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According to evidence-based personality psychology, there are 8 major cognitive styles our brains can use: extravert sensing (Se), introvert sensing (Si), extravert intuition (Ne), introvert intuition (Ni), extravert thinking (Te), introvert thinking (Ti), extravert feeling (Fe), introvert feeling (Fi). Please refer to this article for detailed descriptions of these cognitive styles: Virtual Pediatrics: Behavioral Health for Children (myvirtualphysician.com)
These 8 cognitive styles develop in early childhood. After adolescence, the brain matures and "personality type" becomes more well-defined.
Thus, after age 18, people can be understood based on 16 personality types, each of which have their own unique ways of using the above 8 cognitive styles. The personality types are based on 4 dichotomies:
- Extraversion (E) vs Introversion (I)
- Sensing (S) vs Intuition (N)
- Thinking (T) vs Feeling (F)
- Judging (J) vs Perceiving (P)
Let’s explore the healthy and unhealthy versions of these personalities as they develop in both adults and children:
- ESFP
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- Healthiest: Expresses enthusiasm, energy, and sociability. Fosters liveliness and fun through playful interactions.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses impulsivity, superficiality, and obnoxious vanity. Recklessly self-indulges and seeks attention through dramatic behaviors.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Se
- Aspirationally expresses: Ni
- Respectfully expresses: Si
- Reluctantly expresses: Ti
- Nonchalantly expresses: Ne
2. ESTP
-
- Healthiest: Expresses confidence, boldness, and street-smartness. Inspires action and excitement in others.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses crudeness, impulsivity, and scornfulness. Engages in scandalous behavior and can be manipulative or combative.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Se
- Aspirationally expresses: Ni
- Respectfully expresses: Si
- Reluctantly expresses: Fi
- Nonchalantly expresses: Ne
3. ENFP
-
- Healthiest: Expresses spontaneity, optimism, and open-mindedness. Inspires authenticity, openness, and growth in others.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses sloppiness, disorganized thinking, and delusional idealism. Scatterbrained, unreliable, and disrespectfully unconventional.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Ne
- Aspirationally expresses: Si
- Respectfully expresses: Ni
- Reluctantly expresses: Ti
- Nonchalantly expresses: Se
4. ENTP
-
- Healthiest: Expresses cleverness, playful mischief, and persuasion. Encourages intellectual challenge and debate.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses deceitful cunning, harmful mischief, and nihilism. Fills in personal voids by finding entertainment in stirring chaos among others.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Ne
- Aspirationally expresses: Si
- Respectfully expresses: Ni
- Reluctantly expresses: Te
- Nonchalantly expresses: Se
5. ESTJ
-
- Healthiest: Expresses assertiveness, attention to detail, and service-oriented authority. Fosters structure and responsibility in leadership.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses hardheartedness, inflexibility, and forceful authority. Stifles others’ input and imposes overcontrolling behavior with a victim mentality.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Te
- Aspirationally expresses: Fi
- Respectfully expresses: Ti
- Reluctantly expresses: Ni
- Nonchalantly expresses: Fe
6. ENTJ
-
- Healthiest: Expresses confidence, service-oriented authority, and visionary agenda-setting. Develops healthy ambitions and leads others toward achievement.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses arrogance, ruthlessness, and forceful behavior. Dismisses others' input and uses manipulative business tactics to maintain control.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Te
- Aspirationally expresses: Fi
- Respectfully expresses: Ti
- Reluctantly expresses: Si
- Nonchalantly expresses: Fe
7. ESFJ
-
- Healthiest: Expresses enthusiasm, devotion as a caretaker, and assertive emotional support. Uses positive emotional expression to encourage harmony and cooperation in others.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses overbearing behavior, dishonest emotional expression, and desperation for approval. Becomes overly dependent on others for personal happiness and is extremely rigid in emotional expectations of others.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Fe
- Aspirationally expresses: Ti
- Respectfully expresses: Fi
- Reluctantly expresses: Ni
- Nonchalantly expresses: Te
8. ENFJ
-
- Healthiest: Expresses charisma, nurturing behavior, and wisdom. Engages in positive emotional expression to inspire, encourage, and mentor others.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses deceitful cunning, fake behavior, and desperation for validation. Uses emotional manipulation to get what they want from others, as well as to avoid shame from doing so.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Fe
