Extraverted Intuition With Introverted Thinking
Portrait of an ENTP (Extraverted Intuition with Introverted Thinking): The Visionary I am an extraverted intuitive person with the ability to think introvertedly. So what does that mean? I fall into the category of ENTP (Extraverted Intuition with Introverted Thinking) in Jung 's sixteen modes of personality. According to Myers and Briggs (2012), my life is primarily focused externally on the environment around me, which I take things in by intuition. Secondary to this is the internal mode where I deal with things rationally and logically. This is very accurate as I have always trusted my intuition during my lifeguarding career in my teens and early twenties. There are high-stress first aid incidents that occur that requires you to trust
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your gut feeling and do what is necessary to save the person 's life or treat injury. I 've grown up learning to trust that intuition and it has lead me to counselling. I see this being a valuable trait as counselling can also be a high-stress situation where the patient may even be on the verge of comitting suicide. My ability to stay calm, assess the situation and take appropriate action to stay with the patient and arrange for immediate assistance would be a great reaction to that type of situation. Additionally, this mode of calm thinking is rational and logical. I have always seemed to be able to think like this, putting feelings aside as there are things that need to be done in a high-risk situation. Given my use of intuition to process information, I am also able to quickly and accurately size up situations (Myers and Briggs 2012). This skill would definitely prove useful in terms of counselling as I would be able to accurately move through case assessment in a timely manner, allowing me to spend more time focusing on the treatment aspect of the case. Though I am confident in my skills, I have to remind myself that I am always learning and speeding through an assessment in a cocky demeanor can have negative results for the case, the patient, and my career.
Understanding the world around me: Creating open-mindedness
“The ENTP 's primary interest in life is understanding the world that they live in. They are constantly absorbing ideas and images about the situations they are presented in their lives. Using their intuition to process this information, they are usually extremely quick and accurate in their ability to size up a situation.” (Myers and Briggs 2012 par. 2) I have always like to understand the world I live in, constantly taking in new ideas and concepts about situations I am presented with in life (Myers and Briggs 2012). It was back in my last year of highschool where I truely first encountered this mode of thinking. I went through my first relationship and when I broke up with my girlfriend at the time, I realized all the things she made me do, how her influence on me negatively changed my behaviour as well as the friendships I had with other people. This was the first time I actually thought to myself, “why did she do this? Why would she want to do that to anyone?” This was the beginning of understanding that I had a desire to understand why someone would be motivated to do the things they did.
My desire to understand the world and society I live in started here. As a result, I went traveling a lot to learn about the different perspectives of life. I went on a volunteer trip to Ecuador, teaching english to the children there and helping to build the school. The experience I was given changed my whole perspective about life as the children were living in poverty and I got to see how different cultures systematically differ from each other (Friedman and Schustack 2012). I immediately had a sense of gratitude for the things I had in my life and the standard of living I am priviledged to have. From there my idea of life quickly transformed from, “there is only my way of life” to “there are many ways of life, which are NOT …show more content…
wrong”. This attitude change on life made me increasingly more open to all kinds of people, personalities, attitudes, and ways of life regardless of social status, money, material wealth and possessions. It opened up my mind to being tolerant of others and nonjudgmental about the situations that people find themselves in. For an example, in an extreme case, my friend was cheated on by his girlfriend at the time and she got pregnant. My friend broke up with her and everyone else seemed to shun her from the group and looked down on her. I had a different attitude towards her despite her actions. I did see the act as a negative thing that she should not have done, but I continued to talk her while others did not as I saw she needed help with everything that she was going through. I learned that people will make mistakes in life and potentially regret it, but that doesn 't mean they don 't deserve the help to make life what they want it to be. Today, she has found a boyfriend who loves her and she is putting all her time and love into the two twins that she gave birth to. Even her friends who shunned her have come back and rekindled their friendships with her. My craving for understanding the world around me lead to my open-mindedness that has been a critical skill in helping me obtain post-graduate studies to become a counselor. To this day, I keep myself open-minded to any situation I come across in life as a therapists ability to respond sensitively to a patient 's needs and communicate empathy and openess is critical (Melchert 2011).
