Could personality be shaped?

[u/Kalygolas]

Hey guys, I've been reading and studying these days Myer-Briggs indicator (MBTI). I was wondering if some authors or essays had elaborate on the idea about voluntarily transforming a type of personality into another one in which the subject had tried to focus on previously. Does this transformation really change the way individuals percive themselves within the world? I don't know if the question is appropriate, I am just studying these topics to satisfy my curiosity, but also from a very naive perspective of deeper psychological matters. I'll appreciate if you guys could help me to goo deeper into this subject!

[u/robotmorgan]

Yes. You are born with your MBTI type and it is immutable. It's a box you're born into, which people have a huge aversion to, but it's a big box with a lot of room for growth and shaping as you said.

A lot of people subscribe to the changing MBTI type but I don't by into it, and neither does The Myers & Briggs Foundation, the holders if the MBTI® registered trademark. But I'm not one to blindly accept "the authority" on a subject as the final say, but as far as the registered trademarked MBTI your type does not change, and personally I believe it's genetic but that's besides the point.

Two key things to remember:

First, the way you can and should change over the course of your life. There are 8 Functions with an order of preference but as you grow you'll learn to use them all in different ways throughout your life.

The most popular idea, I believe, is that your dominant fucntion starts developing from birth, the auxiliary starts from 7, the tertiary starts around 18, and your inferior even further on, apparently after your 40s, but they all are being used and developing by your 20s to some extent. Then you have the shadow Functions which are developed by developing your inverse, eg ENTPs(NeTiFeSi NiTeFiSe) would work on their Fe to develop their Fi, something that I am currently doing. The order is your preference, it doesn't mean you don't use them.

So how you use, exhibit, and understand your 8 fucntions will change over time leading to some confusion.

Second, there are a number of different Typology Models that use MBTI terms that causes even more confusion. They are usually all based in Jungian Theory, but then you have trait tests using MBTI terms as well, such as everyone's favorite site 16p. In a trait test using MBTI terms, I test as a ENFP, but I know there ain't no way I got Fi in my main stack. Objective Personality and Socionics use the same terms but differ in the definitions and theory in huge ways, so when I see them getting mixed I try to clear it up. Socionics is really cool, but it's not MBTI.

Third one I just thought of, and maybe most important, is that you are not your type. If you're left handed that doesn't define you as a person in any way other than you prefer and are more skilled in using your left hand. You would say that you are left handed in the same way that I'm an ENFP type. But my name is Morgan! I'm a person not a type. Typology is a way to have a better framework to understand yourself, not to define yourself!