Frequency Percentage of Types.

[StevenM]

I was wondering if J's outnumber P's in the population. And I was also wondering if it relates to the reason why an INTP would feel weird or different than everyone.

I did some researching and googled up an approximation of how frequent a type can be found in the population.

Estimated Frequencies of the Types in the United States Population

According to those results, it does show that P's are outnumbered by J's, but by only a less than significant amount. But, it was interesting to see that there is a very significant amount of sensors to intuitives.

Questions I lightly ponder:

Could the significant S:N ratio be a reason why I mostly feel out of place from the rest of my peers?

Considering that there may be a deviation, the frequency of E and I may be extremely close to 50-50. In that case, it seems that INTP's and ENTP's are outnumbered by all the other types. Yet their results also show that INFJ's are the rarest.

I wonder what differences there would be for other countries other than the US?

 

[own8ge]

IMO personality type should be perceived as relative. I once made the comment that if you would isolate 16 intps in a room, and personality type them; there would be 1 INTP, 1 ENTP, 1 INFJ, etc.

 

[OmoInisa]

IMO personality type should be perceived as relative. I once made the comment that if you would isolate 16 intps in a room, and personality type them; there would be 1 INTP, 1 ENTP, 1 INFJ, etc.

Interesting thought. It makes sense. After all, that is what one is doing on a global level anyway when determining type. I'm fond of making the point to my INTJ friend that he is more extroverted than me, functionally speaking (aux Je vs inf Je). So there we have two types normally considered similarly introverted. But relative to each other there is indeed the extrovert and the introvert (of course depending on the context, one could argue that Ne is more extroverted than Te).

 

[Oddity]

I don't think N's are quite as common as 1/4, but I've never done a study. Sure seems like they're closer to 15% though.

 

[QuickTwist]

Good post TMills27, I think you hit the nail right on the head. Also very good link; very trustworthy.

 

[TheManBeyond]

IMO personality type should be perceived as relative. I once made the comment that if you would isolate 16 intps in a room, and personality type them; there would be 1 INTP, 1 ENTP, 1 INFJ, etc.

Agree, i have thought of that before too, here in this place sometimes i feel like a sensor while in my real life, comparing to people i know i'm easily an N. Or maybe you're all on drugs / mental illness - partial or absolute loneliness / high IQs, etc.

 

[Hadoblado]

IMO personality type should be perceived as relative. I once made the comment that if you would isolate 16 intps in a room, and personality type them; there would be 1 INTP, 1 ENTP, 1 INFJ, etc.

This is an interesting line of thought. So you think that type is relative to the sample you're taken from? Does that imply that every type is represented in exactly 6.25% of the pop? As to be an ISTJ, you need to be more ISTJ than at least 93.75% of the pop?
Can your type change when you leave the sample and enter a new one? (Genuine questions).

 

[OmoInisa]

This is an interesting line of thought. So you think that type is relative to the sample you're taken from? Does that imply that every type is represented in exactly 6.25% of the pop? As to be an ISTJ, you need to be more ISTJ than at least 93.75% of the pop?
Can your type change when you leave the sample and enter a new one? (Genuine questions).

I think the relativity only works when considering the individual dichotomies in isolation. So we could say that intoversion is relative to the sample, or judging is relative. However saying INTP is relative would be nonsensical. We have to hold the other 3 variables constant while we consider each one. Afterwards we may then deduce from the combined frequencies which types are expected to be more or less common. And this is precisely what TMills has done to come to his questioning of why INFJs are considered the rarest.
Interesting.