Author Topic: Myers Briggs and interpersonal conflict  (Read 2976 times)

secondcor521

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Myers Briggs and interpersonal conflict
« on: March 19, 2017, 12:15:22 AM »
Would anyone who knows about Myers Briggs typology be able to explain why an INTJ would have more interpersonal conflict with an ESTP but get along better with two INFPs?

Monkey Uncle

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Re: Myers Briggs and interpersonal conflict
« Reply #1 on: March 19, 2017, 05:22:59 AM »
This article pretty much sums up my views on Myers-Briggs:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/give-and-take/201309/goodbye-mbti-the-fad-won-t-die

Biggest issue I have with it is it is based on false dichotomies - you're either an I or an E, an N or an S, etc.  Real personalities are more complicated than that.  Here's a good critique that focuses on that aspect:

http://www.indiana.edu/~jobtalk/Articles/develop/mbti.pdf

While the introversion - extroversion thing seems to be pretty real (although as a continuum rather than an either-or), I find the rest of it to be a bunch of baloney. 

In my experience as a manager, the reasons people don't get along are very complex, and have as much or more to do with their vested interests as their personalities.  Certainly, communication style and personality play into it, but trying to understand the reasons for conflict using cookie-cutter pseudoscience is a fool's errand, IMHO.

Laura33

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Re: Myers Briggs and interpersonal conflict
« Reply #2 on: March 19, 2017, 12:09:01 PM »
IME, the N/S conflict is a big one -- I am on off-the-charts N, and I have always struggled to communicate with strong S's.  I need to see the whole story for the details to make sense; a strong S, OTOH, will need to build the analysis brick by brick before the big picture/story makes sense.  So I get impatient with them, because they are always asking about various details that I already know are irrelevant, so the conversation takes twice as long as I think it should; meanwhile, they think I shoot from the hip, because I am telling the whole story without filling in all of the gaps first, and they can't trust that my answer is correct until I give them all of the bricks they need.

Dollar Slice

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Re: Myers Briggs and interpersonal conflict
« Reply #3 on: March 19, 2017, 02:21:36 PM »
I appear to be on the borderline between INTJ/INFP so I can certainly see how those people would get along with no trouble! I read the description of the ESTP and it sounds like the description of an obnoxious loudmouth, which probably doesn't go over well with introverts in general.

But as Monkey Uncle says, real people are more complicated than that. I work with two people who might fall into the ESTP profile, one of them is very well liked and the other one is almost universally detested. They are both kind of hard to deal with for someone like me because they're loud and talkative and sort of overwhelming to be around. But one of them, even though she can be insensitive when she's not paying attention, makes an effort to be kind and inclusive and has a normal-sized ego, while the other comes across as more self-centered, arrogant, and crass.

Tetsuya Hondo

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Re: Myers Briggs and interpersonal conflict
« Reply #4 on: March 19, 2017, 08:53:02 PM »
This article pretty much sums up my views on Myers-Briggs:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/give-and-take/201309/goodbye-mbti-the-fad-won-t-die

Biggest issue I have with it is it is based on false dichotomies - you're either an I or an E, an N or an S, etc.  Real personalities are more complicated than that.  Here's a good critique that focuses on that aspect:

http://www.indiana.edu/~jobtalk/Articles/develop/mbti.pdf

While the introversion - extroversion thing seems to be pretty real (although as a continuum rather than an either-or), I find the rest of it to be a bunch of baloney. 

In my experience as a manager, the reasons people don't get along are very complex, and have as much or more to do with their vested interests as their personalities.  Certainly, communication style and personality play into it, but trying to understand the reasons for conflict using cookie-cutter pseudoscience is a fool's errand, IMHO.

Tip of the hat to you, but as I've learned, no one will listen.

Along these lines, a psych professor in college would do a fun little exercise with the Myers-Brigg. She administered a personality questionnaire to the class. In the next class, after passing out the results, she asked people to raise their hands if they thought that the results and the personality description were accurate. Nearly everyone raised their hands (like, all but two in the lecture hall). She then asked a random student to stand up and read their results. The punch line? Everyone was given the exact same Myers-Brigg description.

Metric Mouse

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Re: Myers Briggs and interpersonal conflict
« Reply #5 on: March 20, 2017, 04:27:28 AM »
This article pretty much sums up my views on Myers-Briggs:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/give-and-take/201309/goodbye-mbti-the-fad-won-t-die

Biggest issue I have with it is it is based on false dichotomies - you're either an I or an E, an N or an S, etc.  Real personalities are more complicated than that.  Here's a good critique that focuses on that aspect:

http://www.indiana.edu/~jobtalk/Articles/develop/mbti.pdf

While the introversion - extroversion thing seems to be pretty real (although as a continuum rather than an either-or), I find the rest of it to be a bunch of baloney. 

In my experience as a manager, the reasons people don't get along are very complex, and have as much or more to do with their vested interests as their personalities.  Certainly, communication style and personality play into it, but trying to understand the reasons for conflict using cookie-cutter pseudoscience is a fool's errand, IMHO.

Tip of the hat to you, but as I've learned, no one will listen.

Along these lines, a psych professor in college would do a fun little exercise with the Myers-Brigg. She administered a personality questionnaire to the class. In the next class, after passing out the results, she asked people to raise their hands if they thought that the results and the personality description were accurate. Nearly everyone raised their hands (like, all but two in the lecture hall). She then asked a random student to stand up and read their results. The punch line? Everyone was given the exact same Myers-Brigg description.

Nice. These are the studies I think of every time this subject is brought up.

 

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