Freshman year I took the Myers Briggs for the first time and I was an INFJ. Now, four years later, I'm an ISFJ. I've always had an interest in these things and have thought that they're pretty cool (like reading the Chinese zodiac sheet in Chinese restaurants and seeing that as a snake, I guess I do possess a lot of these qualities). But now I'm hearing more and more people around me talk about their Myers Briggs as if it completely encompasses their identities and how they act...and I've had enough of it.
It's fine to take these tests for fun and to have a better understanding of your personality and thought processes, but when the test begins to define you; when it begins to limit who you are; when it begins to act as an excuse for your behaviors; then it's gone way too far. As human beings, we've been created with so much complexity and depth - a four-letter code can come nowhere close to revealing the whole nature of a person.
One of the biggest dangers of taking these test results too seriously is the tendency to pigeonhole and stereotype people. Joe is a J, so he's never gonna do anything spontaneously; he's not flexible. Or Tim is a T so he probably won't understand how I feel. News flash: I's don't all like to be by themselves all the time. E's need their alone time too. N's don't always have their heads in the clouds with their big ideas, without regard for the importance of practicality. S's aren't so focused on the details that they have no greater vision or creativity. F's don't use their gut feelings as the basis for all their decisions; they have brains too. T's aren't cold robots; they have hearts too. J's have desires to mix things up and be spontaneous (I can say this because I'm 93% J). P's aren't completely careless and disrespectful to schedules.
These test results can cause you to become a bit full of yourself and to look at others in a different way. Being a T doesn't mean that you're more intelligent than the F's and that you will have the better logical arguments. Being an F doesn't mean that you have a better heart and are more caring than T's...you get the picture.
On the other hand, another danger of taking the results too seriously is hiding behind them and using them as excuses for behavior that may need to change. Being a P doesn't give you the right to not pay attention and give grief to people who try to organize events. Being a J doesn't give you the right to be unaccommodating and to stress people out with too rigid of a schedule. We have to realize that there is an objective right and wrong. If there's something we're doing wrong that can be attributed to our personality type, that's not justification for it - we need to apologize to the people we've wronged and change.
If the test results are accurate, they will agree with what we already are. But we shouldn't be pressured into agreeing with what the results tell us we are. We can use these results for greater insight, but we shouldn't use these as a dictating or defining force. In the end, these tests are good for realizing that people have completely different mindsets, and so we should be open and patient as we interact with others. Ultimately, though, we should realize that people are multifaceted and unique - there's no way we're going to have them all figured out with four letters.
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