Naturally outgoing and creative, the ENFP personality type is a true idealist. As idealists, ENFPs seek to make a difference in life. In general, ENFPs are highly devoted to their values and ideals. Because of this, they feel a strong need to help others wherever they can. At the same time, ENFPs enjoy experiencing a wide range of emotions. Even more so, intensive emotional experiences are a vital aspect of their lives. In the following, we’ll have a look at the very interesting ENFP personality type. We will also highlight the specific character traits of ENFPs and what differentiates them from other personalities.
Interestingly enough, your behavior, thinking, and feeling are greatly influenced by your psychological preferences. In fact, these very preferences shape your perception of the entire external world.
“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.”
E. B. White
As a result of this, by identifying your personality type, you’ll be able to better understand yourself. It will help you to identify the underlying factors of your behavior and thinking. You’ll be amazed at the astonishing insights about yourself a classification of your personality can give you.
Here’s everything you need to know about the ENFP personality type.
At the same time, knowing a person’s personality type will help you to better anticipate their actions. It will show you what motivates this individual and how they feel inside.
In order to identify an individual’s personality type, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is commonly used. It is excellent for classifying people according to their psychological preferences.
Even though the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator was originally only a handbook about personality types for women, it quickly gained popularity in other areas as well. As such, the 16 personalities quickly outgrew their originally intended purpose. The main reason for this is that the type indicator is highly accurate and can be applied for various different purposes.
The ENFP Personality Type Explored
If you are often confronted with ENFPs, the following will present you valuable insights about these individuals. It will further help you to better get along with the ENFP personality type. By understanding the underlying factors of their thoughts and behavior, you will also be able to understand ENFPs much better.
At the same time, if you yourself are an ENFP, you will find many surprising insights about your personality in the following. This interesting exploration of your personality type will further aid you in better understanding the underlying factors of your behavior and thoughts. This knowledge will also assist you in making better use of your strengths while avoiding common weaknesses.
Table of contents
What does ENFP stand for? ENFP meaning
ENFP personality traits
ENFP careers
ENFP relationships
Famous ENFPs
Let’s start this analysis of the ENFP personality type by explaining what the acronym actually stands for.
What does ENFP stand for? ENFP meaning
The acronym ENFP stands for Extraversion, iNtuition, Feeling, and Perception. These four terms describe the psychological preferences of the ENFP personality type. As such, ENFPs prefer these four expressions over their respective opposites. The four dimensions are as follows:
- Extraversion or introversion (how attention is focused)
- Sensing or intuition (how information is perceived)
- Thinking or feeling (how decisions are met)
- Judgment or perception (how the external world is interpreted)
By assessing an individual’s psychological preferences in these four areas, the underlying personality type can be identified. The four letters of the acronym ENFP are explained in the following:
- E – Extraversion: ENFPs prefer extraversion rather than introversion. This means that social interactions help them in gaining energy. Consequently, the ENFP enjoys social situations and usually has a wide social circle.
- N – Intuition: The ENFP personality type tends to prefer abstractness over concreteness. They may dislike getting too involved with all the details of a project. However, they enjoy keeping the bigger picture in mind.
- F – Feeling: When comes to decision-making, ENFPs will consider subjective criteria. Even more so, these subjective considerations may overweigh mere logic and objective factors.
- P – Perception: ENFPs generally dislike long-term planning. Decisions are met when the situation requires it to allow flexible adaptations.
Let’s continue this analysis of the ENFP personality type with the central characteristics of such individuals.
ENFP personality traits
As already mentioned in the above, ENFPs are very creative individuals. At the same time, they are skillful at identifying sophisticated patterns in complex information. Even further, the ENFP personality type can assimilate and comprehend large amounts of information quickly.
Need for alone time
The ENFP personality type values time alone, even though they are naturally outgoing and prefer extraversion. Times of solitude help ENFPs to center themselves and to recharge their batteries. In many cases, the ENFP personality requires significant amounts of time alone.
Highly flexible
In the workplace, ENFPs show a high degree of flexibility. This allows them to quickly adapt to changing working environments, projects, or tasks. At the same time, ENFPs are highly devoted to their values and ideals. Therefore, they prefer pursuing a profession that helps them to help or assist other individuals.
Impatient with repetition and details
When it comes to repetitive tasks or continuously having to follow certain routines, the ENFP personality type becomes impatient and bored. This is mainly because ENFPs are highly perceptive of the numerous opportunities for change. In fact, they enjoy exploring these possibilities because it helps them to initiate change in their lives.
As a consequence of their high regard for change, ENFPs are often found in the initial phases of startups or projects. This is exactly where they can express their full potential. However, as soon as these projects move to stages requiring the establishment of routines and stability, ENFPs may quickly become bored. The same holds true when these projects require them to specifically focus on the details.
Enthusiastic and energetic
Others may perceive the ENFP as a highly energetic and enthusiastic individual. Their inherent ability to understand other people’s (emotional) needs makes them quite popular. This popularity is further increased by their almost unending willingness to help others in accomplishing what they desire. Not only does the ENFP personality type seek to add a wonderful charm, joy, and fun to everything they do, but they also can’t imagine living without it.
