In addition to four standard MBTI letters that state your personality type, 16 Personalities added a fifth scale – “Identity.” If you have done the MBTI personality test at 16personalities.com, you probably noticed a “-T” or “-A” in your results page. Identity shows how confident you are in your choices, abilities, and decisions and that translates into the “Assertive” or “Turbulent” personality types.
1. (INTJ-T) Turbulent INTJ Traits
Turbulent (-T) INTJs are self-conscious and sensitive to stress. They take note of their own weaknesses and try to improve everything. With this desire to make themselves exponentially better than they are, INTJ-Ts get stuck in a never-ending self-improvement loop, which is exhausting and may lead to INTJ depression.
On the other hand, always trying to improve often leads to superior results. No matter how good Turbulent INTJ becomes, he will always seek to improve his performance in work assignments and more commonplace situations. Even if no one notices his little mistakes, he will observe, note, and seek to eliminate them. This drive to become better encourages the INTJ-T to greater heights than his Assertive counterpart and may serve him well in a work environment.
Turbulent INTJs also care more about what others think of them. By over-analyzing social situations, they often find themselves trying to plan out how to appear “normal.” This can lead to stressful social situations and INTJ social anxiety.
2. (INTJ-A) Assertive INTJ Traits
Assertive (-A) INTJs are more resistant to stress, but they do not push themselves as hard when it comes to achieving goals. INTJ-As might seem more confident in themselves and more relaxed. They are happy with who they are and what they do and don’t seek approval from other people. This is also a double-edged sword, because INTJ-A, while highly capable, is not as motivated to change or improve himself as the INTJ-T.
The Assertive INTJ knows what he’s good at and is content being good at those things. Personal responsibility and the ability to trust in yourself are very important values to the INTJ-A.
3. Which type is better?
Of course, no type is “better” than another. While one situation might favor one type, another will favor the opposite. If an INTJ ends up in a competitive work field (e.g.: IT), he might be better off as Turbulent. An Assertive INTJ might indulge in overconfidence or procrastination, resulting in criticism and possibly even punishment.
On the other hand, if an INTJ ends up in a stressful, fast-paced field (e.g.: surgery), then he might do better as Assertive. An Assertive INTJ will be cool-headed and have the ability to recover from his mistakes quickly – what’s done is done, and requires less attention than what still needs doing.
4. My Humble Opinion
Trying to divide any of the MBTI personality types into smaller and more specific categories may not be correct. People will always get a mixture of both Turbulent and Assertive, as this section of the 16 Personality scale is more dependent on psychological state and personal development than some of the others.
INTJs are born perfectionists and love to improve others and themselves, but that doesn’t mean they do so only to impress others. It may also be helpful to an INTJ to develop the skill of choosing when to allow perfectionism to affect their decisions. I believe the trick to this lies in finding a balance between Assertiveness and Turbulence.
In my opinion, most INTJs are turbulent by nature. Turbulence can be reduced by addressing the trend of private thoughts and self-observations, changing them where necessary. By taking things slowly, one can begin to see the big picture and decide whether or not a particular situation or person is worth stressing about. Also, some people may find that putting themselves into stressful (social) situations regularly improves their tolerance for situational stress.
