I appreciate your post, Decaf. I tend to forget that most people have a mix of traits and don't score 100% in one direction or the other. Even though I don't think there is any way that 16 types adequately describe the range of human personalities, the fact that I'm still taking and discussing the test must mean that I think it can offer some kind of insight.
No worries. Everyone has to start somewhere. Unfortunately these days that somewhere for personality type is usually an internet test that leaves so much unsaid, which leads to huge assumptions without ever knowing it.
To earn a qualification certificate to administer the MBTI you need to take a 4 day class where they teach you how to explain what MBTI is, different kinds of activities to make the distinction clear and how to help someone verify their type after they take the test. But none of that has happened for 99% of the people on this forum. In the psychology industry we refer to that as unethical use of a psychological instrument.
Also, yes, people can be certain kind of mixes of each letter, but (and this is really important) DO NOT trust the percentages you got from the internet test to tell you anything about what they are. In fact, don't trust the internet test to have gotten you type correct unless you have personally verified it by reading the type descriptions (and not just for your proposed type, but for a number of similar codes too).
There is another test that is designed to help you determine what mix of attributes you might possess, but I guarantee you it isn't on the internet, and probably won't be for a long, long time. It generally requires a large time committment and is ethically required to be taken in the presence of and verified by a doctorate level psychologist (making it a Type C instrument). If you're interested in finding out what kind of mix you might actually be its called the MBTI Step II.
OK, one last thing before I stop typing you eyes out... What I described in the previous post is a pure INTP. Not a mix. Its a misunderstanding of the theory to start attributing certain classes of behavior to certain types (even though it is the most tempting thing to do, and I still do it accidentally all the time). Preference is deeper than behavior and, depending on upbringing, behavior can be completely contrary to another's even while having identical base preferences (just visit our religion threads if you want to know more about that).
If it helps to clarify things, this is what the type code INTP translates to in the theory (it isn't an actual description, just shorthand).
INTP
The "I" tells us the dominant function is introverted.
The "N" tells us intuition is our leading perceiving function
The "T" tells us thinking is out leading judging function
The "P" tells us the perceiving function is extraverted
So INTP becomes:
Dominant Introverted Thinking (Area of Confidence)
Auxiliary Extraverted Intuition (Area of Creativity)
Tertiary Introverted Sensing (Area of Comfort)
Inferior Extraverted Feeling (Area of Lack of Control)
So as you can see an INTP has access to a broad range of functions to deal with every day life. We even have a feeling function, though we prefer not to use it actively for the same reasons I mentioned in the above post.
If you want I can explain all that further, but I feel like I might be bludgeoning you over the head with theory. I don't want to impeed your process of making your own conclusions, I just don't think the internet test gives you enough information to make productive ones.
