SP Types, Facts and Flexibility: What Sensing Plus Perceiving Means

If the personality type quiz named ISTP, ISFP, ESTP or ESFP, or listed one of them among the types closest to your answers, the result falls in the group this site calls Facts and Flexibility: the four types that pair S for Sensing with P for Perceiving. This page covers what those two letters mean in the Myers-Briggs framework, which questions decide them, how the quiz reports a near-even split, and what research says about how much weight the letters can carry.

Why these four types make a group

A Myers-Briggs type takes one letter from each of four preference pairs. The Myers & Briggs Foundation describes Sensing or Intuition as "Opposite ways to take in information" and Judging or Perceiving as "Opposite ways to approach the outside world" (Myers-Briggs Overview). The four types on this page take S from the first of those pairs and P from the second.

The grouping does not come from the Foundation's account of type dynamics. That account pairs the two middle letters of a type, one way of taking in information and one way of deciding, and names four such process pairs: ST, SF, NF and NT (Type Dynamics: Overview). The four-way split this site uses, NT, NF, SJ and SP, matches the four temperaments described by David Keirsey instead: the Keirsey site lists ESTP, ISTP, ESFP and ISFP together under the heading Artisan (the four temperaments). The quiz never scores a group. It scores each pair on its own, and this page gathers the four types whose answers came out S and P.

Facts and Flexibility, a house name

The name is made from the Foundation's own wording. Its question for the Sensing or Intuition pair is "Do you prefer to focus on the facts or the big picture?" (overview), and it describes Perceiving as a preference for "a more flexible and open-ended lifestyle" (MBTI Preferences). The label belongs to these pages only; it is not an official name.

What S and P mean in the framework

Sensing, as opposed to Intuition

"People who prefer Sensing pay more attention to information that is concrete and tangible," the Foundation writes. Its list of Sensing tendencies includes "Focus on the here and now, present/past realities," "Like step-by-step instructions and information presented sequentially" and "Trust experience" (MBTI Preferences). Both sides of the pair are ways of taking in information, and the same page is clear that nobody uses only one: "Everyone spends some time using the Sensing and Intuition preferences throughout their day."

Perceiving, as opposed to Judging

The Judging and Perceiving pair, in the Foundation's account, describes "how you like to approach the outside world, your outer life, and what behaviors others tend to see." "People who prefer Perceiving like a more flexible and open-ended lifestyle," with tendencies such as "Keep options open," "Adapt to emerging information" and "Get energized and do their best work at the last-minute." On the other side, "People who prefer Judging like a more structured and organized lifestyle" (MBTI Preferences).

The label can mislead. Perceiving, here, is not the everyday word for being perceptive. The Foundation explains the name in its own terms: "Everyone spends some time each day taking in information (Perceiving) and deciding (Judging) as part of day-to-day living. Most of us tend to find comfort with and lean on one more than the other when approaching the outside world" (MBTI Preferences). So P marks the taking-in side, as a person shows it to the outside world, and the pair is about preference, not ability. The Foundation says the assessment "sorts for preferences; it does not measure traits, ability, skill, or character" (overview).

Why, in the theory, the P points back at the S

Type dynamics is the part of the theory that ranks the mental processes behind a type's letters, from a dominant process down. In it, Sensing and Intuition are the perceiving processes and Thinking and Feeling the judging ones (Type Dynamics: Overview), and the last letter of a type says which kind of process a person uses in the outer world. The Foundation's own worked example is ISTP: "The last letter in their type code is P, therefore they would extravert Sensing (Se) since it is a perceiving process" (The Processes of Type Dynamics). The same rule applies to all four types here, so in the theory every SP type uses Sensing in the outer world. The first letter then decides whether that is the leading process, because in the Foundation's account people who prefer Extraversion use their dominant process in the outer world and people who prefer Introversion use it in their inner world (same page). The Foundation's type table gives ESTP and ESFP extraverted Sensing as their dominant process, while ISTP leads with introverted Thinking and ISFP with introverted Feeling, each with extraverted Sensing as its auxiliary (Type Dynamics: Overview).

