APTitude

It’s funny how things come at you.  I’ve looked at and read about Myers-Briggs for years.  My mom is a MBTI guru so I’ve been taking the test since I was about 12 years old.  I just happened to be reading some information on it just this week and I am amazed at how timely it is.  If I had read this a month ago, it probably would not have the same impact…

I am an ISTP.  At one time, I was an E on the scale but that was when I was much, much younger.  Also, my J/P score is usually close to the middle but always on the P side.  My ST has been strong since the first time I’ve taken the test.  Here’s a bit of what I found about ISTP:

Like most SPs, ISTPs may have trouble with rote and abstract classroom learning, which tend not to be good measures of their actual intelligence. They tend, sometimes with good reason, to be highly skeptical of its practical value…

This is the same feedback that I have received from others.  Combine this with Adult ADHD and I am sure that it must be awful to have me in a classroom.  But, feedback is good stuff.  I know this so I am armed to deal with the perceptions.  Skeptical is such a good word for me too.  It is hard for me to take on new information.  I have to roll it around in my head, try it on in my imagination, chew on it.  It can take forever for me to implement or act on it.  But, it’s in there.

Extraverted Sensing – The combination of dominant introverted thinking and auxiliary extraverted sensing results in no-nonsense realism. The uncanny troubleshooting ability which predisposes many ISTPs to hands-on diagnostics (especially with machinery and computers) or detective work is most probably rooted in this pairing.

Another moment of insight.  Instructional design and I fit…  I was beginning to have some serious doubts about myself, my graduate studies, my career plans.

Introverted iNtuition – Tertiary iNtuition maintains a low profile. ISTPs are prone to consult “gut feelings” that most probably arise from this function unconsciously. As with other SP types, ISTPs generally lack enthusiasm for theoretical and philosophical issues, and less for the endless discussions in which the Intuitive (especially NP) types so frequently engage.

It’s not an excuse, but it explains a lot.  Again, the awareness of how I may be perceived by others is a powerful tool.  MBTI is all about perceptions to me.  It’s about how I look to the rest of the world.  I love knowing other people’s MBTI too.  It helps me think about where they are coming from, what’s going on in their head.

One other thing – for the first time in my life, I came out with a score on the J of the J/P scale.  I took the short test so I don’t trust it’s reliability.  I think that comes from the fact that I am in the midst of uber-scheduling my time and energies to wrap-up the semester and my Research Methods class.  But, this is what I read in the first paragraph of the ISTJ write-up.

ISTJs are often called inspectors. They have a keen sense of right and wrong, especially in their area of interest and/or responsibility.

It goes on to talk about how ISTJs will stick with something, once they know it works, even at the expense of their health (or grades?).

I’m not putting my whole life-plan in the hands of the MBTI.  But, it has always been good for me to come back and revisit these things.  I need to work on appearing more open to new ideas and strategies.  I need to work on letting folks know that I am present in the room and in the moment with them (even though my brain could or could not be – it could be there or in Key West or at home in the garden).