The Myers-Briggs 4 Personality Types
"COMPETITIVE" (NT)
Competitive NTs are ABSTRACT in communicating and UTILITARIAN
in implementing goals. They become highly skilled in STRATEGIC
Thus their most practiced and developed intelligent
ANALYSIS.
operations tend to be marshalling and planning.
They are proud of themselves in the degree they are competent in
action, respect themselves in the degree they are autonomous,
confident in themselves. They are the "strong willed"
and feel
personality type. Competitives are rarest of all personality type
comprising as few as 3% of the general population.
Never ending searching knowledge, this is the "Knowledge Seeking
Personality"
-- trusting in reason and hungering for achievement.
They are usually pragmatic about the present, skeptical about the
future, solipsistic about the past. Educationally they go for the
sciences. Avocationally for technology, and vocationally for
systems work. Competitive NTs tend to be individualizing as
parents,
mind-mates as spouses, learning oriented as children.
Power fascinates the NT. Not power over people, but power over
nature. To be able to understand, control, predict, and explain
realities. Note that these are the four aims of science: control and
understanding,
prediction and explanation.
The NT is the most self-critical of all the styles. They badger
themselves over their errors, tax themselves with the resolve to
improve, and ruthlessly monitor their own progress.
"SPONTANEOUS" (SP)
Spontaneous SPs must be free; they will not be tied or bound or
confined nor obligated. To do as they wish whenever they wish.
That's their ideal. To wait, to save, to store, to prepare, to live
for tomorrow -- that is not their way. For the SP, today must be
enjoyed, for tomorrow never comes.
Duty, Power, and Spirit are of secondary, if any, importance to
the SP. Action is the the thing, and to understand the SP it is
necessary to understand the kind of action they insists upon.
Action must be its own end. It cannot serve a purpose or be
instrumental in achieving a goal. SPs do things because of an urge
or whim.
SP's are, in essence, impulsive. The want to be impulsive. To be
impulsive is to be really alive. SPs covet their impulses, enjoy
feeling them well up within; and they love discharge them like
setting off an explosion.
The idea of action for itself can best be understood by comparing
"practice" with "compulsion". SPs do not wish to practice, since it
is only preparation for action later on. SP's do not practice' they
do. Indeed, the SP must do what they feel the urge to do.
More than the other four temperaments, the SJs, the NFs, and the
NTs, the SP is subject to "function lust" (for action without
constraint). Of all the styles, the SP works best in crises, and the
deeper the crisis, the more apt they respond dramatically. SPs
create a crisis, just to liven things up with others.
"METHODICAL" (SJ)
"HUMANISTIC" (NF)
Methodical SJs are CONCRETE in communicating and COOPERATIVE
in implementing
goals and can become highly skilled in LOGISTICS.
Thus their most practiced and developed intelligent operations are
often supervising and inspecting (SJ administering), or supplying
and protecting
(SJ conserving). And they would, if they could be
magistrates watching over these forms of social facilitation.
Humanistic NFs are often described as creative, enthusiastic,
humane, imaginative, insightful, religious and sympathetic. They
want to uncover meaning and significance in the world, and trying
to understand what they believe is the real nature of life and
meaningful relationships.
SJs comprise roughly 45% of the population and are the largest
group of the four groups. The SJs exist primarily to be useful to
units they belong to. Usefulness and a sense of
the social
Belonging are two important drivers for the Methodical.
So the SJs must belong, and this belonging must be earned. Here is
no freeloader, urging his dependency upon the donor as if it were
his god-given
right. Dependency for the SJ, is neither a legitimate
condition nor desire. SJ feels guilty for dependency as if derelict
of duty and negligent of obligations. SJs must be the giver, not
the receiver; the caretaker, not the cared for.
By the time the SJ shows up at school he has already shifted from
the fraternal to paternal . SJs feel dependent for many years, all
through childhood, but the feeling is not enjoyed in the least. This
is not a desire for independence and usefulness.
They are proud of themselves in the degree they are reliable in
action, respect themselves in the degree they do good deeds, and
feel confident of themselves so they are respectable.
The Humanistic's thought and speech tends to be interpretive,
which means they frequently comment how one thing is really
something else. Not tied to observable objects like the SPs and
SJs, and not disciplined by the deductive logic of the NTs, NFs
spontaneously transform one thing into another. This erases key
distinctions, combines categories and joins opposites.
The NF's "truest" self is the self search of itself, or in other words,
their purpose in life is to have a purpose in life. Always becoming
their true selves, the NFs can never truly be themselves, since the
very act of reaching for the self immediately puts it out of reach.
One becomes oneself if and only if one does not become oneself.
This paradox is the NF's burden throughout life, and their job,
quite apart from their goal, is to resolve the paradox. The ones
that are happy and productive; the ones that do not suffer.
Self-realization for the NF means to have integrity, that is, unity.