That is the theory's reason for treating S and P as a pair. This quiz does not test it. It counts the Sensing or Intuition answers and the Judging or Perceiving answers separately, from different questions, so it can say whether your answers leaned toward S and toward P, and nothing about which process leads.

The four SP types

Inside the group, the types differ on the other two pairs: Extraversion or Introversion, and Thinking or Feeling. Each line below condenses the Foundation's short description of the type (The 16 MBTI Personality Types).

• ISTP (Introversion, Thinking): tolerant and flexible, quiet observers until a problem appears and then quick to find a workable solution, interested in cause and effect, and valuing efficiency.
• ISFP (Introversion, Feeling): quiet, friendly, sensitive and kind, enjoying the present moment, wanting their own space and their own time frame, and loyal to their values and to the people who matter to them.
• ESTP (Extraversion, Thinking): flexible and tolerant, pragmatic and focused on immediate results, bored by theories, and learning best through doing.
• ESFP (Extraversion, Feeling): outgoing, friendly and accepting, bringing common sense and a realistic approach to work, adapting readily to new people and environments, and learning best by trying a new skill with other people.

The questions that decide S and P

Every answer on the quiz counts toward one side of one pair, and what the answer says, not where it sits on the page, decides which. Only the questions on Sensing or Intuition and on Judging or Perceiving decide whether a result lands in this group; the other two pairs choose among the four types above. The full version asks every question below, and the short version asks the ones marked both. The computed section further down this page quotes every answer that counts toward S or P.

Sensing or Intuition

• Learning to cook a new dish (both). Following the recipe exactly the first time, or copying a demonstration step by step, counts as S; working from the principles, or from instinct, counts as N.
• A friend says you are always in your head (full only). Saying it is not quite right because you are present and observant, or only partly true because you are also aware of your surroundings, counts as S; calling it fair because your inner world is vivid, or true in the sense that you are thinking about the world rather than checked out from it, counts as N.
• The core of an ideal career (both). Real, tangible systems and processes, or mastering a craft, count as S; creating, theorizing or envisioning what doesn't exist yet, or connecting ideas across fields, counts as N.
• Planning a road trip (full only). The specific stops and the practical side count as S; the feel of the trip and what it might stand for count as N.
• Hearing a detailed factual explanation (both). Valuing the specifics, or following along and taking notes, counts as S; wanting the big idea, or connecting it to something else, counts as N.

Judging or Perceiving

• A project with a vague brief and no firm deadline (full only). Feeling mildly anxious until you have some structure, or asking clarifying questions and setting a check-in date before starting, counts as J; being glad of the room, or excited by the freedom, counts as P.
• Sunday night before the week starts (both). A week mapped out, fully or roughly, counts as J; not having thought about Monday, or keeping lots of room to respond, counts as P.
• A last-minute change to careful plans (both). Frustration, or brief annoyance before adapting, counts as J; feeling fine or even energized counts as P.
• An ideal working calendar (full only). Fully planned, or mostly structured with intentional white space, counts as J; loosely organized, or light on commitments, counts as P.
• A dinner reservation against a better offer (both). Keeping the reservation, or trying to reschedule it first, counts as J; going to the better option, with or without guilt, counts as P.

Where the lines fall

A P answer on this quiz does not have to mean having no plan. On the Sunday night question, "a rough shape for the week" with "some flexibility built in" counts as J, while "a few things anchored" with "lots of room to respond" counts as P. On the calendar question, mostly structured with intentional white space is J and loosely organized is P. What separates the two sides there is how much is left open, not whether anything is planned.

Coping well is not the test either. The last-minute change question asks how the change makes you feel, so being annoyed briefly and then adapting quickly still counts as J. On the dinner reservation, going to the better option counts as P whether or not you feel guilty about it.

On the other pair, several Sensing answers are careful and sequential: following a recipe exactly the first time, copying a technique step by step, taking notes during an explanation. They match the Foundation's Sensing tendency "Like step-by-step instructions and information presented sequentially" (MBTI Preferences). An SP result pairs answers like those with the open-ended answers on Judging or Perceiving. Because the two pairs are scored from different questions, nothing in the scoring ties one to the other, which matters for one of the research findings below.

