People with INFP personalities tend to prefer to think things through on their own before speaking out loud to others.
The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed by Isabel Myers-Briggs and her mother, Katharine Briggs, to present the personality theories developed by Carl Jung in a practical and useful way. Theory suggests that people fall into one of 16 personality types. The personality characteristics of these types offer an explanation of behavior related to how individuals use perception and judgment. Depending on the type of MBTI, individuals react with a preference for handling and processing diverse information and stimuli.
One of the INFP’s personality traits is wanting to fix other people’s problems without worrying about why those problems occur.
This is a useful tool when applied to relationship dynamics and has been used in the workplace to help managers and colleagues understand each other better. Armed with a recognition and understanding of operational preferences, it enables a group to tackle projects more effectively and develop a symbiotic team. Types are determined by four preferences. They are introversion (I)/extraversion (E), intuition (N)/feeling (S), feeling (F)/thinking (T), and perceiving (P)/judging (J).
The Myers-Briggs Personality Test is an accepted tool for identifying an employee’s strengths, weaknesses, and areas of potential difficulty.
For example, one of the personality types is the INFP personality. This indicates a person who prefers introversion, intuition, feeling and perception. A common mistake is to assume that introversion refers to a person who detests social interaction, but in the case of MBTI traits, a preference for introversion indicates the individual’s preference for processing information and is not necessarily a social preference. It is true that introverts generally like to be alone more, but in this context, introversion means that an individual prefers to silently reflect and share when an idea is fully developed. Those with a preference for extraversion think more clearly and develop ideas as they speak.
The INFP personality also indicates a preference for intuition over feeling. This means that they make interpretations based on gut feelings and recognize and trust patterns and relationships that are not perceivable in the physical sense. Sensors prefer to use all five senses to recognize facts, details, and what can be measured and tested.
The third preference, feeling, indicates an INFP personality’s preference for making decisions. Feelers care about how they and others feel, and they don’t necessarily care why or how something happened; they just want to fix it so they don’t feel bad. Thinkers make objective decisions. Facts, fairness, and logic govern their views, and they are not concerned with human reactions to decisions. They are concerned about whether or not the result has been achieved.
The fourth position, “P”, indicates a preference for perceiving. The INFP personality prefers spontaneity, flexibility, and doing things differently. They like to open doors. Those with a judgmental preference stick rigidly to deadlines, don’t like to change course, and seek to close.
The way the four preferences work together results in a personality that is suited to certain situations and tasks. Due to the INFP combination, a person with this personality is likely to enjoy working alone, starting rather than finishing projects, working on tasks that require thought and focus on the “big picture,” trying new and innovative methods, and making decisions based on on values rather than facts. The introvert reflex coupled with a feeling preference makes those with INFP personalities natural writers. A good number of the best writers and notable humanitarians are believed to have the INFP personality.