There must be no facade, no mask, no pretense, no sham, no
playing of roles. To have integrity, be genuine, to communicate
authentically, to be in harmony with the inner experiences of
self. NFs are centered on Self, concentrated and committed to it.
The Myers-Briggs Personality Pairings
NT
Personality Pairings
The NT lacks possessiveness and reluctance to interfere with their
mates makes a very nice fit with the SP's freedom-loving nature.
NTs often lose touch with the everyday workings of family life,
and an SJ mate happily steps in to see that things are done and
that the details of running the home are taken care of. SJs also
see to it that NTs have a social life, not one as varied and exciting
as a whipped
up by an SP, but a family-oriented social life.
Two Competitive
NTs are likely to be fascinated by each other's
research and discoveries, by their tools and technologies, and
when they find the time to come together they have intense
discussions that are logical, esoteric, critical, and competitive.
ideas with an NT means arguing over definitions, logical
If sharing
categories, and necessary consequences, it is onerous to NFs, who
are willing
to engage in such debates for a short period of time,
and only if the discussion remains friendly. Conflict between the
NT's cool resistance to showing emotion and the NF's desire for
emotional expressiveness is an endless problem in relationships,.
Famous NTs: Bill Gates, Hillary Clinton,
Gregory Peck, Thomas Jefferson, Dwight
Eisenhower, Albert Einstein, Walt Disney
SJ Personality Pairings
SJs share with the NF's a concern for society and the morality of
behavior, a wish to do right and to help other people and can be
impressed by the NFs' spirituality and eye for potentiality. But SJs
are critical of NF enthusiasm. SJs comprise 45% of the population.
Methodicals are comfortable with the Competitive's skeptical
attitude and obsession with their work and they often admire the
NT's ingenuity, which is such a reach from their own reliance on
by-the-book routine. However, SJs feel blocked out of the NT's
cognitive life, and feel scorn for their routine and convention.
Methodicals have similar ups and downs mating with other
Methodicals. Two SJs can be attracted to each other and get on
surprisingly well together. SJs share so much interest in domestic
stability, including a devotion to home and family, an industrious
work ethic, conservative attitudes towards parenting, recreation,
spending and saving, memberships, and civic responsibility,
The most common marriage pairing found of all the temperament
types is the SJ married to the SP. Both comprise 85% of the
population and so they find each other when courting.
Famous SJs: Jimmy Stewart, Mike Wallace,
George Washington, Queen Elizabeth, George
Bush, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, J.D. Rockefeller
SP Personality Pairings
The SP's excitement and sensuousness dovetails with the NF's
enthusiasm and the romanticism. But chances are, SPs will grow
cynical about the NF's moral delicacy and need for enlightenment.
SPs can feel right at home with the NT's natural pragmatism,
irreverence, and love of tools, while they can be impressed by the
NTs' theoretical interests, so different from their own practical,
tactical grasp of things. SPs can also grow impatient with the NT's
desire for knowledge and feel annoyed by their calm detachment.
SPs have a considerable better time of it mating with other SPs.
Two SPs live primarily in the same world, the world of external,
physical reality, speaking the same language of concrete objects
and share each other's childlike love of fun and excitement. They
share interests and activities in common-travel, sports, parties,
shows, clothes, and can come together as playmates.
The SP and SJ marriage is the most common pairing between all
the temperament types. The two temperaments complement
each other well and due to sheer numbers alone, being the most
commonly found of all the temperaments, (together comprising
85% of the general population), odds are they will find each other.
Famous SPs: Bill Clinton, Winston Churchill,
Teddy Roosevelt, Ernest Hemingway, Judy
Garland, Ron Reagan, Barb Streisand, Bob Hope
NF Personality Pairings
Humanistics thoroughly enjoy their SP mate's freedom and
spontaneity in the real world, and they admire the ease with
which SPs live artfully in the moment, so different from their own
torn, conscience-stricken experience of life.
When an SJ mates an NF, they find it very comfortable, reassuring
stability and dependability in the home, traits which give the
somewhat scattered NF a feeling of solid earth beneath their feet.
SJs also have a firmly fixed moral center; a sure sense of Right
and Wrong. The SJs so often have two minds about moral issues
they deeply respect. NFs and SJs are both social cooperators.
Humanistics have less trouble mating their own temperament, and
they often get along well with other NFs. Two NFs can find deepfelt satisfaction in sharing each other's inner world and exploring
personal development and intimate bonds.
The choice of an NT mate seems to hold the best promise of
success for another Humanistic. But since the NTs are such a small
percentage of the general population, it is often difficult for a
Humanistic to even find an NT. The basis of their successful
compatibility is that NFs and NTs both live primarily in the world
of abstract concepts; the world of theories, insights and symbols.
Famous NFs: Mohandas Gandhi, Leo Tolstoy,
Eleanor Roosevelt, Mother Theresa, Martin L.
King, Billy Crystal, Oprah Winfrey, Abe Lincoln