1. Relations

Foremost to the ISFJ is their focus on personal integrity and strength of character. ISFJs are largely motivated by the strength of their personal convictions, providing personal feeling of what around them is good and what is evil, as well as the sense of obligation to protect the former and resist the latter. ISFJs tend to be judgmental of people, forming firm opinions of others based on their actions. The main question concerning ISFJs is the quality of connection they have with the people they meet, whether they share in personal values and can be trusted or relied on in times of need. As such, they quickly form opinions of the person's character from how they have acted and what they have heard about them, looking with scrutiny for anything that would make them an unsuitable contact. ISFJs instinctively adjust their level of closeness with people based on their expressed qualities. ISFJs have a knack for knowing the appropriate distance of their relations with others, keeping friends near, undesirables out of their lives and those between in different kinds of partnership depending on the circumstances. ISFJs are motivated to connect deeply with certain other individuals and form stable, reliable bonds. They want someone they can feel comfortable sharing their personal selves with intimately and take such relations very seriously. A true friend is an ally for life, and they place great emphasis on personal loyalty, kindness and selflessness towards their friends. However, they can be prickly and will not easily forgive those who have betrayed their trust. In this way, the ISFJ creates stability, knowing well the few they can rely and depend on, while carefully keeping the rest at an arm's length.

2. Force

ISFJs regularly possess a steeliness and protect their sensitive nature with a tough shell. As such, they can enforce their convictions with determination and are not afraid to confront others if they feel it will do some good. For them, morally disgusting or wicked behaviour is something to be attacked, rather than allowed to continue towards them or the people they feel responsible for. However, ISFJs usually choose their battles depending on whether people close to them are involved or not, at times cutting their losses and leaving the situation. Although their default position is to support more industrious people close to them, they can also make good leaders in matters they particularly care about, knowing who can be relied upon to help them. ISFJs often believe in manifesting their ideals by example, challenging others close to them to follow. Although this toughness may intimidate some, others appreciate their dependable will to do right by their friends and will cherish their dogged loyalty. ISFJs treat harm to their friends more seriously than harm to themselves and vehemently protect those they care about from interlopers, avenging wrongs done to them. Frequently, the character judgements of an ISFJ are harsh in quality. They instinctively size people up, trying to tell who is good and who is a scoundrel and will not hesitate to criticise scathingly in their frank estimation of a person's failings.

3. Laws

The ISFJ is aware of the need to preserve law and order, and will often keep things organised and structured, laying down needed boundaries to prevent disarray. ISFJs also tend to be quite logical and well-reasoned in their discussions, being able to emphasise clearly some basic principles and the semblance of their thoughts in an objective, rational form. Despite this, ISFJs rarely focus on these rulings as absolute, but as mere guidelines. For them, goodness cannot be written in a rulebook but must originate from within. While communicating their ideals in a clear structure may be useful, it should not replace for them the personal quality of their convictions that forms judgements on sentiment rather than impartial deduction. As such, ISFJs may enforce the law when they feel it is good but may be at odds with the letter of the law when they feel the moral spirit of the law is being overlooked. In such situations they are often the first to voice their opinions and drop protocol over a matter of conscientious objection. In this way, ISFJs are capable of being highly orderly, but will not be consistent in their commitments to such frameworks.

4. Ideas

In their reliance on stability in interpersonal relations, ISFJs can be irked by the presence of ambiguity and may feel lost or uneasy when bereft of the familiar. Usually, they will require people to say what they mean, disliking it when something has more than one possible interpretation, being puzzling or lacking straightforwardness. In such tricky situations, they may be overly stern and interpret things literally, possibly taking offence. ISFJs are likely to have little interest in theoretical speculation, where a broad range of ideas are discussed without clear, immediate application. The ISFJ will likely feel confused by such pursuits, failing to appreciate its merits. However, they may tolerate it as a harmless past time, provided such a rambling and whimsical approach does not extend to real life. Their fear is that uncovering new territory will disrupt the clear continuity of where their life is going, opening new windows that makes their future less straightforward. Furthermore, the ISFJ tends to be particularly suspicious of those who are unpredictable, needing people to be reliable. Rather than spend time speculating on a person's intentions, ISFJs place greater faith in what they can see before them, judging people on the face of their concrete actions, or by looking someone in the eye and scrutinising their body language or mannerisms for deception. Should a negative decision be made, they are happy to avoid further contact, with little need to revisit the matter or offer second chances.

