As an INFP, your primary mode of living is focused internally, where you deal with

things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit into your personal value

system. Your secondary mode is external, where you take things in primarily via your

intuition.

INFP's, more than other iNtuitive Feeling types, are focused on making the world a better

place for people. Their primary goal is to find out their meaning in life. What is their

purpose? How can they best serve humanity in their lives? They are idealists and

perfectionists, who drive themselves hard in their quest for achieving the goals they have

identified for themselves

INFP’s are highly intuitive about people. They rely heavily on their intuitions to guide

them, and use their discoveries to constantly search for value in life. They are on a

continuous mission to find the truth and meaning underlying things. Every encounter and

every piece of knowledge gained gets sifted through the INFP's value system, and is

evaluated to see if it has any potential to help the INFP define or refine their own path in

life. The goal at the end of the path is always the same - the INFP is driven to help people

and make the world a better place.

Generally thoughtful and considerate, INFP’s are good listeners and put people at ease.

Although they may be reserved in expressing emotion, they have a very deep well of

caring and are genuinely interested in understanding people. This sincerity is sensed by

others, making the INFP a valued friend and confidante. An INFP can be quite warm

with people he or she knows well.

INFP’s do not like conflict, and go to great lengths to avoid it. If they must face it, they

will always approach it from the perspective of their feelings. In conflict situations,

INFP’s place little importance on who is right and who is wrong. They focus on the way

that the conflict makes them feel, and indeed don't really care whether or not they're right.

They don't want to feel badly. This trait sometimes makes them appear irrational and

illogical in conflict situations. On the other hand, INFP’s make very good mediators, and

are typically good at solving other people's conflicts, because they intuitively understand

people's perspectives and feelings, and genuinely want to help them.

INFP’s are flexible and laid-back, until one of their values is violated. In the face of their

value system being threatened, INFP’s can become aggressive defenders, fighting

passionately for their cause. When an INFP has adopted a project or job which they're

interested in, it usually becomes a "cause" for them. Although they are not detail-oriented

individuals, they will cover every possible detail with determination and vigor when

working for their "cause".

When it comes to the mundane details of life maintenance, INFP’s are typically

completely unaware of such things. They might go for long periods without noticing a

stain on the carpet, but carefully and meticulously brush a speck of dust off of their

project booklet.

INFP’s do not like to deal with hard facts and logic. Their focus on their feelings and the

Human Condition makes it difficult for them to deal with impersonal judgment. They

don't understand or believe in the validity of impersonal judgment, which makes them

naturally rather ineffective at using it. Most INFP’s will avoid impersonal analysis,

although some have developed this ability and are able to be quite logical. Under stress,

it's not uncommon for INFP’s to misuse hard logic in the heat of anger, throwing out fact

after (often inaccurate) fact in an emotional outburst.

INFP’s have very high standards and are perfectionists. Consequently, they are usually

hard on themselves, and don't give themselves enough credit. INFP’s may have problems

working on a project in a group, because their standards are likely to be higher than other

members' of the group. In group situations, they may have a "control" problem. The INFP

needs to work on balancing their high ideals with the requirements of every day living.

Without resolving this conflict, they will never be happy with themselves, and they may

become confused and paralyzed about what to do with their lives.

INFP’s are usually talented writers. They may be awkward and uncomfortable with

expressing themselves verbally, but have a wonderful ability to define and express what

they're feeling on paper. INFP’s also appear frequently in social service professions, such

as counseling or teaching. They are at their best in situations where they're working

towards the public good, and in which they don't need to use hard logic.

INFP’s who function in their well-developed sides can accomplish great and wonderful

things, which they will rarely give themselves credit for. Some of the great, humanistic

catalysts in the world have been INFP’s.

Dominant: Introverted Feeling

Auxiliary: Extraverted Intuition

Tertiary: Introverted Sensing

Inferior: Extraverted Thinking

The INFP is a special, sensitive individual who needs a career which is more than a job.

The INFP needs to feel that everything they do in their lives is in accordance with their

strongly-felt value systems, and is moving them and/or others in a positive, growthoriented

direction. They are driven to do something meaningful and purposeful with their

lives. The INFP will be happiest in careers which allow them to live their daily lives in

accordance with their values, and which work towards the greater good of humanity. It's

worth mentioning that nearly all of the truly great writers in the world have been INFP’s.

