In the course of the last couple years I have been meeting a lot of people who know about the Myers Briggs. I have found the vast majority to have no Idea what the difference between S and N, and J and P.
Generally, I have found that most people do an incredibly horrible job of typing others (although every now and then they'll end up in the ballpark, or somewhere reasonable). This is especially true of fictional characters, as people will see all sorts of different traits in fictional characters. But usually, their analysis is very shallow and they often times read into characters more than they should.
Some of my friends' wives have been typing their husbands and doing a terrible job at it. It really pisses me off because in one of the cases I'm 100% sure that I'm right, and I don't usually say 100%. She thinks he is an INTJ. He's clearly an ISTJ. She used the argument, "I know my husband, he's an N." My thinking is, "I know your husband as well. I lived with him for a year and I've known him 2 years longer than you, he's S."
First of all, "I know my husband, he's an N" isn't an argument; it's an opinion (or "mere assertion"). If she provided no reasoning to back up her claim, then it's meaningless.
Secondly, how can you be absolutely sure he's an S? Perhaps he shows his real side to his wife, while coming off as a sensor in every day life, or around friends? Perhaps he's balanced, so that you see one side and she sees another. It's possible.
Another thinks her husband is an INFP when he's an INFJ. She also thinks she is an INFP.
Again, you guys may see different sides of the same person, so that it's difficult to really say who is more accurate. You'd have to really weigh both sides of the argument. Whose reasons are more accurate, cogent, or valid?
Now in my experience with INFP's, I've found them to be really nice and sympathizing. She is a bitch a lot of the time. She has never shown me an ounce a respect, unlike they other INFP's that I know. I'm sure she's some SJ of sorts. But she has this ridiculous idea that all J's are neat freaks and obsessive over schedule. Not to say that there aren't those ones out there. Anyways, her husband is definitely more of a Luke Skywalker than a Piglet.
This isn't very strong reasoning. The best way to tell the difference between a J and P isn't based on whether or not they are "bitchy." Instead, you have to look at how they deal with their environment. Are they more inclined to "take things as they come," or are they more inclined to "get in there and plan every moment of life"? When people are balanced, again, it's hard to tell.
At any rate, I've had an INFP friend who was a little goofy, open to INTP humor, very intelligent, well-spoken, knowledgeable, and well-read, who was extremely sarcastic and fairly abusive to males (probably due to being hit on so often). She came off very "pro feminine" and would just act like a cunt when she was invited over to hang out. Now I know deep down she cared for nature, animals, and life forms in general (like other INFPs), but she was also a boring prude with a bad attitude. So maybe her thinking was a little more developed than other INFPs (making her a balanced INxP), but she was definitely a little more INFP-ish and she wasn't very "cuddly" or "cute" or "extremely sensitive and easily butt-hurt."
So again, you can't compare people to fictional archetypes to understand their type. Certainly it may help in sort of "feeling" what someone may be, sort of intuitively, but it's far better to actually rationally look at their behavior and traits logically, to really see what fits and what doesn't. Someone's either slightly more organized or slightly less organized. With enough care, you can usually tell the difference. So in this case, for example, she'll either come off more "structured, reliable, boring, normal, and concerned with concrete aspects of reality," or "less concerned with structure per se, more spontaneous, a little wild and different, eccentric possibly, with a concern for the big picture and general abstractions."
So just keep in mind that both types can be bitch (even if SJ's tend to be extremely bitchy, as I have a sister who's like that). So you just have to look beyond the surface of things, to really explain "why" you rationally believe she's an SJ. Saying she's a bitch is just insufficient.
So do you guys run into stupid people that can't type? If so how do you deal with them? I try to ignore them, but I hate when someone says I'm wrong when I'm so sure I'm right, and have real evidence to prove it.
I usually only type with my wife (who is INTJ), so we usually see eye-to-eye on most things, and we can easily try to intellectually wrestle over someone's type in a friendly manner, to really try to flesh it out. So we don't always agree, but we can usually try to come to some sort of "resolution." I rarely ever come across "anyone" in daily life who knows about the MBTI and all my efforts to teach others have failed, as they seem incredibly uninterested in something that seems either "too complicated" or "just made up." I usually just know that many people on forums tend to suck ass and type the most obvious people extremely horribly.
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