ENFP and INFP (A Comprehensive Guide)

Personality has been studied for decades by psychologists and sociologists to develop better understanding about the nature of human beings.

Sixteen personality types were discovered by Katherine Briggs and Isabel Myers and two of those personality types were ENFP and INFP.

There are many dimensions to these personalities. We’ll discuss the characteristics of these two personalities.

Moreover, how they are similar and different from each other ENFP and INFP will also be discussed in detail in the article given below. 

Before we go into details of the comparison of ENFP and INFP we should first discuss the characteristics of both personalities separately.

Therefore, we’ll discuss characteristics of ENFP first and then characteristics of INFP and then we shall throw light on the comparison of ENFP and INFP

ENFP

People who fall under the personality type of ENFP are warmer and enthusiasts who are very intelligent and are loaded with potential.

These people always strive to find new chances, possibilities and may show excitement and passion about things.

These people motivate and inspire other people because of their enthusiasm more than the people of any other type. These people have the ability to talk about anything.

These people see life as a special gift, that’s why they love their lives and always work hard to get most out of everything.

People of this personality type have unbelievably wider range of talent and skill. These people show good results in those things in which they are interested.

These people can choose various career fields in their life. To many, these people can look without any direction and purposeless but in reality these are persistent about their sense of values which they hold throughout their lives.

Their values come first to them in everything they do.  A person of this personality type is required to think and perceive the sense of their lives as their true self and following whatever they think to be right.

These people look for meaningfulness in everything they do and continue to have a wish for adapting to their values to attain internal peace.

These people are afraid of losing their connection with themselves.

People of this personality type are highly involved in their values because they have focus on being themselves.

People of this personality type are required to concentrate on following through what they are working on.

This may cause issues for few of these people. ENFPs are required to spend some time with themselves to make it possible that they are going to a positive direction which is in line with their value system.

These people who remain in line are likely to be successful in their ventures. There is a possibility that other people may adopt this habit to drop a project in the middle when they get to have a new chance.

Thus, they never become successful in achieving their objectives which they have capability of accomplishing.

Strengths of ENFP

These people have good skills of communicating with others and they understand the process of using these skills.

They have the ability to start the conversation with anyone with ease and they know how to have the attention of other people to keep the flow of discussion in order.

People of this personality type give a lot of energy which keeps the conversation healthy and alive.

They are also good at collaboration with other people at professional settings.

1. Imaginative

The people of this personality type are imaginative. They can solve problems easily and do not agree with executing plans on the basis of traditional methods.

These people believe that in every situation adopting a genuine approach is possible and they do not surrender to their habits or routines.

They perceive resistance as a challenge and try to find opportunities in each challenge. These people tend to face all the challenges happily. 

2. Natural Leaders

People of this personality type are considered as natural leaders. These people are always found in front lines to take on the charge of being a leader and a top position instinctively and readily.

They have trust and confidence in their abilities to take on responsibilities which demand skills and passion and most people are scared to take on these challenges.

Leaders of this personality type can build consensus by working hard to get the trust of their coworkers by listening to them and their ideas patiently and show an enthusiastic reaction to their good recommendations.

Their positive attitude of assertiveness motivates people to take actions.

3. Strong Social Conscience

These people are mostly involved in social movements actively. These people take a stand about those things which they believe in without any apology.

Few of them can talk about being compassionate but in actuality their actions do not reflect their thoughts but the case of ENFPs is entirely different.

They believe that it is very important to reflect from actions what we say through our words. In spite of having a friendly nature these people can be very anguished when they will be treated with unjust behavior.

There people can show assertiveness and may get louder if it is required to make their opinions and suggestions clear to others.

ENFP Weaknesses

1. Hypersensitivity

These people are thought to be hypersensitive. These people can sometimes allow their thoughts to go wild and mostly have bad intentions which do not have any existence in this world.

Their hypersensitivity and awareness to it is helpful for them to bring improvements in their social comprehension.

