Your personality type affects the way that you react to stress. There are three main stages.
When you have little or no stress, you find it easy to use the most appropriate behaviours for the situation. Very often, these are behaviours you may have learned at school, on training courses, etc.
As stress increases, 'learned behaviour' tends to give way to the natural style, so the INFJ will behave more according to type when under greater stress. For example, in a crisis, the INFJ might find a place of solitude in which to think and work, tell everyone else that you are coping, but focus primarily on trying to solve the long term problem. This means you may neglect the short term issues, make errors of fact, or ignore routine matters that might nevertheless be essential.
Under extreme stress, fatigue or illness, the INFJ's shadow may appear - a negative form of ESTP. Example characteristics are acting very impulsively, making decisions without thinking them through, and doing things to excess - e.g.: eating, drinking or exercising. You may also be uncharacteristically critical of others, finding fault with almost everything, and being preoccupied about unimportant details. You may end up doing things that have no meaning for you, acting in a very materialistic and selfish way, cutting corners, breaking the rules, and going against your own deeply-held values. The shadow is part of the unconscious that is often visible to others, onto whom the shadow is projected. An INFJ may therefore readily see these faults in others without recognising it in him/her self.
Next: INFJ careers
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