Have any of you INTJs ever been accused of being occasionally "moody" by your ISFJ significant others? Since I am not beholden to moods, I find it fascinating dialog from someone who is.

Happiness.  It's been a topic of discussion on the blog of fellow INTJ ehowton many times.  ehowton is a happy man.  New INTJ acquaintance, jeroentiggelman, has also said he is generally quite a happy person.  And so am I.  In our separate and various discussions, this has led us all to wonder if being an INTJ gives us a head start toward being happy.

I began researching the characteristics of happy people.  While this website is selling a course that will teach people to be happy, it gives a fairly comprehensive overview of the characteristics of happiness.  There does appear to be some overlap between the traits of happy people and INTJs.  Two in particular jump out at me.  The first one is the INTJ drive to solve problems, which is echoed in the happy person's choice to turn challenges into opportunities.  The second one is the fact that INTJs generally do not require anyone else's approval for a sense of well being and the happy person's habit of enforcing personal boundaries, and not conforming to the demands of society.  There are other personality types that appear to have much difficulty with the latter.

So what do you think?  Do you consider yourself happy?  Do you think our personality traits aid us in this endeavor?

Is anyone here actually accredited in MBTI? What was the process for accredidation like? Why did you get it?

I had my previous PC crash, and it took about a year to get another one
No matter what it says on the User Info page, I am in fact the founder of this here community
I just wanted it on the record

I thought WE ruled the world, but this guy says psychopaths do:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-may-16-2011/jon-ronson?xrs=share_copy

Hello all.  I am "E", and INXJ.  Wake me up, shake me like a magic 8-ball, and wait to see if I come up T or F for the day.  I wasn't always INXJ, I used to be INFJ and over time the F faded back and the T developed.  Now it's a pretty even split and seems to stay this way.  I do find that I appreciate the strengths of having that T-side around to draw on.  I live with my partners, an INTJ male and an ISTJ female.  It makes for some interesting watching sometimes!  None of us likes to go out but once in a while, we all think too much and we're all certain we're right and everyone else is wrong. 

Not really here for much but taking up time and reading along.  I didn't want to be rude and just lurk though.

In the last week or so, I've repeatedly bounced off something you might call a beserk button.

Specifically: I don't care who you are, I care about whether or not you're right.

I don't care if you've raised two children, I care about whether or not you're right.
I don't care if you served for twenty years in the marines, I care about whether or not you're right.
I don't care if you've devoted your entire life to a political cause, I care about whether or not you're right.
I don't care if you've got a PhD, I care about whether or not you're right.
I don't care if you're old enough to be my grandfather, I care about whether or not you're right.
I don't care if you feel entitled to respect or special authority on the basis of some life experience you've had, I care about whether or not you're right.

It is likely the case that the amount of life experience one has can have some bearing over one's ability to draw valid conclusions on given subjects. (I would much rather trust an experienced doctor to draw a valid conclusion in response to a medical inquiry than I would trust a random person on the street.) But even in these cases, it's the conclusions which really interest me, not the life story of the person who reached them, because it's the conclusions which really matter. (And the conclusions themselves should still be right regardless of the life experiences of the person expressing them. The doctor isn't right because being a doctor gives them some special magical perceptive power that only doctors can ever possess, they're right because their knowledge and experience equip them to draw conclusions which nevertheless stand up on their own two legs, even without the MD propping them up.)

In fact, I'll take that one further: if you feel the need to buttress your conclusions with language to the effect of "my life experiences have been interesting, therefore my conclusions are true", I'm probably going to be more--not less--skeptical of whatever else you want to say, because to me it sounds like you know your conclusions don't hold water on their own merit.

Anyone else have a similar gut reaction?

Anybody been there? What was it like? Should I just apply for citizenship?

When I was younger, I consistently tested as INTJ, and to this day, identify very strongly with that personality type. However, tests that I've taken in the last couple of years or so have indicated that I'm ISTJ, probably in part because I'm trained to rely primarily on the use of my five senses in my academic research endeavors.

This question has probably been asked in this community before, but has anyone gone through a personality shift like the one I've described? Did you test as INTJ consistently in the past, only to discover later in life that your "S," "P," "E," and/or "F" traits were/are stronger than they used to be? Thanks in advance for any responses.

Edit: I understand that personality types may shift over time, and am not looking for an explanation of what the MBTI is. Rather, I'm aiming for commenters to address the actual questions in my post, if possible, which ask for people's personal experiences regarding the issue at hand. As I indicated to a commenter in the thread, I apologize if my original post was in any way unclear.

I'm planning to apply to graduate school in a few months. I've made my peace with the knowledge that I'll have to appear before dissertation committees and things like that in the future, but, the more I research and think about grad school, the more I'm worried about the amount of social interaction involved. Several of the programs I'm looking into REQUIRE doctoral candidates to teach or at least lead problem-solving sessions, and these are engineering and applied math programs, not anything having to do with education. Even if I am accepted to a program that doesn't have this requirement, it's likely that I'll have to do teaching assistant duty to fund my studies. Just the thought of having to explain things to a group of undergrads each week on top of my own coursework and research makes me tired. I was a math tutor for years and I already have a good idea of what it's like.

I'd like to know if any of you have any experience surviving this sort of thing, especially if you studied math, science, or engineering. How much work was it? Was there any possibility of scoring a simple paper-correcting gig, or some other means of escape?