infp

assessing the merits and limits of personality tests

infp — introversion, i(n)tuition, feeling, perception.

at some point, you’ve likely encountered these letters or a similar amalgamation of them. whether it was suggested for a job, school assignment, or ~just for fun~, you may recall having to take a personality test such as 16 Personalities, also known as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).

i recently spent some time analyzing the claims of personality assessments like Myers-Briggs after watching the documentary Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests on HBO. typically when i have taken this test in the past, my result is the above acronym: INFP. on more extroverted days, i have gotten ENFP, but the last three letters have stayed consistent. below, i’ll unpack each aspect of this phrase as it relates to me.

i once saw a tweet (probably a screenshot of said tweet on tumblr) on this topic that i’ll never be able to forget, though i can’t find it now. essentially, it stated that people who tend to constantly look for aspects of themselves in personality tests, astrology, fandoms etc. are likely seeking a form of validation that stems from not being able to identify their true interests/self in childhood. so…in a white-centric, hegemonic, capitalistic, heteronormative, binary-centric, neurotypical society — that probably identifies a lot of us.

as i come out of my adolescence and into my late 20s, i realize that i’ve had to unlearn much societal conditioning to accept my true, ever-evolving nature. for instance, people often think that those born under the sun sign Leo are wildly extroverted, drama queens but i know quite a few Leos who are introverted (sometimes even shy).

introversion

introversion is often misinterpreted as anti-sociality, but it’s more apt to say that introverts are selectively social. tbh, i just find solace in my own company and music. part of my introversion may also be my socialization; i grew up in a house with people who were often alone together. and don’t get me wrong — i have experienced quite misanthropic phases, but it’s usually that i have become too affected by external stimuli/other people’s energy and need extended time to recharge. this brings me to the next letter, n for i(n)tuition.

i(n)tuition

the second attribute of the MBTI evaluates how one takes in information, whether it’s mainly through sensing or intuition (everyone does some form of both). for those who test more towards intuition, we tend to be imaginative in our processing and approach things abstractly by finding meaning in symbolism and patterns to make sense of the world.

feeling

the third part of the acronym is about decision making: thinking or feeling? i am highly sensitive and very empathetic, but also everything is personal — feelings often serve as a guiding light more than a conventional understanding of logic does.

here is where i’d like to problematize this Western way of thinking about reasoning and knowledge. while it’s trendy to say “feelings aren’t facts,” our bodies and sensory reactions hold valuable information and we shouldn’t dismiss this. in undergrad, i read excerpts from Nigerian scholar Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyèwùmí’s The Invention of Women (1997), a text that highlights the construction of the gender binary and the exclusion of African thinkers in academia.

this resource helped me understand and validated an inner knowing that Black people across the diaspora often have a different conception of time, space, corporeality, and cosmology from that of the colonized world. to act as if logic and theoretical reasoning are the only ways to know something is an erasure of African thought and implies a sense of objectivity in the Western world that simply does not exist.

perception

the fourth attribute of MBTI brings the prior elements together to assert how these aspects of self are portrayed to the outer world: judging or perceiving? the latter indicates that i’m someone who often prefers spontaneity and flexibility. overall, i can be idealistic, but i do love a good improvisation to add character and keep things fresh.

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MBTI was originally developed by mother-daughter duo Katharine Briggs and Isabel Briggs-Meyers in the early 20th century, stemming from theories by famed psychiatrist Carl Jung. the film Persona dives into the limits of this form of testing, explaining that racism and ableism are not removed from MBTI’s origins. the story also follows a recent narrative of a young Autistic man who was denied a job based on his test answers and the legal implications this had.

this is a major downside to this type of testing: that too often, it’s applied in a capitalist framework. like many things in this society, people are only viewed as “valuable” if they are productive — which is how these tests are used as a weeding out measure to prevent unsatisfactory employment. much of how we approach education and labor in a modern context fails to take accessibility and ability into account; using tests like these can be a hinderance to overdue progress.

these tests are also not science-based, so applying such inflexible meaning to them can be detrimental. on some level, they are a self-fulfilling prophecy — you could answer the questions in a way that aligns with how you are situationally. or how you think you should answer versus how you actually want to.

i believe that there’s social value in the existence of these types of tests, but their significance has been overstated in many arenas. personally, the acronym INFP does acknowledge a fair amount of how i currently understand myself, but i’m also okay with divesting away from the “personality test-industrial complex” as we move forward societally. in the meantime, i have compiled a playlist that identifies what INFP means to me. happy weekend!

(apple music | tidal)