Truity - The True ISFJ

The True ISFJ

Truity

Copyright 2014 by TruityPsychometrics LLC

Smashwords Edition

Preface

What is Personality Type?

Whatever the circumstance of your life, theunderstanding of type can make your perceptions clearer, yourjudgments sounder, and your life closer to your heart'sdesire.

- Isabel Briggs Myers

In the middle of the twentieth century, amother-daughter team named Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs-Myersset out to develop a system to explain the individual differencesthey observed in the people around them. They wanted to know howthey could describe the diversity they saw in the way their familyand friends thought, made decisions, and organized their lives.

With the help of a text by psychologist Carl Jung,Briggs and Myers came up with a system of four dimensions ofpersonality, each described as a choice between two opposingstyles.

• Extraversion vs. Introversion: Is a person energizedby time with others, or by time on their own?

• Sensing vs. Intuition: Does a person think in termsof concrete facts, or abstract ideas?

• Thinking vs. Feeling: Is a person more concernedwith cooperation and compassion, or logic and objectivity?

• Judging vs. Perceiving: Does a person prefer to livetheir life in a structured, organized manner, or do they like to bemore flexible and spontaneous?

The combination of these four dimensions, each withtwo possible styles to choose from, led Briggs and Myers todescribe 16 different personality types. Each of the sixteen typeswas assigned a four-letter code based on their style on eachdimension, like ESTJ or INFP.

Since Myers and Briggs developed their system ofpersonality types, much work has been done to describe and researcheach of the types. Today we have a wealth of information about howeach type approaches life, relationships and work.

This book is an introduction to the ISFJ type, whatdrives and motivates the ISFJ, and how ISFJs can reach their fullpotential. If you are an ISFJ, it will help you to understand howto be the best person you can be. If you know an ISFJ, it will helpyou to understand and appreciate the unique makeup of this dutiful,caring personality type.

Chapter 1

Introduction to the ISFJ

Be faithful in small things because it is in themthat your strength lies.

- Mother Theresa

ISFJ is also known as the Protector personalitytype. The letters ISFJ stand for the following dimensions ofpersonality:

• Introverted: contemplative, introspective, reserved,non-verbal

• Sensing: practical, pragmatic, concrete, in thehere-and-now

• Feeling: compassionate, sympathetic, heart-centered,easily moved

• Judging: structured, organized, traditional,planning-oriented

Vital Statistics

ISFJ in the Population

It is believed that ISFJs comprise about 14 percentof the population. This would include approximately 19 percent ofwomen and 8 percent of men.

Famous ISFJs

The list of famous people (real and imagined)believed to be ISFJs includes:

• Mother Theresa

• Robert E. Lee

• Laura Ingalls Wilder

• Queen Mary I

• Alicia Keys

• Joseph, father of Jesus

• Michael Caine

• Franois Fillon, former Prime Minister of France

• Ed Bradley

• Robin Roberts

• Agatha Christie

• Arthur Conan Doyle

• Lord Alfred Tennyson

• Louisa May Alcott

• William Wordsworth

• Charles Dickens

• W H Auden

• Kristi Yamaguchi

• Clark Kent (a.k.a. Superman)

• Marge Simpson

• Snow White

• Cinderella

• David Copperfield

• Dr. John H. Watson, associate of Sherlock Holmes

• C3-PO, Star Wars

Chapter 2

The Inner Lives of ISFJs

There is a wisdom of the head, and a wisdom of theheart.

- Charles Dickens

Cognitive Styles: A Place forEverything and Everything in its Place

As human beings we are all immersed in a complex setof social, cultural and ideological traditions that we inherit as abirthright. But while people with other personality profiles mightlearn to question manyif not mostof these assumptions as they ageand mature, ISFJs tend to absorb these beliefs so completely thatit would never occur to them to doubt what is self-evident. Thislack of skepticism about conventional wisdom funnels theinterpretive skills of ISFJs down predictable paths, and theirthoughts, opinions and observations about a wide range of subjectsand events will never surprise anyone who is aware of how they viewthe world.

ISFJs are pure interpretive thinkers and areentirely comfortable in their own skin. Operating from a positionof faith and trust, they use deductive reasoning processes toclassify all of the data they absorb from their surroundingenvironment, and seldom will an ISFJ be caught making animaginative leap into unfamiliar intellectual territory. No matterhow their lives unfold ISFJs will remain cognitively aligned withtime-tested memes and customs, and if what they see or experienceseems to contradict with their belief systems they will broadentheir perspective only to the point where their fundamental coreassumptions are not put at risk.

Because they are skeptical of conjecture andprojection, ISFJs wont base their opinions or decisions onspeculations about possible outcomes. Principled to the edge ofstubbornness, they will refuse to allow critics of traditionalsociety to penetrate their protective mental armor with cleverargument or counterpoint. When they do engage in creative thoughtit will be in areas where the weight of convention rests lightly,and if their opinions evolve it will inevitably reflect anevolution in the thinking of society as a whole on the particulartopic in question.

But anyone who concludes that ISFJs dont haveanything original to contribute are jumping to conclusions andunderestimating the capacities of this highly efficient personalitytype. Through their sensing (S) function, ISFJs are super-observantand notice everything going on around them, and they augment thiscapacity by having an excellent memory for detail. In addition, thefeeling (F) aspect of their natures opens their empathic channelsand helps them form unshakeable bonds of caring and affection withother people, so the frameworks of categorization and comprehensionthey use to organize the information they absorb are, at theirfoundation, based on a deep and abiding concern for the welfare ofothers.

Some people can become overwhelmed by an excess ofdetails and their cognitive processes will being to shut down ifthey are asked to handle too much data all at once. But ISFJs areswift logistical masters and crackerjack data processors, and themore raw information they have at their disposal the betterprepared they will feel to make informed and intelligent decisions.ISFJs are lauded for their organizational abilities, and theyderive their advanced skills in this area from their inherentmental agility and ability to break complex tasks down into aseries of manageable and logically-articulated steps.

Emotional Makeup

ISFJs prefer harmony over dissonance, coherence overconfusion and the certain over the indeterminate. Consequently,anything that disturbs their sense of internal equilibrium willrattle their nerves and leave them haunted by a vague feeling ofdisquiet. For an ISFJ, unhappiness is virtually synonymous withdisharmony, and any time the natural order of things has beenthrown into a state of dishevelment the ISFJ will experienceagitation. Of course their definition of natural order includesthe social and cultural beliefs that they hold dear, so when thewords or actions of others somehow challenge established valuesISFJs can become just as perturbed as they are when confronted byhuman suffering and injustice.