Personality Differences

Personality Traits ~ Lifeofjoy.meYears ago, before I had children, I worked at VCU (VA Commonwealth Univ.) in the office of the Dept. of Microbiology. They were big on employee workshops and such. I took one course that did the Myers-Briggs Personality Test. I don’t remember exactly what my results were way back then, some 25+ years ago but last year I heard people talking about this test again and how much their results helped them understand who they are. It made me curious what my type was, so I went to the website they said they had used and took it again.

After all these years, it was a little more difficult to take because I push myself outside of my comfort zone in several areas, so I am not as introverted as I once was. ;) That probably comes as a shock to many of the people that know me in real life, especially at my church.

Anyway, Sean asked my opinion of these tests the other night and we got to talking about it a bit. Sean took the test, closely followed by Tiffany, and then Mike even took it. It was interesting to see that Sean and I are identical types and that Tiffany is completely different.

My type is labelled “The Defender” and is in a group called the Sentinel. Interestingly, Mike is very similar while being an extrovert; his is labelled “The Consul”. There was one statement on his personality type summary that was an ‘aha moment’ for me. I will share it but first I must give a little background.

Mike does not have an active facebook account. He has had it a few times in the past and it ends up being a source of frustration for him, so it is best for him not to have it active. But he will, daily, ask me, “What’s up? Anything new?” This is frequently a frustration for me because much of what I have on facebook is Zentangle (see Wonder Wednesday posts for more information) related or homeschool related and the like.

So the statement was:

At their hearts, ESFJ personalities are social creatures, and thrive on staying up to date with what their friends are doing.

All of a sudden I realized that the reason he always asks me this question is because it is how he is wired. He “thrives on staying up to date with what” people are doing. Knowing this, makes me understand why he asks this and hopefully, will help me not to get frustrated when he asks in the future.

So, as I told Sean, knowing the personality type can give you insight into a person but the important thing is not to use it as an excuse for not needing to change. We should all be working to be more Christ-like and becoming who He says we should be. But the information can help us to give a little more grace to people who do things differently than you’d do them. But they shouldn’t be used as a crutch.

If your curious about this test and your personality type, you can take it and receive immediate results at 16personalities.com free of charge. I have one friend that said when she took it and found out her type, it validated her and how she reacts to things, i.e. she’s not weird. ;) It can be helpful.

Until next time, God bless,

Michele ºÜº

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