Looking Back: That Person Doesn't Feel Like Me Anymore
There's a specific, quiet strangeness to looking at an old photograph of yourself. It's you, but it isn't. You recognize the face, but the light in the eyes feels like it belongs to a different soul. Maybe you were louder then, more impulsive, or perhaps painfully shy, folding into yourself in rooms you now command. This dissonance is a common stop on the journey of self-discovery.
Our mystic, Luna, sees this not as a contradiction but as a natural season of the self. She explains, "You are not a stone statue, fixed in one expression for eternity. You are a forest. The core trees—your fundamental cognitive functions—remain, but the landscape changes. Leaves fall, new undergrowth appears, and the way the light hits the canopy is different after a storm."
This feeling often leads to the question of `typing younger self`. You take a personality test now and get INFP, but you remember a time when you were a whirlwind of social energy, seemingly an ESFP. It’s easy to wonder if the tests are wrong or if you've fundamentally altered your own code. This isn’t a sign of inconsistency; it's evidence of life being lived. It’s the story of your personal evolution written in memory and feeling.
The Core You vs. The Grown You: How Personality Matures
This feeling of transformation begs the question: `can your mbti type change`? From a psychological standpoint, the answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no. Our sense-maker, Cory, urges us to separate the blueprint from the building. "Your core MBTI type," he clarifies, "is like the wiring in a house. It represents your innate, preferred ways of taking in information and making decisions—your cognitive functions. That wiring doesn't typically get ripped out and replaced."
What does change is how you use that wiring. This is the essence of `personality development in adulthood`. While core personality traits show high stability over a lifetime, they are not immutable. Research on personality trait stability confirms that while our foundational traits are consistent, they can and do undergo changes, often influenced by significant `life events changing personality` and social role transitions. It's a dance between nature vs nurture personality.
The phenomenon you're experiencing is likely the `maturing of cognitive functions`. In your youth, you might have exclusively relied on your dominant and auxiliary functions. As you age, you gain wisdom and experience, which often involves consciously or unconsciously `developing inferior function`—the part of you that was once your blind spot. An INTJ who was once dismissive of social niceties might develop their inferior Extraverted Feeling (Fe) and become a more empathetic and considerate leader.
This isn't a type change; it's an expansion. It’s the result of `neuroplasticity and personality` working in tandem. Your brain is adapting, and your behavioral toolkit is growing. So when people ask, `can your mbti type change`, the more accurate framing is about how much a personality can grow. Cory offers this permission slip: *"You have permission to honor both the person you were and the person you are becoming. Growth is not a betrayal of your past self; it is its fulfillment."
Action Plan: How to Consciously Develop Your Weaker Functions
Understanding your growth is one thing; directing it is another. For this, we turn to Pavo, our master strategist. "Maturity doesn't have to be passive," she states. "You can strategically accelerate your `personality development in adulthood` by targeting your weaker functions. This isn't about forcing a personality change; it's about becoming a more versatile and effective version of yourself."
This is a proactive approach to the question, `can your mbti type change`. While the core doesn't shift, your expression of it can become richer. Here is Pavo’s strategic plan for intentionally `developing inferior function`.
Step 1: Identify Your Growth Zone
First, pinpoint your inferior (fourth) function. For an INFP or INTP, this is Extraverted Thinking (Te). For an ESTJ or ENTJ, it's Introverted Feeling (Fi). This function often feels like your biggest weakness but holds the key to balance.
Step 2: Create 'Low-Stakes' Practice Scenarios
Don't try to overhaul your life overnight. Create small, manageable exercises. This is about building muscle, not running a marathon on day one. A thoughtful `mbti change over time` is gradual and intentional.
For developing Thinking (Te/Ti): If you're a Feeling type, try making a decision based purely on a pros-and-cons list. Organize a small part of your life—a bookshelf, a digital folder, a weekly meal plan. The goal is to engage with logic and systems without emotional override.
For developing Feeling (Fe/Fi): If you're a Thinking type, practice identifying the emotional state of a character in a movie or book. Before offering a solution to a friend's problem, start by saying, "That sounds really difficult. How are you feeling about it?"
For developing Intuition (Ne/Ni): If you're a Sensing type, spend 10 minutes brainstorming wild, impractical ideas about a topic. Take a different route home from work. The goal is to break from the concrete and play with patterns and possibilities.
For developing Sensing (Se/Si): If you're an Intuitive type, engage in a sensory activity like cooking a new recipe, gardening, or focusing on your breath for five minutes. This grounds you in the present moment and connects you to the physical world.
This strategic practice is the most practical answer to whether your MBTI type can change. Your type code remains, but your operational range expands, making you more balanced, resilient, and whole.
FAQ
1. Do major life events change your personality type?
Major life events like trauma, marriage, or career changes don't typically change your core MBTI type (your cognitive function stack). However, they can dramatically accelerate the development of your less-preferred functions as you adapt to new demands, which can make it feel like your personality has changed.
2. Is it common for your MBTI to change when you're young?
It's very common for test results to vary during adolescence and early adulthood. This is often because your personality is still solidifying, and you're experimenting with different ways of being. It may be less about a true type change and more about clarifying your innate preferences over time.
3. What's the difference between my MBTI type changing and just maturing?
A true type change would mean your fundamental cognitive wiring has been reordered (e.g., from an Introverted Feeler to an Extraverted Thinker), which is psychologically unlikely. Maturing, on the other hand, is the process of developing and gaining skillful access to all your functions, including your weaker ones, leading to a more balanced and nuanced personality.
4. How can I be sure of my real MBTI type?
The most reliable way is to move beyond online tests and study the cognitive functions (Ni, Se, Ti, Fe, etc.). Identify which functions you use most naturally and unconsciously, especially under stress. This provides a more accurate picture than behavior-based test questions, which can be skewed by mood or environment.
References
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov — Personality trait stability and change