On Being an INFP

venuschild:

The Perceiver (P), you probably orient your life this way:

• are easily distracted; you can get ‘lost’ between the front door and the car.
• love to explore the unknown, even if it’s something as simple as a new route home from work
• don’t plan a task but wait and see what it demands; people accuse you of being disorganized, although you know better.
• have to depend on last-minute spurts of energy to meet deadlines; you usually make the deadline, although you may drive everyone else crazy in the process.
• don’t believe that “neatness counts,” even though you would prefer to have things in order; what’s important is creativity, spontaneity, and responsiveness.
• turn most work into play; if it can’t be made into fun, it probably isn’t worth doing.
• change the subject often in conversations; the new topic can be anything that enters your mind or walks into the room. 
• don’t like to be pinned down about most things, you’d rather keep your options open.
• tend to usually make things less definite from time to time, but not always - it all depends

From Type Talk by Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen

For INFPs, life is a journey to understand themselves and the world. Where some others may strive for achievements such as degrees and promotions, an INFP tends to consider these as important mainly for their value in making it easier to fulfill the INFP’s life goals.

INFPs value authenticity, acceptance, and the search for meaning in life in both the ordinary events of life and the grand scheme of the universe. One source of sustenance for INFPs are those small, genuine gestures from the heart, be they from loved ones or strangers.

INFPs have many interests and talents. They are generally good at perceiving possibilities for improving the world and understanding others. They are often clear at expressing ideas through language, writing, poetry, and other talents. When an INFP supports a particular project or goal, they can get an extraordinary amount of work done in a short time. On the other hand, INFPs tend to procrastinate and are dissatisfied by detailed work not related to one of their important values. This is one reason INFPs are happier when working at jobs which are related to their values.

Ideas and feelings (and particularly ideas about feelings) form the center of an INFPs existence. As INFPs explore the world, they discover new relationships, concepts, and connections about the universe. This exploration guides INFPs to find values important to themselves.

Many INFPs do not like attempts to impose shoulds and have-tos. These INFPs find absolute systems of rules that everyone must abide to as confining and arbitrary and simply unfair. As such, INFPs may rail against words that imply that a value system can be imposed from the outside.

Sometimes INFPs deny having ideals or principles since it’s possible to equate a reliance on principles with dogmatism and inflexibility. Instead, they prefer to talk about feelings: not momentary emotional states but the personal values on which the feeling function operates.

INFPs often place a high value on harmony, and avoid conflict unless confrontation becomes necessary. Minor, detail oriented, administrative problems are ignored until they stop the progress of any current projects. When his or her projects are threatened, an INFP will either fight for the project/ideal if it’s important enough, or concentrate on another one of his or her interests to avoid a confrontation.

INFPs do not measure life in terms of the number of friends and acquaintances they have but rather by the quality of their friendships. For INFPs, the distinction between friends and acquaintances is very important; an acquaintance is someone they spend time with while a friend is someone with whom an INFP can share ideas and feelings. Their most valuable friends are people who understand their important values and accept them unconditionally.

An INFP’s feelings form the foundations of the individual. They are sacred and binding, in the sense that their emergence requires no further justification. An INFP’s feelings are often guarded, kept safe from attack and ridicule. Only a few, close confidants are permitted entrance into this domain.

INFP’s look at humanity at both the individual (human-to-human) and societal levels. One common discouragement for INFP’s is that societal change often seems impossible. When INFPs become discouraged, they may need some time and space to rediscover their values and a sense of inner peace. The conflict between their ideal world and “reality”, as they see it can cause depression or withdrawal from the world unless they have people that support them in their projects.

