- I just turned on the lava lamp here,
so it's not lava-ing yet.
It hasn't warmed up.
Hopefully by the end it will.
We'll see.
Keep an eye on it for you, will you?
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back
to the Frank James channel, coming at
you with a very important video regarding typology,
and two types that don't get enough comparison, I think.
You hear a lot of people who are out there, saying,
"Oh, am I INFJ or INFP?
"Am I INFJ or INTJ?"
You rarely hear people say, "Am I INFJ or ISFJ?"
But I think this is a big mistake
because these two types are actually similar in many ways.
Interestingly enough, if the statistics,
the dubious statistics, are to be believed,
while we all know INFJ is the rarest type,
woo-hoo, great, let's throw a party,
ISFJ is the most common personality type.
It's about 13 to 15% of the population,
which is pretty sizeable given that there are 16 types.
So I think that's why it's important
to compare INFJ to ISFJ, because
I think there's a lot of people
who could benefit from knowing the differences
since there are a lot of you out
there who may, may, may be ISFJ.
I don't know.
So first of all, I said they have a lot of similarities.
Let's look at some of those similarities, first of all.
Now, the biggest one is that
they have the exact same middle functions.
The second and third cognitive function
in the cognitive stack of these two types are
both extroverted feeling and introverted thinking.
The two middle functions
in a function stack are fairly balanced.
Traditionally the second one is held
to be the one that we favor more,
but they are a lot more in balance than,
say, the first and the fourth function.
So when you're looking at someone's two middle functions,
you can say that they know how
to go back and forth between them
pretty well, and when we're talking
about feeling and thinking, what
we're really talking about, at the core, is others and self.
So extroverted feeling is looking out at other people.
Any extroverted judging function is looking
out at everyone else and trying
to get the spectrum of what everyone else thinks or feels.
So with the INFJ and ISFJ,
they both have extroverted feeling.
They're both looking out at everybody else,
looking at the feelings of everyone else.
On the flip side of that,
their third function is introverted thinking,
which is wrapped up in identity and the self.
It's looking at, what are my reasons for something?
What are my logical thoughts about this thing?
So when those are your two middle functions,
you're pretty good at balancing the two.
You have a good balance of yourself and other people.
It allows you to see both sides of an argument all the time
and it allows you to take things not so personally
because you can put yourself in
other people's shoes pretty easily.
It makes you basically not so weird about other people.
Whereas, if we can, for contrast's sake,
IPs and EJs, who have thinking
or feeling at the top and bottom
of their function stack, they're way
out of balance when it comes to self
and others, so they're just weird about people.
IJs, INFJs, ISFJs, we're fine with people.
We got 'em.
Now, that leaves them imbalanced
with the perceiving functions, with intuition and sensing.
Now, all IJs are gonna be all about that base.
No, organizing.
All about limiting, organizing, and control,
if we can put it in a nutshell.
The INFJ (coughs).
So the INFJ has lead introverted intuition
and is gonna be all about controlling
in the abstract, controlling, organizing,
limiting things down in the abstract.
While the ISFJ is gonna be doing
that same organization and over-control,
but when it comes to the sensory,
which is the real world, the physical world
around us, real facts and figures, the hard numbers.
Why don't we stop really quick for a commercial break?
(lighthearted music)
Hey there, I wanted to show off
this new poster I got, yes, from Society6.
Quickly becoming one of my favorite places
to get stuff to put on my walls.
This beautiful piece is called the Autumn Hunt.
We've got a fox here.
He's running away from some hunters, I guess.
I love this.
Hint, today and tomorrow they've got a sale.
The link is in the description.
See what you can find there.
Everything, including this.
Find some cool stuff to put on your walls.
Tell 'em FJ sent you.
Actually, there's no way to tell them.
Anyway, let's get to the video.
Thanks for sitting through that.
Both types are gonna have some trouble
when it comes to this imbalance,
this huge imbalance between intuition and sensing.
Their inferior functions are going
to be extroverted perceiving functions.
So for the INFJ, they have inferior extroverted sensing,
which I've talked about at length.
