I've thought about this. I've even posed the question to my wife and one of my daughters. The question being that of my personalities- assuming I have more than one, what are they? The consensus from the family was that yes I have more than one. It was pointed out to me that I would likely act one way around say "x" but another if I was not in there presence. I certainly see their point, and I suspect we all have similar situations we could point to, but is that a different personality altogether or simply make up a part of our overall personality? I don't have the answer to that question as of yet.
This morning, it occurred to me that personality testing could give me some outside quantitative basis for examining my specific personality. So I went back to the last time I took such a test That would be July of last year. I blogged briefly on it here.
So accordingly, I find myself based upon this too be a EIFP. That designation would make me am extroverted Intuition person with Introverted Feelings. So perhaps this is a clue to what I am exploring. I present extroverted, but deep down inside I am really an emotionally introverted kind of guy? This, I suppose could account for two different personality types.
Hughes talks about writers of verse ideally finding a style that is inclusive of all our personalities.
I'm thinking that unless we are trying to force into words what we are writing, this would seem a natural occurrence of the act of writing itself. Am I mistaken? I would really be interested in the thoughts of others on this topic.
I think the letters you want are ENFP (Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving), Michael. (The MBTI used "I" for Introversion.)
ReplyDeleteOne of the interesting things about personality measurement instruments is that your results can vary with your mood or setting or even the stage of life in which you find yourself. I've worked with and enjoyed the MBTI (the instrument that gave you the above results) for fifteen years, now, ever since a grad class on personality and writing.
Try this: take the online test while in your work mode/role; then take it in home mode/role; then take it in the depths of your best "writerly" mode. Don't think about your answers, just fire them off from gut level and then compare the results. It can be pretty fascinating stuff. I'm an INFP, for instance, with a near balance on the F/T (Feeling/Thinking) scale and a P (Perceiving) score that's almost off the charts. But when I take the MBTI in "mommy-mode," I come up a pretty stable J (Judging as opposed to Perceiving), and my F score is more pronounced. Try it and see what happens.
There are also interesting things that happen with the E/I (Extravert/Introvert) scale when you get into type dynamics (i.e. what happens on the inside and what happens on the outside and which tends to come from your actual dominant preference).
Ah yes, Cindy you are correct. ENFP (Extraverted iNtuitive Feeling Perceiving)is what I should have used.
ReplyDeleteYour contention indeed supports what my wife was saying about personality variations depending on our environment.
I like your idea of taking the test in home mode, work mode, then writerly mode. This is a great idea because this creates a model to use to try and determine where my personalities fit into my writing. It at least reduces the subjectivity of such an analysis. a bit.