INFP’s present a calm, pleasant face to the world. They appear to be tranquil and

peaceful to others, with simple desires. In fact, the INFP internally feels his or her life

intensely. In the relationship arena, this causes them to have a very deep capacity for love

and caring which is not frequently found with such intensity in the other types. The INFP

does not devote their intense feelings towards just anyone, and are relatively reserved

about expressing their inner-most feelings. They reserve their deepest love and caring for

a select few who are closest to them. INFP’s are generally laid-back, supportive and

nurturing in their close relationships. With Introverted Feeling dominating their

personality, they're very sensitive and in-tune with people's feelings, and feel genuine

concern and caring for others. Slow to trust others and cautious in the beginning of a

relationship, an INFP will be fiercely loyal once they are committed. With their strong

inner core of values, they are intense individuals who value depth and authenticity in

their relationships, and hold those who understand and accept the INFP's perspectives in

especially high regard. INFP’s are usually adaptable and congenial, unless one of their

ruling principles has been violated, in which case they stop adapting and become staunch

defenders of their values. They will be uncharacteristically harsh and rigid in such a

situation.

Most INFP’s will exhibit the following weaknesses with regards to relationship issues:

shoulders

INFP’s are creative, sensitive souls who take their lives very seriously. They seek

harmony and authenticity in their relationships with others. They value creativity,

spirituality, and honoring the individual self above all else. They are very tuned into

inequity and unfairness against people, and get great satisfaction from conquering such

injustices. An INFP is a perfectionist who will rarely allow themselves to feel successful,

although they will be keenly aware of failures. INFP’s also get satisfaction from being in

touch with their creativity. For the INFP, personal success depends upon the condition of

their closest relationships, the development of their creative abilities, and the continual

support of humanity by serving people in need, fighting against injustice, or in some

other way working to make the world a better place to be.

As an INFP, you have gifts that are specific to your personality type that aren't natural

strengths for other types. By recognizing your special gifts and encouraging their growth

and development, you will more readily see your place in the world, and how you can

better use your talents to achieve your dreams.

Nearly all INFP’s will recognize the following characteristics in themselves. They should

embrace and nourish these strengths:

music and literature. INFP’s are natural artists. They will find great satisfaction if

they encourage and develop their artistic abilities. That doesn't mean that an INFP

has to be a famous writer or painter in order to be content. Simply the act of

"creating" will be a fulfilling source of renewal and refreshment to the INFP. An

INFP should allow himself or herself some artistic outlet, because it will add

enrichment and positive energy to their life.

soul than others. Most INFP’s have strong Faith. Those that don't may feel as if

they're missing something important. An INFP should nourish their faith.

empathy for the underdog and hyper-awareness of social injustice makes them

extremely compassionate and nurturing towards disadvantaged members of our

society. INFP’s will feel most useful and fulfilled when they are fighting to help

people who have been misfortunate in our society. They may be teachers,

ministers, writers, counselors or psychologists, but they will most likely all spend

extra time trying to help people with special problems. An INFP can find a

tremendous amount of satisfaction by enacting some kind of social change that

will help the underdog.

problems, and genuinely want to help them. This makes them outstanding

counselors, and good friends. An INFP may find great satisfaction from

volunteering as a counselor.

believe that an individual has the right to be themselves, without having their

attitudes and perspectives brought under scrutiny. Accordingly, they have a great

deal of tolerance and acceptance dealing with people who might encounter

negative judgment from society in general. They can see something positive in

everyone. They believe in individuals. If they give themselves the opportunity, an

INFP can become a much-needed source of self-esteem and confidence for people

who cannot find it on their own. In this way, they can nurture a "sick soul" back

to health.

ease. They usually do quite well academically, and will find that educating their

minds nourishes their need to think deeply.

INFP’s who have developed their Extraverted iNtuition to the extent that they can

perceive the world about them objectively and quickly will find that they enjoy these very

special gifts:

They will have a great deal of insight into people's characters. They will quickly and

thoroughly understand where a person is coming from by assessing their motives and

feelings. These well-developed INFP individuals make outstanding psychologists (such

as Isabel Briggs Myers herself) and counselors. They might also be great fiction writers,

because they're able to develop very complex, real characters.

They will quickly understand different situations, and quickly grasp new concepts. They

will find that they're able to do anything that they put their mind to, although they may

not find it personally satisfying. Things may seem to come easily to these INFP’s.

Although they're able to conquer many different kinds of tasks and situations, these

INFP’s will be happiest doing something that seems truly important to them. Although

they may find that they can achieve the "mainstream" type of success with relative ease,

they are not likely to find happiness along that path, unless they are living their lives with

authenticity and depth.

