Tag: S vs N

Concerning ENFJ vs ESFJ sorry situational extroversion sounded right in my head. You explained the degrees of comfort an ENFJ would feel depending on the person they are around or how confident the ENFJ feels . I guess is would an ENFJ appear less of an extrovert than an ESFJ normally would. I think of the child that comes across as proper in public but is more at ease and goofy at home.

Um… if you’re looking at comparably extraverted ESFJs and ENFJs… say Emma Thompson and Meryl Streep, I don’t think one comes across as more extraverted than the other?

Maybe by way of there being more S types out there, though, more ESFJs feel comfortable quickly around new people than ENFJs?

What main differences do you notice between ESFJs and ENFJs?

Anonymous said to mbti-sorted:

Any tip on how to tell esfj and enfjs apart?
       
   

ENFJs tend to project one of the four following things in order from not knowing you that well, to feeling comfortable goofing around with you:  1. Professionalism!  2. Pleasantness.  3. Dorkiness.  4.Hysterical giggling.

ESFJs are outwardly more actively and reactively emotional and project more things and more of those things.  

If your EFJ is sobbing, or appears outwardly guarded, or is being smooth or charming, that is probably an ESFJ.  If you are thinking, “my what a lot of Fe that person has” like weird MBTI Red Riding Hood.- they’re probably an SFJ.  

If you are not that close you will probably not be able to tell immediately when you’ve annoyed an ENFJ.  If you’ve annoyed an ESFJ, they are more likely to make that clear.

Appearance-wise, the ESFJs are also way more put together.

I find it so amusing that you described Ezra Miller as stylish when his physical presentation is usually so kind of awkwardly uncoordinated hahaha. Anyway, I’m not sure how much convincing you need to see he’s an ENFP and not an ESFP but each to their own I guess. He’s just way too comfortable with N stuff for it to be learned behaviour and most of the stuff that comes out of his mouth is riddled with Ne/Fi

Lol, okay. By stylish I don’t mean always looks great according to my personal standards.  I mean he has three to five different items of clothing from different eras and cuts and fabrics and patterns, and assembles them into one outfit that fits, coordinates colours and textures, coordinates with accessories, shoes, hair and make-up, and manages to look like it’s not out of place on a red carpet. 

Like, either that is a person who spends hours every day on clothes, between shopping for them and trying them on, or that is a person with an insane visual memory (Se).  I’m guessing a little of the former, but a lot of the latter. 

As a person who has spent a lot of time talking myself down from buying random clothes that don’t go with anything else just because they make me happy, I can tell you that it is an insanely difficult way to build a wardrobe of wearable clothing.

I think Ezra Miller is an ENFP mainly because of the topics he frequently talks about, what he thinks about them and the way in which he talks about them. I think you’re definitely right about ExFP, but I do think he’s intuitive (and more specifically, uses Ne)… I know this is incredibly vague but it’s hard to go into specific detail through an ask box haha

jademeetsworld said to mbti-sorted:

the main reason I think Ezra Miller is an ENFP is because he says a lot of “N things”, particularly Ne things, in interviews. for example, an interviewer asked him something along the lines of “so you’re known as being bizarre.” and then went on to confirm that he was born in New Jersey. and Ezra replied “New Jersey. super bizarre place. if you look at it aerially it’s like all squares and circles and there’s something weird about that.”

and then with Regina, i’ll be honest i’ve only seen one interview but she was pretty abstract and conceptualizing in it. i mostly get the N from her music which is pretty Ne to me because she writes a lot of songs as little fictional stories and has weird metaphors and talks a lot about topics from different perspectives. all of that strikes me as Ne somewhere on the functional stack instead of Ni and she is probably a P so I’d guess XNFP

jademeetsworld said to mbti-sorted:

Okay so Ezra Miller, Logan Lerman and Halsey. Also, I’m wondering why you don’t get an N vibe from Joseph Gordon-Levitt (he seems far more idea-based than sensory) and why you think John Lennon was a Ti user because he seemed a bit too dreamy and idealistic to be dom-Ti in my opinion.

