The Myers-Briggs® Personality Types of the Boy Meets World Characters

Boy Meets World inspired an entire generation of viewers when it ran from 1993 to 2000. It followed young Cory Matthews as he navigated school, relationships and life. With its lovable set of characters and lessons taught through interesting plot lines, it was legendary.

I’ve been rewatching all seven seasons and paying closer attention to each character’s arc. And even though I can’t walk up to them and make them take the personality test, I’ve determined each character’s Myers-Briggs personality type.

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The Myers-Briggs® Personality Types of the Boy Meets World Characters

Cory Matthews: ESFJ

“Ever since I was young, I never understood anything in the world, and I never understood anything that happened in my life. The only thing that ever made sense to me was you and how I felt about you. That’s all I’ve ever known and that’s enough.” — Cory to Topanga

Even though it takes him a while for these qualities to be presented maturely, Cory shows signs of being a textbook ESFJ from season one. Sensitive to the well-being of the people around him, Cory is very thrown off when his friends aren’t okay. In fact, most of the antics he gets up to are because he’s trying to fix a problem in someone else’s life.

ESFJs often take on the duty of mediating conflict, which Cory tries to do in his own way. He sympathizes with Shawn when his father abandons him multiple times throughout the series, even going as far as trying to talk Shawn’s father into coming back.

This sense of duty in his relationships is evident in Cory’s love for Topanga — he believed in their love more than anything. Besides kissing another girl on a school trip (but we all try to forget that episode), he cares for Topanga and shows it in sweet, sensitive ways. Every time they break up, he is the one who tries to put the relationship back together.

Like any healthy ESFJ would, Cory takes his role as Shawn’s best friend seriously. He covers for him, takes the blame for his antics, and talks him out of poor decisions when he’s spiraling. When you watch Boy Meets World, you watch as Shawn tries to throw his life away over and over again. And you watch as Cory stops him each time.

Discover More About ESFJs: 7 Things That ESFJs Experience as Children

Topanga Lawrence: ENFJ

“I do my thing and you do your thing. You are you and I am I. And if in the end we end up together, it’s beautiful.” — Topanga to Cory

It can be tempting to label Topanga as an “FP” type because of how eccentric she was as a child. But her easy navigation of social situations and attunement to others’ feelings makes her an easy ENFJ.

Like most ENFJs, Topanga is deeply in tune with her values. She often confronts people with shaky morals, and graciously breaks up with Cory after he kisses another girl — because while she has loved Cory for years, she knows that she deserves better.

When Topanga realizes that something is important to her, she is determined to get it. Whether it was working hard enough to graduate as valedictorian or giving up her spot at Yale to go to college with Cory, she consistently prioritized her vision of what her future should be.

What made Topanga a great role model for girls was her desire to stay true to herself and improve the world around her, which she eventually pursues with a career in law.

Find Out More About ENFJs: 24 Signs That You’re an ENFJ, the Mentor Personality Type

Shawn Hunter: ISFP

“I lost my mom. I don’t think I deserved to lose my dad, too.” — Shawn to his father

From a distance, Shawn Hunter seems like a grossly stereotyped ESTP: effortlessly popular, womanizing, and seemingly insensitive to people’s feelings. But over the course of the show, his character as an ISFP is developed. It’s shown that Shawn is deeply sensitive.

His father’s irregular presence at home — and later abandonment — is perhaps the biggest influence in his life. Each time he is let down by his father, Shawn shuts down emotionally and lashes out at his friends. His lack of a consistent father creates abandonment issues, which makes him alienate himself from others.

He even uses his womanizing tendencies as a defense mechanism because he is scared to settle down and commit to just one girl. But when he’s called out for this, he works to become more vulnerable and realizes that he wants a serious relationship. And he finds one with Angela Moore, who he feels he can connect with.

Like many ISFPs, Shawn develops a penchant for poetry in college and uses it to work through his conflicting emotions.

Find Out More About ISFPs: How ISFPs Say “I Love You”

Angela Moore: ESTJ

“I poured my heart out to you. I can’t sit here like a fool waiting for you to be ready.” — Angela to Shawn

Like Topanga, Angela was also a strong female role model. In the show, she’s highly intelligent and driven. And like any ESTJ, her strong sense of self keeps her from accepting less than what she deserves.

