{"id":7471,"date":"2017-09-12T03:00:35","date_gmt":"2017-09-12T03:00:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/?p=7471"},"modified":"2020-06-20T22:38:47","modified_gmt":"2020-06-20T22:38:47","slug":"enfj-vs-enfp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/2017\/09\/enfj-vs-enfp\/","title":{"rendered":"ENFJ vs. ENFP"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Boye Akinwande<\/strong><\/p>\n

ENFPs and ENFJs get mistaken for one another because they both tend to be warm, expressive, idealistic, charismatic, and articulate\u00a0when it comes to\u00a0speaking on social and cultural issues. Likewise, many exemplars of both types can be found at the forefront of so-called social justice causes.<\/p>\n

While they may appear similar at first glance, ENFPs and ENFJs are really quite different\u00a0in terms of their\u00a0phenomenology. ENFPs lead with Ne and ENFJs lead with Fe. What Ne and Fe make these types have in common is an openness to other people\u2019s viewpoints and perspectives. At root, however, these functions tend to be interested in other people\u2019s viewpoints for very different reasons.<\/p>\n

As a rule, an Fe type\u2019s interest in other people\u2019s perspectives tends to come from them perceiving these perspectives as objective external sentiments,\u00a0and such sentiments\u00a0constitute the cognitive nexus through which they view the world. The next step up from this cognitive bedrock is then the desire to foster a cohesive\u00a0atmosphere of fellow-feeling.\u00a0Fe types may, if neurotic,\u00a0turn this propensity on its head, seemingly\u00a0seeking to shy\u00a0away from such fellow-feeling, but the cognition of other peoples\u2019 perspectives as the facet of reality that is the most cardinal to them will always be there.<\/p>\n

As with the other three FJ types, the expressed opinions of other people will very often be the medium through which reality is cognized. Fe navigates on the basis of external sentiment and since only people can express sentiments, the people that\u00a0these types meet will invariably be seen as the carriers of intellectual content. In this way, FJ types are the opposites of TP types, who seek to approach intellectual judgments through principles rather than sentiments.<\/p>\n

Now if we turn to the ENFP, an Ne type\u2019s interest in the perspectives of others tends to come about,\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0because they are\u00a0structured to cognize reality through the sentiments of others, but rather because Ne has an inclination to always\u00a0seek out\u00a0new ideas and perspectives for their own sake. Ne types are inclined to\u00a0explore\u00a0novel and ulterior perspectives because they, as Myers said, unconsciously regard the status quo as a prison from which escape is urgently necessary, no matter what that status quo might be.<\/p>\n

For this reason, ENFPs will tend to come across as more explorative, \u201csampling,\u201d and free-wheeling than ENFJs, since they are chasing after \u2013 and tinkering with \u2013 whatever ideas and perspectives happen to tickle their fancy in the present moment. In ENFPs, their auxiliary Fi also tends to make them less cordial and cohesive than their ENFJ counterparts. Since Fi navigates on the basis of personal inner sentiment rather than shared outer moods, ENFPs also tend to be more socially quirky and unconventional.<\/p>\n

As I said, ENFJs and ENFPs often have quite similar musings when it comes to contemporary social issues, but since ENFJs do not have Fi, but rather align themselves more conscientiously with prevalent social norms, they also tend to be much more in tune with how they and their message come across to others. Even when an ENFJ has a playful or quirky persona, one can often feel this more purposeful type of cognition at work behind their actions and presentation.<\/p>\n

ENFJs also have auxiliary Ni, which means that their intellectual cognition tends to be more singular and resolute. Unlike the ENFP, they do not explore ideas in a random fashion simply to sample them. Rather, they tend to approach their fields of study methodically, starting with the most authoritative or commonly-held perspectives in order to gain a systematic overview of the field, and then work their way towards what they really feel and think from there. Similarly, because of their auxiliary Ni (which, as I said, is more singular and purposeful than Ne), ENFJs also tend to come across as less explorative and more\u00a0unifying. Listening to them, it can often feel like they\u2019re there to deliver an extremely important and definite message to their listeners \u2013\u00a0a message that is of great social importance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Boye Akinwande ENFPs and ENFJs get mistaken for one another because they both tend to be warm, expressive, idealistic, charismatic, and articulate\u00a0when it comes to\u00a0speaking on social and cultural issues. Likewise, many exemplars of both types can be found at the forefront of so-called social justice causes. While they may appear similar at first[\u2026] Continue Reading<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-psychology"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7472,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7471\/revisions\/7472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.idrlabs.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}