may i ask about mbti too? in relation to sortinghatchats, ofc. (if yes, i'd like to ask about how do you think being a ravenclaw primary relates to being an intp as the introverted thinking dominant thing seems to be very much in tune with the ravenclaw primary system)
I think it is, but it's been 10 years since I really studied MBTI in depth. (13 year old me had some niche hobbies.) Hang on.
(Future Paint dropping in: just a warning, but this post is gonna be kind of a trash fire.)
Okay, I found a site that has descriptions of the functions (here's their masterpost) that seem accurate from what I remember. I don't know about the rest of the articles on the site, I poked around a bit and some of them are a little on the silly side :p
For our purposes I think it should work.
But first,
A bad crash course on MBTI and the cognitive functions system
So, you're probably used to seeing four-letter types like ESTJ thrown around on the Internet. They're each shorthand for a set of cognitive functions (if you're using the right sources and aren't a coward 😉).
There's an Introverted and an Extroverted version each of Sensing, Intuition (the N), Thinking and Feeling--so, eight total, and they're all pretty different from each other. When MBTI people say Ni they're not making a Monty Python joke, they mean Introverted Intuition (the little I = introverted, so Ne = Extroverted Intuition).
Each type uses the functions in a different order. You have a dominant function which is your main approach to the world, and your secondary function which supports it, and they describe a lot of how you think. You also have a tertiary function (opposite of your auxiliary, it's weaker support) and an inferior function (opposite of your dominant, not something you're necessarily great at, some people will say you should try to strengthen it... it's up for debate).
Intuition and Sensing belong to one category (perceiving functions) and Thinking and Feeling belong to another (judging functions). You get one of each category for your dominant and auxiliary, and one will be Introverted and the other Extroverted. So for INTPs it's Ti dominant and Ne auxiliary, for ESTJs it's Te/Si, for ENFPs it's Ne/Fi, etc.
If you find your top 2 functions, you can reverse engineer your type. Works like this. Say you've landed on Ti dominant and Se auxiliary. You already have the ST that makes up the middle of your type. Your dominant function is Introverted, so your type is too: IST. (If your dominant is Extroverted, you get an E.) If you use Ne or Se in your top two, you're a Perceiving type so slap a P on there: ISTP. (Te and Fe users get a J.)
Confused yet? It's because this is a bad explanation! Good ones take even longer! xD
MBTI is an amalgam of Meyers and Briggs' ideas, weird old versions of the functions made up by Carl Jung which have morphed into something that kinda makes sense through basically a game of Telephone (this isn't a bad thing) and various adjustments, theories, and simplifications someone decided to write a book and a quiz about. It can be useful if you read good sources, or it can be... weird. (No, you're not a J type just because you like to keep your desk clean.)
If you like MBTI and want to study it, my 13-year-old self would highly recommend Personality Type: An Owner's Manual by Lenore Thomson. Amazon has used copies for ~$7 if you can't find it locally/in a library.
Bad crash course over, back to the post.
So, Ravenclaws and Ti.
Yeah! There are similarities! And probably correlations in their... userbase? That's the word I'm going with.
Here's my post about how my Ravenclaw primary feels/works.
Here's a reference article about Introverted Thinking.
Some cherrypicked bits from the article (highlights are mine):
People with Introverted Thinking want the world to make sense in a logical manner. They form an internal framework of how the world works. It is constantly being modified and improved through life experience and experiments.
They have the ability to find commonalities in seemingly unrelated things.
Someone with Introverted Thinking may take a while to fully understand a concept. This is because they want to know all the components and how everything works together.
However, once a Ti user figures out the whole system, everything clicks. They can see how the car and motor works, and how it all fits together. They have created a map and an internal framework, which could be applied to understanding how engines in other machines work. Pieces of this framework could also be used to understand seemingly unrelated concepts, like how a plumbing system works, or how computer programming languages interact with hardware.
So, that whole linked article echoes my post really loudly! Like I said, lots of similarities.
Let's have a look at Ne, the INTP auxiliary function (article link).
Extraverted Intuition (Ne) deals with experiencing the outer world, noticing possibilities, and what could be. Ne deals with seeing how all things in life are interrelated, and allows the user to see the world in multiple different perspectives.
Okay, go on...
Extraverted Intuition is always seeing possibilities. They always want to know “what could be”. They are adept at understanding the external environment, but they always want to take it one step further. They wonder, “if I change this, what will happen?”
Uh huh...
Extraverted Intuition also has the ability to make obscure connections. The Ne user can take two seemingly unrelated topics and bring them together. This can also cause the user to have an off-beat sense of humor.
Oh wow. I dunno about that ;)
Correlation, not rule
The thing is, I don't know how much I can say about this. There are lots of Ravenclaws who aren't INTPs, or even Ti users. There are probably lots of INTPs and Ti users who aren't Ravenclaws.
My older brother from the last post? Pretty sure he's an INTJ. (I don't care what Keirsey tells you about "oh they're both NT types, they're the smart types so they're similar."* INTJs use a different set of functions and don't have Ti as part of their stack.)
The SHC community is a lot smaller than the MBTI one, of course, so I don't have a way of testing this very effectively, or a good pool of examples. Like, I can say that Luna Lovegood is often considered an INFP, but she's not exactly available to take an online test, what with magic messing with technology so badly in the wizarding world ;)
Readers, go ahead and stick your MBTI and your Sorting (as best you know them) in the replies or reblogs, if you like. We're going to have some selection bias here but it'll be interesting anyway.
This post is a mess but I don't know how to make it better. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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*I was hoping Keirsey might have developed a little more nuance over the past 10 years, but glancing over the site, it seems to be the same oversimplifications and stereotypes as I remember. Rationals are still the "smart types": the first word they use to describe them is "ingenious."
This kind of thing loses credibility with me real quick, especially because Keirsey is one of the most aggressive in selling their model to companies in order to evaluate employees.
