mbti nurture or nature?

[somfoolishfoole]

Are you born with your personality type or does it get nurtured? or a bit of both?

As a parent can you have an influence on how your childs personality type develops? If my child is exposed to alot of NT, will they likely turn out NT?

 

[Ink]

Nature, perhaps some nurture as an infant.

 

[Hadoblado]

It's a complex interaction.

Some people will tell you different, I disagree with them strongly.

I think parents can have an impact on their children's MBTI, but should not endeavor to do so.

 

[Grayman]

Children under the same household treated somewhat similarly can be completely different in personality, so I would toss out any ideas that parenting determines your personality.

Parenting provides tools for the child. That is all. The child has to use them.

I would like to believe that I can choose who I want to be. The truth is that I am given a set of choices by my environment and my nature itself and who I am is not in the choices I am given but in the choices I pick out.

I believe that INTP is not who I am but instead a description of the choices that I am given. INTP depicts my strengths and my weakness but it is not the determination of my choices. INTP does not equal untidy. INTP can choose to be otherwise.

 

[BigApplePi]

MBTI: Nurture or Nature?

Before answering how nature and nurture goes, consider:

When I deal with a situation, what is most easily effective: thinking or feeling? Which gets my way better? Note this may be an advanced consideration as an infant presumably does not think.

Will I fly by my general intuition or do specifics work better?

Do I turn outward for help or it is better to deal with it myself?

Do I keep choice possibilities open with skepticism or do I favor something and build on that?

The answers to these come how early? Once a seed one way or the other is planted, how well does that seed grow?

 

[Grayman]

Re: MBTI: Nurture or Nature?

Before answering how nature and nurture goes, consider:

When I deal with a situation, what is most easily effective: thinking or feeling? Which gets my way better? Note this may be an advanced consideration as an infant presumably does not think.

Will I fly by my general intuition or do specifics work better?

Do I turn outward for help or it is better to deal with it myself?

Do I keep choice possibilities open with skepticism or do I favor something and build on that?

The answers to these come how early? Once a seed one way or the other is planted, how well does that seed grow?

I have traveled the path of many of these in many variations before I chose the one I follow now. This plant was not rooted. It actually had feet.

 

[Words]

The environment I was nurtured in didn't exactly promote and in fact discouraged what would essentially count as my personality type. If society conditions individuals against introversion, then why do these types still linger? That said, I think parenting is definitely important. I think your notions of "NT" is actually more nurture, in which case technically nurture does largely define type (your idea of it). The only case where it won't work is if you're trying to mold the complete opposite like a clear "ESFP" I think.

 

[redbaron]

The only case where it won't work is if you're trying to mold the complete opposite like an "SF" I think.

I think there could be something to be said for this, because I have typical NF traits as well. Largely brought about through the fact that my parents were INFP and INTJ (with a very well integrated and mature Fi). It's apparent to me that I learned a lot from this, being sandwiched between two mature Fi users.

I learned a lot about the concept of individualized truth, which is something that people seem to struggle with massively from both ends of the spectrum - the extremes being willful delusion, often accompanied by pretentiousness and the idea of having reached, 'the' correct path - while the other end is complete rejection of the concept of truth being relative to each individual, the sort of, 'there is only one objective truth' type thinking.

Anyway the point is that this has been largely the product of nurture, and that this understanding of individualized truths is not something I intrinsically understand - yet it has become part of my personality.

 

[Words]

I learned a lot about the concept of individualized truth, which is something that people seem to struggle with massively from both ends of the spectrum - the extremes being willful delusion, often accompanied by pretentiousness and the idea of having reached, 'the' correct path - while the other end is complete rejection of the concept of truth being relative to each individual, the sort of, 'there is only one objective truth' type thinking.

Anyway the point is that this has been largely the product of nurture, and that this understanding of individualized truths is not something I intrinsically understand - yet it has become part of my personality.

Relative truth? Tell me that 1 + 1 =/= 2 and I'll call you delusional.

 

[redbaron]

Relativte truth? Tell me that 1 + 1 =/= 2 and I'll call you delusional.

The concept doesn't really come into play until scenarios become relatively complex to the human mind - more appropriate to the concept of the metaphysical. Which is what I'm trying (failing ) to convey.

About to head out for lunch, however a large part of what I'm talking about is the ability to navigate and recognize the nature of what people are referring to. Some people are quite poor at navigating the realm of context - they try to apply objectivity to metaphysical concepts (which is fine, parametrization is an important method of understanding the world around us), or apply their own relativistic truths to concrete systems.

So yes, I'd agree that saying 1+1 =/= 2 is delusional...I'll elaborate further when I get back, but maybe some reading material for the time being:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parameterization

Back later.

 

[DelusiveNinja]

My hypothesis is that the first 2 functions are given at birth in an order determined by temperament (easy or flexible, active or feisty, slow to warm or cautious) and the psyche is nurtured towards the person's preference or conditioning. People have their own unique perspective of the things they experience. I think that even if two people are raised in similar environments no two people have the exact same temperament when they are born and the exact same perspective.

 

[Doob]

As far as I understand it you are born with your personality as in the preference how you think, make your decisions, perceive your surroundings,... and I do think that does not change much. But parents, the environment etc. have an influence on how you behave to the point that you think the nurture is your nature.

Studies show for example that there is a difference in the brain of introverts and extraverts. But a lot of people here don't know about introversion and extraversion and since the society favours extraverts and children get told by their parents and in school that they have to behave like one. As adults they are still introverts but they behave like extraverts and some of them think that they are extraverts and would probably even answer questions on the MBTI test as if they were one.

I think that a lot of people don't understand that there is a difference between their true preference, what they think should be their preference because they were "trained" like that and their behaviour. For example a female aquaintance of mine did the test, then read the profile and told me that it's simply not her. I told her that the answer is not necessary how she behaves in order to survive in society but how she would prefere to behave if there was no pressure from society. Before she tested as a strong F and afterwards as a strong T. Then she read the profile and was surprised how well it described her way of thinking. I had the same problem with P and J because I was raised in a very organized household and my parents (both J) always told me how important it is to plan (and follow that plan), be organized,... and as a result I behave like that most of the time and when I did the test the first time I tested as a J because I thought that my behaviour is my preference. But I definitely crave flexibility and spontaneity and now that I am living alone and can be more myself I realise how much the learned behaviour is not me.

That is also the reason why I think the Big Five Test is more superficial than the MBTI.

 

[John_Mann]

I think it's more nature than nurture. Look around and you'll realize if personality was most depending on general environment the INTP (NT's) ones would not exist.

Both my parents are sensors.

It's not something inherited but its set randomly in our genetics.

It's a way nature have found to avoid something like Idiocracy.