ISTPs and stress
Your personality type affects the way that you react to stress. There are three main stages.
When you have little or no stress, you find it easy to use the most appropriate behaviours for the situation. Very often, these are behaviours you may have learned at school, on training courses, etc.
As stress increases, 'learned behaviour' tends to give way to the natural style, so an ISTP will behave more according to type when under greater stress. For example, in a crisis, the ISTP might withdraw from people, to think through possible solutions, and use tried and trusted solutions to short-term problems. The ISTP may also tend to criticise others efforts and ignore their feelings, and focus on sorting out detailed points that could perhaps wait.
Under extreme stress, fatigue or illness, the ISTP's shadow may appear - a negative form of ENFJ. Example characteristics are displaying intense feelings towards others, or insisting on things being done without any logical basis. When under extreme stress, you may become very sensitive to criticism, adopt a gloomy view of the future, and attribute unrealistic negative meaning to others' actions or statements. The shadow is part of the unconscious that is often visible to others, onto whom the shadow is projected. An ISTP may therefore readily see these faults in others without recognising it in him/her self.
Next: ISTP careers