Shifts in Your MBTI type

A common problem people have with the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is that you can get a completely different type each time you take the test. If you are receiving a different type sequence each time you take this online quiz, it is you who is answering the questions poorly or incorrectly, not the test that is broken. However, many find that their type sequence makes gradual changes over time, and this is very common. According to the theory, you are born with your type, since it is a temperament. However, the way you see yourself can change over the years, which will influence the way you answer questions. 

When I first took the test, I received an INFP result, which I thought was very fitting. I used to be a LOT quieter. This doesn't mean I didn't have my naturally extraverted temperament; I was just too shy and self-conscious in middle school and early high school to go out and make a lot of friends. Later in high school, I broke out of my shell and became much more extraverted. Nowadays, I'll start conversations with randos all the time. After this shift, I started typing as ENFP. I know now that the Feeling temperament doesn't fit me as well as Thinking, but in high school I was much more emotional than I am now. This was probably due to the cocktail of hormones boiling within me just like every other high school kid. Now my emotions have settled down and I have started thinking more rationally, which led me to the ENTP temperament that I believe (at least, at the moment) fits me the best.

This shift in my typings, as well as many other people's, parallel personality theories made by prominent psychologists. Many psychological researchers firmly believe that personality develops over the entire lifetime due to certain events and occurrences. The MBTI covers this by having certain type-specific functions develop over time--functions which I will talk about in a later blog post. In short; while you are given a set of traits to work with at birth, your personality won't stay completely the same your whole life! If you believe yours to be bad in any way, there is still time to change it :)