The possibilities are endless!
“ENTPs are idea people. Their perceptive abilities cause them to see possibilities everywhere. They get excited and enthusiastic about their ideas, and are able to spread their enthusiasm to others. In this way, they get the support that they need to fulfill their visions.” (Myers and Briggs 2011 par. 4) I have always been a person who believes that anything is possible (realistically possible anyways).
I tend to analyze situations very quickly, look for possible solutions to the problems and then start gathering the things I need and work towards to achieving the solution. I 've done so in film production as that is always the case in every single production I do. Thus, I have developed this skill but have yet to formally practise it in a counselling environment. However, I do see that this enthusiam that I possess aides me in successfully providing effective therapy as once I see a problem, I tend to draw on all possible resources to achieve goals. I have applied this to a person I 've supported as he is disabled and going through depression. In order to keep his spirits up, I drew on my resources of the local YMCA where he has made friendships and gotten volunteer hours helping and participating in his community. Additionally, his situation at home is not good as he has multiple conflicts with his parents. I have attended counselling sessions with him at his request and the counselor has reiterated to him a lot of what I was suggesting to him (however, I did not encourage him to take action without clarifying it with his counselor as I am not qualified
yet). Regardless, my ability to spread enthusiam to him has successfully moved him through his depression and he has told me that life is completely different for him though he still has a lot to work through. I understand and emphasize that anything is possible and place a focus on striving for the future possibilities, not dwelling on the past or present. The past is great for analysis and the present is good for understanding and reflection, but the future holds so many possibilities and I feel this approach is key to helping aide people in their mental health.
Thinking things through: It 's a good idea “ENTPs are less interested in developing plans of actions or making decisions than they are in generating possibilities and ideas. For some ENTPs, this results in the habit of never finishing what they start. The ENTP who has not developed their Thinking process will have problems with jumping enthusiastically from idea to idea, without following through on their plans. The ENTP needs to take care to think through their ideas fully in order to take advantage of them.” (Myers and Briggs 2012 par. 5) This is the first insight to the dangers of being an ENTP as I have experienced this before. Being a part-time film producer and musician, I 've started numorous projects that did not reach completion. This was due to the fact that I had not fully developed my ability to logically and practically think through what needed to be done. Thankfully this has not been the case with anything to do with counselling as my practical experience is limited. However, if I were to apply my previous inability to think carefully to counselling situations, there would be a large potential for things to go wrong. Without taking time to draw on proper resources and slowly implement them at the right time, I could potentially ruin a case, and in a larger picture, the patient 's life. For example, if the person suffered from anxiety and I recommended an expensive massage therapy treatment (as an alternative therapy) that the patient could not afford, that would thrust the patient into an unecessary financial stress. A better option would be to sign up at a local YMCA that helps fund memberships and includes yoga classes. Taking the time to think over plans of actions are critical in counselling, especially if you are attempting to use psychoanalysis as an assessment tool to gather information on personality this approach is generally difficult to evaluate (Friedman and Schustack 2012).
Don 't speak to much. Listen
“ENTPs are fluent conversationalists, mentally quick, and enjoy verbal sparring with others. They love to debate issues, and may even switch sides sometimes just for the love of the debate. When they express their underlying principles, however, they may feel awkward and speak abruptly and intensely.” (Myers and Briggs 2012 par. 8) My bachelor 's is in communications and humanities and as such, I enjoy conversation especially about human life and the experience. I feel this is a very important skill to have as counselling obviously not only consists of communication, but requires control of communication in the sessions and making sure, as a therapist, not to take too much control (Melchert 2011). Being able to offer interpretations of the patient 's stories is important, which requires an open mind and patience to not become irritable during the sessions. Though I have an ability to speak for hours on a certain topic, I do find myself rambling at times with friends and family during regular conversation. I have also spoken out too soon on certain subjects which have gotten me into trouble before. As a result, I 've learned to calm down, state my point and let the other person speak while I listen; a skill extremely valuable in obtaining critical information for a case as patients sometimes do not divulge certain information right off the bat due to comfortableness. Shedler in Melchert (2011) stated that the ability to get patients emotionally engaged in sessions is critical to therapy outcomes, which is reliant the therapist to allow them to. This can be achieved through listening and I have successfully learned to restrict my own communicative needs for the sake of the patient 's and their treatment.
