How compatible are the ISTJ and Enneagram Type 3 patterns of communicating, feeling, and thinking?
Reading time: 5 minutes
Gregory Park, Ph.D.
Author
In this article, you’ll find comparisons of two personality types — ISTJs and the Enneagram Type 3s — across four important personality domains: Interpersonal/Communication Style, Emotional Style, Intellectual Style, and Organizational Style.
TraitLab collected data about personality traits from thousands of participants who identified as a particular type from the 16 Personality or Enneagram typology.
For each comparison area below, you’ll see show the average similarities and differences between ISTJs and Type 3s. While these comparisons are useful for understanding broad trends across these types, it’s important to remember that all personality types are oversimplifications. For an assessment of your unique personality, you’ll want to use an assessment that goes beyond single personality types.
Jump to any section with the links below.
Do you know your personality type?
Learn about your type and so much more with TraitLab's comprehensive personality assessment.
Your particular style of communicating and interacting with others can be described fairly well by two dimensions: assertiveness and warmth.
Assertiveness describes your tendency to assert yourself, lead, and influence others in social situations, while warmth describes your tendencies to empathize and put others’ needs ahead of your own.
People with the same personality type often share some similarities in assertiveness and warmth. In the graph below, you can see where most ISTJs and most Type 3s fall along both of these dimensions.
First, take a look at where people in each type, on average, fall in this interpersonal space.
ISTJs are realists who perceive things and people clearly, without being overly optimistic. At their best, they are practical skeptics who are comfortable holding and sharing unorthodox, unpopular views. ISTJs may be overly skeptical and suspicious, and they may have difficulty trusting others. At their worst, they can struggle to make new friends and socialize, and have a hard time showing affection and admiration for others.
Type 3s often manage, direct, and try to lead others. At their best, they provide guidance and leadership, and naturally command respect. Type 3s may be domineering, forceful, or overly direct. At their worst, they can be overbearing and micromanaging.
One aspect that ISTJs like you and many Type 3s have in common in your relative comfort around interpersonal conflict and disagreements. Both ISTJs and Type 3s are both likely to focus on their own point of view and goals, even if it leads to some interpersonal tension.
One important difference between you and most Type 3s is in your relative assertiveness or passivity in social situations. Like many ISTJs, you are often on the more passive, reserved side of the spectrum. In some cases, this is a perfect compliment to Type 3s’ more dominant, assertive style, and the two of you can make an effective team. However, you may find that you need to put extra effort into making your opinions heard when working with Type 3s.
Another characteristic of your personality is your emotional style — your tendencies towards different kinds of moods. There are two dimensions that influence emotional style: arousal and valence.
Arousal describes your relative energy level across different situations. Those with high baseline levels of arousal tend to be generally more alert, active, and engaged, while those with a lower baseline are more reserved, subdued, and inhibited.
Valence describes whether these moods tend to be positive (pleasant) or negative (unpleasant). People with a more positively valenced style are more likely to experience emotions like joy, enthusiasm, satisfaction, and serenity. People with a more negatively valenced style are more likely to experience sadness, frustration, dissatisfaction, and anxiety.
The graph below shows where each type, on average, usually sits in this emotional space.
ISTJs have a tendency to be quiet and inhibited. Compared to most people, they can easily drift into gloom and melancholy. They see the glass as half-empty and have a more skeptical outlook and a hesitant approach to life. For better or worse, ISTJs tend to notice the negatives in most situations. In stressful times, they are more likely to withdraw quietly and retreat inward, rather than share their frustration with others.
Type 3s tend to be energetic and enthusiastic across most situations. They take on new challenges with excitement, confidence, and a sense of adventure. Type 3s are usually more optimistic than most people, and they generally feel like they can handle what life throws at them.
As with most ISTJs, you tend to be more reserved, inhibited, and quiet than most Type 3s. Between the two of you, you are more likely to need more personal space, solitude, and time to decompress. While you can tolerate long periods of calm and quiet, your Type 3 counterparts often craves more engagement and excitement. In the best cases, a Type 3 can pull you out of your comfort zone and get you out into the world, while your quiet nature helps to balance out their intensity.
Another difference between ISTJs and Type 3s in their typical emotional valence, or their tendencies towards positive and negative emotions. You and most ISTJs tend to fall on the more negative side. Compared to most Type 3s, you and most ISTJs typically experience more negative emotions like sadness, worry, frustration, and impatience. Type 3s have the opposite pattern, and they tend to gravitate toward positive emotions like enthusiasm, joy, and contentment.