The INFP who augments their strong, internal value system (Introverted Feeling) with a

well-developed intuitive way of perceiving the world (Extraverted iNtuition) can be a

powerful force for social change. Their intense values and strong empathy for the

underprivileged, combined with a reliable and deeply insightful understanding of the

world that we live in, creates an individual with the power to make a difference (such as

Mother Teresa - an INFP).

With any gift of strength, there is an associated weakness. Without "bad", there would be

no "good". Without "difficult", there would be no "easy". We value our strengths, but we

often curse and ignore our weaknesses. To grow as a person and get what we want out of

life, we must not only capitalize upon our strengths, but also face our weaknesses and

deal with them. That means taking a hard look at our personality type's potential problem

areas.

INFP’s are rare, intelligent, creative beings with many special gifts. I would like for the

INFP to keep in mind some of the many positive things associated with being an INFP as

they read some of this more negative material. Also remember that the weaknesses

associated with being an INFP are natural to your type. Although it may be depressing to

read about your type's weaknesses, please remember that we offer this information to

enact positive change. We want people to grow into their own potential, and to live happy

and successful lives.

Most of the weaker characteristics that are found in INFP’s are due to their dominant

Feeling function overshadowing the rest of their personality. When the dominant function

of Introverted Feeling overshadows everything else, the INFP can't use Extraverted

iNtuition to take in information in a truly objective fashion. In such cases, an INFP may

show some or all of the following weaknesses in varying degrees:

ideas and opinions

treated unfairly

without being aware of it

disagreement with the INFP, or disapproval of the INFP

they perceive have been oppressive or suppressive to them

picture of things

expectations

Nearly all of the problematic characteristics described above can be attributed in various

degrees to the common INFP problem of only taking in data that justifies their personal

opinions. INFP’s are usually very intense and sensitive people, and feel seriously

threatened by criticism. They are likely to treat any point of view other than their own as

criticism of their own perspective. If the INFP does not learn how to deal with this

perceived criticism, the INFP will begin to shut out the incoming information that causes

them pain. This is a natural survivalist technique for the INFP personality. The main

driver to the INFP personality is Introverted Feeling, whose purpose is to maintain and

honor an intensely personal system of values and morals. If an INFP's personal value

system is threatened by external influences, the INFP shuts out the threatening data in

order to preserve and honor their value system. This is totally natural, and works well to

protect the individual psyche from getting hurt. However, the INFP who exercises this

type of self-protection regularly will become more and more unaware of other people's

perspectives, and thus more and more isolated from a real understanding of the world that

they live in. They will always find justification for their own inappropriate behaviors, and

will always find fault with the external world for problems that they have in their lives. It

will be difficult for them to maintain close personal relationships because they will have

unreasonable expectations, and will be unable to accept blame.

It’s not an uncommon tendency for the INFP to look to the external world primarily for

information that will support their ideas and values. However, if this tendency is given

free reign, the resulting INFP personality is too self-centered to be happy or successful.

Since the INFP's dominant function to their personality is Introverted Feeling, they must

balance this with an auxiliary Extraverted iNtuitive function. The INFP takes in

information via Extraverted iNtuition. This is also the INFP's primary way of dealing

with the external world. If the INFP uses Extraverted iNtuition only to serve the purposes

of Introverted Feeling, then the INFP is not using Extraversion effectively at all. As a

result, the INFP does not take in enough information about the external world to have a

good sense of what's going on. They see nothing but their own perspective, and deal with

the world only so far as they need to in order to support their perspective. These

individuals usually come across as selfish and unrealistic. Depending on how serious the

problem is, they may appear to be anything from "a bit eccentric" to "way out there".

Many times other people are unable to understand or relate to these people.

To grow as an individual, the INFP needs to focus on opening their perspective to include

a more accurate picture of what is really going on in the world. In order to be in a

position in which the INFP is able to perceive and consider data that is foreign to their

internal value system, the INFP needs to know that its value system is not threatened by

the new information. The INFP must consciously tell himself/herself that an opinion that

does not concede with their own is not an indictment of their entire character.

The INFP who is concerned with personal growth will pay close attention to their

motivation for taking in information. Do they take in information to better understand a

situation or concept? Or, do they take in information to support a personal idea or cause?