Staying in touch with Feeling and Emotion
“The ENTP, who does not naturally consider the more personal or human element in decision making, should take care to notice the subjective, personal side of situations. This is a potential problem are for ENTPs. Although their logical abilities lend strength and purpose to the ENTP, they may also isolate them from their feelings and from other people. If the Feeling part of themself is neglected, the ENTP may not value other people 's input enough, or may become overly harsh and aggressive. ” (Myers and Briggs 2012 par. 9/10) Let 's say I am presented with a case where the person has moved cities, changing their job, friends, lifestyle, and loved ones due to a violent history. This type of stressful event is something that is out of my control as a counselor but has influenced the person 's personality and characteristics which in turn influence the individual 's responses (Friedman and Schustack 2012). As a counselor, if I do not take these human aspects into account, I hold a potential problem to devalue the person 's input or perspective on the situation. This is fundamentally incorrect from a counselling point of view. Thankfully, I have already moved through this phase a long time ago where I was projecting my opinion onto those who did not care or wanted to hear it. Despite that, I continued to press my point becoming loud and harsh to those who did not share the same idea. However, it was during my recovery with depression that I learned to allow myself to feel emotions and synthesize with them to understand what a certain experience feels like. This increased sense of emotion allowed me to further understand that I cannot fully understand what someone else has gone through unless I go through it myself. A good example is war. I will never understand what that is like, but when I am talking to someone, I can empathize with them remaining open-minded to the conversation. Having this ability to empathize creates a connection with the patient which can account for the effectiveness of the therapy (Melchert 2011). I 've successfully turned a weakness into a strength but am constantly reminding myself of this as I know I am prone to reverting back to this weakness.
Summary and Conclusions
“In general, ENTPs are upbeat visionaries. They highly value knowledge, and spend much of their lives seeking a higher understanding. They live in the world of possibilities, and become excited about concepts, challenges and difficulties. When presented with a problem, they 're good at improvising and quickly come up with a creative solution. Creative, clever, curious, and theoretical, ENTPs have a broad range of possibilities in their lives.” (Myers and Briggs 2012 par. 12) I have always had the vision to become the producer for a successfully independent company run by my friend and I, and obtain the necessary qualifications to counsel and help others with their lives. Maybe even help pioneer new psychology theories for the field as well. Who knows. The point being that I am a visionary of my own life and over the past four years of my life, I 've spent them resolving my own personal conflicts as well as my loved ones, which has set the stage for my life as everyone around me is progressing and issues have been resolved. This has been my vision and it has come true. I still have many more visions to achieve and know I am always focused on the possibilities in life, but that 's not to say I 've havent learned valuable skills along the way that have contributed to my success as a counselor in-training. I plan to continue to build on and utilize these skills for my future career. I have used my intuition and logical thinking to creatively solve problems, a skill which can help quicken the assessment phase of counseling allowing me to focus on resolving core issues. My need for understanding the world around me has given me an open and nonjudgmental mind to any situation, which is key in not only responding sensitively to a patient 's situation but the outcomes of the therapy as well. I also have the ability to think things through, applying my initial drive of possibilities and ethusiam by carefully planning each step along the way to ensure the success of the plan and therapy. I also have understood my weaknesses of talking too much, learning to listen and allow for the patient to tell their story which can provide critical information to providing effective treatment for them. Lastly, I 've been able to control my natural ability to emotionally detach myself from situations, so that I may still be able to empathize with human emotion and experiences of stressful events that happen at random; a vital part in establishing a relationship with the patient and rearing successful therapy outcomes. Despite all that I have noted about who I am regarding my ENTP format of personality, I still believe that it is Erikson who has said it best renouncing the notion that identity formation is a lifelong process (Friedman and Schustack 2012). I am always learning and always growing. That is part of MY personality that Jung does not include.
