Being INTJ

At the end of June, I had a clash with my boss. Whereupon I contacted a friend, who is an I/O psychologist, for support. Among other things, my friends made three physiological tests with me. Yesterday, I received the test results.

Just to clear one thing right at the beginning with my flatmate Tigresa: I have a very bad relationship with animals. I don't need them to compensate anything. This is a depth psychological cognition, Freud and so... Hence, no animals full stop.

These three tests painted a picture of my personality and vocations. I'll have to digest this first to get the whole pictures and to decide how to proceed from here.

The most difficult one to interpret is the Predisposition Structure Test. That requires deep knowledge of the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud. The bottom line: I have chosen the right job. However, there a some inclinations, which I have to satisfy in my private life - e.g. blogging is one of the instruments to archive this.

Cattell's Personality Factor Test defined me as INTJ. This is one of 16 possible types. Approx. 2.1% of the population are like me. INTJ is the abbreviation of Introverted iNtuitive Thinking Judging. In plain English this reads as Introverted Intuition with Extraverted Thinking, the Free-Thinker, or Scientist.

Of course there are not only 16 personalities. Therefore, I can correlate the INTJ profile with the results of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®, which produced an additional profile of my personality.

Let's see, if I can get a combined picture:

My primary mode of living is focused internally, where I take things in primarily via my intuition. My secondary mode is external, where I deal with things rationally and logically.

I live in the world of ideas and strategic planning. I value intelligence, knowledge, and competence, and have high standards in these regards, which I continuously strive to fulfill. To a somewhat lesser extent, I have similar expectations of others.

With Introverted Intuition dominating my personality, I focus my energy on observing the world, and generating ideas and possibilities. My mind constantly gathers information and makes associations about it. I am tremendously insightful and usually quick to understand new ideas. However, my primary interest is not understanding a concept, but rather applying that concept in a useful way. I do not follow an idea as far as I possibly can, seeking only to understand it fully. I am driven to come to conclusions about ideas. My need for closure and organization usually requires that I take some action.

My tremendous value and need for systems and organization, combined with my natural insightfulness, could make me an excellent scientist. It is not easy for me to express my internal images, insights, and abstractions. The internal form of my thoughts and concepts is highly individualized, and is not readily translatable into a form that others will understand. However, I am driven to translate my ideas into a plan or system that is usually readily explainable, rather than to do a direct translation of my thoughts. I usually don't see the value of a direct transaction, and I also have difficulty expressing my ideas, which are non-linear. However, my extreme respect of knowledge and intelligence motivates me to explain myself to another person who I feel is deserving of the effort.

I could be a natural leader, although I usually choose to remain in the background until I see a real need to take over the lead. When I am in a leadership role, I am quite effective, because I am able to objectively see the reality of a situation, and I am adaptable enough to change things which aren't working well. I am the supreme strategists - always scanning available ideas and concepts and weighing them against my current strategy, to plan for every conceivable contingency.

I spend a lot of time inside my own mind, and have little interest in the other people's thoughts or feelings. No until I had developed my Feeling side (and I'm still working on that), I was able to give other people the level of intimacy that is needed.

My interest in dealing with the world is to make decisions, express judgments, and put everything that I encounter into an understandable and rational system. Because my intuitions are quite evolved, I am convinced that I am right about things. Unfortunately, my intuitive understanding is not complemented with a well-developed ability to express my insights, I find myself frequently misunderstood.

I am an ambitious, self-confident, deliberate, long-range thinkers. Hence, I ended up in engineering. I dislike messiness and inefficiency, and anything that is muddled or unclear. I value clarity and efficiency, and I put enormous amounts of energy and time into consolidating my insights into structured patterns.

Other people often have a difficult time understanding me. They see me as aloof and reserved. Indeed, I am not overly demonstrative of my affections, and I am likely to not give as much praise or positive support as others may need or desire. That doesn't mean that I don't truly have affection or regard for others, I simply do not typically feel the need to express it. Others may falsely perceive me as being rigid and set in my ways. Nothing could be further from the truth, because I am committed to always finding the objective best strategy to implement my ideas. I am usually quite open to hearing an alternative way of doing something.

I need to remember to express myself sufficiently, so as to avoid difficulties with people misunderstandings. I have to work on developing my communication abilities.

I have a tremendous amount of ability to accomplish great things. I have insight into the Big Picture, and I am driven to synthesize my concepts into solid plans of action. My reasoning skills give me the means to accomplish that. I've had met my career or education goals. It seems that I have the capability to make great strides in these areas. On a personal level, if I practice tolerance and put effort into effectively communicating my insights to others, I have everything in my power to lead a rich and rewarding life.

Let's go for it!