ENFP Personality: What It Is, Functional Analysis, Strengths And Weaknesses

The ENFP personality tends to have strong values ​​and points of view, although sometimes surprising, they tend to try to use their social skills and contacts to persuade others gently (albeit with enthusiasm), this sometimes results in neglecting their loved ones more close while catching their efforts to change the world.

ENFPs can be the warmest, kindest, and most sympathetic of their peers; affectionate, demonstrative and spontaneous. Many in relationships with an ENFP literally say, “They light up my life,” but there is usually a trade-off: the partner must be willing to deal with the practical and financial aspects of the relationship, and must be free to go his or her last path, be it. whatever that implies.

What is the ENFP personality?

ENFPs are people-centered creators with a focus on possibilities and an infectious enthusiasm for new ideas, people and activities, energetic, warm and passionate, they love helping other people explore their creative potential.

They are usually agile and expressive communicators, using their wit, humor and command of language to create engaging stories, they are imaginative and original, they often have a strong artistic side. They are drawn to art because of its ability to express inventive ideas and create a deeper understanding of the human experience.

They love talking about people – not just the facts, but what motivates them, what inspires them and what they envision achieving in life, they will often share their own aspirations freely and want to listen to others in return. ENFP is unlikely to judge anyone’s dream, and will discuss the most imaginative and outlandish fantasies with a warm and enthusiastic intensity, they love to explore creative possibilities, and nothing deflates them faster than talking dry facts or harsh reality. .

They seem unconventional and can appear scattered; They tend not to be in touch with their physical surroundings, they overlook details, as they are more likely to focus on connecting with other people or exploring their own imagination and self-expression, they have little patience with the mundane and want to experience the life with intensity and talent, they have an artistic tendency and can have an artistic look. Many have developed a distinctive and peculiar personal style.

Functional analysis of the ENFP personality

Extraverted intuition

The physical world, both geos and kosmos, is the main source of ENFP information. Rather than feeling things as they are, the dominant intuition is sensitive to things as they could be, these extroverted intuitive are more adept with patterns and connections. Their natural inclination is towards relationships, especially between people or living beings.

Intuition is mainly based on the sense of meaning and focus, its best patterns reflect the interesting points of people, leading to caricatures of manner, expression and expression.

Introverted feeling

Auxiliary sensation does not verbally imply what is openly expressed. When expressed, this logic has an aura of romance and purity that may seem out of place in this flawed and imperfect world, in its own defense the sense of judgment often and quickly gives way to humor. ENFPs who post their feelings too often can put off the crowd of friends they naturally attract.

Extraverted thinking

The process that extends to impersonal conclusions, maintains the extraverted tertiary position. ENFPs can benefit greatly from this ability, less mature and without the shine of higher-order functions, thinking is not suitable to be used as a prominent function, as with other types, the unwary ENFPs of the limitations can be found positively wrong.

Introverted detection

The least discernible ENFP function resides in the inner world where reality is reduced to symbols and icons, ideas that represent essences of external realities. Under the influence of pervasive intuition, ENFP sensory perceptions are in danger of being replaced by hypothetical data consistent with patterns and paradigms, when protected and nurtured, introverted sensing provides information about the fixed. From such a firm anchor, ENFPs are better equipped to venture into thousands of plausibilities and curiosities yet to be imagined.

Perhaps the combination of introverted feeling and infantile introverted feeling is responsible for the silent attraction of ENFPs to the wishes of parents, authority figures, and friends, or perhaps it is the predominance of indecisive intuition in combination with sentiment ambiguity. Secondary introvert and tertiary thinking induce these kindhearted souls to capitulate even to decisions that affect life. Whatever the dynamics, ENFPs are heavily influenced by the opinions of their friends.

ENFP personality strengths

Curious

When it comes to new ideas, ENFPs are not interested in melancholy: they want to go out and experience things, and they do not hesitate to step out of their comfort zones to do so, they are imaginative and open-minded, seeing all things as part of a great and mysterious puzzle called life.

Observant

ENFPs believe that there are no irrelevant actions, that every change in sentiment, every movement, and every idea is part of something bigger. To satisfy their curiosity, ENFPs try to be aware of all these things and never miss a moment.

Energetic and enthusiastic

As they watch, forming new connections and ideas, ENFPs are not set, they are excited about their findings and share them with anyone who will listen. This infectious enthusiasm has the double benefit of giving ENFPs the opportunity to establish more social connections and providing them with a new source of information and experience as they adjust to the opinions of their new friends about their existing ideas.

