Judgers and Perceivers

This is Part 5 of my series on personality types (character traits) based upon the Kiersey Personality Sorter. You can find Part 1 here, Part 2 here, Part 3 here, and Part 4 here.

Remember, I'm an EXFJ. My "X" is special, so if you want to understand that, you'll need to read Part 3.

Today we're talking about the final pair, P and J.

Perceiving: These folks tend to prefer open-endedness, delaying judgement (decisions) in order to collect information. Because of this, deadlines are not their friends since they prefer flexibility and open options. They're frequently playful and are apt to put things off.

Judging: We judgers like closure. We want things to be tied down because things tend to be more orderly that way. Judging folks like deadlines and take them seriously, seeking decisions. The can believe work comes before anything else.

Um, I'm not that last statement.

Things to be wary of for each:

Perceivers can spend so much time gathering information that they miss out on opportunities (deadlines). I just need a little more time before I decide.

Judging types must be careful not to be in such a hurry to get  closure that they make a decision too soon, that they don't collect enough data.

Perceivers are big picture people. They like to look at the grand design. Judgers are detailed oriented--mix the J with and S, and you have really organized people.

Real life examples.

My husband is a P. He was a general contractor before he retired and had to balance things all the time between various jobs. Seriously, he would have five jobs going at once and when the weather was bad or supplies didn't arrive in time, no biggie. He'd work on one of his other jobs.

Hmm. That would absolutely drive me nuts. I'm a J. I start a project and finish it. Then I start another project. And finish it. Having several unfinished projects hanging over me would make me run screaming from the room.

Hubby's Perceiverness came into play when we first got married. His approach to bookkeeping (I used to be a bookkeeper) is very different from mine. Once again, he's a big picture guy. I'm into the details. When we were looking to pay our debt down, he was interested in things like interest rates overall. I just wanted to know if I could pay our bills that month. But don't mistake my concern for the current for being a long-range planner. Budget? That's me, right down to the day something's paid off and those funds then move to pay something else off.

Until I took the Kiersey the first time and found out the his approach was a legitimate way to view the world, I thought he was being irritating on purpose. Learning about his Kiersey results, took a lot of strain off our relationship. I know. Petty of me to assume he was doing it to bug me. I know. I suck.

Work example. I worked in a place that oversaw hundreds of building. The director (my boss) was a hands-on, detail guy. The finance guy prepared the initial budget proposal accordingly because the director was right in there all the way. However, he retired. I'm sure the new director was a P. Very big picture. The finance guy put the initial budget together just like he did for the old director. Finance guy made the observation after the first budget meeting with the new director: "I would have planned that very differently if I'd known."

What kind of potential conflict do you see in your WIPs with characters who view things so differently?