The MBTI Industrial Typology Test is the Most Used Test in the World.
The INTJ woman ? Alone, Analytical, and Fabulous, Anyway! Pixabay: Photo: Anja
INTJ Female Percentage : Four INTJ Women for Every 500 Women
For every five hundred women, only four have an INTJ profile. Natural leaders and highly competent they may be, but they are often misunderstood. Here?s why.
INTJ stands for Introverted, Intuition, Thinker, and Judgment. It?s one of the sixteen Myers-Briggs profiles, the most popularly utilized psychometric test in the world. Corporations often use the MBTI to determine whether the person is well-suited to a particular job or not. INTJs are natural leaders but prefer not to be leaders. They only take on leadership roles when it?s important that they do.
Because the INTJ woman is very different, it means that she is often misunderstood.
Her essential characteristics are as follows:
- INTJ women respond differently to being told they are INTJ than men do. Men love it. Women not so much.
- Fewer than 1% of females fall into the INTJ classification.
- When dating an INTJ female, it?s best to give her space and treat her professionally in the beginning of the courtship. INTJ relationships tend to more professional than those of others.
- INTJ women are very private, and they don?t share as much with other women.
- Female INTJs will disobey authority if they think authority wrong. They are not supportive of others.
- Female INTJs are both logical and objective, and they put logic above nurturing and their feelings.
- Female INTJs tend to be gifted and/or highly competent.
- Female INTJs are more rare than any other group. INTJs tend to be male ? about 2% of the population.
As I am an INTJ woman, I have written about the topic many times. This particular poll comes from an article than has been read more than half a million times. I have also written a book about the INTJ woman.
The Myers Briggs Test Explained
As with all personality profiling tests, the end results are only as good as the honesty of the person writing it. In addition, people may be misinformed about themselves.
Although psychologists will tell you that the test is designed in a way that prevents people from lying or from being too misinformed about themselves, anyone with a sufficient knowledge of psychology or intelligent enough can ?cheat? on these tests.
Essentially the supposed failsafe is that the same question is asked repeatedly in many different ways. It is asssumed that people wont? realize it?s the same question and give different answers ? thereby either tripping them up or tending to answer more or less the same thing several times over.
The Myers-Briggs assessment determines whether people are introverts or extroverts, whether they use their five senses or their intuition to make decisions, whether they base their assessments and/or conclusions on thoughts or feelings, and, lastly, whether they are comfortable with unanswered questions or if they need closure and, therefore, make ?judgements.? Ergo, an INTJ woman would comprise the following categories:
Introversion: The I stands for introverted which means she obtains her energy and personal satisfaction from her thoughts, imagination, and/or creativity rather from external factors like other people, status, and/or possessions.
Intuition: The N stands for Intuition. It means that she draws from stored unconscious knowledge accrued through the years from books, movies, other people, experience, and reflection. Generally, the INTJ has top-notch information stored.
Thinker: The T stands for thinker (as opposed to feeler), and this means that decisions are based on a process of deduction and analysis rather than what she feels. Bear in mind that feeling is related to emotions and is not the same as intuition.
Judgement: The J stands for Judgement, and it means that closure is preferred. Open-ended and unresolved problems and issues are not welcome to the lady INTJ.
Rare Combination of Intuition and Thinking
Generally, most profiles combine feeling with intuition and thinking with the use of the senses (taste, smell, touch, feeling, hearing). The INTJ is unusual in their combination of intuition and thinking. The result is an individual with a highly developed imagination and the ability to apply detail to visualisation, thus bringing into being original and practical solutions.
Other names for INTJs are strategists and system-builders.
When you do the official test, you will have a score. While, for instance, you may be an introvert, the test will reveal what percentage introvert or extrovert you are. I am, for instance, 52% introvert and 48% extrovert. That makes me fore ambivert! I also test out at 52% thinker and 48% feeler.
The Truth About Myers-Briggs Types
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is the most widely administered psychological test. In all likelihood, most of?
www.psychologytoday.com
There are serious psychometric problems associated with the MBTI. For example, one problem that afflicts all typologies is that scores are put into categories. In other words, you are either an Extravert (?E?) or an Introvert (?I). In actuality, personality dimensions are continuous, with persons being more or less extraverted or introverted. Source.
The INTJ Lady is an Analytical and Objective Thinker
The INTJ individual is best suited to science, and while many believe that the scientist deals only in facts, it is the outstanding scientist who uses imagination to extrapolate possible interpretations of data as well as find commercial and industrial uses for new discoveries.
She develops precise structures in the brain from early childhood. This means that information is well organized. They can analyze (compare this information) with ease as a result of this highly organized structure. They also retain new information with ease. INTJs are highly competent people and are often gifted.
Of all the types in the Myers-Briggs Assesment, the INTJ is the most independent thinker. This means that the INTJ person is not easily influenced or go with the crowd for the sake of ease, being liked, or keeping peace. She is not submissive. For many men who expect to take the leadership position, especially where religion is concerned, this is a huge stumbling block.
