#personality type

JUDGING (RATIONAL) FUNCTIONS Te: Extraverted Thinking: Segmenting; organizing for efficiency; systematizing; applying logic; structuring; checking for consequences; monitoring for standards or specifications being met; setting boundaries, guidelines, and parameters; deciding if something is working or not. Sorting out different colors and styles; thinking about the consequences, as in "Since I have to stand all day…"

Ti: Introverted Thinking: Analyzing; categorizing; evaluating according to principles and whether something fits the framework or model; figuring out the principles on which something works; checking for inconsistencies; clarifying definitions to get more precision. Analyzing your options using principles like comfort or "Red is a power color."

Fe: Extraverted Thinking: Connecting; considering others and the group-organizing to meet their needs and honor their values and feelings; maintaining societal, organizational, or group values; adjusting to and accommodating others; deciding if something is appropriate or acceptable to others. Considering what would be appropriate for the situation: "One should or shouldn’t wear…" or "People will think…"

Fi: Introverted Feeling: Valuing; considering importance and worth; reviewing for incongruity; evaluating something based on the truths on which it is based; clarifying values to achieve accord; deciding if something is of significance and worth standing up for. Evaluating whether you like an outfit or not: "This outfit suits me and feels right."

A Type code is created from one perceiving function and one judging function of opposing attitudes (i.e. one introverted, one extraverted.) E.g. ESFP = E/Se + Fi/P and ESFJ = E/Si + Fe/J. The 'E' or 'I' at the beginning of the type code denotes which cognitive function is dominant (ESFP = Se dominant; ISFP = Fi dominant), not whether one prefers company or solitude. The 'P' or 'J' at the end of the type code denotes what extraversion/introversion the judging function is (post here.) E.g. INTP = I/N/Ti/P and INTJ = I/N/Te/J.

COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS: EXPLANATION

Dr. John Beebe talks about psychological types: If you look closely at someone you can see the various blocks that make up the mosaic work of the psyche, and of course, the typological theory has it that there are 8 basic blocks. We also, by definition, have to have 8 complexes carrying those types, or blocks, or associated with those types or blocks. We have – all of us – 8 basic intelligences that make up the totality of our potential for conscious functioning. The system of psychological types is simply an archetypal model that organizes those 8 basic units into some kind of structure. Now, there are a lot of arguments about what that basic structure is, but there is no argument that there are these 8 basic intelligences.

Jung said that we need a function to tell us what is, and that is sensation. We need a function to give it a name, and that’s thinking. We need a function to tell us what it is worth, and that’s feeling, and we need a function to tell us what its possibilities are, where it is headed, and that’s intuition. He made it sound very simple. Actually, what is behind that is one of the most amazing intuitions in the history of science, that someone would have intuited that there is this apparently 4-fold cognitive structure. Now those of us who look very closely at type recognize that it is not really 4-fold, it is 8-fold because each of these basic functions, and these functions are, again, sensation, thinking, feeling and intuition, can be used, or as I like to say, deployed in either an extraverted or an introverted way, so that for all practical purposes we have not just sensation, thinking, feeling and intuition, but introverted sensation and extraverted sensation, and introverted thinking and extraverted thinking, and introverted feeling and extraverted feeling, and introverted intuition and extraverted intuition. 

Human consciousness (or human individuation) can be likened to a flower: What I like to say is that if the human being flowers, if the human being gets consciousness, sensation, thinking, feeling and intuition are the petals of that flower.  Now we know that it is really an 8-fold flower, not a 4-fold flower, and that we really have to think of these 8 functions as 8 quite separate things because sure, there is sensation, but there in introverted sensation and extraverted sensation and if you hang around the type game long enough, you know that introverted sensation and extraverted sensation are so different that they might as well be called by entirely different names.

In other words:

A personality type takes in (perceiving functions) information and makes decisions (judging functions) with that information. There are four main cognitive functions: Sensing and Intuiting ("irrational" or perceiving functions) and Thinking and Feeling ("rational" or judging functions.) These groups are further subdivided into extraverted and introverted binaries: Introverted and Extraverted Sensing, Introverted and Extraverted Intuition, Introverted and Extraverted Thinking, Introverted and Extraverted Feeling. Fun fact: per Jung's theory, rational functions (F or T) can often become skeptical, suspicious, or even dismissive of irrational functions (S or N) because the former sees the latter as unstable or without a fixed stance. The same applies in reverse, with the irrational types perceiving the rational to be too restrictive.

Everyone uses all eight functions, but not all at once and not to the same strength. They are psychologically ordered by developmental strength: dominant, secondary, tertiary, auxiliary; and four in the Shadow (per John Beebe.) These orders create sixteen unique type codes: ESTJ, ISTJ, ESTP, ISTP, ESFJ, ISFJ, ESFP, ISFP, ENTJ, INTJ, ENTP, INTP, ENFJ, INFJ, ENFP, INFP The dominant (Heroic) and auxiliary (Supporter) functions are represented in the type code (the two middle letters.) One must be a perceiving and the other must be a judging function; and both the perceiving and judging functions must be opposite externalizations (one introverted, the other extraverted.) E.g. an ESFP has 'S' and 'F' in its type code (a perceiving Se + a judging Fi.)

The 'E' or 'I' in front of a type code denotes which cognitive function of the pair is dominant (not one's preference for company or solitude.) E.g. an ESFP has Se + Fi, but the 'E' at its beginning means this type code leads with 'Se' as its dominant. ISFP's dominant function, by contrast, would be 'Fi.'

The 'P' and 'J' at the end of the type code mean nothing in and of themselves (post here): it simply denotes whether the judging function ('F' or 'T') is extraverted or introverted. E.g. ESFP = E/S/Fi/P; ESFJ = E/S/Fe/J.

CONCLUSION

Advance to the next part for Perceiving Cognitive Functions, In-Depth.

Thanks for reading~