7 Factors That Influence Type Development

Some people are extremely easy to type. The way their personality is manifesting is fairly straightforward, and it doesn’t take long to peg them. However, some people have extra factors coming into play that can make them rather difficult. Obviously, you have to approach everyone with potential influencing factors in mind, and account for them, just in case. I’m going to take the time in this article to cover some things to watch out for, and how they may alter the way specific personality types manifest.

Prerequisite Information

It’s important to note that what I’m about to cover doesn’t change one’s personality type. I personally believe that people are born with their individual personality type, and any influencing factors simply influence how that personality type develops. This makes sense given the fact that babies have distinct personalities. They aren’t all born acting the same. Additionally, no two people of the same type act completely the same.

Factors That Influence Development

Before we begin…

Some of these factors that I’m about to list off can make it incredibly tricky to type someone. In these scenarios, it becomes incredibly important that you understand how each function manifests, and how each function in each placement manifests. For instance, a suppressed Fe function may surface similar to Fi, but it will still reason like Fe. Ergo, it is still Fe. You need to take note of all the raw evidence, weigh everything, and come to the most logical conclusion, even if it seems… out of the box.

1. Family Influence

Starting with the most basic, we have family influence or upbringing. The personalities of those who raise us (or those whom we spend a significant amount of time with) influence our personality development. For example, a high Fe user raised by high Te users is going have more Te-like Fe. You’ll still have the root Fe behavior like being highly affected by the emotional environment, the drive for harmony, and etc. However, that Fe user is likely to, for instance, have a fairly easy time being blunt (since Fe is an extraverted judging function anyway), and may describe a level of ambition similar to what we typically ascribe to the Te users. They’ll likely have a decently developed inferior Ti function, due to that Te influence. (After all, Ti would be an Fe user’s thinking variant. They’ll never literally display Te… just Te-like behaviors being driven by a combination of their Fe and Ti functions.)

Obviously, if you’re typing a third party or even yourself, it would be highly impractical and possibly impossible to know all of the personalities involved, but I’m not saying that you need to. You simply need to be aware that sometimes potential function evidence ends up being learned behavior, so make sure the more anecdotal evidence is only used to support the deeper reasoning, rather than relying heavily on it to tilt you toward a particular conclusion.

2. Cultural Influence

This point is extremely similar to the previous section, so I’m not going to dedicate many words to it. Basically, cultures tend to have overall personality traits similar to the way families do. For instance, from what I’ve heard about Germany (based on general research, speaking to natives, and having had a family member who lived there), it’s a very STJ culture. Ryan and I even typed a German once who was an ENTP but related heavily to Te and higher Si qualities. However, once we got to talking with the person, we saw Ne and Ti everywhere. While I didn’t necessarily need to know about the German culture to type this person, it did explain the anomalies, which satisfied my Ti need for everything to be perfectly consistent. Thus, similar to the previous point, this is just a potential factor that you need to be aware of. It’s fairly easy to find out if someone is from a culture separate from yours so that you specifically know to be on the lookout for anomalies. (If they’re your same culture, there won’t appear to be any anomalies in this way because the two of you are existing within the same context.)

I’ve actually had people ask me to do an article on this subject specifically, but I haven’t gotten around to it as of yet. Maybe one day.

3. Life Experiences

Life experiences are what mold us. We all have a unique culmination of experiences, making every person different. Obviously, you can’t account for everything that’s ever happened to yourself or someone, but it can be helpful to pay attention to any experiences that had a profound affect on the person in question. For instance, tragedy can turn a typical optimistic and bubbly NFP cynical. It doesn’t make them an NTP all of a sudden… It just makes them a jaded or cynical NFP. Fi, Ne, Te, and Si reasoning will still be behind all of their actions.

4. Age

Age should affect one’s personality type development. Obviously, there are people out there that are immature for life. However, generally speaking, I expect to see increasingly healthier behavior from the lower functions as someone ages. There are certain ages where people tend to actively focus on developing a tertiary or inferior function. Also, when they’re hyper focused in on developing their inferior, it may be because they’ve already gotten a good handle on their tertiary. An ESTP in his thirties may have very good Fe skills. Obviously, you can extend this concept to other types. Thus, it can be important to keep in mind someone’s age, so you are not confused when you notice a well-developed function that is ultimately, for instance, the tertiary function. Generally, we see tertiary development really begin starting in someone’s 20s, and the inferior function sometime after that.

5. Medication

Medication for depression or anxiety seems fairly common. These types of medication tend to suppress emotions, and thus the feeling function ends up somewhat muted. Be aware that someone on something like this may still be a feeler, but demonstrate a stronger thinking function than what you would expect. For instance, an INFJ could be Ni-Ti looping, and thus display little to no Fe. They could even possibly display Fe similar to inferior Fe, in some respects. At that point, you’re looking to see whether or not the Ni or Ti is dominant, and which is tertiary. (Once you’ve verified that the person uses Ni, Fe, Ti, and Se, of course.)

I imagine there are other types of medication that alter mood. You would have to research to see what the common affect is for whatever medication happens to be a factor, and then speculate about the potential personality affect.

6. Anxiety

Unfortunately, anxiety is fairly common these days. If the anxiety is severe enough, it can make an extravert seem introverted. The difference between an anxiety-ridden extravert and an anxiety-ridden introvert can be extremely difficult to distinguish. Understanding the way functions manifest in specific placements becomes critical here. Remember, an anxious extravert does not magically switch to their introverted equivalent. They are still extraverts, just unhealthy and appearing to be introverted in the classic sense. However, the cognitive functions do not measure introversion or extraversion in the classic sense. See these articles for more information: Typing 101: Introversion vs. Extraversion and 7 Reasons Why EXTJs Type As Introverts.

7. Neuro Differences

Neuro differences can affect how the cognitive functions develop or manifest. It can be extremely tricky to type someone with, for instance, ASD. An article on this subject was requested a while back, which Ryan and I are currently working on, so I’m not going to cover it in depth here. But, once again, this is a factor that you need to be aware of, and you need to research the effects of the neuro difference in question.

To give you a brief example, ADHD affects attention span. It can be tempting to note the symptoms of ADHD and attribute it to the person being a perceiver. The Ne users in particular tend to suffer from this stereotype. There’s really two main ways that I see people skew this. A typologist (amateur or otherwise) will see, for instance, a ton of Si evidence. The person is actually a SJ, but SJs aren’t supposed to have attention issues, so that’s not a valid result in the typologist’s mind. So, they either attribute the Si evidence to generally sensor and make the person an SP, or they say that the person is an NP with really good Si. Both are mistakes. Follow the evidence; don’t skew it.

In conclusion…

These are all the factors that I could think of, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there are others. This subject can be critical in helping establish the correct context for an individual. I feel like some of these categories could warrant an individual in-depth article, but the goal of this one was to just give a general overview. I hope you found this article to be helpful. Feel free to let me know if there is anything I didn’t think of!