Excellent communicators

It’s good that ENFPs have such strong people skills, or they would never express these ideas. ENFPs enjoy small talk and deep, meaningful conversations, which are simply two sides of the same coin for them, and they are adept at directing conversations towards their desired topics in ways that feel completely natural and unforced.

Relaxed

People with this personality type know that sometimes nothing is as important as simply having fun and experiencing the joys in life, that Intuitive trait lets ENFPs know it’s time to shake things up, and these wild bursts of enthusiastic energy they can surprise even your closest friends.

Very popular and friendly

All this adaptability and spontaneity come together to form an accessible, interesting and exciting person, with a cooperative and altruistic spirit and a friendly and empathetic disposition. ENFPs get along with just about everyone, and their circles of friends stretch far and wide.

ENFP personality weaknesses

Poor practical skills

When it comes to brainstorming ideas and starting projects, especially involving other people, ENFPs are exceptionally talented. Sadly, your skill with maintaining, managing, and tracking those projects struggles, with no more hands-on people helping to drive everyday things forward, ENFP’s ideas will likely remain just that – ideas.

Difficult approach

ENFPs are natural explorers of interpersonal connections and philosophy, but this backfires when what needs to be done is getting the report right in front of them. It is difficult for ENFPs to maintain interest as tasks drift into routine and administrative matters and away from broader concepts.

They don’t follow instructions

ENFPs don’t take things at face value, they look for underlying motives in even the simplest of things. It’s not uncommon for them to lose a little sleep wondering why someone did what they did, what it could mean, and what to do about it.

Easily stressed

All this overthinking is not just for their own benefit, ENFPs especially the turbulent ones, are very sensitive and care deeply about the feelings of others. One consequence of their popularity is that others often seek guidance and help, which takes time, and it is easy to see why ENFPs are sometimes overwhelmed, especially when they cannot answer yes to every request.

Highly emotional

While emotional expression is healthy and natural, with ENFPs even seeing it as a central part of their identity, it can come out strong enough to cause problems for this personality type. Particularly when they are under stress , criticism, or conflict, they may experience emotional outbursts that are counterproductive at best.

Independent of a fault

ENFPs detest being micromanaged and restricted by harsh rules, they want to be seen as highly independent teachers of their own destinies, even possessing altruistic wisdom that goes beyond draconian law. The challenge is that they live in a world of checks and balances, a pill that they are not happy to swallow.

ENFP personality development

Phase I (Adolescence)

From early childhood through adolescence, Phase I involves the development and strengthening of the dominant function, Extraverted Intuition. ENFPs spend much of Phase I developing and differentiating it and being dominant, although they tend to remain open-minded and curious throughout their lives, this is especially pronounced during this phase of development.

Beyond school requirements, Phase I ENFPs are generally free to sit back and absorb the world without worrying too much, this gives them enough time to form extensive connections and partnerships, they can further broaden their horizons through various media: reading, travel, the arts, interacting with people, etc. This exploratory phase can continue well into your twenties.

Phase II (Adolescence – 30 years)

Once the dominant function reaches a certain threshold of strength and dominance, the lower function of ENFPs, introverted perception (Si), enters the picture and begins to play a more influential role. This can get confusing because the bottom is not next in line in development in the functional stack, but the undue influence stems from the bipolar relationship with what is the dominant function.

Phase II ENFPs are also working to develop their auxiliary function, introverted feeling, they use it to refine and clarify their values, worldview, and identity. The process of “finding themselves” involves internal and external exploration, helping them to weigh and evaluate the needs and desires of their dominant role versus their lower role. As ENFPs develop and utilize their introverted feeling, they can become more serious, focused, ambitious, and goal-oriented.

Phase III (30 years to 40 years, and more)

Phase III, is a phase that many individuals never reach or complete, it is characterized by an attempt to understand and integrate the tertiary and lower functions. By bringing these less conscious functions into the light of consciousness, the path to wholeness can be better visualized. For ENFPs, Phase III involves an exploration of nature and the challenges associated with their tertiary Overthinking as well as their lower introverted feeling.

Georgia Tarrant
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Hello, how are you? My name is Georgia Tarrant, and I am a clinical psychologist. In everyday life, professional obligations seem to predominate over our personal life. It's as if work takes up more and more of the time we'd love to devote to our love life, our family, or even a moment of leisure.