Personality Blog

There’s a (very) old saying: “When we meet someone we form an impression in the first few seconds,” I guess we’ve all heard that and it’s pretty scary. However when we hear the full quote it is even scarier:

When we meet someone we form an impression in the first few seconds, then we spend the rest of the time justifying it.

How scary is that, and how does it work? Well our brains want us to be right and so when we make that initial connections and form an opinion, our brain searches out evidence to prove that we were indeed correct in our assumption.

So for example if I am interviewing someone for a job and they walk into the room and I (totally subconsciously) believe they are aggressive then I will, (again totally subconsciously) phrase my questions in such a way that the other person will give aggressive responses thereby proving I’m right.

Because their best work usually occurs more behind the scenes as they don’t really like the limelight, ISFJs are often the unsung heroes. They work systematically and assiduously a rare combination of caring and detailed and they are often the protectors making sure the routine is taken care of and that what has been agreed is delivered, on time, exactly as agreed and without fuss. Once they have ‘bought in’ ISFJs will work incredibly hard in the background, often unnoticed by the rest of the team, to make sure that things work and hang together for everyone.

Caring and sensitive to how other people are feeling, ISFJs are superb at remembering names and faces and specific facts, (including those who have offended them), which they store in the pristine filing cabinets inside their heads. They can then draw all these strands together into a plan, which they will quietly carry out to completion ensuring every ‘i’ is dotted and ‘t’ crossed. 

​How many times do you think I have heard this over the years when the notion of psychological assessment is mentioned? Or just as popular: “You can’t classify me I am different.” The problem is that people, like organisations, are like some other people, all other people and no other people. So why assess? It’s a fair question.

Well assessment is not about ‘putting people in a box,’ it’s about identifying some personality traits that help us understand people, help them better understand themselves and so begin the process of development. So if you record as an ISTJ it means you probably will display some ISTJ-like characteristics and that helps when you dig deeper into the whole person. You won’t be like every single other ISTJ. Indeed it’s almost like putting someone in a ‘box’ so that you can then understand them better and so, paradoxically, take them out of the ‘box.’

Jung was clear that Sensing vs Intuitive are the perceptive functions, ie they make us aware of what is happening but don’t try to evaluate or interpret (these are the functions of the judging functions, Thinking and Feeling). Although a lot has been written about the true meaning of the two scales, it is helpful to see what Jung wrote on the subject.

We kind of know that Sensing types prefer the known, the facts, the actualities. Rooted in the here and now they have a grounded approach taking in information that has practical application and so they can see concepts and theoretical models as a bit airy-fairy. When we look at what Jung actually said it makes so much more sense.