She is a Succinct Writer
It?s no accident that INTJs are excellent writers. They can convey meaning easily and clearly. This is partially because they thoroughly think things through before attempting to explain them, and secondly, it?s because structure is part of their lives. So they?re really good at the structure of language.
INTJ writers include Isaac Asimov, Jane Austen, Stephen Hawking, Jean-Paul Sartre, James Cameron, Betty Friedan, Susan Sontag, Samuel Beckett, and Lone Frank. While I can?t find any MBTI profile for Robert Heinlein, his writing and ideas suggest he is an INTJ. I?d also include Michael Crichton and Robin Cook.
About ten years ago, I wrote an article on INTJ women, and that article has had more than a million reads since then. It is still going strong. Hundreds of women have responded to it and asked me for more information, so I wrote a more detailed profile in my book entitled The INTJ Woman ? A Rare and Lovely Lady. Of course, as its author, I earn a commission on it.
The cover of my book which is available on Amazon.
The INTJ Career
INTJ woman prefer to work on their own rather than with a team. If she is going to be part of a team, then she has to be the leader. She prefers work that is analytical and where very definite problems can be solved. She does not work to work in a situation where nurturing of others is required. She is, at heart, a scientists.
Defiant of Authority?
If the president ordered an INTJ to do something and five minutes into doing it, the INTJ discovered that it wasn?t going to work, s/he would have no issue with changing the plan and going ahead without consulting the powers that be. Even if she knew that the change of plan wouldn?t be very popular and might cost her her job, she would still go ahead and change the plan. That?s because INTJs believe that what they?re doing is right.
Are INTJs right?
Yes. Mostly.
If authority tells them that they are on the wrong track or that they should back off, and the INTJ feels that ?the boss? is not right, the INTJ will simply ignore authority and go right on doing what they are doing. This makes them immune to corruption because they are not concerned with either what people think of them or what rewards they get. They are concerned with what will get the system working.
INTJs have little respect for authority. It?s another point in their favour that ensures that they will do what is right. Ninety-six percent of humanity (as Milgram showed shortly after WWII) will do something instructed by authority even when they know it?s wrong. An INTJ will not.
INTJs are rare in that while they know what they know, they also know what they don?t know. Ask most people a question and there will always be an answer, even if they don?t know what they are talking about. Ask an INTJ a question and they will either give you the right answer or they will say, ?I don?t know.
So is the INTJ lady intimidating to those around her? She can be ? but only because her serious demeanor is misunderstood.
Other Names for the INTJ ? Strategists and Master Builders
INTJs can fit into other classifications as well. They do not have identical points of view or values on all things. For instance, while most INTJs will tend towards atheism, not all will, and some have strong religious beliefs. They are also the most likely to be skeptics and humanists. Some will be warriors while others will be pacifists. Their interests can vary, and they can sometimes thrive in ?people-jobs? like marketing and sales. It just depends on whether they have developed those skills or not.
Serious ? Emotions Not Showing, And Very, Very Private
Female INTJs don?t flirt or join the crowd. They are too private to do that. This does not mean that they have no feelings. They can, and often do, have very intense and deep feelings. It just means that they truly don?t think that their feelings are relevant or anyone else?s business.
In a job situation, INTJs are specially guarded about their feelings. Let?s say that the president has called a meeting about an end-of-the-world scenario. Each person invited to attend is a specialist in their field. One of the female delegates is pregnant, looks ready to give birth, and appears quite green about the gills. Most people in the room will enquire after her health. The INTJ will completely ignore the personal situation (the pregnancy) and instead ask for the report. This gives an impression of insensitivity. As previously mentioned, the strategist, scientist, and/or system-builder (all names for the INTJ) is concerned with the task at hand. However, as women are often expected to be the nurturers and communicators of the community, the INTJ woman is at odds with the norm.
INTJs are the most private of all the different types. As most women tend to share virtually everything of their private lives with other females, the INTJ female runs into difficulties. She will not discuss her private life, gossip about other people, or reveal much about herself to others. Other women take this as a sign of unlikability because, generally, the only reason a woman won?t speak to another woman is because they are disliked. In the case of the INTJ, this is not so. They are just deeply private people and won?t share with many people, friends or foes.
Seriously, Why Does Everyone Think They’re INTJ?
Something I’ve noticed: there are more articles for INTJs out there than for any other type. And apparently, they’re?
www.truity.com
?Unfortunately, a lot of people game the system to claim the ?rare? or ?cool? type they most want to be.? Source.
Famous INTJs ? Or Not
You?ll find numerous lists of famous INTJs. Only those lists comprise people who have never actually done the MBTI test (which was invented in 1943). Just because people are quiet, brilliant, arrogant, etc. doesn?t mean that they are INTJs.
The only sure way to tell if someone is an INTJ is have them sit the test and see if that?s their type. It?s highly unlikely, for instance, that Mark Zuckerberg or Hillary Clinton are INTJs. They care too much about money, power, and status. INTJs are not ambitious, and they don?t care about those things.