These emotional differences can be subtle, but they may color how ISTJs and Type 3s process new information. You and most ISTJs are quicker to see the negatives and consider what could go wrong, while Type 3s might receive the same news with excitement and optimism.
Your intellectual style describes how you receive, process, and pursue different kinds of information. Differences in intellectual style are captured well by two dimensions: ideas and aesthetics.
Ideas describes your appetite for new information and your interest in complex, challenging material. People high on the ideas dimension have an appreciation for complexity and technical details. People lower on ideas are less interested in learning for learning’s sake, and they prefer to simplify complex topics down to the essential details.
Aesthetics captures your relative interest and sensitivity to aesthetic information and its emotional impact. People higher on the aesthetics dimension usually have strong artistic interests and a deep appreciation for beauty in many forms. Those lower on aesthetics tend to value practical application over artistic merit and usually adhere to more conventional standards of beauty.
In the graph below, you’ll see where ISTJs and Type 3s, on average, fall in this intellectual space.
ISTJs are practical realists. They focus on building practical skills and essential knowledge and are less likely to spend time learning for learning’s sake. In addition, they usually value conventional, tangible accomplishments over artistic expression and rarely feel compelled to develop a creative outlet.
Type 3s are usually highly effective, efficient thinkers, capable of processing large amounts of complex information and distilling it down to its most useful elements. They are pragmatic and grounded and prefer to apply their knowledge to conventional, practical pursuits.
Like most ISTJs, you are less interested in learning purely for learning’s sake, compared to most Type 3s. You’d prefer to focus on the essentials and the practical issues at hand, while your Type 3 counterpart typically wants to dig deeper and understand the bigger picture. In conversations, you may find that your Type 3 partner often gets caught up in theoretical or abstract details, and you need to bring them back down to earth.
Likewise, ISTJs and Type 3s share an appreciation for practical, tangible accomplishments over artistic expression. ISTJs and Type 3s are both likely to embrace conventional ways of thinking, and both types are more skeptical of eccentric or unusual approaches to solving problems.
Your organizational style describes your habits around organization and planning. Your organizational style influences how you structure your time and physical space. Differences in organizational style fall along two dimensions: industriousness and orderliness.
Industriousness describes your persistence, need for achievement, and intensity of focus. People higher on industriousness usually organize their behavior around a few important long-term goals. People lower on industriousness are usually more focused on the present and will more easily change their focus when new opportunities appear.
Orderliness describes your need for regularity, order, and structure in your environment. People higher on orderliness prefer tidy, organized physical spaces, detailed schedules, and reliable routines. People lower on orderliness can tolerate more disorganization and prefer a more spontaneous, unstructured approach.
The graph below shows the average position of ISTJs and Type 3s along these dimensions of organizational style.
Most ISTJs and Type 3s share a similar organizational style.
ISTJs and Type 3s are usually systematic and highly organized. They like setting big, long-term goals and then creating detailed plans to accomplish them. ISTJs and Type 3s are generally good at ignoring distractions and making steady progress through consistent routines and habits.
As a ISTJ, you and most Type 3s share a natural drive to achieve and perform at a high level. Both of you enjoy setting goals and pushing yourselves to accomplish them, and you likely share an interest in self-improvement and productivity strategies. As a result, you and your Type 3 counterpart can fuel each other’s ambition and keep each other accountable as you work towards your long-term goals. However, between the two of you, nobody usually reminds you to slow down and enjoy the present.
Similarly, ISTJs and Type 3s tend to be neat, tidy, and organized. You both rely on high amounts of structure and routine and compared to most people, you have lower tolerances for messiness and disorder. With a few exceptions, both of you stick closely to most social conventions and feel uncomfortable straying from them.
Most people have complex personalities, and they don’t fit perfectly into a single personality type.
With TraitLab’s comprehensive analyses of your traits, strengths, and interests, you can see how your personality compares to every type from the Enneagram and 16 Personality typologies. Start building your personality profile by creating a free account today.
For comparisons between ISTJs and other Enneagram types, visit any of the type pairings below:
For comparisons between Type 3s and other types from the 16 Personality typology, visit any of the pairings below:
