ISFP - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

This article is about the Myers-Briggs personality type. For the Socionics ISFp, see Sensory Ethical Introvert.

ISFP (Introversion, Sensing, Feeling, Perception) is an abbreviation used in the publications of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator assessment is a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions...

(MBTI) to refer to one of sixteen personality type

Personality type

Personality type refers to the psychological classification of different types of individuals. Personality types are sometimes distinguished from personality traits, with the latter embodying a smaller grouping of behavioral tendencies. Types are sometimes said to involve qualitative differences...

s. The MBTI assessment was developed from the work of prominent psychiatrist Carl G. Jung in his book Psychological Types
Psychological Types
Psychological Types is the title of the sixth volume in the Princeton / Bollingen edition of the Collected Works of Carl Jung. The original German language edition, "Psychologische Typen", was first published by Rascher Verlag, Zurich in 1921....

. Jung proposed a psychological typology

Personality type

based on the theories of cognitive functions that he developed through his clinical observations.

From Jung's work, others developed psychological typologies. Jungian personality assessments include the MBTI assessment, developed by Isabel Briggs Myers

Isabel Briggs Myers

Isabel Briggs Myers was an American psychological theorist. She was co-creator, with her mother, of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ....

and Katharine Cook Briggs, and the Keirsey Temperament Sorter

Keirsey Temperament Sorter

The Keirsey Temperament Sorter is a self-assessed personality questionnaire designed to help people better understand themselves and others. It was first introduced in the book Please Understand Me...

, developed by David Keirsey

David Keirsey

David West Keirsey , is an internationally renowned psychologist, a professor emeritus at California State University, Fullerton, and the author of several books...

. Keirsey referred to ISFPs as Composers

Composer (Role Variant)

The Composer Artisan is one of the 16 role variants of the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, a self-assessed personality questionnaire designed to help people better understand themselves. David Keirsey originally described the Composer role variant; however, a brief summary of the personality types...

, one of the four types belonging to the temperament he called the Artisan

Artisan (Temperament)

The Artisan temperament is one of four temperaments defined by David Keirsey. Correlating with the SP Myers-Briggs types, the Artisan temperament comprises the following role variants : Composer , Crafter , Performer , and Promoter .-Description:Artisans are concrete in speech and...

. ISFPs account for about 5–10% of the population.

The MBTI instrument

I – Introversion preferred to extraversion: ISFPs tend to be quiet and reserved. They generally prefer interacting with a few close friends rather than a wide circle of acquaintances, and they expend energy in social situations (whereas extraverts gain energy).
S – Sensing preferred to intuition: ISFPs tend to be more concrete than abstract. They focus their attention on the details rather than the big picture, and on immediate realities rather than future possibilities .
F – Feeling preferred to thinking: ISFPs tend to value personal considerations above objective criteria. When making decisions, they often give more weight to social implications than to logic.
P – Perception preferred to judgment: ISFPs tend to withhold judgment and delay important decisions, preferring to "keep their options open" should circumstances change.

Characteristics

Myers-Briggs description

According to Myers-Briggs, ISFPs are peaceful, easygoing people who adopt a "live and let live" approach to life. They enjoy taking things at their own pace and tend to live in the moment. Although quiet, they are pleasant, considerate, caring, and devoted to the people in their lives. Though not inclined to debate or necessarily even air their views, their values are important to them.

Keirsey description

According to Keirsey, Composer Artisans are grounded in the here and now. They are extremely sensitive to their environment, attuned to the perceptions of their five senses even more than other sensing types are. They notice small variations in their physical world or in the people around them. They are very sensitive to balance and understand well what does or does not fit, whether in a work of art or any other aspect of their lives. ISFPs are highly conscious of their companions, but they prefer to allow others to direct their own lives. ISFPs tend to be emotionally well rounded and empathetic toward others.

For more information, refer to Artisan temperament.

Cognitive functions

Using the more modern interpretation, the cognitive functions of the ISFP are as follows:

Dominant: Introverted Feeling (Fi)

Fi filters information based on interpretations of worth, forming judgments according to criteria that are often intangible. Fi constantly balances an internal set of values such as harmony and authenticity. Attuned to subtle distinctions, Fi innately senses what is true and what is false in a situation.

Auxiliary: Extraverted Sensing (Se)

Se focuses on the experiences and sensations of the immediate, physical world. With an acute awareness of the present surroundings, it brings relevant facts and details to the forefront and may lead to spontaneous action.

Tertiary: Introverted Intuition (Ni)

Attracted to symbolic actions or devices, Ni synthesizes seeming paradoxes to create the previously unimagined. These realizations come with a certainty that demands action to fulfill a new vision of the future, solutions that may include complex systems or universal truths.

Inferior: Extraverted Thinking (Te)

Te organizes and schedules ideas and the environment to ensure the efficient, productive pursuit of objectives. Te seeks logical explanations for actions, events, and conclusions, looking for faulty reasoning and lapses in sequence.

Shadow functions

Later personality researchers (notably Linda V. Berens) added four additional functions to the descending hierarchy, the so-called "shadow" functions to which the individual is not naturally inclined but which can emerge when the person is under stress. For ISFP, these shadow functions are (in order):

Extraverted Feeling (Fe): Fe seeks social connections and creates harmonious interactions through polite, considerate, and appropriate behavior. Fe responds to the explicit (and implicit) wants of others, and may even create an internal conflict between the subject’s own needs and the desire to meet the needs of others.
Introverted Sensing (Si): Si collects data in the present moment and compares it with past experiences, a process that sometimes evokes the feelings associated with memory, as if the subject were reliving it. Seeking to protect what is familiar, Si draws upon history to form goals and expectations about what will happen in the future.
Extraverted Intuition (Ne): Ne finds and interprets hidden meanings, using “what if” questions to explore alternatives, allowing multiple possibilities to coexist. This imaginative play weaves together insights and experiences from various sources to form a new whole, which can then become a catalyst to action.
Introverted Thinking (Ti): Ti seeks precision, such as the exact word to express an idea. It notices the minute distinctions that define the essence of things, then analyzes and classifies them. Ti examines all sides of an issue, looking to solve problems while minimizing effort and risk. It uses models to root out logical inconsistency.

External links

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