Early Adopters, and Geeks for Sure!
It?s no surprise that when Google + launched, it was the INTJs who were there first. So in my first fifty or sixty friends, I managed to gain three new female INTJ connections. Normally, to meet three other INTJ women, there would have to be about two thousand women in the room (I?m an INTJ). One of them was Paula Jones, president of Paula E Jones Consulting.
She said the following to me about being an INTJ, ?I?ve always felt uncomfortable calling attention to myself ? dressing sexy, being very flamboyant, etc., yet I do appreciate honest compliments ? I?m just not going to ask for them. I am very good at pulling people together at work to get agreement on things we need to do. I am not the one who divides and polarizes (at work anyway). But I will stand up for what I believe (not a push over). When someone proposes something I really disagree with I will go talk to other participants and get their agreement rather than fight it out in a meeting. I often just won?t comment on posts I disagree with. I?d rather not deal with the drama. Sometimes the comments become overwhelming and I take time off. I like being alone. With books and the Internet, I?m never truly alone. As a matter of fact, I just don?t like drama and have learned to identify it early. Early in life I was drawn to drama, but then I married it and was totally exhausted.?
Personally, I also don?t like discussion and drama. I prefer to work with people who are in agreement with me rather than with people who aren?t. It?s just too much drama. Likewise, if I see a post or come across a world view I don?t agree with, I just won?t comment. I move away. It?s not that I am unaware of that perspective. I just don?t want to spend time discussing something that has already been discussed with other people.
Susan Stone, an INTJ I met in the early days of Google Plus had her own thoughts about being an INTJ. ?I tend to be data oriented, and willing to change my stances based on the truth of the data rather than just ideology, and I?m comfortable at working with both the mythic and the scientific, literature and physics. I always seek the truth on the ground rather than trying to make reality fit my biases, and then working from that groundwork. and I tend to be solution oriented and obsessed with process ? how things are done, what?s the sequence of events, or steps to get there.?
Finding Yourself Through the Myers-Briggs Test
The personality test isn’t perfect, but it plays to people’s desire to understand themselves and others. A group of?
www.theatlantic.com
Grant points out that the test ignores important personality features, such as the ability to stay calm under stress. Moreover, people often get different results when they retake it. Research shows ?that as many as three-quarters of test takers achieve a different personality type when tested again,? Annie Murphy Paul writes in The Cult of Personality Testing. Source.
What Women Feel About Being an INTJ
The first time I read through the 40 or 50 pages given to me about being an INTJ, I cried and cried and cried.
The only sentence I saw was ?Your Archilles heal is your relationships with others. You will not find them easy.?
From the many comments on my various articles on being an INTJ woman, one response is common place. ?I finally found out why I don?t fit in. I have been depressed, unhappy, treated badly, forced to be the way other women are, and I don?t want to be.?
This is the opposite of the response that INTJ men have. INTJ men tend to be happy that they?re the top of the pecking order. They have entire clubs all over the place for INTJ men. INTJ women would like to meet othe INTJ women, but the few places I have seen on the web for INTJ women now comprise women who are not INTJ. They took the ?unofficial? tests.
My book. Cover art my own.
INTJ Dating: How to Attract the INTJ Woman
The INTJ lady is especially withdrawn in romantic situations. This is a case where the man is going to have to make their feelings obvious at a certain point. There will be no signals coming from the lady. She will, however, be honest.
- Give them a lot of space. They need it because they like to think.
- Don?t argue with them. Just give them solid evidence and leave it at that.
- Be direct. If you are interested, tell them. Don?t play games. Don?t probe. Just tell them. They will appreciate that, and they will give you an honest, direct answer.
- Friendships and relationships with INTJs take time ? a long time. Don?t be impatient.
The INTJ woman is very different to other woman. She relates to others in an intellectual and objective way. She is an independent thinker, and she doesn?t want your advice. She?s highly competent, and when she discovers that you are, too, she will open to you. Of course, an INTJ woman is not everyone?s cup of tea
The INTJ Official Test
There are many different tests on the web that supposedly determine your MBTI results. Unfortunately, they aren?t accurate. The test was created in 1943, and until a few years back, only .8% of females tested INTJ. Now, as a reuslt of all these tests on the web, every second woman is an INTJ.
No, they?re not.
The only test that will tell you whether you are an INTJ is the official one.
The Myers & Briggs Foundation – Take the MBTI Instrument
People who are certified to administer the MBTI instrument are committed to using it in an ethical way, which includes?
www.myersbriggs.org
The Myers Briggs foundation provides the official 93-question test designed by Myers and Briggs and based on Jung?s personality types, the one you might take at your workplace. Because they hold the copyright and require that a trained and certified professional translate the results for you, this test is not free ? it usually costs about $50. Although you will find other tests online, even if they?re based on the official assessment, they?re not the same as the Myers-Briggs.
The only way to be absolutely certain whether you are an INTJ is to take the official test.
