Judging types are most comfortable with closure, when life is settled and decided. They like a sense of being in control of their lives through planning, setting goals, organizing, scheduling and deciding. Surprises may not be welcome, though I am referring more to something like an unforeseen change in office policies than to a surprise birthday party. Those who prefer Judging want closure even when their data are not yet complete.
Take the case of a high school Senior, for instance. A Judging student will be more comfortable and relaxed once the decision about which college to attend has been made. He or she may even be in a hurry to choose a college when there are still many good and interesting ones to be researched.
In contrast, those with preferences for Perceiving are most comfortable keeping their options open and taking a flexible and tentative approach to life. They enjoy a sense of letting life happen and experiencing it through being spontaneous and through inquiring, absorbing, adapting and being undaunted by surprises. They tend to resist closure, wanting instead to gather more data.
Our high school student, should Perceiving be his or her preference, would be happiest continuing to research colleges and waiting as long as possible to decide even after several strong possibilities present themselves. Perceiving types, wanting more and more data before making a decision, could be called information junkies! On the other hand those with a preference for Judging can be much quicker to make a decision with much less information.
It would be interesting to know the type preferences of the hundreds of people who waited an average of 1 1/2 hours in line during the first day of early voting last week in San Antonio. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that the majority of these people who already had sufficient information to vote and wanted to get it over with have a preference for Judging.
The Judging - Perceiving dichotomy tells us much more than how flexible or quick to make decisions someone is, however. For instance knowing which pole of the dichotomy someone's preference falls on will help us determine the different types of work, and types of tasks inherent in all work, one will be most comfortable and satisfied with. A table on p. 288 of the MBTI(R) Manual illustrates this nicely.
(Myers, Isabel Briggs, Mary H. McCaulley, Naomi L. Quenk and Allen L. Hammer. MBTI(R) Manual. Mountain View, CA: CPP, Inc., 2009.)
Judging types work best when they can plan their work and follow the plan. They like to get things settled and finished, may decide things too quickly, and may not like to interrupt the project they are on for a more urgent one. On the other hand those with a preference for Perceiving adapt well to changing situations. They prefer leaving things open for alterations, may unduly postpone decisions, and may start too many projects and have difficulty finishing them.
Which of these lists sounds like you? I can definitely relate to the Judging list! The Manual also contains similar tables describing how the other dichotomies (Extraversion - Introversion, Sensing - Intuition, and Thinking - Feeling) effect work situations. Is it any wonder that one of the MBTI tool's major uses is in career counseling?
Sometimes we can see type preferences in our animal friends. In the animal world I see the dog as a Judging type. When a dog performs tricks or obeys his master in expectation of receiving a reward, he is in a sense following a plan in hope of achieving a goal. That goal is to receive a treat or other reward in exchange for a desired behavior.
As an illustration of Perceiving types, the first animal to come to my mind is the cat. This is far from a perfect comparison since cats do NOT like changes in their environments or routines. But it would be hard to think of a more curious and investigative animal than the cat. We've all heard the expression "Curiosity killed the cat"!
The contrast between Judging and Perceiving can also be compared to a living room window at someone's home or apartment. When the room is comfortable with an agreeable temperature and smell, the window is kept shut or opened just a bit so that the room's pleasant ambiance can remain unchanged. This is like a Judging type who wants fairly quick closure so the comfortable characteristics of his life won't be disturbed or changed. Getting a little bit of new data is like letting in just a bit of air.
But when a room is too hot or stuffy and in need of some fresh air, the window is opened wide so breezes and smells which might make it more pleasant are free to enter, creating new and exciting sensory possibilities. The window may be left open for quite a while if the outside environment is pleasant. This is like a Perceiving type feeding his or her seemingly endless appetite for new data.
The letter J or P at the end of our type code does more than tell us whether the Closed or Open part of the sign in my photo best describes our personality. By telling us whether we prefer Judging or Perceiving, it also tells us whether our Judging preference (the third letter in our type code, T or F) or Perceiving preference (the second letter, S or N) is visible to the outside world. In the case of those who prefer Introversion, the letter pointed to is our auxiliary preference which helps us navigate the outside world while our dominant preference operates in our inner world. Those who prefer Extraversion, on the other hand, readily show everyone their dominant preference which is at home in the outside world.
This is why those who prefer Introversion can, not necessarily deliberately, often fool people into thinking they prefer Extraversion. We all extravert either our Perceiving or Judging preference, and that is what the world sees. This can sometimes give the impression that Introverts with extraverted Feeling (such as ISFJ or INFJ), which allows them to connect well with others, are Extraverts. But an Introvert is really extraverting his or her auxiliary or secondary self, which is like a passenger helping the driver of a car navigate. The driver or dominant preference is hidden in the person's inner world.
So as you see, the terms Judging and Perceiving, the letters J and P, have quite a bit hidden behind them. In fact, one's whole approach to the outer world is revealed by these words and letters. Once we know the fourth letter of someone's type code, the mystery of his or her orientation to the outer world is no longer an open case. In the words of Sherlock Holmes, it becomes elementary. There will be no need for both the signs in my photo, only the one at the top. Case closed!