Podcast – Episode 0119 – Healthy Introvert Personality Types (Part 3): ISTP, ISFP, INTP, INFP
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In this episode Joel and Antonia talk about the ISTP, ISFP, INTP and INFP personality types and how they look when they are healthy.
In this podcast you’ll find:
Part three in a series on healthy expressions of all the types.
Showing up as our best self doesn’t mean fitting a stereotype. It means we get to bi-pass stereotypes.
Introverted Perceivers – ISFP, INFP, ISTP, INTP
One characteristic runs thru each of these types when healthiest:
- Introverted Thinking – Ti and Introverted Feeling – Fi:
- Introverted decision making processes.
- The criteria for whether or not something is true, valid or right is entirely subjective to the individual.
- Can show up indecisive because of the extent of internal questioning as to whether something is right or wrong.
- Can also appear uncentered, which is why IPs feel like they are unsure of what they should be doing. May result in a tendency to blast the energies of their dominant process like a shotgun on unsuspecting victims.
- Unhealthy Driver Ti usually shows up as having to prove to everybody how wrong they are.
- Unhealthy Driver Fi shows up as not feeling in alignment and feeling ungrounded. In looking for reasons why they feel uncentered may have a tendency to blast blame upon others. “Whose responsible?!”
When an IP is really developed and healthy they no longer need to correct world and tell them how wrong they are or blame them for what is wrong. They are grounded. Centered. Focused. Setting a ship on the open sea on auto pilot and trusting its course.
When IPs are on mission they are unstoppable.
ISTP – ISFP
- Both share same copilot of Se (Extraverted Sensing) but have different drivers. Copilots are our path to growth and happiness. The healthier our relationship with our copilot, the healthier we are overall.
- In an introverted type, the copilot is going to be extraverted.
- They also share the same 10 year old, which means they will both go to the same place when defensive.
- These two types will have some similarities when healthy because of their shared copilot.
- Healthy versions of these types will automatically find ways to make up for their blind spot.
ISTP
- Driver Ti – looks for logic and things that make sense. Subjectively logical. If ISTP does not take in info from outside world, Ti becomes a closed circuit loop with its 10 year old process of introverted intuition.
- Copilot Se – Growth position is going to be a sensory experience. Present moment. Getting into action. Can process insane amounts of info in the moment.
- 10 Year old – Introverted Intuition (Ni) – Ni is based upon pattern recognition. It doesn’t look at all the info. It looks at parts of the info and forms a conclusion based upon a projection of what could be.
- ISTPs need to take what makes sense (Ti) and vet it in the outside world (Se).
- The sign of a healthy ISTP:
- One of the things that is very clear about healthy ISTPs is that they don’t shut off their input mechanisms. They will input, input, input.
- Then the 10 year old (instead of becoming paranoid and supporting erroneous conclusions of driver) will actually supplement the copilot and create a philosophy about life that is supported by real world experience. It gets info first then determines meaning. Ni provides insight to ISTPs.
- Single minded. Focused. On purpose. Willing to re-calibrate when new info comes in. Instead of creating indecisiveness it creates clarity. Purpose gets clearer. Wisdom and insight are the result.
- Not correcting everyone. Not looking to be right. Isn’t cynical.
- On purpose. Chill. Create philosophies that serve them. Not anxious.
- At best, they don’t struggle as much with relationships. They are steady and people are drawn to them.
- Unhealthy ISTP:
- When not healthy ISTPs bi-pass Se and go to 10 year old which is Ni.
- Correcting everyone. Only looking to be right. Cynical. Anxious.
- When ISTPs avoid copilot and go to 10 year old they aren’t interested in what is. They are looking for patterns that support the conclusion their driver has already come to.
- ISTP 3 yr old is Extraverted Feeling (Fe), which shows up as a struggle with relationships. Standoffish. Not worried about interpersonal connection.
ISFP
- Driver Fi – looks for internal alignment. What feels right. What should we be doing as a culture? Ethics. Morality. Humanity.
