Are you stressed right now? Maybe not so stressed that you curl up in a ball, or run around screaming, but most of us have at least some stress in our lives. And often that’s a good thing; the right amount of stress motivates us and gets us up in the morning. But if stress gets too much, we start to suffer, become demotivated, and eventually collapse as our nervous system falls apart.
Fortunately, there are ways in which we can build our resilience. Some of these are useful for everyone; getting support from your family and friends, nurturing a positive view of yourself, doing things that you enjoy and find relaxing, developing realistic goals and taking action to achieve them. But some will be unique to you, to your particular circumstances to your personality. If you know your personality type, you will have a head start on knowing what your stress triggers are (and so dealing with them), how you react to stress, and how to cope with that reaction. In other words, how to build resilience.
Personality Types And How They Deal With Stress
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The personality type framework, as measured by the Myers-Briggs(MBTI) assessment, looks at four aspects of personality:
- Extraversion-Introversion — People with an Extraversion personality preference are energized by and focus their attention on what’s happening around them, their external world. They are likely to find spending too much time alone without enough external stimulation quite stressful. People with an Introversion preference are energized by and focus their attention on their inner world of thoughts and feelings. They can become stressed if they are forced to spend too much time with others, or when they have to cope with too many external distractions.
- Sensing-Intuition — is all about how we take in information. People with a Sensing preference prefer information that is realistic, practical, built on past or present real-life experiences, and often detailed. They can be stressed when things are ambiguous and unclear, without any clear direction. People with an Intuition preference are interested in the big picture, in how things connect, and in ideas rather than facts. They will find having to follow exact instructions stressful, and working with people who demand lots of detail.
- Thinking-Feeling —People with a Thinking preference want to make decisions using objective logic and will be stressed when decisions seem to be subjective, or when they are forced to concentrate on people rather than the task at hand. People with a Feeling preference want to make decisions that line up with their values and they will be stressed if they feel that those values are not being respected, and when there is conflict.
- Judging-Perceiving — People with a Judging preference want to live in an organized, planned way and will find dealing with disorganized people stressful, or having to rush things at the last minute. People with a Judging preference want to live in a more spontaneous, emergent way and will become stressed when they have to deal with inflexible people, or when they are forced to make decisions before they feel they really need to.
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Everyone will have a preference for Extraversion (E) or Introversion (I), for Sensing (S) or for Intuition (N), for Thinking (T) or for Feeling (F), and for Judging (J) or for Perceiving (P). These four preferences combine together dynamically to give one of 16 types. For example, if someone has preferences for Extraversion, Sensing, Thinking and Judging, then their overall type would be ESTJ. If you know your type, you can identify your likely stressors (and so avoid or mitigate them), your typical behavior under everyday stress (so that you can recognize when you are stressed) and what to do to cope with that reaction, stop the stress cycle and so build resilience. Here’s the detail for each type.
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ESTP and ESFP
Stressors
- Lack of stimulation and excitement
- Theoretical, abstract tasks without any practical application right now
- Being physically confined, e.g. though illness or circumstance
Behavior under everyday stress
- Seeks out more and more external stimulation and excitement
- May behave in a thrill-seeking or dangerous way or over-indulge
- Lives solely in the present moment and will not make any decisions
How to stop the stress cycle
- Pause, stop what you are doing, or think through what you will do next before you do it
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ESTJ and ENTJ
Stressors
- Inefficient people, systems, or organizations
- Lack of closure, not being able to make decisions, blockers
- Having to focus on people's feelings, rather than the task
Behavior under everyday stress
- Becomes overly directive, forceful, or even aggressive
- Makes snap decisions and imposes them on others
- Dismisses evidence/other opinions that don't fir your view
How to stop the stress cycle
- Stop making any decisions until you have taken some time out to explore all the available information.
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ENTP and ENFP
Stressors
- People who say "it'll never work"
- Too much seemingly irrelevant detail
- Lack of variety; not being able to do anything new
Behavior under everyday stress
- Shares increasingly impractical ideas with more and more people
- Unable to take things seriously, becomes destructively 'playful'
- Will be tied down to decisions
How to stop the stress cycle
- Slow down. Take some time out to quietly decide on a course of action
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ESFJ and ENFJ
Stressors
- Conflict with others and between others
- Lack of warmth, not having friendliness reciprocated
- Injustice in the world at large
Behavior under everyday stress
- Become effusive and over-friendly
- Becomes demanding in getting your own and others' needs met
- Interprets situations in terms of your values, ignoring any other evidence
How to stop the stress cycle
- Step back from the situation and the people involved and consider alternatives and the facts
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INTP and ISTP
Stressors
- Having your carefully reasoned solutions dismissed or ignored
- Illogical decisions that have not been thought through
- Excessive displays of approval or emotion from others
Behavior under everyday stress
- Withdraws to solve problems by yourself
- Fixates on finding the one correct solution
- Ignores other people; makes decisions without informing them
How to stop the stress cycle
- Talk to others to explore information and ideas
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ISTJ and ISFJ
Stressors
- Having to act without detailed, practical information or plans
- Having the lessons of your experience dismissed by others
- Changing things that already work
Behavior under everyday stress
- Obsessively searches for that one important piece of information
- Withdraws from the outer world
- Cannot make a decision until all the information has been found
How to stop the stress cycle
- Talk to others to help you prioritize and make a decision
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ISFP and INFP
Stressors
- People who ignore, dismiss, or contravene your values
- Working in a job that is at odds with those values
- Inflexible and unthinking people or organizations
Behavior under everyday stress
- Withdraws into an inner dialogue
- Obsessively works through decisions that fir your values
- Ignores facts that do not fit with the picture you have painted
How to stop the stress cycle
- Talk to others to get their reassurance and help in considering the facts and alternatives
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INTJ and INFJ
Stressors
- Not having time to think through possibilities before answering
- Having your well-considered ideas dismissed or ignored
- Disorganized, opinionated people
Behavior under everyday stress
- Withdraws to build increasingly complex ideas in your head
- These models may become divorced from reality
- Unable to act under every possibility has been explored
How to stop the stress cycle
- Talk to others to help decide which of your many ideas should be pursued
When you feel stressed, it can get in the way of dealing effectively with life’s demands, and it can affect everything you do. Understanding your MBTI personality type will help you to build resilience.
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