5. Pragmatism

ISFJs tend to rely successfully on their gut in making personal decisions, but when faced with more impersonal choices, lack the ability to assess the facts with the same shrewdness. ISFJs tend to know their convictions but are less able to reach a pragmatic conclusion from assessing factual data. They may be rash in their judgements and quick to form opinions without due consideration or take an overly long time to puzzle over the best decision. In unfamiliar situations, they may grow anxious, not knowing what to do or how to do it and feeling useless. Furthermore, they can be clumsy with practical tasks and worry that they will muck things up when left to their own devices. However, ISFJs are greatly appreciative of educated people with knowledge and expertise, who willingly offer information to help them form better stances. ISFJs are usually critical of strangers with new information but often look to a trusted friend or expert as their source and will call upon their advice to make informed decisions, believing what they say after ascertaining they can be relied on as a person. ISFJ may be very interested in bettering themselves, reading up on a variety of helpful texts or placing an emphasis on institutions of higher learning. In this way, they hope to learn and improve over time.

6. Telos

ISFJs tend to possess a strong desire for a secure, long-term future and often try to set out a clear plan for their lives. ISFJs aspire to have clear goals in life and usually dedicate their efforts to following through on that purpose. However, without inspiration, some ISFJs may be given to floundering in the choices available to them, which may be a source of stress. Often, there will be a particular outcome that they will want to see achieved in their lifetime, sometimes in the political or social spheres, and they will take pride in themselves by being able to stay the course and see it through to the end. To an extent, they will also be able to think ahead and try to avoid likely issues that might occur from blindly following their ideals. However, ISFJs tend to be impulsive in daily matters, and appreciate reminders on occasion that their actions in the present might take them off course for the long run. In this way, ISFJs take personal pride in setting and reaching their goals, as well as successfully resisting any possible distractions or deviations from the path. When committed to a path, they may also be rather stubborn about sticking with it, and resist changes without adequate justification. Furthermore, ISFJs place a great emphasis, not merely on the rightness of people's actions, but also their regularity and reliability in acting beneficially. ISFJs tend to have good memories for people's merits and faults, not forgetting a wrong done to them and only forgiving sufficient remorse. From observing past trends, they can see who has proven themselves over time and as a result, adjust the level of trust with their close relations.

7. Emotions

ISFJs in general are uninterested in showing how they feel in an emotive or dramatic fashion, or even in modifying how they come across to suit public tastes, unless it is necessary to do so. Instead, their approach to emotions is highly personalised, depending on their relationship with the person they are talking to. When around people they do not feel such a connection with, they are more inclined keep their feelings to themselves under a polite veneer. When upset by friends, they tend to simply state how they feel in a matter-of-fact manner. For this reason, some can mistake the ISFJ for being more logical and objective than they necessarily are. Nevertheless, when others are doing something that they personally feel is wrong, they are inclined to speak out and icily challenge the individuals regardless of the group mood. At the same time, ISFJs are often emotionally warm with those they have fostered a genuine trust and may be given to more open displays of affection and other feelings in such situations. With a strong preference for communicating to people they personally relate to, rather than being palatable to crowds, such emotions may even come across as overly sentimental to others.

8. Senses

Frequently, ISFJs are aware of their level of comfort and the harmony of the space they occupy. They will likely have a strong eye for detail and be capable with handling meticulously detailed information, such as carefully colour-coding important accounts and keeping tabs on the day-to-day things around them. However, ISFJs are unlikely to place much emphasis on softness or pleasantness in their relations with others. They are more inclined to be tough with others who deserve it and will not back down from fighting an issue if it needs to be fought. Instead, an awareness of comfort will become most apparent in ISFJs personally deciding their feelings on people and situations around them, being able to pick up on not only their emotional but physical reactions to others and use this to tune in on whether a person is right for them or makes their skin crawl. However, for those who are closest to them, there will be signs of comforting and care, with the softer side of the ISFJ showing in helping their nearest and dearest. ISFJs are usually able to quickly decide upon how they feel about a person in the moment and at times this can lead to promiscuous relations with those they are comfortable around. However, ISFJs will usually later regret such encounters, seeing such hedonism as not being conducive to long term benefit.