- Copilot Se – focused on getting into external world. Touching. Feeling. Experiencing. Get out of 10 year old Ni of speculation and wild theories.
- 10 Year old – Introverted Intuition (Ni) – Ni is based upon pattern recognition. It doesn’t look at all the info. It looks at parts of the info and forms a conclusion based upon a projection of what could be.
- ISFPs struggle with a lot of should statements. Certain things can feel so right and so wrong.
- The sign of a healthy ISFP:
- Experience life and build philosophies and “should” statements based upon how the world actually works.
- Base philosophy of life on real time, real world feedback.
- Healthy ISFPs dont get offended easily. Copilot Se opens them to the outside world and the need to manage their offense. To match the vibration of others and empathize.
- An ISFP who opens to feedback from outer world, can use their 10 year old Ni as insight into other people. At the top of their game, they are not just thinking in terms of how everyone else is making them feel. They can calibrate to other’s feelings as well and figure out what is going on with other people.
- ISFP 3 yr old is Extraverted Thinking (Te) – At the top of their game they are busy doing things. Industrious. While not necessarily implementing complex systems, they do get things done. Extremely focused.
- ISFPs at their best make great counselors.
- Unhealthy ISFP:
- Create a philosophy then try and project it outward without concerning themselves with outer world feedback.
- ISFPS in closed circuit loop of driver and 10 year old (Fi – Ni) feel so strongly about their subjective convictions that they are easily triggered. Easily offended.
INFP – INTP
- Both share same copilot of Ne (Extraverted iNtuition) but have different Drivers. Copilots are our path to growth and happiness. The healthier our relationship with our Copilot, the healthier we are overall.
- In an introverted type, the copilot is going to be extraverted.
- They also share the same 10 year old, which means they will both go to the same place when defensive.
- These two types will have some similarities when healthy because of their shared Copilot.
- Healthy versions of these types will automatically find ways to make up for their blind spot.
INTP
- Lead with same driver as ISTP – Introverted Thinking – All about what makes sense. Subjective. Inner thinking. Analytical. Logical. What makes sense to the individual.
- Copilot is Extraverted iNtuition (Ne) – “What if” thinking. Endless possibilities. New patterns. New possibilities.
- 10 Year old – Introverted Sensing (Si) – Si is based upon preserving precedence and order. Desires stability.
- The sign of a healthy INTP:
- Become very influential. New ideas popping up all the time. Lots of things to share.
- Possibilities orientation brings optimism.
- When an INTP is healthy they don’t go to cynicism. They don’t feel the need to correct everybody.
- They become cheerful rather than cynical.
- Focus on things that are interesting and challenging.
- Driver and Copilot keep the INTP optimistic, cheerful and excited.
- They they can use Si to create routines and systematize their impact. If they have something exciting to share, but no way to distribute it then their reach is going to be small. The memory process helps them create routines in order to accomplish their mission.
- Healthy INTPs are a lot more magnetic to other people.
- Unhealthy INTP:
- Ti without the benefit of outer world feedback, can come to erroneous conclusions that make sense only to the INTP.
- Tendency to look upon the misunderstanding world as idiotic.
- When caught in the Driver/10 year old loop (Ti/Si) they keep it safe. A space of comfortable misery.
- INTPs that are not healthy struggle with relationships because of inferior Fe.
INFPs
- Same Copilot as INTPs – Ne – making connections in outer world. New possibilities. Exciting new frameworks.
- Driver Introverted Feeling (Fi) – what resonates internally. They just know something is right or wrong based upon their internal compass.
- 10 Year old – Introverted Sensing (Si) – Si is based upon preserving precedence and order. Desires stability.
- The sign of a healthy INFP:
- INFPs who are engaged with their Copilot process will have more clarity around their Driver process. They’ve put themselves in situations that help them re-calibrate how they feel about things. So, when they experience something similar they can pull from their 10 year old Si and say, “I remember experiencing this before and how I felt about it.” This helps them create convictions.
