Comments on: Living a label

By: Grace

Grace — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:58:12 +0000

Alistair – Thanks for the follow-up. (And if other readers would like to see the article he references, it’s at Are You Living a Label.)

Yes, I agree that the labelling thing is often unconscious. Of course, I’d say that a lot of what most people do is fairly unconscious – and becoming more aware is a good thing all the way around!

Judith – Welcome to my blog, Aunt!

My grandmother was, of course, correct. It’s basically what I’ve been saying in this post and in the article Alistair references: labels, whether Myers-Briggs or otherwise, can be useful or harmful. Which, in the end, is true of any tool. I can hit someone on the head with a hammer, or I can use it to make something useful and beautiful.

By: judith judson

judith judson — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 14:40:40 +0000

I find Meyers-Briggs extremely “fussy.” A split hair’s difference and heaven and earth are set apart, as the feller says. But then it is an attempt to improve and refine Jung’s categories of rational and irrational functions, which are of course in some ways almost medieval in reference. But I was raised on Jung (don’t get Himself started on that subject) and am very comfortable with the original ideas as he stated them…and your grandmother was always very careful to state that the Jungian categories should not be used judgmentally (sp?) but only descriptively.

By: Alistair

Alistair — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 11:10:50 +0000

Have just read your related email post. The idea of labelling is fascinating. We do it to ourselves and others all the time. I’m not sure who we abuse more with it, others whom we don’t see (or let be) as being anything outside the box we put them in (mostly fairly unconsciously I think), or ourselves. Often it seems a synergistic thing – we invite the labelling that others give us once we’ve done it to ourselves that first time, and it re-inforces from there. Being aware of it comes as a shock.

So thanks for your article. A really timely reminder of some of the things we do to ourselves and others.

By: Grace

Grace — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:38:19 +0000

Alistair – Great point about the differences that can happen when questions are answered from a “chosen perspective” – as in when you’re at work, or as my friend Jon pointed out to me, when someone answers out of a place of peer or family pressure.

I also like your points about its being a sketch, but only a sketch or impression. In fact, my next newsletter article makes that point as well – I was so intrigued by this topic of labeling that it ended up growing into an article.

Thanks, Alistair!

By: Alistair

Alistair — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:25:20 +0000

A long time ago now I did Myers-Briggs, and tested as an ISTJ. Typical (at least so I was told at the time) for my job in IT. It sorta felt right. But later, I did the test again, more thoroughly, with a much more experienced person who had a lot of real life experience as well as being an experienced psychologist. And that came up with INTP as the final moderated result, though ISTJ was the first result. It came down to me answering differently based on my preference vs my chosen preference when doing my job. And that time, the INTP descriptions fitted me much better, whereas ISTJ just wasn’t on the money at all. That was done as a very useful group exercise to show how the group on a training course could all be so different. So, the point being made wasn’t to fit people into the box defined by the label, but to show how it was a good approximate sketch of each person, but how different from each other we all were. But the quality of facilitation was what made it work. Later still, a similar test showed that I was 60-40 on a couple of those axes – so I can and do switch to ISTJ-ness for my job role, or when other circumstances demand it. But INTP seems to be the 60% end of it… Handy to know. But also handy to think of it as just a rather good artists impression. It is still a sketch, not the person themselves. And boy is it irritating when people map you by your profile as though you and every other of that type were the same person. As a discovery tool, an educational tool, it and others like it can be really great. Or terribly misused.

By: Grace

Grace — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:18:13 +0000

Adam – Growth! Definitely growth.

However, I do also think that there can be big mistakes made in the evaluation process. When I took the assessment way-back-when, the results didn’t feel right at all. I complained about it, but was told that the system was always right. (!!)

And when I talk with people who are experienced in using Myers-Briggs (in particular my friend Jon), they’ve told me that yes, there can be mistakes made, and that when something doesn’t fit right, then an evaluation and re-assessment would be in order.

So the facilitators have a bit of a responsibility in being responsive, not dismissive, when someone says the results don’t feel right.

In any event – it’s all good, because I’m really enjoying the new understandings that are opening up for me!

By: Adam Kayce

Adam Kayce — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:05:40 +0000

How interesting — I recently re-took a Myers-Briggs thing, too, after years of thinking of myself as an INFP. When I first tested it, it really fit. But when I retook it recently, it came up as INTJ (I think), and the description also fit. But when I read the INFP description, it didn’t feel like me at all.

Amazing what some time away and years of growth—or regression, depending on how you look at it—will do!

And re: labels – I totally agree, but to keep this comment from becoming a novel, I’ll leave it at that.