How a near-even split shows up in this quiz

For each pair, the quiz counts how many of your answers went to each side, and your letter is the side with more, unless the count is close to even. If the side in front holds no more than a set share of that pair's answers, the quiz calls the pair balanced: it prints a lowercase x where the letter would go, and the line for that pair reads "Balanced, leaning" toward the side in front, with the two counts. An even split is always balanced. The share is a single setting in the quiz's code, and a second setting can mark a letter won by a narrow margin as a close split, with a note that one answer could flip it.

The "How this quiz works" section on the quiz page applies that share to the number of questions each version asks on a pair, and says which splits, if any, come out balanced on the full version and on the short one. Those figures are worked out from the questions each time the site is built, and so is the list further down this page of the answers that count toward S or P.

Where the x lands decides how a result near this group reads:

• An x on Extraversion or Introversion, or on Thinking or Feeling. The S and the P came through, so every type closest to the answers is in this group. A result of xSTP lists ISTP and ESTP, and an x on both of those pairs, xSxP, leaves all four SP types as the closest fits.
• An x on Sensing or Intuition. The closest types are an SP type and its Intuition counterpart, such as ISTP and INTP for a result of IxTP. Those two belong to different groups on this site.
• An x on Judging or Perceiving. The closest types are an SP type and its Judging counterpart, such as ESFP and ESFJ for a result of ESFx. This site files the Judging types with Sensing under SJ.
• Several balanced pairs. The list of closest types doubles with each x. When too many types fit the answers equally well, the result names no single type and shows only the split on each pair.

A near-even count is not an odd outcome for scales like these. Tammy Bess and Robert Harvey scored MBTI answers from about 12,000 people in leadership development programs and found that earlier reports of two-humped score distributions were an artifact of a default setting in the scoring program, which used a small number of calculation points. When the program used more points, the score distributions "became strongly center-weighted" (Bess and Harvey, 2002): scores bunched toward the middle, where a letter is settled by a small margin, rather than at the two ends. The x is this quiz's way of showing that instead of cutting a near-middle count in two.

What the research says about S and P

The retest figures for whole types, from the 1991 National Research Council review and from the publisher, are the same for every type and are covered once, in the science behind the MBTI; the 1991 review gives no retest figure for the S or the P on its own. The research below is the part that bears on these two letters.

Whether S and P are separate things

One finding bears directly on this group. Summarizing Carlyn's 1977 assessment of the MBTI, the committee reported that she found three of the four scales relatively independent, while "The fourth scale, judgment-perception (J-P), was related to the sensing-intuition scale with correlations ranging from .23 to .48 in 11 samples: sensors tended to be judgers, while intuitors tended to be perceivers in these samples." Carlyn, the committee added, "interprets these results as support for the theory on which the instrument is based, which posits only three dimensions" (National Research Council, 1991). An SP result pairs Sensing with Perceiving, so it runs against the trend in those samples. Correlations of that size describe a tendency, not a rule, and the chapter does not say how many people in those samples came out SP.

This quiz builds in no such link. Its Sensing or Intuition answers and its Judging or Perceiving answers come from different questions and are counted separately, so with random answers S and P turn up independently of each other. Any connection between them in real results would come from how people answer, not from the scoring.

A study comparing the MBTI with the five-factor model of personality also questioned the J-P scale. Robert McCrae and Paul Costa, with data from 267 men and 201 women, wrote that "The interpretation of the Judging-Perceiving index was also called into question." They also found that the MBTI indices "did measure aspects of four of the five major dimensions of normal personality" (McCrae and Costa, 1989). A 2003 study of 900 people by Adrian Furnham, Joanna Moutafi and John Crump matched the scales to those dimensions: "Openness was correlated with Sensing-Intuition," and Conscientiousness with Judging-Perceiving, "replicating the findings of McCrae and Costa (1989)" (Furnham, Moutafi and Crump, 2003). On that reading, the nearest research counterparts to the S and the P are positions on two continuous scales, Openness and Conscientiousness, rather than membership in a kind of person.