- Copilot helps them expand their frame of reference. They stop just considering their own feelings, and start thinking of others. They learn sympathy.
- Healthy INFPs aren’t bothered by inferior Te. They might not be middle mgmt but they will get things done. They will be motivated and industrious.
- Convictions become clearer when they explore outer world. Then Si can help them create discipline and routines that help with have greater impact.
- Unhealthy INFP:
- INFPs that don’t have a lot of experience in the real world have a harder time knowing how something impacts them.
- INFPs that aren’t super healthy have a tendency to be down. Like the stereotypical emo. Stuck in a rut because of closed circuit loop of Fi/Si.
Healthy IFPs understand that their feelings are their responsibility. They can come across as steady, grounded, and free of anxiety. Focused. On target.
Healthy ITPs also appear very centered and focused.
Motivated IPs are healthy. Healthy IPs are motivated.
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Wow, this episode was really enlightening for me. As an INFP who is working towards being healthier, it was really motivating (no pun intended) to hear that we’re healthy when we’re motivated. I also related so much to the mood playlists your friend uses. I’ve got a similar setup on my Spotify account ahaah.
Great posdcast! As a pretty healthy INFP, I think you hit the nail on the head with needing to grow the exploration function in order to make the progress and impact that I want in the world. I am completely self motivated to get things done. This just provided validation that my 5 years of studying my type makes all the difference in the world. 5 years ago I was the secluded, never wanting to leave my house INFP. Now I explore and observe and am able to pick up those patterns of emotions in other people and diffuse negative emotions accordingly. It feels good to be able to utilize my type to better the people around me.
I have been listening to your podcasts for a few days now focusing more around my type and I would say that I am an unhealthy ISTP. Going over and criticising everything, a lot if cynasm and wanting to be right.
How would I go about becoming more healthy?
The best way to overcome a loop is to get into your Co-Pilot (or auxiliary) cognitive function. If you’re an ISTP that would be Extraverted Sensing (or what we call “Sensation”). This function is open to new information and willing to see things that contradict the conclusions the Driver (or dominant) cognitive function of Introverted Thinking (what we call “Accuracy”) has come to. It’s willing to be wrong because it’s simply information-gathering. It experiences the world as it is, not as it wants it to be.
Get into your body, live bigger, explore more and see a bigger world. It’s hard to cling to the desire to be right when direct experience is telling you that you might be wrong. When you’ve had enough of those moments and nobody died it’s easier to get philosophical about all of it.
-A-
Listening to these podcast really helped me to do as mentioned in his podcast; to reset myself. Thanks!
So cool and insightful. Thanks! – ISTP
Hi, ISFP here. I really have found this helpful. The idea of the co-pilot being pivotal for happiness is exceptionally helpful.
This podcast has been so helpful. I am ISFP, and this is spot on. I have found that when I get too caught up in my 10 year old, it can bring a lot of anxiety and worry. Often, I assume things that aren’t really there. I assume someone doesn’t like me, or that I’m a terrible person because of xyz…When you say to get into the Co pilot and get real world feedback, that is so true. I need to get out of my head and ask myself–ok, what’s realistic, what is *actually* going on? It helps me get objective about stuff. It took me a while to find out my type–but once I did, everything made sense…Interesting, I’ve been able to activate that Sensation part of me a whole lot better since listening to your podcasts and stuff. Finding that I’m really in tune with the physical world and can really make that into an advantage. Thanks! 😀
I can really relate!!! – ISFP
I’m so glad you did this series of podcasts, it gives me something to move towards. My high school golf coach would always tell us “If you want to play like the pros, then mimic the pros.” and because I have a “pro” to look at, I can hopefully start mimicking and learning from it.
The only thing for me, as an INFP, is when I realize that I’m responsible for my own emotions I begin to blame myself for everything and perfectionism begins. Because I do that and blame myself, after awhile I have enough and I revert back to blaming others. I would imagine this is because I don’t have some place that I feel grounded. I’d be curious to hear what that grounding piece is for other INFPs.
