What’s the difference between an assertive INTJ and turbulent INTJ?
My observations have been that turbulent INTJs are more anxious in general. They’re more likely to “overthink” things, or find socialising stressful, or worry about things not being perfect.
Assertive INTJs tend to be more comfortable in their skin. They’re more decisive, more comfortable with strangers and social situation (even if they’d still rather be at home with a good book), and can be more satisfied not attaining perfection before moving forward (although they may plan to come back to things later and tinker, but it’s more effective to forge ahead in the meantime).
Turbulent INTJs might be seen as “shy” or “antisocial” because they don’t feel comfortable putting themselves out there. Assertive INTJs might be seen as “arrogant”, because they seem confident around others, to the point of just not caring that much about their opinions.
Again, merely my own observations having conversed with Ts and As in various INTJ groups.
In general, this is my idea of the assertive / turbulent part of MBTI :
When the traffic light is nearing red, a turbulent person would be the type to walk faster and catch up to it. Most of the time they always do.
An assertive person would stroll, knowing they won’t be able to catch up on time anyway.
Basically, assertive people tend to know their limits and pace themselves. However the downside is that sometimes you get too comfortable with your limits and never push past the boundary. It’s good to know your limits but never limit yourself.
In an INTJ, from what I’ve seen and personally experienced, reflects more as self-assured confidence and a more laid back attitude than their turbulent counterparts. Though the confidence can manifest as arrogance more easily and lead to miscalculations in your own competency lol.
As for turbulent INTJs, I’ve noticed they come off as a tad more intense and aggressive outwardly. You can sense their hunger and drive more easily because they will make sure they get what they want with the power of a strong and persistent personality alone. These INTJs are more likely to be more vocal about their opinions where an assertive INTJ would step back and not bother changing someone else’s mind cos in the end, they know what they believe in and that’s all that matters.
Not to say that either type would completely follow my description. To be honest, I feel like both A and T INTJs are pretty similar and hard to distinguish because INTJs tend to have enough self awareness to know their own limits, and enough confidence and persistence to chase for what they want if deemed important enough.
The distinction seeems very subtle, though I am limited by my experience of INTJs.
If you take another type of personality test such as the Five Factor Model, you would get percentages of scores, including an area called Neuroticism. Often this test is used to see if there are correlations between types of populations and the Neurotic scale which is an indicator of mental instability. There really isn’t a scale of mental instability as part of the MBTI; you cannot tell which you are from the test.
So, with the realization that all people scoring as INTJ are not the same, there have been attempts to divide the types even further. This is especially true because people want to know what faults each have, and MBTI is not designed to show that. The T stands for turbulent and is supposed to be evidenced by INTJ who is awkward at social interactions and uncomfortable with feelings. They are suppose to go into a spiral from intuition to feeling without a cognitive recognition of the feeling. The A stands for assertive, and basically means more stable and mature behavior (i.e less like an INTJ in their weakest areas).