How much the letters predict

The 1991 committee also read the validity evidence in the test's manual. Myers and McCaulley had concluded, from correlational data in 20 studies, that the Extraversion-Introversion scale has good construct validity. "In contrast," the committee's summary continues, "the S-N and T-F scales show relatively weak validity, with only moderate correlations with other instruments designed to measure similar constructs," and since the findings rest largely on high school and college student samples, "caution is advised in attempting to generalize from them" (National Research Council, 1991). The S in SP comes from one of those two weaker scales.

On jobs, the committee noted that in large data sets on type and occupation, "farmers, clerical workers, and military personnel have higher proportions of sensors." It then named three methodological problems with using such data for vocational counseling: weak discrimination among occupations, a lack of attention to normative data, and the fact that "no evidence has been presented on relationships to performance in those occupations." Its next sentence: "Given these problems, the types may simply be an example of stereotypes." Its conclusion was that "there is not sufficient, well-designed research to justify the use of the MBTI in career counseling programs" (National Research Council, 1991).

The broader critiques of the four-letter result, and the Foundation's reply to its critics, are in the science behind the MBTI.

Common mix-ups

• Perceiving does not mean perceptive. The Foundation's question for this pair asks whether a person prefers to seek closure or stay open to new information (overview). P is the second of those, a preference about how to meet the outer world, and it says nothing about how much a person notices.
• P is not a verdict on dependability. The Foundation's Perceiving list is about flexibility and keeping options open (MBTI Preferences), and on this quiz a P answer can still keep a few things anchored. The assessment, in the Foundation's words, does not measure "ability, skill, or character," and "There are no better or worse types" (overview).
• Sensing is not a lack of imagination. It is a preference for information that is concrete and tangible, and the Foundation says everyone uses both Sensing and Intuition every day (MBTI Preferences).
• SP is not another word for extraverted. Extraversion and Introversion are a separate pair, which is why ISTP and ISFP belong here alongside ESTP and ESFP.
• This quiz is not the MBTI. It uses the same four pairs, but it is not the publisher's assessment and has not been tested the way research questionnaires are.

Using an SP result

• Read the counts on Sensing or Intuition and on Judging or Perceiving first. A wide lead toward S and toward P says more about your answers than a narrow one, and a narrow one is the kind a single changed answer can move.
• Read across the nearest line. If Sensing or Intuition was close, the neighbor is the matching Intuition type (for ISTP, that is INTP); if Judging or Perceiving was close, it is the matching Judging type (for ISTP, ISTJ). All sixteen are described on the quiz page.
• Treat the type as a working guess. The Foundation suggests a "for-the-moment" type, "a hypothesis to work with," checked by observing "how you take in information and make decisions in real life" (Verification of Best-Fit Type).
• Keep it out of decisions about other people. The Foundation states that "The MBTI assessment is not designed to be used for hiring purposes" and that "Results are never to be used to limit anyone" (Ethical Use of the MBTI Assessment).
• Take bigger questions to a person. For a career choice, or anything touching your health or your relationships, a qualified professional is a better guide than four letters. The 1991 committee's caution about career counseling was about the official instrument, and a free quiz has less behind it.

If this does not fit you

Start with the split. If the S or the P came from a narrow lead, the description on the other side of that pair may fit as well or better, and the full version gives each pair more answers to count than the short one. A wide lead that still reads wrong may say more about the questions than about you: a handful of scenarios on one day is a small sample of anyone, and the 1991 committee wrote that self-assessment instruments like those represented by the MBTI "are likely, at best, to capture a person's current state" (National Research Council, 1991).

The framework leaves the final call with the person who took it. Its best-fit type is "the four-letter type that you think best describes you after learning about type and reviewing your MBTI results," and in the Foundation's words, "Ultimately, you are the only one who can decide which of the 16 types you prefer" (Verification of Best-Fit Type). And when a description does fit, it can fit for reasons that have little to do with the quiz, which why personality tests feel so accurate explains.