Hate to reinforce the stereotype, but its very difficult to find people who are willing to meet me on an intellectual level (I’m an INTP). I’m currently enrolled in grad school and there are no like minds to be found. I’ve tried to express my inner world of thoughts/frameworks with friends and family without fruition for years. I’ve become cynical, and my experiences with others continue to reinforce reclusive habits. I’m sorry, but most people are quite myopic, vapid, vacuous, etc. (to the same extent that I’m cynical). I’ve learned to temper my excitement over ideas and theory; expression of these thoughts always leads to blank faces and disappointment. I feel as though I’d best be served devouring copies of “People” or listing my daily activities in excruciating detail when conversing.
I’m an isfp, and I found a lot of what you talked about in this podcast to be true in my experience! I used to always type as an infp, but I’m wondering now if it was because I was often stuck in the fi ni loop. I had a lot of anxiety in general. It usually had to do with myself, and people in the outer world not being able to live up to the impossible moral and ethical standards that I constructed in my mind. I would project my ideas about how I thought things should look politically onto my personal relationships, and as you can imagine, none of them lived up to my ideal. It was made worse by the unquestioned value I had to always ‘go with your gut’ and ‘pay attention to your feelings.’ It would literally make me feel sick most of the time. My feelings were constantly telling me that I was a horrible weak person because the world around me was so different from what I thought it ‘should’ be. I had completely internalized the idea that my feelings about things were absolutely the TRUTH. I remember the first time I realized that I didn’t have to take my feelings unquestioningly at face value, and it was such a relief! I didn’t have to be a slave to the way I felt ALL THE TIME. Or feel like if I didn’t react outwardly to the way that I was feeling inwardly that I was somehow not being true to myself. I hope that makes sense. I still get stuck, but not nearly as often or as deeply as I used to. Thanks for the podcasts! I enjoy them very much.
Great podcast! INTP here. I completely get the motivational part and the hunt. I’m there now, I’m hunting and I’m finding small chunks of stuff but nothing that truly grabs me, so over time you tend to be less motivated, there are times when it seems like you’ll never find it.
Exploring is a big piece of me, I used to travel quite a bit, in fact, in my current job I travel daily, and I meet new people each day and each week which is healthy, but I’m finding it to be boring as well, because of the context in which I meet people, and yes, I often times conclude that people are stupid.
Y’all did a really great job on this. As an INFP- when I am focused and have a goal in mind- it gets done. And, my emotions don’t control me- I control my emotions….nice work! BTW- the audio is really good on this cast…..
This is so great! I loved hearing about the strengths and the healthy version of my type–INFP
When you talked about a compass it finally made sense to me. I always felt like I’m not a highly motivated person, but then I remember all I have accomplished and all the places I’ve been. Thanks for making me realize I am driven and unstoppable; I just need a mission first!
Hi
This podcast was great.My type is INFP. Your observation about finding who to blame for how i feel ,was correct.Also the use of music to get into a particular feel.Thanks for the podcast.
A friend of mine is an INTP. I recognise an unhealthy INTP, this man is cynical and doesn’t open up to exploration. He has made his own world and own reality, which is based on cynicism. He is 45 years old. My question is this: do you ever become too old, is it ever too late to become the healthy version of yourself? Are there like small steps that he can take which will give motivation to change? I hope so…
I’m really glad you did a podcast series on what healthy types look like. I was just wondering if you could give some really specific examples of how to develop Exploration. I’m trying to grow as an INFP but I don’t know if I’m doing it right. I feel like I’m in a really good place save for my lack of motivation. I feel like I’m growing more sympathy for others, I feel more accepting of others and myself, and I feel like I can control my emotions well and take responsibility for them, but getting things done still eludes me. Is there anything I can do specifically in the real world to help me, say, have the motivation do get my school work done in a class I don’t particularly like? I just don’t know what I’m physically supposed to do to develop my exploration process and stop being a lazy bum all the time. Thank you!