Personality Types Madness
I’m a sucker for those books, websites and things that have different personality types or “archetypes” (“In Jungian psychology, an inherited pattern of thought or symbolic imagery derived from the past collective experience and present in the individual unconscious.” – Free Dictionary). I think its fun and it helps you figure yourself out by seeing yourself in a different perspective than what you might normally. Of course, people are complex and you can’t “categorize” people, but its crazy how on-the-dot some things are. Sometimes its just fun and you shouldn’t take it too seriously!
Of course, astrology. I don’t put too much stock in my daily horoscope (in newspapers, the best free ones are on Astro.com), most of the things I read about my sun sign (Cancer), moon sign (Sagittarius–the sign the moon was in when I was born) and rising sign (Leo) are pretty dead-on. I loved this book: The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need
“Cancerians are doers. They set out to accomplish things and, one way or another, they want to obtain their goals. In spite of their emotional sensitivity, they are strong-willed and have no trouble expressing what they want, then finding a way to get it.”
Aura colors. Out of all the personality assessment dooboppers I’ve read and tests that I’ve taken, this one described me the best. I took the little test in the front of the book Life Colors: What the Colors in Your Aura Reveal
“Yellows can either be very shy and sensitive, or they can be the life of the party. These playful characters have a great sense of humor. They love to laugh and to make others laugh. Yellows believe life is to be enjoyed. They like to live life freely and spontaneously.” From here.
Myers-Briggs. I’ve taken the Jung Typology Test a few times and it always gives me INFP, so I guess that’s what I am! Reading this description of an INFP personality almost makes me feel a little uncomfortable.
“INFPs are usually talented writers. They may be awkard and uncomfortable with expressing themselves verbally, but have a wonderful ability to define and express what they’re feeling on paper. INFPs also appear frequently in social service professions, such as counselling or teaching. They are at their best in situations where they’re working towards the public good, and in which they don’t need to use hard logic.”
Enneagram. This goes from 1 to 9 with the personality types and I’m a 5, “The Investigator”. On one website that talked about 5′s, it seemed to only focus on the negative aspects, but all the cool people that are 5′s made me feel better: Tim Burton, Steven King, Björk and John Lennon. <3
“Knowledge, understanding, and insight are thus highly valued by Fives, because their identity is built around “having ideas” and being someone who has something unusual and insightful to say. For this reason, Fives are not interested in exploring what is already familiar and well-established; rather, their attention is drawn to the unusual, the overlooked, the secret, the occult, the bizarre, the fantastic, the “unthinkable.” Investigating “unknown territory”—knowing something that others do not know, or creating something that no one has ever experienced—allows Fives to have a niche for themselves that no one else occupies.”
There is even a book about dating archetypes based on mythical creatures, which I had to get because its such a cute idea. It actually helped me understand myself and other people better, in a whimsical way. The book is “Wood Nymph Seeks Centaur: A Mythological Dating Guide”
So to boil it down: I’m sensitive, bizarre, awkward, yet playful, spontaneous and creative.
Yep, that’s me in a nutshell.
Share with me your astros, Myers-Briggs, enneagrams and aura colors (if you know them)!
July 26th, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Awesome, awesome post! I feel exactly the same way you do about astrology – I think it’s a great tool for determining someone’s personality by looking at their natal chart but as far as predicting the future and such, I don’t take it too seriously. I’m a Taurus Sun/Scorpio Rising/Cancer Moon/Venus & Mars in Pisces. w00t.
& I’m an INFP as well! I’ve never read that description before, but it’s right on. I am super awkward verbally.. haha. My husband makes fun of me a lot because I tend to not finish a sentence before I go on to the next one. I guess I’m hard to follow when I’m speaking. I can write one helluva letter, though.
I don’t know any of the other ones, though. Interesting stuff! It can all be quite addicting.
Kylie´s last blog ..Days 2 & 3- Favorite Movie & Television Program
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July 27th, 2010 at 7:33 am
I love that stuff too! It’s sort of a guilty pleasure.
I know with Myers-Briggs that I’m an INFJ. Astro sign is a Virgo. The others, I don’t know.
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July 27th, 2010 at 12:42 pm
Angie, this is a colorful and delightful post – befitting an INFP such as yourself.
I loved astrology, biorythms and paranormal studies. I swear I have several types of ESP.
Too bad it doesn’t work at the casino! LOL
I don’t put too much stock in astrology these days, but that’s mostly because the newspaper’s resident “astrologist” keeps telling Gemini that “Today is a bad day to get hit by a truck.”
I do, however, think that the Myers-Briggs test results are spookily accurate. It nailed my wife – even though she half-heartedly answered the questions.
I have a question for you: in all of these categorization attempts, do you think we tend to look for confirmation in the descriptions?
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allen´s last blog ..Agility or Ability – Which Is Better?
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Angie
July 27th, 2010 at 3:57 pm
@Mitchell Allen, I kinda do look for confirmation, especially when it comes to the not-so-good aspects of my personality. It makes me feel like I’m not such a weirdo, or that its okay to be a weirdo.
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July 27th, 2010 at 7:02 pm
I’m a Cancer as well, and I fit the description exactly usually! Although I don’t read or believe in horoscopes, I do believe that there is some truth in astrology. Most people I know fit the basic elements of their zodiac sign – not that I would put all my faith into it. It could be useful, though. I also find predictions about which zodiac signs fit together in a relationship pretty accurate as well. My enneagram is the thinker, and I’ve never actually looked up information on my “aura”. I’m a huge fan of this kind of stuff, though.
Marie´s last blog ..NYC- Day 2
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July 28th, 2010 at 12:31 am
I loved reading this post!!! I am into all of this and agree with you on the astrology side of things, I’m not into the daily horoscopes but I think books like the one you mentioned are great. I highy reccommend the Birthday Book is has info about each persons personality based on the day they were born.
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July 28th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
I’m the INFJ – Counselors according to the Jung test but I don’t think that description really suits me. Some things fit but not all.
In the Enneagram test which I took a while ago I’m Personality type 4 – The individualist which I think describes me perfectly. That’s my personality in a nutshell.
Personally I believe in personality tests that are scientific but not in astrology.
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August 5th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
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August 6th, 2010 at 2:08 pm
I’ve never really liked the descriptions of INFP online. They’re so general like a greeting card description of INFP.
I ended up writing my own description of INFP at http://www.infpblog.com/infp/infp-description/
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