INFP A and INFP T: What's the Difference?
INFP A and INFP T: What's the Difference?
Explaining the INFP personality
Mediators account for only 4% of the general population, making them the ninth (of 16) most common personality types. This rare personality may appear quiet and unassuming to begin with, but the Mediator often harbors an inner fire of creativity, passion, and sensitivity.
The Mediator’s open-minded and imaginative nature lends itself brilliantly to creative endeavors and it’s no wonder that so many of this personality type pursue their passions in the arts. You’ll often find a Mediator expressing their creativity through multiple hobbies at once, varying from poetry and creative writing to music, drawing, photography, or drama and theater.
Empathetic and compassionate to the core, Mediators are arguably the most kind-hearted and caring of the personality types. They value relationships in which desires and hopes, as well as fears, are expressed openly and will prove to be a genuine and loyal friend or partner. They’re also incredibly observant and intuitive, and often pick up on details and emotions that others may miss.
This observant nature is also directed inward, making Mediators very aware and self-reflective people. They’re constantly analyzing their own thoughts, opinions, and behaviors, and directing those efforts toward self-improvement.
While this is healthy and positive to a degree, you can have too much of a good thing; Mediators tend toward self-consciousness, self-criticism, and self-isolation when they don’t live up to the rigorous standards they set for themselves.
While making them incredibly compassionate people, their sensitivity to emotion often means that Mediators also tend to be very conflict avoidant. Already quite harsh on themselves, Mediators can view criticism and disputes within a relationship as personal attacks, and may react with emotional distress that makes communication and resolution of the issue difficult. In such a situation, it’s important for Mediators to work on taking criticism objectively and recognizing that conflict is a common occurrence in life that can lead to positive outcomes.
Assertive vs. Turbulent
The My Personality comprises five traits: Mind (introverted or extroverted), Energy (observant or intuitive), Nature (feeling or thinking), Tactics (judging or prospecting), and Identity (assertive or turbulent). The first four traits determine your personality type: INFP, ESTJ, et cetera. The final trait—identity—underpins and influences all other traits.
The identity trait assesses a person’s level of confidence in their abilities and decisions and indicates how they might respond to the world around them: their own successes and failures, criticism from others, unexpected events, and the like. A person with the assertive trait is likely to be calm and self-assured, while a turbulent person is success-driven and perfectionistic.
An assertive personality type tends to take daily troubles in stride; they’re even-tempered, resistant to stress, and aren’t prone to letting worries weigh on their minds. They’re calm, but not apathetic.
They establish goals and strive to achieve them, and will strike forth with little hesitation. Past mistakes and failures tend to be water under the bridge for the assertive identity—what’s done is done and regrets aren’t worth dwelling on. Though this assurance may result in a high rate of satisfaction in life, an assertive person must beware that their confidence doesn’t turn into overconfidence.
In contrast, those with the turbulent trait are more affected by stressors in their lives and more prone to self-doubt and hesitation. It’s not all bad, though; the turbulent person turns this vulnerability into a driving force through their desire for success and improvement.
They counterbalance their doubts with an unending motivation to better themselves, their projects, and their goals. A turbulent personality manages to be careful and attentive while not letting fear stagnate their progress.
Although this trait means that they’re constantly attending to little troubles before they grow larger, the turbulent type must ensure they have strategies for staying optimistic and positive lest the little problems begin to weigh them down.
What this means for the Mediator
The Mediator is already a sensitive and passionate-natured personality type—traits that lend themselves more to turbulence than to assertiveness. As a result, turbulence tends to augment the existing characteristics of the Mediator, while assertiveness is more likely to temper them. Although similar in many regards, the assertive Mediator and the turbulent Mediator can differ in a few key ways.
While both types tend to be more introspective than other personalities, this habit of self-assessment often drives the turbulent Mediator to put more effort into achieving goals across the board than the assertive Mediator, though this trait also means they’re often harder on themselves than their assertive counterpart. Similarly, turbulent Mediators tend to feel negative emotions—as well as empathy—to a far greater degree than their calmer, assertive cousins.
External opinions have a similar impact on the Mediator as internal ones; this sensitive personality type tends to be more affected than most by feedback and criticism. This trait is found two-fold in the turbulent Mediator, who often holds very high regard for the opinions of others, making them excellent listeners and team players.
Contrastingly, outside opinions have less of an effect on the assertive Mediator, which often allows them to be more independent, though this means they sometimes don’t heed valuable feedback and alternative perspectives.
The bottom line
People with the INFP personality type are often very creative and passionate with sensitive and empathetic souls. While two Mediators may be very similar, an assertive Mediator and a turbulent Mediator are likely to view and respond to the world around them—challenges, opposing opinions, successes, and failures—in very different ways.
