Newsletter #41

In this issue:

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® and Communicating with INFJs

About the Strong Interest Inventory®: 2004 Investigative Theme Scores

About the FIRO-B™: Team Development – Role Satisfaction Part II

The 16PF®– The 16 Personality Factors: Factor N – Privateness

Communicating with INFJs

As a general principle, INFJs prefer people who are supportive, kind, honest, sincere, and appreciative. They like those who show vision, ideas, possibilities, and broad concepts. Values are usually quite important to INFJs, so those who share the same values are likely to be good speaking partners. Insightful comments and personal commitment are also important to most INFJs. Like other Intuitive types, they often enjoy or prefer people who use metaphors to explain their ideas. Like other Feeler types, they want to know how people will be affected. Like other Introverts, INFJs often want uninterrupted time alone to think about the issues. Because many INFJs are private people, you'll need to listen carefully for their insights. It might take some time before they have enough trust to be truly open with another person.

Areas that could cause difficulty in communicating with INFJs include people who focus on minutiae or routine affairs. They generally dislike those who are too critical, blunt, or judgmental. Many have difficulty giving or receiving negative feedback. INFJs usually do not like being pressured into making quick decisions or giving immediate answers, nor do they like surprises. Most INFJs do not like being asked to take a quick look at something, then make a decision. A focus on logic at the expense of emotions or people will not appeal to them. Likewise, focusing only on the short-term, with no consideration of the long-range implications, will not interest them much. Top

About the Strong Interest Inventory: 2004 Investigative Theme Scores

The latest version of the Strong was released in December 2004. There were a number of changes to the test questions and the resulting reports. One change was the ranking of the different professions for men and women in each general occupational theme code, according to the most and least likely to choose that theme. This time the Investigative theme is our focus.

Let's start with the men. The occupations most like to choose Investigative as the top theme included Science Teacher, Optometrist, Software Developer, Chiropractor, Pharmacist, Engineer, Physicist, Dentist, and Computer Scientist. The least likely included Buyer, Retail Sales Representative, Advertising Account Manager, Retail Sales Manager, Florist, Farmer/Rancher, and Paralegal.

For women, the list was almost identical. Among the most likely to choose Investigative were Science Teacher, Optometrist, Chiropractor, Software Developer, Engineer, Dentist, Pharmacist and Veterinarian. Among the least likely were Buyer, Retail Sales Representative, Retail Sales Manager, Financial Analyst, Advertising Account Manager, Florist, and Production Worker.

Of course, it's possible to have Investigative as your top theme and not like any of the above occupations. This information shows the general trend, and is not a reason to either choose or eliminate any option from your career search. Top

The FIRO-B: Team Development – Role Satisfaction, Part II

For many of us, our scores on any particular FIRO-B scale can fall in the medium range, either high or low. In such cases, it might be worthwhile to look at your highest score and see how it relates to those aspects of being on a team that are most important to you. Let's look at those cases where Control is your highest score.

Many with Control as their highest total score report that having the ability to directly influence others is important. Having the right amount of authority is a component of that ability. Being important, or being central, to the organization's success is on the list for teams such as this. High scorers usually like clarity and structure: in meetings, in reports, in roles, in responsibilities, and assignments. To get the job done, the team will need resources, so high scorers will make sure that happens. Accountability and efficiency are two themes that are common among people who prefer Control. Action and getting things done are likewise preferred to long discussions without decisions. They like to see progress, make an impact, and have the knowledge the team is working smoothly toward clear goals.

As usual, most of us will share some of the above desires to some degree. It's more a matter of which factors are most important to you and whether or not your needs can be met on your team. Top

The 16 Personality Factors: Factor N – Privateness

The next 16PF scale for discussion is the Factor "N" scale, which is Privateness (Private vs. Forthright). What exactly does this scale measure?

This factor shows how much personal information people are likely to disclose. As you might imagine, this factor is related to Extraversion, with low scorers on Factor N more likely to be open about personal matters. High scorers are those who hold back information and tend to be guarded, mistrustful, or wary. In some cases, high scorers might place their own privacy above the need to form close personal relationships. They might be disinterested in or fear such close relationships. They often report they keep problems to themselves instead of discussing them with friends. Others might find high scorers difficult to get to know well.

In contrast, low scorers say they readily talk about themselves and their feelings, and can give long answers to personal questions (instead of just the minimum). They tend to be genuine, forthright, and self-revealing. Taken too far, they might reveal too much personal information, which can be a disadvantage sometimes.

Factor N is negatively correlated with the Myers-Briggs Feeling scale. That is, high scorers on Factor N are unlikely to show a preference for Feeling on the Myers-Briggs.

As with all the 16PF scales, major insights come from the interactions among the 16 scales, and not from each scale in isolation.