References
Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (2012). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Melchert, T. P., (2011). Foundations of professional psychology: The end of theoretical orientations and the emergence of the biopsychosocial approach. Elsevier
Myers K., Briggs I., (2012). Portrait of an ENTP. In Information about personality types. Retrieved July 20 2013, from http://www.personalitypage.com/html/info.html.
your gut feeling and do what is necessary to save the person 's life or treat injury. I 've grown up learning to trust that intuition and it has lead me to counselling. I see this being a valuable trait as counselling can also be a high-stress situation where the patient may even be on the verge of comitting suicide. My ability to stay calm, assess the situation and take appropriate action to stay with the patient and arrange for immediate assistance would be a great reaction to that type of situation. Additionally, this mode of calm thinking is rational and logical. I have always seemed to be able to think like this, putting feelings aside as there are things that need to be done in a high-risk situation. Given my use of intuition to process information, I am also able to quickly and accurately size up situations (Myers and Briggs 2012). This skill would definitely prove useful in terms of counselling as I would be able to accurately move through case assessment in a timely manner, allowing me to spend more time focusing on the treatment aspect of the case. Though I am confident in my skills, I have to remind myself that I am always learning and speeding through an assessment in a cocky demeanor can have negative results for the case, the patient, and my career.
Understanding the world around me: Creating open-mindedness
“The ENTP 's primary interest in life is understanding the world that they live in. They are constantly absorbing ideas and images about the situations they are presented in their lives. Using their intuition to process this information, they are usually extremely quick and accurate in their ability to size up a situation.” (Myers and Briggs 2012 par. 2) I have always like to understand the world I live in, constantly taking in new ideas and concepts about situations I am presented with in life (Myers and Briggs 2012). It was back in my last year of highschool where I truely first encountered this mode of thinking. I went through my first relationship and when I broke up with my girlfriend at the time, I realized all the things she made me do, how her influence on me negatively changed my behaviour as well as the friendships I had with other people. This was the first time I actually thought to myself, “why did she do this? Why would she want to do that to anyone?” This was the beginning of understanding that I had a desire to understand why someone would be motivated to do the things they did.
My desire to understand the world and society I live in started here. As a result, I went traveling a lot to learn about the different perspectives of life. I went on a volunteer trip to Ecuador, teaching english to the children there and helping to build the school. The experience I was given changed my whole perspective about life as the children were living in poverty and I got to see how different cultures systematically differ from each other (Friedman and Schustack 2012). I immediately had a sense of gratitude for the things I had in my life and the standard of living I am priviledged to have. From there my idea of life quickly transformed from, “there is only my way of life” to “there are many ways of life, which are NOT …show more content…
wrong”. This attitude change on life made me increasingly more open to all kinds of people, personalities, attitudes, and ways of life regardless of social status, money, material wealth and possessions. It opened up my mind to being tolerant of others and nonjudgmental about the situations that people find themselves in. For an example, in an extreme case, my friend was cheated on by his girlfriend at the time and she got pregnant. My friend broke up with her and everyone else seemed to shun her from the group and looked down on her. I had a different attitude towards her despite her actions. I did see the act as a negative thing that she should not have done, but I continued to talk her while others did not as I saw she needed help with everything that she was going through. I learned that people will make mistakes in life and potentially regret it, but that doesn 't mean they don 't deserve the help to make life what they want it to be. Today, she has found a boyfriend who loves her and she is putting all her time and love into the two twins that she gave birth to. Even her friends who shunned her have come back and rekindled their friendships with her. My craving for understanding the world around me lead to my open-mindedness that has been a critical skill in helping me obtain post-graduate studies to become a counselor. To this day, I keep myself open-minded to any situation I come across in life as a therapists ability to respond sensitively to a patient 's needs and communicate empathy and openess is critical (Melchert 2011).
The possibilities are endless!
“ENTPs are idea people. Their perceptive abilities cause them to see possibilities everywhere. They get excited and enthusiastic about their ideas, and are able to spread their enthusiasm to others. In this way, they get the support that they need to fulfill their visions.” (Myers and Briggs 2011 par. 4) I have always been a person who believes that anything is possible (realistically possible anyways).
