ISFP personality traits define those characteristic patterns of this personality type that makes them who they are. These traits are the subtle signs that help others to identify these wandering introverts whenever they are seen in social spaces.
ISFP are lively and spontaneous. They have a strong inclination towards fine arts and aesthetics. They love to see the beauty all around them.
People with an ISFP personality type are quiet and reserved, prefer to remain flexible and hate to plan about future goals. They love to stay in the present moment and enjoy life as it unfolds slowly and steadily.
20 ISFP Personality Traits
The Myers-Briggs Test Indicator (MBTI) classifies human personalities into sixteen different types. One of those is the ISFP.
The acronym ISFP means Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, and Perceiving. People with this kind of personality are shy, introverted, and caring individuals who love to live in the present moment.
Just like any other individual, an ISFP personality type also shows some characteristic behaviors. Many of these behaviors or personality traits are unique to an ISFP personality type.
In this article, we will have a detailed look at certain personality traits of ISFP individuals. If you have a friend who has an ISFP type of personality and you wonder why they behave in a particular way, having an idea about their personality traits may be helpful in interacting with them.
On the other hand, you might be an ISFP type of individual yourself, wondering why you behave in a particular way. Keep reading to find out some common personality traits of ISFP individuals.
Some of the traits that help to determine the ISFP Personality are as follows:
1. Down to earth
These people are always grounded to reality. They are quite well aware about the facts of life. They do not engage too much in fantasy thinking.
However, some ISFPs do have the ability to engage in wild imaginations. Thus, they are sometimes referred to as “daydreamers”. But still, they are rooted to the present moment. In this way, they often defy the stereotypical idea about them being fantasy lovers.
2. Affectionate
ISFPs often hold deep feelings for others. But they do not verbalize these feelings. They hold these feelings private to themselves.
An ISFP individual is more likely to confess or show their emotions through their actions, and not by words. It can often be prominent through their gestures.
For example, an ISFP may offer to help someone with their work even though he himself is not proficient in that work. Suppose an ISFP who is not a good cook, may try to make someone their favorite dish.
This can be an indication of the fact that ISFPs truly believe in “action speaks louder than words”.
3. Sensitive and Caring
People with ISFP personality are very sensitive. They usually get extremely affected by other people’s distress.
Since, they are caring and gentle, they have a high degree of empathy towards others. For this reason, ISFP people can be good caregivers.
When an individual with an ISFP personality type sees others in pain, they are willing to do everything they can to help them.
Often these individuals can physically feel the pain of others. They may feel a lump in their throat or experience a pain in their heart when they see the suffering of others.
This sensitivity carries over to other spheres of their life as well. For example, ISFPs are easily moved to tears when they watch a sad or emotional movie.
4. Good observer
ISFP people generally pay attention to small details in their surrounding environment, as well as in others. They have the ability to easily judge any discrepancy in other people’s behaviors.
They can quickly notice if someone is feeling stressed or anxious. In a stressful situation, ISFPs are the first people to offer help.
Because of their good observation skills, ISFPs can quickly detect signs of danger in their environment. They can react swiftly to threatening cues.
At any social gathering or party, you may see an individual standing quietly at a corner. They talk very less and quietly observe everyone. If you see someone like this, there are high chances that the individual has an ISFP type of personality.
5. Taking time to open up
ISFPs tend to be shy and introverted. They are quite guarded in their social outlook. For this reason, they take a lot of time to open up to others.
ISFPs often fear being judged by other people. They also do not want to conform to socially prevalent norms and rules. As a result of this, ISFPs are very particular about who they want to be friends with.
Similarly, from the point of view of a non-ISFP individual, it can be very hard to become friends with an ISFP person.
However, those people who become friends with them, know that ISFPs are actually great friends. They are caring, gentle, helpful, and selfless. They strongly value their friendships and their friends.
6. Flexible
ISFPs are quite flexible and spontaneous. On the surface, this may seem like an anomaly. One may think that these are characteristics of an extrovert. However, an ISFP type of individual does not intend to engage in conflicts with anyone. For this reason, ISFPs are flexible and adjusting. They can spontaneously adapt to any difficult situation. This makes ISFPs good team players.
7. Strong sense of aesthetics
ISFP personality types have a strong sense of aesthetics and beauty. They always appreciate the little things in life.
People with an ISFP personality give a lot of importance to aesthetics in the surrounding environment.
They prefer vibrant and colorful surroundings. For this reason, they hate cloudy and gloomy weather. They rather prefer bright, sunny days with clear skies.
This habit also carries over to all spheres of life for an ISFP. For example, a student having an ISFP personality shows better academic performance in a bright and colorful learning environment.
Similarly, an adult ISFP individual working in an office loves to keep his or her own cubicle well-maintained and decorated with little colorful memoirs.
8. Non-judgmental
Being non-judgmental is another great character trait of an ISFP individual. They are very open-minded and accepting towards all kinds of people.
