Personality and autism

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I've been studying personality for years, and am trying to find subjects to test a model I have. If people wanted to help me out that would be great. I recruited some subjects from a site for gifted women years ago but that's about as far as I've gotten. I'm probably going to have to pay more conventional people to participate, though, since this sort of thing doesn't seem to interest them (someday when I have money).

But what I'm really posting about is I'm wondering about the range of personalities among autistic people - do autistic people always have unconventional personalities? And if so which ones?

I have descriptions of a type system I've developed here
It's based on Jean Shinoda Bolen's archetypes, but I've seriously rewritten some of her types because they were too negative, or not clear, or whatever. Her work was a good starting point, though. I just want to develop it more systematically.

If people wanted to do my survey, that would be great, or I could post a couple of polls here if people prefer (I think polls have a maximum of 10 choices so I'd have to divide them into two groups: male and female). If you do my survey and you want to, indicate if you've been diagnosed and with what in the comments section. Also please let me know if the forms don't work for you (they're Javascript).

Any comments? I hope it's ok that I post this.

I'm definitely not any of these!

I am female & can't choose between "work" & "relationships" - what about "play"? (As in hobbies & interests)?

There appears to be a correlation between AS and certain MBTI types. If you search the forum, you'll probably find a number of long threads in which people posted their MBTI results. Some of them include polls. If I remember correctly, INTP and INTJ are the most common types reported on this site.

I saw that and am not surprised that people are IN.

I took a test just for fun a while ago and I don't know why I got ISTP... The description has nothing to do with my personality.

For now I'm going with INFP/INTP. They seem to show opposite sides of myself.
My personality profile seems to change depending on my mood. Generally I can't place myself anywhere.

And I can't forget: ISFP. I can go into that mode too.

the types are more about your core values than about surface details. What one thing is most important to you? Everyone needs some status but some people care about much more than others (nothing wrong with that). Everyone needs relationships but some people care about them much more than others. Everyone needs work (and I think hobbies and interests count as unpaid work), everyone has spiritual needs, etc. . . .

I think I need to come up with shorter descriptions but at this point I'm worried I'd get them wrong. I'm also wondering if Artemis should be divided into two groups: the outdoor/animal lover girls and the artists. But I don't have any data to justify that.

Short version for women: Are you more like Temple Grandin (Artemis) or more like Donna Williams (Persephone)? (or neither?)

Other female types: Hestia (Mother Theresa); Athena (Hillary Clinton); Hera (Nancy Reagan); Demeter (Barbara Bush, Natalie Portman); Aphrodite (Cameron Diaz). I don't expect to find any autistic Aphrodites.

I always get INTJ, but the I and J percentages are practically 50/50.

The problem with your descriptions are that they are all of successful women, which automatically rules me out of any of them.

(Actually I identify much much more with some of the male types - like Poseidon for instance. This may also be true for other female Aspies. We do not conform to normal NT female stereotypes!)

Among the female ones, I identify most with Persephone, and a little bit with Artemis. Among the males, it's some cross between Hades and Hephaestus. I would not know how to choose just one. I'm female.

I'd forgotten about that.

When I first read Bolen's books, I identified with Artemis, Hestia, Ares and Hades. When I reread them 10 years later I understood the descriptions better and realized I really was nothing like an Artemis. Hestia I really didn't understand until I watched a fellow volunteer set a beautiful table at a pot luck. And Ares and Hades are male, which I finally figured out I'm not. I think I just needed a long time to understand personality as who I am deep down inside. Maybe I just needed to get to know myself really well first. I don't know. At any rate maybe the descriptions are just too complex for most people to get right away. Sigh.

If you like the system, great, otherwise don't worry about it.

I think Hades and Hephaestus are the two most common autistic types for men (but I don't want to bias people). The female equivalents are Persephone and Artemis (I think), in that order.

Well, I could include Aunt Sally and Aunt Mary as examples, but I don't think that would help people outside my own family much.

The descriptions are supposed to reflect personality differences. People usually identify with famous people to some extent, and to some famous people more than others.



If you read Goddesses in Everywoman (which I don't expect anyone to) her whole point is that women come in all types, and that women like Amelia Earhart and Gloria Steinem and Hilary Clinton are just as "feminine" as more stereotypically feminine women, in their own way, because they're women, and that's what women are like. Traditional psychiatry portrayed non-girly women as "animus-ridden" and boy did that make her mad.

I will admit, though, to having a hard time seeing myself as female when I was younger. I think when you're androgenous it's confusing.

Maybe I should switch my study to "check all that apply", but then that would be a different study.

I have the INFJ personality type, I can't recall how common it is amoung autistics tho...

Perhaps it's more common among female autistics.

I took two different online tests with 3 seperate sessions being as honest as I can.

I got ISFP the first time. I tried to change my answers, but then I decided to refresh and start over. I got INFP.

On the 2nd test I got INFP.

So I got INFP two times and ISFP once.

That doesn't surprise me. The more I read about both kinds, especially the INFP the more I see things about myself. INFP skills include writing. ISFP skills include art.

I've been told I am talented in both, so I think I'll stick with being INFP/ISFP. Autism masking some of the INFP traits. Autism proably masks some of the ISFP traits too. I tend to go into observational mode and pick up on people that way.

Last edited by MJIthewriter on 20 Mar 2008, 9:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I think I might be the only ESFJ here. I've always been very outgoing.

This thing about gods and goddesses is an of that psychological principle similar to how people usually see their horoscope as being right. It lists enough characteristics that most people will agree with at least a few from many of the categories. I have a few traits matching almost every category, but none really predominates.

I want to do it...where is it?