I tend to analyze situations very quickly, look for possible solutions to the problems and then start gathering the things I need and work towards to achieving the solution. I 've done so in film production as that is always the case in every single production I do. Thus, I have developed this skill but have yet to formally practise it in a counselling environment. However, I do see that this enthusiam that I possess aides me in successfully providing effective therapy as once I see a problem, I tend to draw on all possible resources to achieve goals. I have applied this to a person I 've supported as he is disabled and going through depression. In order to keep his spirits up, I drew on my resources of the local YMCA where he has made friendships and gotten volunteer hours helping and participating in his community. Additionally, his situation at home is not good as he has multiple conflicts with his parents. I have attended counselling sessions with him at his request and the counselor has reiterated to him a lot of what I was suggesting to him (however, I did not encourage him to take action without clarifying it with his counselor as I am not qualified
yet). Regardless, my ability to spread enthusiam to him has successfully moved him through his depression and he has told me that life is completely different for him though he still has a lot to work through. I understand and emphasize that anything is possible and place a focus on striving for the future possibilities, not dwelling on the past or present. The past is great for analysis and the present is good for understanding and reflection, but the future holds so many possibilities and I feel this approach is key to helping aide people in their mental health.
Thinking things through: It 's a good idea “ENTPs are less interested in developing plans of actions or making decisions than they are in generating possibilities and ideas. For some ENTPs, this results in the habit of never finishing what they start. The ENTP who has not developed their Thinking process will have problems with jumping enthusiastically from idea to idea, without following through on their plans. The ENTP needs to take care to think through their ideas fully in order to take advantage of them.” (Myers and Briggs 2012 par. 5) This is the first insight to the dangers of being an ENTP as I have experienced this before. Being a part-time film producer and musician, I 've started numorous projects that did not reach completion. This was due to the fact that I had not fully developed my ability to logically and practically think through what needed to be done. Thankfully this has not been the case with anything to do with counselling as my practical experience is limited. However, if I were to apply my previous inability to think carefully to counselling situations, there would be a large potential for things to go wrong. Without taking time to draw on proper resources and slowly implement them at the right time, I could potentially ruin a case, and in a larger picture, the patient 's life. For example, if the person suffered from anxiety and I recommended an expensive massage therapy treatment (as an alternative therapy) that the patient could not afford, that would thrust the patient into an unecessary financial stress. A better option would be to sign up at a local YMCA that helps fund memberships and includes yoga classes. Taking the time to think over plans of actions are critical in counselling, especially if you are attempting to use psychoanalysis as an assessment tool to gather information on personality this approach is generally difficult to evaluate (Friedman and Schustack 2012).
Don 't speak to much. Listen
“ENTPs are fluent conversationalists, mentally quick, and enjoy verbal sparring with others. They love to debate issues, and may even switch sides sometimes just for the love of the debate. When they express their underlying principles, however, they may feel awkward and speak abruptly and intensely.” (Myers and Briggs 2012 par. 8) My bachelor 's is in communications and humanities and as such, I enjoy conversation especially about human life and the experience. I feel this is a very important skill to have as counselling obviously not only consists of communication, but requires control of communication in the sessions and making sure, as a therapist, not to take too much control (Melchert 2011). Being able to offer interpretations of the patient 's stories is important, which requires an open mind and patience to not become irritable during the sessions. Though I have an ability to speak for hours on a certain topic, I do find myself rambling at times with friends and family during regular conversation. I have also spoken out too soon on certain subjects which have gotten me into trouble before. As a result, I 've learned to calm down, state my point and let the other person speak while I listen; a skill extremely valuable in obtaining critical information for a case as patients sometimes do not divulge certain information right off the bat due to comfortableness. Shedler in Melchert (2011) stated that the ability to get patients emotionally engaged in sessions is critical to therapy outcomes, which is reliant the therapist to allow them to. This can be achieved through listening and I have successfully learned to restrict my own communicative needs for the sake of the patient 's and their treatment.
