As opposite as ISTJs are to me (ENFP), the weird thing is that we share the same four cognitive functions — just in the opposite order.
An ENFP is:
Extroverted Intuition (Ne)
Introverted Feeling (Fi)i
Extroverted Thinking (Te)
Introverted Sensing (Si)
An ISTJ is:
Introverted Sensing (Si)
Extroverted Thinking (Te)
Introverted Feeling (Fi)
Extroverted Intuition (Ne)
So believe it or not I can relate to ISTJs when it comes to Extroverted Thinking and Introverted Feeling circumstances. They just don't have as dominant of an understanding of extroverted intuition as I do, but they still use it time to time.
The real challenge that people usually have are when they meet people where the MBTI types are identical except for the last letter. The P/J difference essentially reverses the introversion/extroversion functions of a person to the point of absolutely no commonality. I'll use ENFP (myself) and ENFJ as an example.
Again the ENFP is the following:
Extroverted Intuition (Ne)
Introverted Feeling (Fi)i
Extroverted Thinking (Te)
Introverted Sensing (Si)
However an ENFJ is as follows:
Extroverted Feeling (Fe)
Introverted Intuition (Ne)
Extroverted Sensing (Se)
Introverted Thinking (Ti)
As you can see there are absolutely *no* commonalities between us. At the very least the ENFP and INFJ (Ni, Fe, Ti, Se) both relate with dominant intuition functions, so they tend to relate better to each other than an ENFP and an ENFJ does. This is why when my ENFJ friend and I talk we have to explain in detail and effectively communicate with each other to come to a mutual understanding of things. When I communicate with my INFJ friend we don't have to say much. And when I am with my INFP or ENFP friend we can communicate the same amount of information but with *far* less words. It's like our minds meld together because we're always naturally on the same page.
So while I may naturally graviate and be attracted to ENFJs or INFJs (Example: most woman I have either dated or been interested in were NFJs) compared to ISTJs, in theory I would get along better with ISTJs. Even though I might perceive them to be dull or uninteresting, I come to a mutual cognitive understanding with them far easily than I would with an ENFJ.
Statistics: Posted by Mr. SmartyPants — Sat Jun 22, 2013 10:05 pm