From: deviass@ecf.toronto.edu (Deviasse Robert)
Subject: Re: Friendship and personality
Organization: University of Toronto, Engineering Computing Facility
Date: Sat, 9 Jan 1993 05:35:32 GMT

kene@sequent.com (Ken Ewing) writes
> In article <C0G8K3.92r@utdallas.edu> bcollins@utdallas.edu (ARLIN B COLLINS) writes:
> >> kene@sequent.com (Ken Ewing) writes:
> >>I am a thoroughgoing intuitive.  I have many friends who are S-types, 
> >>but there seems to be a subtle difference between my interactions with 
> >>S's and with N's...  With S's, I almost feel like there is 
> >>some kind of mental "wall" that separates the inner person from me.  
> >>
> >   I am an  ISTJ  [with a strong  T, also  computer analyst by education
> >   and work, and .... sorta identify with the HACKER profile in several
> >   ways]
> >   In response to Ken's comments, I just wanted to say that it seems
> >   to look the same from this side  of the  "wall".  
> 
> Thanks for your response.  Please continue to explain the S side of things.  
> 
> Another point that came to mind to me is (what some would say) a 
> prejudice of Ns toward Ss.  I have noticed occasions when Ns 
> (especially NFs) lose patience when talking to Ss.  I know of one 
> extreme case where a particularly strong NF tended to label as S 
> anyone whom that person thought was "slow-witted".  (All it took 
> to be labelled as such was to display a minor habit pattern of 
> asking for clarification on what this person said.  If you didn't 
> automatically know, by intuition, what this person meant whenever 
> this person spoke, you were an S.)  If I hadn't had my MB results 
> on hand, this person would have labelled me an S (the person told 
> me so).  

That's just plane close-mindedness. Intuitive leaps are important, they
give us direction where we should aim for, but experience and being down
to earth are just as important. Experience and intuition go hand in hand.
Rely too much on experience and you stagnate. Rely too much on intuition
and you get lost in the clouds.

> Furthermore, although statistically Ss outnumber Ns in our society 
> (60% vs. 40%), people who pursue psychological studies (and who 
> develop tests like MBTI) tend overwhelmingly to be Ns.  Hence, there 
> can predictably be an air of negativity toward Ss when descriptions 
> of the types are written.  (That is, short-sighted Ns can cast the Ss 
> in a negative light, and then little objection is raised because for 
> the most part Ss tend less to pursue and be involved with such 
> psychological testing.)  
> 
> After all that, do the Ss in netland feel that they are perhaps 
> "looked down upon" by some/most/all interpreters of MBTI?  I'm curious.  

Looked down upon? I agree the MBTI theory would be enriched by the input of
all personality types, but I don't see the S-types being looked down upon.
All books I've read suggest that all personality types are equally important.
In fact, since there is a tendency to marry one's opposite type, any attempt
for the N majority to cause this prejudice would not make their S spouses
too happy.

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


MBTI typography is simply an indicator of a person's personality type. It
doesn't determine how you act or think, but it specifies how you tend to
or prefer to do so (at least this is my impression). Statistically, it
tends to measure your mean type. The mean of a distribution can say a lot
about it, but I think that the variance is just as telling.

What I mean to say is, how "broad" your personality type distribution is 
(i.e. how easily you change between your mean personality and some 
other personality) can determine how you react to a situation and how you 
are able to think and deal with situations and view the world. I am most 
definately an INFP, but the fact that I do moonlight as an XSTJ makes some 
of the description of the INFP's personality very foreign to me.

I know that higher moments of personality must be extremely difficult to
categorize and interprete, but I am curious. Does anyone know of any research 
on this?

-- 
/-------------------------------+---------------------------------------------\
| Robert N. Deviasse            |"The things that are not easily attained,    |
| EMAIL: g2devi@cdf.utoronto.ca |    are the things we cherish the most."     |
+-------------------------------+---------------------------------------------/
Newsgroups: alt.psychology.personality,rec.arts.startrek.current