At the moment when something is perceived, is the INFP concerned with twisting that

perception to fit in with their personal values? Or is she/he concerned with absorbing the

information objectively? To achieve a better understanding of the external world, the

INFP should try to perceive information objectively, before fitting it into their value

system. They should consciously be aware of their tendency to discard anything that

doesn't agree with their values, and work towards lessening this tendency. They should

try to see situations from other people's perspectives, without making personal judgments

about the situations or the other people's perspectives. In general, they should work on

exercising their iNtuition in a truly Extraverted sense. In other words, they should use

iNtuition to take in information about the world around them for the sake of

understanding the world, rather than take in information to support their own conclusions.

The INFP who successfully perceives things objectively may be quite a powerful force

for positive change.

Some INFP’s have difficulty fitting into our society. Their problems are often a result of

an unawareness of appropriate social behavior, an unawareness of how they come across

to others, or unrealistic expectations of others. Any one of these three issues stem from

using Extraverted iNtuition in a diminished manner. An INFP who takes in information

for the sake of understanding the world around them, rather than one who takes in

information only to support their own ideas, will have a clearer, more objective

understanding of how society values social behaviors and attitudes. He or she will also be

more aware of how they are perceived by others, and will have more realistic

expectations for others' behavior within a relationship. Such well-adjusted INFP’s will fit

happily into our society.

Unless you really understand Psychological Type and the nuances of the various

personality functions, it's a difficult task to suddenly start to use iNtuition in an

Extraverted direction. It's difficult to even understand what that means, much less to

incorporate that directive into your life. With that in mind, I am providing some specific

suggestions that may help you to begin exercising your Extraverted iNtuition more fully:

Take care to notice what people look like in different social situations. Look at their hair,

their skin, their makeup (or lack thereof), their clothes, the condition of their clothes, their

shoes, their facial expressions. Don't compare others to your own appearance, or pass

judgment on their appearance, simply take in the information.

Think of a situation in your life in which you weren't sure how to behave. Now try to

understand how one or two other people would see the situation. Don't compare their

behavior to your own, i.e. "she would know better than me what to do", or "why is it so

easy for her, but so hard for me". Rather, try to understand how they would see the

situation. Would it be seen as a problem, or as an opportunity? Would it be taken

seriously or lightly? Try to determine their point of view without passing judgment or

comparing it to your own.

When having a conversation with a friend or relative, dedicate at least half of your time

to talking about the other person. Concentrate on really understanding where that person

is coming from with their concerns. Ask questions.

Think of the people who are closest to you. As you think of each person, tell yourself

"this person has their own life going on, and they are more concerned with their own life

than they are with mine." Remember that this doesn't mean that they don't care about you.

It's the natural order of things. Try to visualize what that person is doing right now. What

things are they encountering, what thoughts are they having? Don't pass judgment, or

compare their situation to your own.

Try to identify the personality type of everyone that you come into contact with for any

length of time.

1. Feed Your Strengths! Encourage your natural artistic abilities and creativity.

Nourish your spirituality. Give yourself opportunities to help the needy or

underprivileged.

2. Face Your Weaknesses! Realize and accept that some traits are strengths and

some are weaknesses. Facing and dealing with your weaknesses doesn't mean that

you have to change who you are; it means that you want to be the best you

possible. By facing your weaknesses, you are honoring your true self, rather than

attacking yourself.

3. Express Your Feelings. Don't let unexpressed emotions build up inside of you. If

you have strong feelings, sort them out and express them, don’t let them build up

inside you to the point where they become unmanageable!

4. Listen to Everything. Try not to dismiss anything immediately. Let everything

soak in for awhile, and then apply judgment.

5. Smile at Criticism. Remember that people will not always agree with you or

understand you, even if they value you greatly. Try to see disagreement and

criticism as an opportunity for growth. In fact, that is exactly what it is.

6. Be Aware of Others. Remember that there are 15 other personality types out there

who see things differently than you see them. Try to identify other people's types.

Try to understand their perspectives.

7. Be Accountable for Yourself. Remember that YOU have more control over your

life than any other person has.

8. Be Gentle in Your Expectations. You will always be disappointed with others if

you expect too much of them. Being disappointed with another person is the best

way to drive them away. Treat others with the same gentleness that you would

like to be treated with.

9. Assume the Best. Don't distress yourself by assuming the worst. Remember that a

positive attitude often creates positive situations.

10. When in Doubt, Ask Questions! Don't assume that the lack of feedback is the

same thing as negative feedback. If you need feedback and don't have any, ask for

it.