From: kene@sequent.com (Ken Ewing)
Subject: Skewing J and P (was: Question about my type)
Organization: Sequent Computer Systems, Inc.
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 16:23:25 GMT

In article <1992Dec18.132052.4458@mnemosyne.cs.du.edu> kbays@nyx.cs.du.edu (Ken Bays) writes:
>
>...and learned that I am an
>INTJ.  While individually, these four characteristics all seem appropriate
>to my personality, the general description for INTJ among the 16
>personality type seems particularly UNlike me.  While the description of 
>the J type seems to fit, the description of the J type combined with the
>other three factors does not.  In other words, I think I'm more like an
>INTP than an INTJ, although I am no doubt a J (and tested as EXTREMELY J)
>if you look at that one characteristic by itself.  Can anyone offer any
>explanation? 

My $.02 worth... 

I first took the MB test about 12 years ago.  I came out in INTP 
(very close to the middle on the I, but pretty solid on the others).  
A few years ago (having lost my first MB results *and* having 
forgotten what they were), I took the abbreviated test in the 
Please Understand Me book.  I came out an ENTJ (again close to the 
middle on the E, but pretty solid on the others).  A few months ago 
I took MB again and came out INTJ.  

After all that, here's my point:  based on the descriptions, I'm 
convinced that I am INTP.  In my opinion, the J and P distinctions 
are the easiest to skew unconsciously or consciously through either 
personal desires or by learned behavior, as follows:  

  Personal Desires -- When I took the Please Understand Me test, I had 
                      decided (through my reading of said book) that 
                      the J type was really the superior type.  I saw 
                      J's as the "ones who got things done," and I saw 
                      P's as "flighty people who could never focus and 
                      accomplish things."  Hence, my test showed me to 
                      be a J (big surprise?).  What a shock to me when 
                      I found my original MB test and discovered that I 
                      had in fact tested out as a P!  Chagrined and 
                      humbled, I went back to the descriptions of the 
                      types and, with more honesty, realized and conceded 
                      that I was in fact a P.  I also learned to see the 
                      *value* of each type, and I became much less prone 
                      to leap to judgments about the relative value of 
                      the different types.  
                      
  Learned Behavior -- Though I strongly consider myself a P, my job 
                      (technical writer in an engineering group) in 
                      many ways requires a J-type approach.  I have 
                      spent many years refining a structured approach 
                      to getting my tasks done.  The engineering 
                      environment requires a lot of structure.  Being 
                      in this environment daily has done a lot to 
                      structure my approaches in other areas of my life.  
                      I attribute this learned behavior as the reason 
                      why my latest MB showed me to be a J.  

  Ken Ewing 
  Sequent Computer Systems, Inc. 
  Beaverton, Oregon 
  kene@sequent.com 
  ...!uunet!sequent!kene