Staying in touch with Feeling and Emotion
“The ENTP, who does not naturally consider the more personal or human element in decision making, should take care to notice the subjective, personal side of situations. This is a potential problem are for ENTPs. Although their logical abilities lend strength and purpose to the ENTP, they may also isolate them from their feelings and from other people. If the Feeling part of themself is neglected, the ENTP may not value other people 's input enough, or may become overly harsh and aggressive. ” (Myers and Briggs 2012 par. 9/10) Let 's say I am presented with a case where the person has moved cities, changing their job, friends, lifestyle, and loved ones due to a violent history. This type of stressful event is something that is out of my control as a counselor but has influenced the person 's personality and characteristics which in turn influence the individual 's responses (Friedman and Schustack 2012). As a counselor, if I do not take these human aspects into account, I hold a potential problem to devalue the person 's input or perspective on the situation. This is fundamentally incorrect from a counselling point of view. Thankfully, I have already moved through this phase a long time ago where I was projecting my opinion onto those who did not care or wanted to hear it. Despite that, I continued to press my point becoming loud and harsh to those who did not share the same idea. However, it was during my recovery with depression that I learned to allow myself to feel emotions and synthesize with them to understand what a certain experience feels like. This increased sense of emotion allowed me to further understand that I cannot fully understand what someone else has gone through unless I go through it myself. A good example is war. I will never understand what that is like, but when I am talking to someone, I can empathize with them remaining open-minded to the conversation. Having this ability to empathize creates a connection with the patient which can account for the effectiveness of the therapy (Melchert 2011). I 've successfully turned a weakness into a strength but am constantly reminding myself of this as I know I am prone to reverting back to this weakness.
Summary and Conclusions
“In general, ENTPs are upbeat visionaries. They highly value knowledge, and spend much of their lives seeking a higher understanding. They live in the world of possibilities, and become excited about concepts, challenges and difficulties. When presented with a problem, they 're good at improvising and quickly come up with a creative solution. Creative, clever, curious, and theoretical, ENTPs have a broad range of possibilities in their lives.” (Myers and Briggs 2012 par. 12) I have always had the vision to become the producer for a successfully independent company run by my friend and I, and obtain the necessary qualifications to counsel and help others with their lives. Maybe even help pioneer new psychology theories for the field as well. Who knows. The point being that I am a visionary of my own life and over the past four years of my life, I 've spent them resolving my own personal conflicts as well as my loved ones, which has set the stage for my life as everyone around me is progressing and issues have been resolved. This has been my vision and it has come true. I still have many more visions to achieve and know I am always focused on the possibilities in life, but that 's not to say I 've havent learned valuable skills along the way that have contributed to my success as a counselor in-training. I plan to continue to build on and utilize these skills for my future career. I have used my intuition and logical thinking to creatively solve problems, a skill which can help quicken the assessment phase of counseling allowing me to focus on resolving core issues. My need for understanding the world around me has given me an open and nonjudgmental mind to any situation, which is key in not only responding sensitively to a patient 's situation but the outcomes of the therapy as well. I also have the ability to think things through, applying my initial drive of possibilities and ethusiam by carefully planning each step along the way to ensure the success of the plan and therapy. I also have understood my weaknesses of talking too much, learning to listen and allow for the patient to tell their story which can provide critical information to providing effective treatment for them. Lastly, I 've been able to control my natural ability to emotionally detach myself from situations, so that I may still be able to empathize with human emotion and experiences of stressful events that happen at random; a vital part in establishing a relationship with the patient and rearing successful therapy outcomes. Despite all that I have noted about who I am regarding my ENTP format of personality, I still believe that it is Erikson who has said it best renouncing the notion that identity formation is a lifelong process (Friedman and Schustack 2012). I am always learning and always growing. That is part of MY personality that Jung does not include.
References
Friedman, H. S., & Schustack, M. W. (2012). Personality: Classic theories and modern research (5th ed.). Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
Melchert, T. P., (2011). Foundations of professional psychology: The end of theoretical orientations and the emergence of the biopsychosocial approach. Elsevier
Myers K., Briggs I., (2012). Portrait of an ENTP. In Information about personality types. Retrieved July 20 2013, from http://www.personalitypage.com/html/info.html.