But thoroughly going through can only bring results when there exists something in actuality.

If it is not so then it can give rise to misunderstandings and may give feelings of hurt and can have negative impacts on relationships. 

2. Lack of focus and follow through

People with this personality type have charismatic characteristics to be creative and make their everyday filled with new ideas.

These people mostly only get excited and passionate initially and by relying on these elements but do not demonstrate a necessary will which is required to convert their ideas into reality.

These people have capability to begin new ventures before they complete the previous one and failing to observe things through is where these people lack.

3. Over thinking

The ENFPs are also considered thinkers. These people can see the slights, hostilities and resentment which are actually nonexistent.

These people also overanalyze others behaviour and this habit can arise the conflicts and anger unnecessarily.

If the people of this type are not getting praise as they expect it from ether people around they can trigger their insecurities and it may lead them to feel unvalued and unappreciated.

4. Overemotional and approval-seeking

While expressing the emotions is a primary factor of the identity of ENFPs they can emerge out to be strong.

Their style of being bubbly and energetic at the time does not match with their partners and introverts, especially, may feel steamrolled in their presence.

People with this personality type also seek for approvals from others and in search of getting acknowledgement and praise they can go hard to create their good impression which means they will talk a lot and will listen very little.

INFP

INFP personality type is also referred to as a mediator. The people of this personality type have the different traits such as, intuitive, introverted, feeling and prospecting.

The people with INFP personality traits are four percent of the total global population.

This personality type is rare and these are open-minded, creative, caring and imaginative people applying all these approaches towards life.

People with this personality type are found to be genuinely idealists who are always in search of a clue in good and bad events and people and looking for opportunities to bring changes in things.

These people may be considered as reserved, shy and calm but their passion and commitment cam make them shine.

There is a feeling of risk of being misinterpreted among these people as they are composed of 4% of the total number of people in the world but when they have found the people who have the same mind then can spend time with them easily, with so much harmony which make them feel inspired and joyful. 

These people are driven by their principles as they belong to the diplomat role group, instead of logic, practicality or excitement.

These people prefer honor, beauty, virtue and morality when they are deciding to move forward.

They are the people with pure intentions and this is what drives them forward not the fear of punishment and lust for reward.

Those people who have an INFP personality type feel proud about themselves and the personality trait possessed by them.

But, not all people can comprehend these feelings and the driving force behind them which can be damaging for them and can push them to be isolated.

When these people are giving their best, their personality traits allow having deep conversations with other people, finding it easy to use metaphors, parables, creating symbols and understanding to convey their thoughts and their ideas.

These people find it fascinating to be in the world of fantasies which is not found in other personality types.

Their visionary communication is so strong which makes it easy for them to do creative work and it is no wonder for people that most of the famous people with INFP personality are poets, writers and actors.

It is important for these people to understand themselves and understand their place in the world, and these people do so by having their projection in their work.

Strengths of INFP Personality Type,

1. Idealistic

People with INFP personality are admired by their friends and loved ones.

Their closed one trusts them and thinks them to be dependable due to their optimistic nature.

These people are good and strong with their beliefs and just are misunderstood, which push them to be magnificently resistant to face difficulties. 

2. Seek and Value Harmony 

The INFP people do not prefer to have powers over other people and also do not give attention to bullying behaviors at all.

They like to adopt a democratic procedure and strive to make sure that everyone’s voice and point of view is being heard.

3. Open-Minded and Flexible

These people with INFP personality types are open-minded and flexible with a live and let live attitude and they mostly do not like to be restricted by the rules.

As long as their ideas and principles are not challenged they also give benefit of doubt. They are also supporting people’s right to whatever they think is right.

Weaknesses of INFPs

1. Too Idealistic

The people with INFP personality tend to follow their idealism too much which makes them vulnerable to disappointment repeatedly.

This can also be challenging for them in their relationships as they won’t be able to idealize their partner and will idolize them, neglecting the fact everyone is imperfect.