This, combined with their altruistic and helpful nature, makes ISFPs good listeners. If you have a friend with an ISFP type of personality, know that that friend will always be there to listen if you want to talk about your problems.
Because they are non-judgmental themselves, ISFPs also hate being judged by others. For this reason, they prefer to stay away from social interactions, for fear of being judged.
9. Lone wolf
ISFPs prefer to be a lone wolf. This means that they prefer staying on their own, rather than hanging out with friends in groups.
They are shy and introverted by nature.
ISFPs use this alone time to recharge and rejuvenate themselves. They use this time for introspection, thinking about various things.
It is for their introverted nature that ISFPs do not like going to social gatherings and parties. Even if they have to go, they quietly keep to themselves and do not speak to anyone unless someone else approaches them first.
10. Positive approach towards future
ISFP personality individuals do not like to dwell on the past. They generally have a positive outlook in life.
These people do not tend to think about what has happened in the past. Instead, they focus on the future and think how they can improve a particular situation. They are quite optimistic and always hope for the best-case scenario to occur.
11. Adventure lovers
ISFPs believe in the idea of YOLO, which means “You Only Live Once”. They have a strong affinity for adventure. This is because of the Sensing part of their personality, which makes sure that they are always attuned to their surroundings and environment.
These individuals love the rush of adrenaline that one gets from an adventure.
They love adventure sports like bungee jumping, skydiving, paragliding, etc.
ISFPs also love going on hikes, bike rides, treks, and camping adventures. They prefer doing these alone rather than in the company of others.
Unfortunately, because of this nature of theirs, many ISFPs also get involved in gambling, because of the rush of adrenaline it provides.
12. Not good at handling criticism
We have discussed before that ISFPs are sensitive individuals. This sensitivity unfortunately affects the way they receive criticism. Here, by criticism, we mean negative criticism.
If someone rudely tells an ISFP individual that they have not done a good job, the person can easily be brought to tears. Because of the fact that ISFPs are passionate about whatever work they do, they cannot handle it when someone does not say good things about their work.
If you are a manager or supervisor who needs to provide negative criticism to a junior or subordinate who has an ISFP type of personality, be gentle about it. Do not simply point out their flaws. Instead, provide guidance and suggestions on how they can improve their work.
13. Not good at planning
ISFP individuals often love to live in the present moment. They do think about the future, but that is just a general positive outlook. They do not make elaborate plans about anything. Instead, they prefer to go with the flow. Unfortunately, this can often backfire and land them in trouble.
14. Whimsical and experimental
ISFP people often act on a whim. They often experiment with things in their daily life. For example, an ISFP type of person may take his partner out on a date to a sushi restaurant, although they themselves have never had sushi before. They may make sudden and whimsical choices like coloring their hair a weird shade of blue, or getting a tattoo without planning anything. They are also experimental about their fashion choices.
15, Internalization of emotions
Out of all the personality traits of an ISFP individual, this is probably the most difficult to see or perceive from the outside.
Although ISFPs are emotional by nature, they do not show these emotions on the outside. Out of all the MBTI (Myers-Briggs Test Indicator) dichotomies, “introverted feeling” is dominant in ISFPs.
This means that they can do a good job at hiding what they are feeling. Even if they are tensed or nervous about something, they will not let anyone around them understand that, and keep on going with their daily life as if nothing has happened.
16. Not conforming to established norms
ISFPs do not like to conform to socially established rules or standards. They want to live their life independently.
In schoolwork or in office work, ISFPs do not like following strict deadlines or guidelines in whatever task they have to do. They prefer if they are given a general objective and then allowed to do the task in their own way, on their own time.
17. Creativity
ISFPs have a strong creative outlook. They have an artistic mind. For this reason, many ISFPs tend to be artists. This includes musicians, painters, authors, poets, and alike.
Many world-famous musical artists like Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Mozart, etc. were ISFP personality types.
18. Competitiveness
Although this is a rarer personality trait, sometimes ISFPs are highly competitive. They may have a strong desire to perform better than their peers. This generally comes from a fear of being judged if they perform poorly.
19. Deviant behavior under stress
ISFPs are not good at managing stress. Whenever they face a stressful situation, they resort to an avoidant coping mechanism. They would rather prefer to watch a movie and de-stress first, before figuring out how to deal with the stress.
Under stressful conditions, ISFPs also behave rudely with others. They may talk sarcastically and become angry at others for small reasons.
20. Nature lovers
ISFPs love to appreciate the beauty of nature. They love going on vacations to places with incredible natural beauty.
They also love to capture this natural beauty through their artistic side. This can be either through photography or by painting.
ISFPs also love animals and often own pets.
To Sum Up
In this article, we have discussed some distinct personality traits of an ISFP type of individual. It is important to remember that every single person is unique in his own right. These traits that we have discussed are not textbook rules.
Just because a person exhibits one or more of these traits, that does not mean that their personality type is an ISFP. However, we do hope that this article is helpful in your daily lives when you interact with an ISFP individual.
