Can You Have Two Myers-Briggs Personality Types?

Rather than fitting neatly into one of the 16 personality types, can a person straddle the border between two? Given the complexity of human personality, this idea might sound plausible. But it is based on a misunderstanding of how the Myers-Briggs personality typing system functions. 

The 16-personalities system is a type system, as opposed to a trait system. This means it is designed to give you one personality type that excludes your belonging to any of the other personality categories. It is the nature of the system to discover your closest personality alignment, and then to explain your needs, preferences and characteristics within the context of that type. This is how it always works, even if some of your patterns of thought and behavior seem atypical.

An example will illustrate the point. Let’s say two INTPs are working side by side, and one has a messy and disorganized workspace (common for INTPs) while the other’s workspace is always neat and tidy. Despite the difference, this would not necessarily mean the second INTP has a secret ISTJ identity or that they have been mistyped. It could simply mean they have become aware of their messiness tendency and have taken action to correct it.  

The Myers-Briggs personality typing system is multilayered. It is complex enough to capture the full variety of human experience, and to accommodate your individuality and uniqueness. The 16 designations are also dynamic, which means they can explain not just your personality characteristics at the moment, but the way your personality has evolved over time.

There is a lot more to being a single personality type than meets the eye, as those who’ve fully explored the Myers-Briggs personality typing system have come to understand.

Finding Your Best Personality Fit

A Myers and Briggs-based personality test, like TypeFinder ®, will assign you to one of 16 personality categories, with four letters to designate your core characteristics in four dimensions. The possibilities are:

• Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I)
• Sensing (S) or Intuition (N)
• Thinking (T) or Feeling (F)
• Judging (J) or Perceiving (P)

But being identified as an ENTP, ISFJ, ENFJ and so on is only part of the story. It's the starting point, and how your personality manifests in the real world will almost assuredly include some surprising elements.

Rather than representing absolutes, your core traits all exist on a spectrum, with the two opposites in each category sitting on opposite ends. Everyone actually possesses all eight of the core personality characteristics just mentioned, but to varying degrees.

Imagine you’ve just taken the TypeFinder® test, and have been classified as an ESTP.  A detailed breakdown might show that you tested out as:

• 55% Extravert vs 45% Introvert
• 65% Sensor vs 35% Intuitive
• 60% Thinker vs 40% Feeler
• 52% Perceiver vs 48% Judger

This is a typical distribution. Most people who take the test will score fairly close to the middle on the various scales. Consequently, your personality characteristics may overlap with those of your INFJ opposite more than you would expect. The full diversity of humanity will be reflected in your personality profile, just as it is for everyone else.

If you rely on your senses to guide you most of the time but occasionally follow your intuition instead, it doesn’t make you both a Sensor and an Intuitive. You will be a Sensor, but one who has allowed your Intuitive side to develop as well. Human beings are complex creatures who react differently to different scenarios, which the designers of the Myers-Briggs personality typing system understood.

The Cognitive Functions

Sitting behind the Myers-Briggs system there are four cognitive (mind-related) functions: Intuition, Sensing, Thinking and Feeling, all of which you will possess and express to some extent.

Among these four functions, you will have a dominant (most influential) mental function, followed by auxiliary, tertiary and inferior functions. Each has a weaker influence on the development of your personality than the last. If you are an ENTJ, for example, the order from dominant through inferior would be: Thinking, Intuition, Sensing and Feeling. The four are “stacked” one on top of each other, and this cognitive stacking has consequences for how your personality manifests in the real world.

Adding another layer of complexity to the situation, the four cognitive functions will develop more fully in sequence as you age. So for an ENTJ, the characteristics would likely develop or mature according to this schedule:

• Birth to age 7: Dominant function (Thinking)
• Age 7 to 20: Auxiliary function (Intuition)
•  20s to 40s: Tertiary function (Sensing)
•  50s onward: Inferior function (Feeling)

This structure shows how personality evolves as we age. In adolescence you might possess all the characteristics of an Intuitive, before suddenly becoming more in tune with your sensory experiences as you mature and move through young adulthood towards middle age. This would not signal a change in personality type, or that you were two types simultaneously. Rather, it would only be a sign of your growth in cognitive complexity.

And there is yet another layer of complexity here, found in the distinction between extraverted and introverted functions.

In an ENTJ, the dominant and tertiary functions are extraverted in their orientation, signified as Extraverted Thinking (Te) and Extraverted Sensing (Se). The auxiliary and inferior functions are introverted in their orientation, Introverted Intuition (Ni) and Introverted Feeling (Fi). This means, for ENTJs, the development of their Thinking function would impact how they interact with others and relate to the outside world, while their slower-developing Intuitive side would explain how they navigate the world internally, through their private thoughts and feelings.

Overall, the ENTJ’s evolution would show them becoming more engaged with the world through their Sensing (Se) function over time, but also becoming more Intuitive (Ni) and getting more in touch with their Feeling (Fi) side. You might think this was a sign of a personality shift, and conclude the ENTJ in your life was slowly changing into another personality type. This would not be the case, however, but only a sign of their growing maturity as a healthy and well-functioning ENTJ. 

In this case, the extraverted function would develop first only to be modulated by the introverted functions as time passes, which could fool you (if you were an ENTJ) into thinking you’re becoming more of an introvert as you get older.

Life Experiences and Personality

As your personality develops, life experiences will matter a lot. What happens to you in your family, at school, in your job and in your interpersonal relationships will help shape your individual identity. Your personality type helps set the foundation for your reactions, but it will be flexible enough to accommodate a range of outcomes.

You may encounter others who have the same personality type, and enjoy the conversation as you explore the things you have in common. Once you get to know them better, however, you will undoubtedly discover some clear differences in your outlooks and attitudes as well.  Likewise, you’ll meet people with different personality types who seem to share many of your perspectives, despite the divergence.

At a surface level, this could make it seem like you could be more than one personality type. But what it really shows is that life experiences play a significant role in the development of personality, helping to ensure your uniqueness. And since you are continuing to have those experiences, this means you’re becoming more unique all the time, regardless of your personality type.

Well-Adjusted vs Not-So-Well-Adjusted

Each Myers-Briggs type has potential strengths and weaknesses. When a person is well-adjusted, their strengths will tend to be more in evidence than their weaknesses. When they are not well-adjusted, the opposite may be true. This is one source of the diversity that can be found among people who share the same type.

When a person has developed closer to their full potential, they may demonstrate characteristics that are more frequently associated with other personality types. This shows they are healthy and whole, having developed parts of their personalities that may otherwise remain hidden.

Take the well-adjusted ISFP, for example. They may seem surprisingly extraverted, as they’ve learned to express their own ideas and attend to their own needs rather than always deferring to others. In situations where they feel qualified, they may even step forward to take a leadership role, mimicking the behavior of the more naturally assertive ENTJ. The integrated ISFP may also learn to become more spontaneous like ENFPs, developing a part of themselves that less well-adjusted ISFPs may neglect.

Levels of development differ from person to person, and will tend to change over time. This can create some confusion, enough to perhaps leave you thinking that you’re two types instead of just one.

One Personality Type is More than Enough

The 16-type personality system is both descriptive and predictive—but only up to a point. The results of a personality test will capture the essence of who you are and help you make wiser choices. But it will not place limits on the type of person you can become. Extraordinary personal growth and self-development are within your grasp, despite your exclusive identification with a single personality type.