In her introduction to the series, Shawn catches her with a book of Shakespeare’s sonnets stashed in her purse. Angela gushes about her love for poetry and names specific poems she likes. She’s well read and takes school seriously.

After she and Shawn break up for the first time, she makes the logical choice to leave him behind — even though it’s hard. She doesn’t like the relationship’s emotional ambiguity and his fluctuating interest in her.

However, she isn’t familiar with her emotions, and that’s shown when she seems uncomfortable with sharing her feelings with Shawn. He has to pester her for a while before she admits that she’s afraid to hurt him like her mother hurt her father when she left the family.

But when she is in a relationship, she is loyal and reliable. She’s also a good friend to Topanga, looking for logical solutions to her problems.

Find Out More About ESTJs: 24 Signs That You’re an ESTJ, the Captain Personality Type

Eric Matthews: ENFP

“I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, but I do know that I’m going to be a good person who cares about people.” — Eric Matthews

Like many ENFPs, Eric is kind, outgoing, and creative. Even though he grows more into a token comic relief character as the series progresses, it’s shown on many occasions that he thinks deeply about things and strives to understand the world.

In one of the first episodes, Topanga (who is in sixth grade at the time) tells him that she’s in love with him. He lets her down gently, taking the time to explain that she doesn’t know what love is yet.

Even though he makes fun of Cory all the time, he’s always there to counsel his brother through his dating woes. When he senses that his brother truly needs him, he puts the jokes away and comes to his rescue — who can forget him saving Cory from the school bully on his first day of high school?

Plenty of Eric’s depth was taken from him in the later seasons, when he was turned into comic relief. But even then, he ties the friend group and family together. After he and Cory have gone off to college and they return to clean out his parent’s garage, he cares a lot about doing it with just Cory and not their friends — because he cherishes the memories he made there with his brother.

Discover More About ENFPs: Dealing with Emotional Overwhelm as an ENFP

George Feeny: ISTJ

“Friendship, for example, is a real gift. It’s given with no expectations and no gratitude is needed — not between real friends.” — Mr. Feeny

With his sweater vests and glasses, Mr. Feeny seems like the highly stereotyped definition of an ISTJ. However, his importance in the series proves that he, just like all ISTJs, are more than stodgy stereotypes.

The series begins when Cory is in sixth grade, so Mr. Feeny is originally characterized as a conservative rule-follower. And to an extent, he is. He emphasizes the importance of showing up every day to get an education, and hands out detentions like they’re free lollipops.

But he has a big sense of duty to his students that exceeds his responsibilities in the classroom. He says multiple times that he enjoys going to work to make a difference in young people’s lives. Even after a group of students vandalize his house to protest his testing policy, he keeps teaching.

Mr. Feeny is the calming force that keeps the kids and the Matthews family grounded. He gives them advice when their worlds are falling apart, even going as far as to guide Alan Matthews towards buying his own outdoor gear store after he quits his job.

Mr. Feeny is the practical voice of reason next door. And while he rarely expresses it, he loves his students.

Find Out More About ISTJs: 7 Things ISTJs Experience in Childhood

Alan Matthews: ESTP

“This is your life. Deal with your life.” — Alan Matthews

Alan Matthews is characterized as the stale family man at the beginning of the series. But as the show progressed, we got to see more and more personality from him.

Like a textbook ESTP, Alan has a sarcastic sense of humor. Each time bad news drops on the family, he’s there with a quip under his breath. In his relationship with Amy, he can be emotionally dense and often struggles to see her side of disagreements.

However, the love he has for his family is undeniable and expressed through actions rather than words. He works for years at a job he hates because he knows it’s to support them. After he recognizes that Amy doesn’t like her anniversary gift, he goes out at once to buy her what she wants. It’s revealed he often goes to his kids’ rooms at night to watch them sleep.

Far exceeding the stereotypical family man, Alan is proof that Thinkers are more than capable of raising loving families.

Find Out More About ESTPs: The Flirting Style of the ESTP Personality Type

Amy Matthews: ESFJ

Amy Matthews is often characterized as the sensitive foil to Alan’s dry parenting. Warm and open to hosting Cory’s friends, she embodies the selfless and welcoming aspect of ESFJs’ character.