You can click the card that's gonna show
up above my head to see a video I made about that.
ISFJs, on the other hand,
have inferior extroverted intuition.
These extroverted perceiving functions,
both sensing and intuition,
have to do with gathering in the new.
So for extroverted sensing, that's gathering
in new facts, new sensory data,
new information, new 4-1-1, if you wanna be hip.
Extroverted intuition is about gathering
in new concepts and new patterns,
or patt-a-rens, if you will.
So INFJs are gonna have a, they're gonna be stuck
in their head all the time.
They're gonna be introverted intuition-ing away,
and they're gonna be ignoring the extroverted sensing,
the new gathering in of sensory information.
They're just gonna be like, (retches)
"Get that away from me.
"Get the sensory away.
"I don't want new.
"I just wanna stay up in intuition land
"and look 10 years down the road."
Meanwhile, in failing to take in new sensory information,
you cause problems.
The INFJ causes problems for him-
or herself because they're just ignoring new info.
They don't want it.
They wanna just stay with the concept that they're stuck on.
ISFJs, they just wanna stick with the facts
that they know, and they just wanna organize
those facts over and over.
They don't want to gather a new concept.
In a way intuition is also about making guesses.
It's about projecting into the future.
ISFJs, they don't feel comfortable doing that.
They need more facts.
They need to know more sensory information.
They don't wanna make a freaking guess.
They don't wanna take in another concept, a new concept.
They hate that stuff.
Now, this is why ISFJs are stereotypically considered
to be very traditional, because when
you have the introverted sensing first,
which makes you very much care about the facts.
You really respect the facts.
What do we know already?
What can we prove?
Whereas the demon extroverted intuition,
the inferior extroverted intuition,
makes you closed off to any new concept.
You're like, "Nope, I know
"the concepts I have are great.
"We're gonna stick with those.
"No new concepts, thank you very much.
"Keep 'em out of here.
"Keep 'em out of my life."
Now, since we're on stereotypes,
the stereotypical ISFJ occupation is,
as we all know, a nurse.
Now, why is this?
Why is this occupation stereotypical for ISFJs?
Well, it's because their lead function is SI,
and so it's very good at organizing.
It's very good at procedure.
Nurses, they need to know all the steps
to do different things.
They need to be able to organize facts
in the real world, in the physical world.
We're not talking about abstract stuff.
We're talking about, how many CCs
of medicine do I have to put into this guy's butt right now?
That's SI stuff.
And then, with the extroverted feeling,
that's caring about other people
and their feeling state, but because
it's in the middle and it's pretty balanced,
they're not gonna freak out over people.
They're very good at staying calm
with everyone else, taking care of them,
but not taking things personally
and either martyring themselves
or looking too much at their own needs.
Now, the stereotypical occupation
for an INFJ might be something like a monk,
like some kind of Yoda figure.
And actually, I have a book that's a Meyers-Briggs books.
It's kinda old.
It's from the '80s.
Hey, I'm from the '80s too.
I'm not that old.
But it had statistics about occupations
in it based on the types, and the INFJ,
the top three occupations were monk,
religion teacher, and priest.
It was pretty strongly about religious stuff.
Now, I'm not saying INFJs have to be religious,
but what I'm saying is, the reason
that that monk stereotype, that Yoda stereotype,
exists is because, yeah, we have the extroverted feeling,
just like the ISFJs, so we wanna help other people,
but not in the physical world.
We don't want to have to take care of sick people.
What we wanna do is help them in the intuitive world,
in the abstract world.
So after I do any of these videos,
there's always people in the comments, saying,
"I'm more confused than ever.
"I don't know what type I am."
Please leave those comments for me.
I appreciate it.
Did the lava lamp heat up at all?
Thanks so much for watching.
Smash Like if you like this video.
Make sure you subscribe if you wanna see
more videos about Myers-Briggs, about other stuff.
I make all kinds of videos.
Here's another one for you to watch,
Livestreams that Temporarily Cure My Depression.
You'll love it.
Thanks so much for watching.
'Til next time, stay cool and attractive.
(reflective music)