way I lean, I tend to give thinking answers, but in my day to day relationships I am much more F than T.
I’ve always been I (Introvert) and known it; but until recently it hadn’t really occurred to me what that really means. Like many people I’d thought of it as a kind of shyness, but that’s not really what introversion is about. You may have picked up recently about a viral video which summarises much of this, but introverts are people who find large groups to be overstimulating and need time alone to recharge. This is in opposition to extraverts, who require the company of others to recharge themselves.
On becoming interested in the subject I started reading Quiet – The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain. I thoroughly recommend this book for everyone – extraverts included. Many of the people you know are introverts, and you might not realise it; consequently you may write them off as shy, hermits, or antisocial. This book explains how a shift in society changed our cultural view, and how extraversion became “the norm” while introverts are seen as quiet loners. By understanding more about this important aspect of personality, “the north and south of temperament” as Carl Jung described it, we can have better, more understanding relationships with those around us.
