ISFP

ISFP people have great warmth which they show more by action than words. They prefer to
perceive and judge through feeling as their first choice and through sensing as their second choice.
Their reliance on feeling gives ISFP's a very personal approach to life since feeling judges everything
by a set of personal values, accepting or rejecting accordingly.
As introverts, ISFP types focus their favorite process (feeling) on the inner world of ideas and
ideals, using their feeling to choose their final values without reference to the judgment of outsiders.
Their will, too, is inwardly directed toward keeping all lesser values subordinate to the greater.
ISFP's find their inner loyalties and ideals hard to talk about, although these govern their lives. Their
deepest feelings are seldom expressed, since inner tenderness and passionate connection both are
masked by reserve and repose.
Since ISFP's find it difficult to expose their feeling to the world, they live their outer lives
mainly with their next best process, sensing. Their outer personality is, thus, perceptive. They are
tolerant, open-minded, flexible, and adaptable -- just as long as their inner loyalties are not
threatened. ISFP types have little wish to impress or dominate. The contacts they prize are with
people who understand their values and the goals they are working toward.
Since ISFP types look at things with their sensing rather than their intuition, they are
primarily interested in the realities perceived by their five senses. ISFP's usually find significant
satisfaction for their energies in fields where taste, discrimination, and a sense of beauty and
proportion are of value. They have a special love of nature and a keen sympathy with animals.
ISFP's are rather meticulous and have a consistent tendency to underrate and understate themselves,
since they are the most modest of all types.
ISFP's are twice as good when working at a job they believe in since their feeling process
lends added energy to their efforts. People of this type want their work to contribute to something
that matters to them ... like human understanding, happiness or health. They would, perhaps, like
also to perfect some product or undertaking. ISFP's want to have a purpose beyond their paycheck,
no matter how big the check. The ISFP types are perfectionists wherever feeling is engaged and are
particularly suited to work that requires both devotion and a large measure of adaptability.
The big problem ISFP people face is that they may feel such a contrast between their inner
ideal and the outer reality that they burden themselves with a sense of inadequacy that has nothing to
do with their real effectiveness. IfISFP's find no channel of expression for their ideals, they become
too sensitive and vulnerable and begin to express dwindling confidence in life and in themselves.
Actually, ISFP's have much to give and need only find the spot where they are needed.
Finally, a person who prefers the perceptive attitude usually likes to play things by ear
whenever possible ... without the feeling of having to organize beforehand. This person also gets
more satisfaction out of starting things than finishing them. Also, the person with a perceptive
attitude works best at a job requiring adaptability and a variety of activities as changing situations
demand. The perceptor learns more through curiosity than through application.