On Personality Types
Exploring Jung's 16 personality types and what they reveal about how people think and behave.
My thinking is that people aren't all that clever. Or rather, they are helplessly prone to a certain personality or psychological profile, which leaves them susceptible to manipulation. So, what are the psychological profiles? Or, are there not distinct psychological profiles as much as there are a list of characteristics, which together form a hopelessly large combination space? Of course, people will tell you there are distinct personalities, but I'm not sure if I buy it. And while it's fun to look at all the types of personalities, it's important to remember that the reason for trying to understand these personalities is so that they can be dissected for the purpose of getting what you want from these people. I'm not a sociopath so this doesn't come very naturally to me. Nevertheless, as a business person who often needs to get things from people, ideally for the best price possible, and it's important to consider that in business you're often dealing with other business people, who largely are sociopaths and more importantly sharks.
Jung's 16 Personality Types
Carl Jung claimed there are 16 personality types. These have been subdivided into four larger categories:
- Analysts
- Diplomats
- Sentinels (a soldier or guard whose job is to stand and keep watch)
- Explorers
Judging by this alone, I don't think these personality types are very helpful for my purposes. That's because I basically see a bit of myself in every one of these. Nevertheless, the 4 types in each category are:
Analysts:
- Logician (1-4% of the population)
- Architect
- Debater
- Commander
Diplomat:
- Advocate
- Mediator
- Protagonist
- Campaigner
Sentinels:
- Logistician
- Defender
- Executive
- Consul
Explorer:
- Virtuoso
- Adventurer
- Entrepreneur
- Entertainer
The INTJ Breakdown
As I'm reading into these specific personality types, I'm seeing that they're derived from a specific set of criteria for each one. An architect, for example, is composed of the traits (INTJs), and is apparently one of the more rare personality types.
- Introverted (as opposed to extroverted)
- iNtuitive (as opposed to sensing)
- Thinking (as opposed to feeling)
- Judging (as opposed to perceiving)
But these 4 descriptors alone do not characterize the personality. They are broken down further into "cognitive functions":
- Dominant
- Auxiliary
- Tertiary
- Inferior functions
For the INTJs personality type, the functions break down like so:
- Dominant: introverted intuition
- Auxiliary: extraverted thinking
- Tertiary: introverted feeling
- Inferior: extraverted sensing
The interesting thing about these "functions" is that they seem to be the best way to glean what someone's personality actually is.
For instance, for the architect, due to the dominant introverted function, they possess the following tendencies:
- When analyzing: good at reading between the lines
- When recalling: remember impressions more than details of what occurred
- Enjoy thinking about the future/possibilities
- Look at the meaning of facts more than the facts themselves
Furthermore, for the architect, due to the auxiliary extraverted thinking, they possess the following tendencies:
- Seeking order, control, and structure around them
- Methodical when approaching problems
- Make decisions based on logic