The "Is Type inevitable?" thread

[Architect]

A companion to the "What is a Function?" thread.

Do you think that Type is inevitable? Is a person born with a Type that will come out in their lives, one way or another, or not?

 

[nanook]

no type, no attitude, no ego, no self awareness, no intention, no life path.
if you are born as a vegetable you may not have a type.

 

[Architect]

My take.

Type is motivations that are hardwired into us. Thus they come out in life, an older person almost always has lived the life of their type, to the best of their abilities. A midlife crisis is often caused by differences between life (or training, behavior) and type, as Jung observed in his patients.

An INTP friend of mine has a beautiful analogy for this. We were discussing the difference between communism and democracy (he grew up in a Communist bloc country). He compared it to a large clear cylinder that you put a bunch of different sized balls into.

Communism: Somebody (one person or small group) arbitrarily decides where each ball goes. This one here, that one there.

Democracy: You shake it up! and let the balls go where they will. The smaller ones will nestle in between the bigger ones, and they'll all distribute around in some fashion. But each one finds a place that they fit into.

This applies to Type too. I have a theory that everybody finds a place for themselves in life, like the ball that is shook up, and by the time they are older they are probably where they were meant to be.

[quote="Hugo", (Scorsese, 2011)]Everything has a purpose, clocks tell you the time, trains take you to places. I’d imagine the whole world was one big machine. Machines never come with any extra parts, you know. They always come with the exact amount they need. So I figured if the entire world was one big machine, I couldn’t be an extra part. I had to be here for some reason. And that means you have to be here for some reason, too.[/quote]

In this case Type is the mechanism that causes people to find their spot, of course mitigated by the opportunities they have and take advantage of. But, for better or worse, where people end up is (I believe) pretty much where they were headed for.

 

[Ex-User (8886)]

Didn't voted. In theory, there is possibility about balanced person. But he would have other preferences not included in MBTI. (there are many people who are not introvert not extrovert, generally it is possible to say that they have little preference, but I hope in a 7 bilion people world, there can be one very balanced man). Practically - "Yes".

 

[Cherry Cola]

its hardwired, someone might be hardwired to have traits making them similar to more than one type, or putting them in between two types, in which case external influences may change what type best describes them which could be considered a change of type, but they are anomalies. If in such a case, type is not inevitable it is merely because there aren't enough types to accurately portray all personalities, not because those people have personalities which are less hardwired than others.

 

[Hadoblado]

It's inevitable in a deterministic sense in so far as both environmental and innate factors are taken into account.

It's unlikely to be entirely innate. Reaction range yadiya -> though admittedly not a sliding scale as far as type is concerned.

 

[scorpiomover]

If you keep choosing to go right, then change your mind to go left, then back to the right, then back to the left, you just veer from side to side, but never get anywhere. Eventually, to get somewhere, you have to choose a direction and stick to it.

As the functions act to complement each other, and so often oppose each other, you have the same problem, which is thus resolved in almost exactly the same way.

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAHJCPoWCC8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5R-9X_BtP4

Back to the question at hand:
As personality type is not an innate human feature, but a concept, an abstraction and systematic representation of suspected traits and motivations, an attempt at an explanation rather than the thing it tries to explain,
i would suppose - no, type is not inevitable.
A mirror image, after all, is not the same thing as that which is being reflected.

 

[Teax]

Do you think that Type is inevitable?

once a type has established itself it seems to stick. but who knows when it does so, or if it's predetermined...

 

[Ex-User (9062)]

Is there a way to make your position more non-existant?

 

[StevenM]

I think it starts off extremely vague, or very roughly shaped. Then as events occur, and the person develops, it gets honed in over time.

Like an artist who starts off with a few squiggles and lines, and just keeps adding to it until it reaches perfection.

Or like a sword, which starts off as a crude slab of steel, gets tempered and shaped into a straight, fine blade.

So I think genetics do play a part of it. But that only offers as a starting point. It's a complex interaction between one's predisposition and environment.

Like teax said, once it has been established, it seems to stick.

 

[8151147]

MBTI just describe how our brain work, not our personality type.

We nurture and develop our personality base on INTP core. That's it.

 

[QuickTwist]

If a person never hears of MBTI or Jugian theory do they still have a type?

 

[JimJambones]

I think we have traits that are hardwired that usually predict what we will do and how we will behave in certain situations. I think these ultimately shape our personas.

I like to think that all of our traits are on a sliding scale, and that may vary from day-to-day, or from situation-to-situation. Each trait has a mean with some deviation. Some people have more deviation than others, which I think is hardwired. The sum of these traits results in our core personality. Since our traits aren't fixed, I may react slightly different to the same stimulus in different times, places, or circumstances, which gives the appearance of a slightly different personality, but it's not. It's all part of a person's personality range.

When it comes to MBTI, the answer depends on the approach. Is someone an INTP or ESFP or ISFJ because their brain has a certain program hardwired into their brain? Is there a Ti program? I think that is one way to look at personality.

The other way is that there are traits that shape behaviors that drive a person to certain activities that shape their mental life and social life.

I've always been a very curious, shy, introverted, and creative person. These are some of the traits that directed me toward the things I'm interested in and toward that which makes me feel comfortable. It has also kept me away from things I've felt uncomfortable doing or didn't have an interest in. I tend to be more interested in objective things, so the sciences have always interested me more than the language arts, but I do enjoy literature. I'm more interested in problem solving things of an impersonal than personal nature, and I'm sure part of that is because people and relations have a tendency to overwhelm me, while researching does not. It is not due to some cognitive function, but traits I have, although these traits may be represented in some way by a cognitive function.

MBTI is too rigid, but of course, a person that values Ne would tend to think so, right? It is missing the theoretical wiggle room it needs to account, or accept, variation not expected through the model. Because of this, it even seems counterintuitive.