Sorry to send you more than one ask but with Joseph Gordon-Levitt it might be helpful to check out his videos he makes for HitRECord because a lot of the time they seem pretty Ne (at least to me).

First of all, my apologies!!! These asks are so old I could probably throw them a birthday party.

Ezra, Regina, JGL (SFPs):

What I see when I look at them is tremendously stylish, talented, congenial, enthusiastic people who also have been raised with an appreciation for education and intelligence.  They seem vaguely EN because they are shadow-functioning.

Halsey’s already been covered in another ask or three, but same idea there.

John Lennon:

I think he has a reputation for dreamy idealism, but the reality is a guy who was super cutting with his words (NFs are better at sustained passive aggression).

What makes you think Oscar Isaac is an ESTP? He seems very Ne in the way that he talks

He seems like a reasonably intelligent person with a BFA from Julliard who’s using his academic knowledge to break down roles the way he was taught, and also to flirt (succesfully) with his super-nerdy fan-base.

See also: Tom Hiddleston, for S-types who’ve figured out how to speak to N-types in N-type language.  And probably all those ISTPs who keep getting typed as INFPs.  The Ti-Ni analytical combo tends to make thoughtful STPs look N-ish.

I find it really strange how ISTPs and INFPs tend to be confused a lot. Like a lot of people think Johnny Depp is an INFP. Same with River Phoenix. And I know you thought Evan Peters was an INFP before watching interviews. Why do you think this is? I’m an INFP and I identify with quite a few ISTPs and I really find this bizarre seeing as we share no functions.

Well.. introverts and P-types.  If you are pretty quiet, people can sort of fill in your motivations for you.

I think there’s also a strong tendency out there to forget that T-types have feelings.  Or that S-types also use their N-functions.  In kind of a macroscopic way, people are not all that different from each other – weird, quiet and sensitive applies to a large number of people from a lot of different types.

I was reading something really interesting the other day (can’t remember the source). Someone pointed out that everyone that helped develop type-theory (Freud, Meyer Briggs and um, the other guy) was an N type and that, it led to confusion/misinformation about S types. It really got me wondering if I understand sensors. How do you interpret the difference between S and N types?

I have been thinking about this for weeks – and what I can tell you is that I don’t have just one answer.  I don’t even have just one answer when I narrow it down to being in regards to how I think about S and N while typing (which I’m going to do, because otherwise this is going to turn into an essay).

The truth is, I prefer not to bring S vs N into typing wherever possible – if I can type someone based on their voice or the way they walk or the muscle tension in their face when they smile – does that specific thing map directly on to someone I’ve already typed? – I’d take that any day.

It is useful, though, when I don’t have enough people to compare to, to be able to reduce to S-ish and N-ish stereotypes – are you a jock or a nerd?  Or maybe historically, are you a warrior or an intellectual?

Unsurprisingly, this has huge limitations.  There are people who comfortably fit both, and people who fit neither.  People I type this way tend to be tentative until I can find enough people who are like them to tie them more firmly to the tag.

The stereotyping tends to make things go particularly awry when you get to people who are shadow-functioning (which amongst other things can mean that they aren’t comfortably fitting into S or N).  Everyone’s got the potential to use both their N and S functions well, so since I can’t actually mind read for thoughts and motivations, I try to look for the things that are untrained, or are harder to change  – body language, muscle tension, speech patterns, etc..  You can teach yourself academic lingo, you can train your body in any number of athletic pursuits, you can learn to give speeches and how to project your voice, you can figure out how to effectively dress yourself.  The trick, I guess, is trying to figure out what is learned (or thrust on you) and what is a default setting.  Sometimes people grow more out of their type, and sometimes they grow more into it.

Thankfully, I have not only stereotypes, but my own experience of Ns and Ss to draw on – I think sometimes it can be easier to tell in person, just because of the way you bounce off each other.  And then there’s the fun and exciting  benefit of being able to ask leading questions.

I think maybe the best way to think of S or N (for typing purposes, anyway) is as a starting point, or maybe as a balance tipped more in one direction.

(…bar graph?  ….pie chart?).