Recently, I had the opportunity to take the well known Myer's Briggs personality exam as a part of my job. Having never taken one before, I approached the process with curiosity and wariness, but found myself pleasantly surprised by the results. My greatest takeaway from this test was surprisingly not learning my personality type, I inherently already know that I am introverted. Rather I appreciated more, the awareness that I received in recognizing how my personality interacts with those around me.
There are 16 possible personality types that are derived from the various combinations of four different categories. From introverted to extroverted, thinking to feeling, judging to perceiving, and sensing to intuition, a combination of one from each of these four categories is determined from your responses to a series of questions. I had few expectations as to the outcome of the test, beyond knowing that I am an extreme introvert, and found myself stunned by how accurate the results actually were.
Receiving the classification of an INTJ, the rarest category of personality types held by 2 percent of total population and 0.8 percent of all females worldwide, I found myself agreeing with the majority of the descriptors because the combination of introversion, intuition, thinking, and judging creates a person who is "imaginative yet decisive, ambitious yet private, amazingly curious, but they do not squander their energy." Defined as a bookworm because of their curious nature and desire for knowledge, INTJs have difficulty connecting with the real world around them. They often come across as cold and aloof, when in reality it is their inability to cope and understand social situations that make them this way. INTJs are more uncomfortable in large social situations than they will ever be when at home with a book.
This is me in a nutshell. Social situations, especially those which contain few people I know, are more stressful than writing a 15-page research paper. I find myself satisfied with maintaining relationships with a small group of close friends rather than a large group I do not know as well. Silence is something I treasure, not because conversation is annoying, but because it allows me the opportunity to think and observe. Further, not actively engaging in a large discussion does not imply that I find it in any manner tiresome, it instead is a chance for me to observe, digest, and formulate a response to the conversation. Unfortunately at times, all of these traits can come together and make me seem unapproachable, which is in no way true. Thus, this entire experience has shown that personality tests serve as a valuable tool by which to understand others. Coming from an INTJ who finds it difficult to socialize and understand decisions which are driven by emotions rather than rationality, the descriptions provided allows me to understand how others perceive everyday experiences differently than I do.