Often expect too much of others
A major weakness of ENFPs is that they are not always able to realistically assess other people. In fact, they often fall prey to idealization. As a result, they have a tendency to place great hopes and expectations into others. However, if others cannot live up to these high ideals, the ENFP personality type can be massively frustrated.
Seek intense emotional experiences
Another important characteristic of the ENFP personality type is that they crave intense emotions. To them, these intense experiences are a vital aspect of their lives. At the same time, they are keenly interested in sharing what they experience in life. As such, ENFPs can talk to almost no end about themselves. However, their listeners may always benefit from an ENFP’s insights on life or the unique perspectives they share.
ENFP careers
As already addressed in the above, ENFPs become quickly bored with tasks that require a high level of attention to detail. Therefore, professions that require precision and detail-orientation may not fulfill the ENFP personality type. In fact, such professions may only frustrate and disappoint ENFPs.
Instead of mulling over the details, the ENFP personality type prefers professions that require creativity. Even more so, they enjoy expressing themselves and their ideas. At the same time, their values and ideals will naturally attract them to work that others benefit from.
At the same time, ENFPs are creative problem solvers. Ideally, their profession confronts them with having to find unique and creative solutions to problems other people struggle with. Here are some of the professions that are ideal for ENFPs:
- Music director, music composer
- Art director
- Actor
- Musician
- Insurance sales agent
- Fashion designer
- Real estate agent
- Multimedia artist
- Travel agent
- Photographer
- Public relations professional
- Animal trainer
- Childcare worker
- Fitness trainer
- Anthropologists
- Psychologist
- Teacher
Among the professions that are disliked by many ENFPs are engineering and financial professions.
ENFP relationships
People will often report that the ENFP approaches all their relationships in a childlike, enthusiastic, but also in a serious manner. They greatly enjoy experiencing intense emotions with their partner and friends.
In general, ENFPs are committed to their relationships and often add a lot of fun and excitement. At the same time, they are warm partners and friends that are willing to invest time in the relationship. Their enthusiastic and energetic behavior, however, may sometimes overwhelm those around them.
Thanks to their well-developed social skills, ENFPs are easy to get along with and enjoy interacting with other personality types. They also have the unique ability to motivate their friends or partner to live to their full potential.
ENFPs as partners
The ENFP personality type makes a warm and surprising partner. Their keen interest to experience intense emotions will add a fun and positive touch to the relationship. ENFPs are also able to easily relate to the feelings and needs of their significant others. For this reason, they are very perceptive of the other person’s emotions. Another benefit of the ENFP personality type is their high loyalty. They make faithful partners that support their significant other wherever they can.
However, the ENFP personality quickly becomes bored with routines. This is no different in their relationships. As such, ENFPs may not always have the mental focus to see the relationship through to completion. This is especially true for individuals that have not developed the mental strength to pursue their projects from start to finish. In these ENFPs, there may always be the underlying desire to leave the present relationship behind in order to explore something new.
ENFPs as parents
The ENFP personality is a dedicated parent that is fully aware of the responsibilities that come as a parent. At the same time, their character traits and high creativity add many playful and fun nuances to their role as a parent. ENFPs don’t need much encouragement to spend time with their children and to play with them. In fact, there’s a child hidden in almost every ENFP, which is why they greatly enjoy spending time with their kids.
ENFPs are very nurturing parents that are able to create a fun, positive, and creative environment for their children. However, due to their strong desire to be their children’s role model but also best friend, ENFPs often act inconsistently. On the one hand, they enjoy relating to their children and being their friend. On the other hand, ENFPs want their children to adopt their complex values and ideals. As such, the ENFP can become quite strict – or even authoritarian – when certain rules, values, or ideals are not observed. For this reason, their children may sometimes be confused about the sudden change of their parent’s role from friend to strict parent.
ENFPs as friends
ENFPs are often described as warm friends that add joy and fun to other people’s lives. Their inherent desire to help others is also expressed in the friendships they entertain. As such, ENFPs quickly identify other people’s needs or wishes and are more than willing to lend a helping hand. In fact, ENFPs are very loyal friends that do everything in their power to help their friends wherever they can.
In general, the ENFP is a friend that is energetic, enthusiastic, and easy to get along with. Especially when others struggle with the difficulties of life, the ENFP personality can quickly lift them up.
ENFPs usually have no difficulties in dealing with other personality types. In fact, they may find it easy to relate to other people’s personalities and points of view. However, ENFPs may sometimes struggle with personalities that prefer the Thinking dimension.
Famous ENFPs
There are numerous notable and famous ENFPs. Here are some of them:
- Mark Twain
- Oscar Wilde
- Umberto Eco
- Walt Disney
- Anne Frank
- Arianna Huffington
- Michio Kaku
- Oliver Stone
- Jerry Seinfeld
- Jennifer Aniston
- Keira Knightley
I hope you enjoyed this exploration of the ENFP personality type. Have you ever dealt with this particular character type? We’re excited to hear about your experiences in the comment section below.
To discover the other personality types, have a look at the 16 Personalities of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
Stay victorious!
