How Negativist are IEEs/ENFps?

[schrödinger's cat]

Thanks! It's SO good to be here. I lost my password, and just yesterday - BING! - remembered it again. Happy happy joy joy.

[Not A Communist Shill]

hello hello!

[schrödinger's cat]

Hello to you too!

[chemical]

Well, I'd say that despite suggestions that "negativism isn't really about being pessimistic," I think on some level you're going to run into things like this:

In a psychological sense, this dichotomy can be approximately interpreted as trust/distrust.

Each type of person behaves in life according to how they answer the following existential question: is human nature inherently good or evil? For Positivists, human nature is inherently good, so they are more likely to be trusting.

Now trusting/nontrusting isn't the same as pessimism/optimism, but it's hard to say there's no relation between having a negative outlook on humanity and negativism, given this kind of assertion.

As to pessimism proper, I think the one type portrait I always see this in is ILI.

Personally I find it a shallow interpretation of negativism to simply look at things like grammatical phrasing.

Overall I think the reason IEE is negativist and the reason it's result-orientation over process are related enough that you might as well understand both simultaneously in terms of how they think. It's a sense of not having looked into the entire potential of an object, a nagging one requiring one to consider the level to which one has underestimated it, in order to maximize the ethical valuations involved.

[Simon Ssmall]

I would be doubtful that majority of IEE would resonate with the idea that human nature is evil.
To me this is related to the fact that you see something that is not there/missing, by default (and this in no way translate into being pessimistic). One example would be me challenging a person for not changing their life for the better, I would see faults in all of their excuses for not doing so.

But I'm not Gulenko (and I don't care).

[schrödinger's cat]

IOne example would be me challenging a person for not changing their life for the better...

True. I think negativity in IEEs might be why we see potential everywhere. We see a kind of platonic ideal of what things / people / places /situations might be, and we see the difference, and then we get all excited about all that potential for growth.

[Misty]

This is an interesting discussion... I think of myself as an optimistic, positive person, but there tends to be a disparity between my self-image and what actually comes out of my mouth. My old supervisor even commented once about how I always expressed things in a negative way, but that he liked it and found it intriguing (he is ENTP).

More recently I noticed it when my Pastor and I worked on a project together and she pretty much corrected me every time I made a comment, until I was getting a complex about the way I expressed things! I think for some people (especially my Pastor), they assume I must be really depressed or complaining at my core, but the negativism doesn't get me down--instead it spurs me on to improve things. It's like you can't fix something if you can't see it's broken. Plus I see the humour in the dark side as well.

[schrödinger's cat]

...the negativism doesn't get me down--instead it spurs me on to improve things. It's like you can't fix something if you can't see it's broken. Plus I see the humour in the dark side as well.

Same here. Once I've realized what's missing or broken or messed up, the next thought is always: "How could this be fixed?" It doesn't feel pessimistic to me, simply just realistic and down-to-earth and nicely grounded.

If I'm in a situation where people insist that you only ever see the positive, I tend to feel like people are trying to brainwash me or expose me to propaganda. What's the word for these positive little messages you're supposed to give yourself? "I'm beautiful and powerful and every day I'm going to feel better and better"? URGH.

It occurs to me that this is very good for our SLI duals. Just imagine what would happen if IEEs favoured peppy Pollyannas who always see the good in every last little thing.

[Misty]

If I'm in a situation where people insist that you only ever see the positive, I tend to feel like people are trying to brainwash me or expose me to propaganda. What's the word for these positive little messages you're supposed to give yourself? "I'm beautiful and powerful and every day I'm going to feel better and better"? URGH.

Haha, for me it's head-scratching, a sense of "How can you live like that??!" Followed by URGH.

[yifflord]

If I'm in a situation where people insist that you only ever see the positive, I tend to feel like people are trying to brainwash me or expose me to propaganda. What's the word for these positive little messages you're supposed to give yourself? "I'm beautiful and powerful and every day I'm going to feel better and better"? URGH.

I also find that I can't bring myself to trust people who don't openly acknowledge the bad and the broken. When it concerns someone's feelings I understand the need for tact but when it involves something impersonal like a project, people who are only capable of talking about the good make me wary.