Things have been quiet here. I have been remarkably busy considering that I am effectively without a job at the moment. I have been posting daily thoughts on my readings on Isaiah at qaya thoughts, but as noted in the tagline there these are unpolished thoughts, and in fact not very profound especially if read outside the context of my thinking about such matters.
Part of the reason I have been busy is that there has been so much to read on other blogs. Among those has been Wayne Leman’s post on Bible translation and personality types, which has prompted lots of comments and several posts on other blogs (such as here and here, but none of them are showing up as links). I am still waiting to see how Wayne can link the two halves of his post title. I commented giving my own personality type, but well down in the comments so probably most of you won’t have spotted it. Anyway, I couldn’t put in a comment the following graphic which summarises the results.
Here is the information from the comment again, slightly adapted.
In the Personality Types Test I come out as ISTP, The “Craftsman”, which is in line with the most recent time I took Myers-Briggs which was probably about 2000. But I am very near the centre on S/N, the others are clear cut. I am now quite strongly P, but when I first took this test I was J, and more recently weakly P. I think this means that I was brought up to be P by my strongly P mother, but am not naturally like that.
In response to Wayne’s question, my preferred Bible is TNIV, or perhaps I would prefer something a little more “dynamic” such as NLT.
Beyond Words asked, in a previous comment, “how does the Spirit influence how we answer the questions? … Some of my natural tendencies have been transformed by grace.” I found several questions which I would answer differently depending on whether I am following my natural personality or going where I sense (or intuit) the Spirit is leading me. Perhaps the Spirit is making me more P and less J, and less strongly S. I might have guessed he was making me more E, but I actually scored less E than last time I tested.
ElShaddai Edwards responded to my comment:
A little more time, Peter, and you’ll be a full-fledged INTP like Iyov, JL, Michael, J.K. Gayle, brucea and myself – scary! For such a small % of the population, there’s a healthy representation of INTPs here.
Scary indeed to be like the Jewish scholar Iyov, the scholar of Aristotle J.K., and the trombonist ElShaddai! Anyway, that would make me “The Engineer”, and I don’t think I want to be that, especially in view of this little video:
So perhaps I need to develop my S side a bit more, to preserve the uniqueness of my ISTP at least among commenters so far.
The first time I took a Myers-Briggs test, I was 11, this examp also predicted good matches for careers — I was told my profile almost exactly matched that of female lawyers. However I chose to stay male and avoid a legal career. (Male academic was a second choice, to be sure.)
Today, I regard these sort of multiple choice personality exams as just slightly better than astrology. I simply don’t think that one can capture something as complex as a human personality in such crude terms. But they are fun as long as we don’t take them too seriously.
However, I’d enjoy seeing the MMPI scores of a number of bloggers.
Iyov, I took am rather sceptical about the validity and usefulness of this kind of test, and so don’t take them too seriously. Yes, MMPI results would be interesting, but maybe bloggers would be less willing to share their scores!
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I find the categories helpful when seen as descriptive rather than prescriptive. Insofar as the description is true of me, I greatly appreciate someone else having put into words things that I can’t seem to articulate clearly about myself, especially when they are areas that others easily misunderstand me. I also find it helpful for understanding others, again not in a blanket stereotypical way, but in the context of the person affirming, “This is true of how I think” or “This is an accurate description of how I function.” Yes, I like systems for organizing understanding, and see this as a system that can be useful. But, it has overstretched its usefulness (to say nothing of, fallen apart as an accurate system) if people use it to try to pronounce or dictate what is, rather than it being a jumping off point for describing something, that can be affirmed or negated in real life.
Glad to see that you are a complete opposite from me.
http://www.matthewsblog.waynesborochurchofchrist.org
I don’t take these tests too seriously either. But my teenage daughter does. She gave me an online youth version of the MBTI test which classed me (again, sigh) as an INTP. But instead of labeling me “engineer” or “architect” as did the other tests I’ve submitted to for others (such as for Wayne), my daughter’s test classed me as “Nerd.” She then goes running around the house rejoicing to all who would hear: “Dad’s a nerd. I knew it! Dad’s a Nerd! Ha!” Then she added insult to injury by making me review this site: http://www.geocities.com/lifexplore/humor.htm and running through all the “apt” descriptions of this nerd dad INTP. See why I can’t take this too seriously? (It is helpful, I must add, for others I work with, or teach, or learn from to know the keirsey.com learning styles).
Thanks, JK. Well, on this basis I come out as an assassin, if only in video games. The danger is that I might think blogging is a video game and start using it for assassination. So maybe you need to keep out of my way 😉
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