2. Impractical

When something gets stuck in their heads they can ignore the practicalities involved in it like simple happiness and day to day maintenance.

Sometimes they get too much involved and focus on their ideas that they will forget to eat and drink.

3. Take Things Personally

The people with INFP personality type tend to take criticisms and challenges personally instead taking it as motivation to remodel their position.

They tend to avoid indulging in conflicts to a possible extent.

Though, they work hard on aligning their principles and the perceived criticism into a middle ground which will be acceptable for everyone.

ENFP and INFP:

Here is the comparison between two personality types that is ENFP and INFP.

Personality characteristics ENFP and INFP:

The main set of characteristics is called personality. Every single one of us has a different type of personality.

Let’s find out how ENFP and INFP are similar or different in personality characteristics. The people with ENFP and INFP personality types have many things in common.

Both are intuitive. They have perceiving and feeling traits in common. Which means that both ENFP and INFP overall are focused on considering the feelings of other people and themselves.

The ENFPs and INFPs like to follow an easy routine. Nevertheless, the people with INFP personality types like to be restricted and the ENFP people are not.

The INFPs feel it is easy to share what they feel with ENFP people and ENFP people must respect the feelings of INFPs.

Work Behavior of ENFP and  INFP:

We behave differently for different people at the workplace.

Some of us are more tolerant while others are more upfront and straightforward and bossy.

Let’s take a look of how ENFP and INFP deal with work related problems and how they contribute in the team efforts:

The ENFP and INFP people are imaginative, creative thinkers, caring and have the capability of adapting to the professional settings.

Nevertheless, the people with INFP personality type tend to be stronger, like to work independently and on the other hand, the people with ENFP personality type are more inviting and social.

The INFP people can be helpful for ENFPs in enhancing their listening skills and ENFPs can be better at helping the INFPs to be more expressive in a direct way.

Conflict of ENFP and INFP:

When it comes to dealing with conflict, everyone is creative in his own way.

Some of us behave emotionally to deal with a conflict and others use a factual way to deal with a conflict. Let’s take a look at conflict dealing of ENFP and INFP:

When it all comes down to management of a conflict or dealing with a conflict both ENFPs and INFPs tend to avoid it at all.

They will get exhausted by constantly facing the conflict and do not like to be around those people who encourage such situations. 

As Leaders 

Either leaders are born or made is a debate which is continued for ages and will go on.

However, leaders certainly do have a few set of personality traits which is definitely going to help them while leading the way.

The people with ENFP personality type tend to be perceptive and people centric. Thus they can turn out to be caring leaders and show a lot of regard in those in their care.

Though, these people are not better about sharing harsh news or creating systems and procedures.

While, the people with INFP personality type do not like to take on the roles of front line workers rather, they will enjoy working from behind the scenes and being supportive to other people.

This makes them weak contenders to take on the lead roles. 

Creativity 

Almost every one of us is creative but on different levels of creativity. Similarly, both of the personality types mentioned above are also creative.

The people with ENFP personality types are quick, impulsive and imaginative.

These people are exceptionally good at finding different ways to make things happen and they also tend to bring new and unique perspectives, situations and projects in front.

While the INFPs are spontaneous and creative, they do not like to be restricted by their traditions.

These people like to live in a world where they are able to indulge in meaningful and interesting projects. 

Personal Relationships of ENFP and INFP:

A huge and important part of personality is personal relationships and how people behave in their personal space.

Let’s find out how ENFP and INFP behave in their personal relationships.

The people with ENFP personality types tend to approach their relationships with seriousness.

However, they also have childlike excitement and energetic approach towards their relationship.

While, the INFP people tend to show a relaxed and happy face to the world.

They have a very peaceful and relaxed approach to other people and do not have complicated desires.

FAQs about ENFP and INFP

References:

16personalities.com/enfp-personality

16personalities.com/enfp-strengths-and-weaknesses

16personalities.com/infp-personality

16personalities.com/infp-strengths-and-weaknesses