She takes her role as a mother seriously. If any of the Matthews kids come home stressed because of a situation at school (and let’s face it, it’s almost always Cory) she drops whatever she’s doing to listen to them and offer advice.

When her job as a caretaker is threatened, she panics. When she believes that Topanga and Cory secretly eloped, she is angry at Topanga for replacing her as Cory’s caretaker.

Even to people who aren’t her kids, like Harley Kleiner or Frankie Stecchino, she feels obliged to help heal wounds. However, her ability to discipline her kids and assert herself in her relationship keeps her from becoming the docile housewife character.

Jonathan Turner: ESTP

Mr. Turner has a strong sense of what is right and wrong. But like many ESTPs, he keeps this fairly hidden under outward bravado.

A recurring theme in season three is his past relationships with women. And when Shawn comes to live with him, he sees that like him, Mr. Turner has problems truly connecting with people. ESTPs can be charming and socially smooth, but when it comes to forming deep emotional bonds, this takes a lot of work and growth. They are naturally more talented at troubleshooting issues with objects than dealing with intense emotional issues.

In one episode, we see Jonathan get dumped by a woman he cares about because he has no long term plans for their relationship. In other failed relationships, he simply cuts women off when things start to go south. This helplessness in close relationships is mirrored when he doesn’t know how to emotionally support Shawn. ESTPs, especially immature ones, can struggle to plan for the future and often don’t like being roped into commitments because they have a hard time knowing how a situation will play out.

But regardless of his weaknesses, Jonathan Turner has a good heart. When Shawn is abandoned by his father, Mr. Turner takes him in immediately. Shawn lives there for over a year, and Mr. Turner chastises his father for so flippantly abandoning his son.

When Shawn gets himself into trouble with the police, Mr. Turner is there to help him out of the situation and see the emotional root of each problem. Even though the living situation didn’t last, Mr. Turner’s steady loyalty was exactly what Shawn needed at the time.

Morgan Matthews: ENTP

Morgan is the quintessential annoying little sister, spoiled and not opposed to blackmail. However, her wit and penchant for schemes makes her a solid ENTP.

Because her life is always in the background of Eric and Cory’s (who can forget when she spent half a season up in her room), she’s able to get away with plenty. When Cory babysits her in season four, she makes a show of going to her room at bedtime. But the second his back is turned, she sneaks a train of elementary school students upstairs with her.

Like Alan, she has a dry sense of humor that directly contrasts Eric’s silly comic relief. By the end of the series, she’s about the same age as Cory was in season one and much smarter.

Find Out More About ENTPs: 12 Amazing Fictional ENTP Characters

Jack Hunter: INFJ

The opposite of his brother Shawn, Jack is very principled. He knows what he’s supposed to do as a young person entering the workforce, looks past childish impulses, and does it. Like many INFJs, Jack believes that everyone has the responsibility to work hard and make the world a better place.

In many instances he becomes impatient with Eric for refusing to grow up. And while he participates in Eric’s shenanigans for the first part of college, he gets annoyed by them as graduation draws near.

But he’s also deeply altruistic, so he cares about Eric and always apologizes after snapping at him. When he gets together with Rachel, he tries to keep their relationship a secret from Eric because he knows that Eric also liked her. And while I think that wasn’t the best way to go about it, at least the heart was there.

Find Out More About INFJs: 7 Things That INFJs Experience As Children

Rachel McGuire: ESFJ

Even though she’s introduced later in the series, Rachel McGuire quickly secures her role as the hostess of the friend group. Sensitive to other people’s feelings and very relationship-based, Rachel is an ESFJ.

From the moment she moves in with Eric and Jack, she tries to find ways for all of them to get to know each other. She’s just gone through a breakup and is grateful for their friendship (because she’s oblivious to the fact that they’re both in love with her). When she meets the rest of the friend group, she tries to have them all over for dinner.

But she soon realizes that there’s an inner circle in the friend group, and she’s not in it. This stirs up the insecurity she feels about joining the group late in their friendship, and she withdraws from them.

To Rachel, trust and loyalty are crucial. So when Eric demonstrates that everybody values her friendship by trying to hear her out, she is willing to make everything right again.

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Find out more about your personality type in our eBooks, Discovering You: Unlocking the Power of Personality Type,  The INFJ – Understanding the Mystic, The INTJ – Understanding the Strategist, and The INFP – Understanding the Dreamer.