- Aspirationally expresses: Ti
- Respectfully expresses: Fi
- Reluctantly expresses: Si
- Nonchalantly expresses: Te
9. ISTJ
-
- Healthiest: Expresses dependability, clear communication, and organization. Devoted to fulfilling responsibilities with diligence and thoroughness, for themselves and for others.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses rigidity, narrow-mindedness, and obsession with personal rules. Very prideful about their extremely fixed ways, is resistant to change, and imposes strict standards on others.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Si
- Aspirationally expresses: Ne
- Respectfully expresses: Se
- Reluctantly expresses: Fe
- Nonchalantly expresses: Ni
10. ISFJ
-
- Healthiest: Expresses warmth, compassion, and dependability. Upholds their responsibilities while especially being mindful of others’ emotional needs.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses passive-aggression, conflict-avoidant politeness, and obsession with precision and accuracy. Quietly overcontrolling, manipulates others into depending on them, and sacrifices personal needs while becoming resentful to those they are serving.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Si
- Aspirationally expresses: Ne
- Respectfully expresses: Se
- Reluctantly expresses: Te
- Nonchalantly expresses: Ni
11. INTJ
-
- Healthiest: Expresses visionary imagination, wisdom, and commitment to meaningful goals. Develops ideas to look forward to while inspiring innovation and efficiency in themselves and others.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses arrogance, inflexibility, and goal-oriented obsession. Becomes extremely dogmatic, selfishly fixated on personal goals, and haughtily dismissive of alternatives.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Ni
- Aspirationally expresses: Se
- Respectfully expresses: Ne
- Reluctantly expresses: Fe
- Nonchalantly expresses: Si
12. INFJ
-
- Healthiest: Expresses wisdom, compassion, and social perceptiveness. Uses gentle encouragement combined with logical principles to guide and inspire harmony among others.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses coldness, cunning, and delusional beliefs. Becomes extremely rigid and grandiose in their beliefs, withdrawing emotionally while subtly imposing misguided ideals on others.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Ni
- Aspirationally expresses: Se
- Respectfully expresses: Ne
- Reluctantly expresses: Te
- Nonchalantly expresses: Si
13. ISTP
-
- Healthiest: Expresses adaptiveness, street-smartness, and independence. Demonstrates resourcefulness and hands-on skills to help others.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses coldness, dismissiveness of others’ emotions, and recklessness. Becomes isolated and detached from over-prioritizing their independence.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Ti
- Aspirationally expresses: Fe
- Respectfully expresses: Te
- Reluctantly expresses: Ne
- Nonchalantly expresses: Fi
14. INTP
-
- Healthiest: Expresses analytical behavior, meticulousness, and curiosity. Driven to learn and explore new ideas that can help improve the world.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses social bitterness, neglectfulness of others’ emotions, and delusional obsession with logical principles. Becomes isolated, disorganized, and socially inept, while using sneaky ways to bully or sabotage others.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Ti
- Aspirationally expresses: Fe
- Respectfully expresses: Te
- Reluctantly expresses: Ni
- Nonchalantly expresses: Fi
15. ISFP
-
- Healthiest: Expresses authenticity, adventurousness, and creativity. Unashamed to pursue what makes them happy, while also eager to help others with the activities they enjoy.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses emotional volatility, mood swings, and hotheadedness. Swings from extreme self-doubt to extreme grandiosity, while experiencing extremes in laziness, overproductivity, and anxious-avoidant tendencies.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Fi
- Aspirationally expresses: Te
- Respectfully expresses: Fe
- Reluctantly expresses: Ne
- Nonchalantly expresses: Ti
16. INFP
-
- Healthiest: Expresses sincerity, reflectiveness, and open-mindedness. Adaptable while very devoted to their values and the people they care deeply about.
- Unhealthiest: Expresses pessimism, unrealistic idealism, and anxious obsession with personal identity. Becomes very passive about responding to the needs of others while stubborn about their unconventional desires, which often cause conflict with those around them.
- Cognition
- Passionately expresses: Fi
- Aspirationally expresses: Te
- Respectfully expresses: Fe
- Reluctantly expresses: Se
- Nonchalantly expresses: Ti
To explore how these personality types relate to parenting styles, visit Online Pediatrician: Guide to Parenting Styles & Care (myvirtualphysician.com)
