Personality Types: Explained

The brain is in charge of everything from regulating our heartbeat, to remembering what was for dinner yesterday. Many of these functions are unconscious – not a part of our everyday awareness.

The conscious brain, in sum, oversees two tasks: perception and judgment. Perception is to take in, interpret, and interact with information. Judgment is to organize information, and reach conclusions or decisions.

Although people are different in many ways, the Jungian archetypes (aka Myers Briggs) are specifically used to describe how people differently perceive and judge the world.

The Cognitive Functions

Perception is split into two categories: Sensing (S) and Intuition (N). Sensing is the use of the five senses to interpret the physical world. Intuition is a way of mentally looking at concepts and possibilities. These two kinds of perception are similar in power, only the plane of focus is different.

Judgment is also divided into two categories: Thinking (T) and Feeling (F). Thinking is the use of logic to analyze information. Feeling is based on experience, and is a judging response based on whether past similar events were good or bad. These two terms refer to rather distinct reasoning mechanisms.

Next, add a distinction between inward-facing and outward-facing functions. This accounts for introspection, or the ability to replace external stimuli with an internal source. Outward functions are usually more open and straightforward, whereas inward functions are usually more visceral and make use of some information that is closely held.

- An example of Outward Sensing (Se) is actively looking around a physical environment. People who are very Se tend to be good at spotting the key attributes of objects (e.g. fluffiness), enjoy performing, and like to experience new sensations.

- An example of Inward Sensing (Si) is the replay from memory of a conversation, place or motion. People who are very Si usually know when something is out of place in their physical environment, and are often drawn to nostalgia.

- An example of Outward Intuition (Ne) is glancing around to scan a bunch of ideas in the mind’s eye. People who are very Ne tend to be good at brainstorming and quickly notice the connections between ideas.

- An example of Inward Intuition (Ni) is storing connected things as a united conceptual form. People who are very Ni tend to develop sophisticated mental models, and may “just know” things by interpreting differently from others.

- An example of Outward Thinking (Te) is thinking out loud, or by writing facts down on paper. People who are very Te often manage to directly spot the deductive reason that A implies B.

- An example of Inward Thinking (Ti) is zoning out to think and organize information. People who are very Ti are gifted at synthesizing a logical understanding that is fully-formed.

- An example of Outward Feeling (Fe) is having an urge to share and demonstrate one’s feelings. People who are very Fe are usually sympathetic to the feelings of others, and easily grasp cultures and communities.

- An example of Inward Feeling (Fi) is having a core set of experiences and feelings (i.e., values) that are closely held. People who are very Fi innately empathize with others, and are often very artistic.

The Sixteen Types

Each type has a different order of preference for the cognitive functions. For example, an INFP has the ordering Fi, Ne, Si, Te. The reason for the apparently small (and discrete) number of types is that it’s assumed to be inbalanced to use two similar functions predominantly, or at once. The 16 archetypes can be interpreted as the set of natural equilibria, or the lowest energy states given the above premise.

The four letters in a Myers Briggs type are a code for referring to the 16 possible orderings. E-I indicates whether the first (most dominant) function is an outward or inward one. N-S and F-T each select the basic function that is more dominant. Finally, J-P refers to whether your highest ranking extraverted function is the judging or perceiving kind. The four letters are defined in this way, mainly because they are conveniently revealed by easy survey questions. That is, E’s are usually more social and outgoing than I’s, and so on. J’s tend to more actively enforce structure on the world around them, compared to P’s.

These are just archetypes – you can be a very different person within each type. However, the essential value is that adjacent types are very distinguishable. That is, an ENTP is not simply an ENFP that has become a little bit more T. In fact, the ENTP predominantly uses introverted thinking and extraverted feeling, whereas the ENFP predominantly uses introverted feeling and extraverted thinking. In this way, people of a given type are likely to share certain general defining characteristics, even if they have a very different set of experience, or emphasize their cognitive functions at varying levels.

FAQ:

But that seems too simple! The brain may be incredibly complex, but regardless of the biological processes involved, it’s reasonable that a higher level of organization can emerge. Also, this discrete characterization is definitely not intended to fully describe an individual’s personality.

Isn’t Myers Briggs just ‘pop psychology’? It is true that it is based primarily on observation. However, to dismiss observation as pop psychology implies that there is a superior form of psychology being practiced by academics. It seems to me that scientific methods such as writing surveys are (at the moment) insufficient for this problem. Whereas observational psychology is an entirely rational alternative approach.

How do I use all the functions? I believe the most helpful way to become a more balanced person, is to learn to identify all the functions, and pay special attention to their use. It’s sometimes said that your first function is dominant, your second function is the tool, your third function is the desire, and your fourth function is the mystery. Another thought is that you may try to stumble across what I call ‘double e’ and ‘double i’ modes – very powerful projective or meditative states of mind in which one uses either both major outward or both major inward functions in unison.

What makes your test different from others? Other MBTI tests ask an equal number of questions for each letter, and count up the number of responses on each side. This one is adaptive – it selects questions based on the outcome of prior responses. It also uses a statistical approach to scoring, rather than going letter by letter. This is an early version, but I think it’s as accurate as existing tests and significantly shorter.