Re: Myers-Briggs (was: Lunatic Survey)

On Sun, 4 Oct 1998, Tom Wier wrote:

> Josh Roth wrote:
>
> > >Have fun!  Maybe we should have someone make a little analysis
> > >of personality types here, collect and analyse.
Why not?

> >
> > Well I just took the test and I got "temperament--Idealist : NF, variant
> > temperament--Counselor : INFJ"
>
> Am I the only extrovert on the list ?!? :)
>
> I'm ENTJ, as I said.
No; I'm an extrovert as well (can't you tell? G).  I wonder, however,
if the listserv as a whole features a majority of introverted people?
i.e., that this activity is one that appeals to introversion?  And what
about "judging"?  that "j" at the end?  Anybody out there who is "P"--
perceiving?

I took the thing last night and I came out as
Extroverted/Intuitive/Feeling/Judging, and they put me in the TEACHER
category... which astounded me, as that after all is what I am.  My
husband took the test and came out as a COUNSELOR INFJ. He's a musician,
though.  They didn't guess him as an artisan.  I found taking the test a
little frustrating, as the categories they sometimes opposed to each other
were both traits I'd choose, but which depended on different
circumstances.  So despite the fact that I think this thing is
tremendously clever, it doesn't really cover all nuances (just like any
personality test--it relies on generalities).  I wonder if any of you has
ever heard of the Human Engineering Laboratory?  Now that was the test
that my parents paid to have me take back in the sixties and seventies.
For personality, it had only two categories, on a scale from one to a
hundred, the extremes being "subjective" and "objective" in combination
with extrovert and introvert.  The subjective personality was one that
worked best in an environment in which he or she could be in control of
their activity and product, and chose careers in which they had more
autonomy (like artisans, scientists, and so forth).  The objectiv
personality was one that worked best in an environment in which he or she
shared a cooperative task with other people, and who enjoyed delegating
responsibility, being involved in teamwork, and so forth, and who chose
careers accordingly:  teachers, politicians, corporate workers etc.  Now
this of course has a wide range of overlap, and one can have traits of
both.  But the test, which was long and involved as I recall, tried to
probe the many dimensions of one's position on this scale.  Other tests
were more aptitude oriented and probed such things as: pitch
discrimination, structural visualization, verbal memory, tonal memory,
inductive and deductive reasoning, foresight, handedness and eyedness (a
surprising number of people are right-handed and left-eyed, which
indicates, I can't remember what: mixed brain dominance, which is
DIFFERENT, I think, from cross brain dominance...?).  There was a
vocabulary test, too.  So that at the end of the test you have a huge
chart of your personality and your aptitudes. I remember that at age
seventeen, when I finished taking the last test, they sat me down and
advised me that I would find satisfaction teaching and writing in a small
liberal arts college, where I spent the winters interacting and the
summers writing--that my interest in languages, fiction, and art didn't
necessarily need a subjective personality to find the best outlet.  I was
surprised, because I hadn't told them (at least in so many words) that
what I saw as my career was exactly that.  So I was astonished when the
Briggs-Myers test came up with TEACHER: eNFj last night.  The Human
Engineeering Laboratory had successfully kicked the old proverb "them as
can do; them as can't teach" in the ass where it deserves.  Some artists
and linguists and writers thrive in environments where they are part of a
cooperative team.  Put me in a situation where I must hole myself up for
months and months producing all on my own time, and I go nuts.  Like leave
last semester.  I like a community.  I found you guys, didn't I?

And I sure am more expressive than attentive:  look at me going on and
on like this.  Is this list turning into a massive core dump of self-
revelations?  <G>  Nothin' wrong with that!

Sally

>
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Sally Caves
scaves@frontiernet.net
http://www.frontiernet.net/~scaves/teonaht.html

                        Mr. Book: "Shut it down!"
                        _Dark City_

                         Christof: "Cue the sun!"
                        _The Truman Show_

Tehwo tsema brondi laz obil hea nomai pendo
"Summer like a white sword hangs over the land."
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