(Source: aesthetic-images.com)

cryingtotheocean:

INFP In a Conflict

INFP Conflict Reactions Personality Traits:
INFP may flee the conflict, they will be upset by it
INFP will likely not understand the reason(s) for the conflict
INFP will desire to find a harmonious solution to the problem
INFP will not take the most logical approach to finding the solution
INFP will view “conflict” as a distasteful, uncomfortable part of life
INFP will quickly become depressed by the conflict
INFP will prefer to accommodate at first


INFP Conflict Resolution Activity Personality Traits:
INFP will naturally consider the feelings of others in conflict resolution activity until the INFP feels personal (likely idealistic) values are being ignored
INFP will typically show great respect, kindness as they work toward resolution
INFP will try to satisfy all parties in their conflict resolution activity
INFP will look for “personal” solutions to the conflict first
INFP will be creative in their conflict resolution activity
INFP will encourage input from others

INFP Likely Positive Solutions Will Be:
Idealistic and future oriented
Harmonious to all involved
Insightful, astute, shrewd, discerning above all
Feasible
Decided upon through consensus
Win-win when at all possible

INFP Conflict Resolution Activity-Improvement Opportunities (weaknesses)
INFP will probably quickly affirm someone else’s feelings and emotions in a conflict sometime to the ignoring of their own
INFP may overstate the effect of any hurt feelings they may have
INFP will many times make statements by asking questions instead
INFP will have difficulty seeing in the moment, specific solutions
INFPs may put it off if it feels too bad
INFP will probably take it way too personally
INFPs may fail to logic things through enough
INFPs may frustrate others by appearing too indirect as they work toward conflict resolution
INFP may fear the conflict and talk to everyone except those who can solve it.

(Source: infpzen.blogspot.com)

infpinwords:

According to theory, there are two main types of cognition (or ‘functions’) - perceiving (data-collection) and judging (evaluation). Everybody perceives, everybody judges. In both type of cognitions, two ‘styles’ are discerned. For perceiving, it is Sensing and iNtuition. For judging, it is Thinking and Feeling. What more, these four styles are also focused in a certain direction: inward or outward (‘introverted’ or ‘extraverted’).

Everybody makes use of these four functions, but uses one function more than the other. Some people say you can’t actually “use” these functions, it is about how much these functions are “consciously” within reach. Saying that you cannot hop from one leg to another whenever you want to, in a way. I have not much knowledge yet about how to interpret this, so I will stick with the labels for hierarchy as used on wikipedia: dominant, auxiliary, tertiary, inferior.

To INFP’s, Fi (introverted Feeling) is the dominant function. So, how to recognize Fi? Let me start off with killing a stereotype here - it’s not about “feeling like you’re an introvert”. Rather, to INFP’s, their way of judging is the dominant function compared to perceiving, it’s styled by Feeling, and it is directed inward.

This inward direction, the introvertedness, it signifies the INFP’s relation to the world. Whatever is happening out there in reality, will be compared to Fi’s internal world of personal values and ethics. Fi probably thinks: “If only the world was a bit more like my values”. Fe is similar, but its direction is extraverted, meaning, people with Fe will look to the world for values and ethics. Fe probably thinks: “If only we would adhere to our collective moral ideals”. Another way of describing this difference is by identifying where the “validating source” is located - is it inside or outside the person? Note: I have yet to determine whether it’s more likely that this judging process is a conscious or subconscious proces.

So what exactly does Feeling stand for? It’s not just about emotions - everybody has emotions. And it’s not about the absence of thinking - everybody has thoughts. And it’s definitely not about how good you are at feeling or thinking. It is about the style of judging. Feeling, as opposed to Thinking, is more personal. Some would use the words “subjective” and “objective”, but that’s not entirely true. So I’ll stick with personal and impersonal. To Feelers, personal criteria are most likely to supersede impersonal (logical) criteria. When making decisions, Feelers will prefer decisions that are in line with how they think things should be. Thinkers will prefer a more logical decision, without regarding personal implications and consequences.

That doesn’t mean people with Fe or Fi are completely devoid of logic, or decide everything just on a feeling. Even more confusing, Fe and Fi can analyze the possibilities and consequences of decisions in a most logical way. But the result is nonetheless a decision that is flavored towards results that are in check with personal criteria.

In short: INFP’s most important function (or most prevailing cognition) is of a judging kind, its style is personal, and directed inwards.

stephaniesearches:

skripture-sketches:

How introverts see themselves:

‘cause it’s true. SHE’S ONE OF US.

(Source: scripture-sketches)