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home < temperament and personality typing
< explanation of the four letters used in typing (March, 2007 Note: Most of my articles on temperament, dreams, psychology, etc. are now hosted at www.neurocareusa.com. Go there for the latest version of articles. However, the links to old versions are still functional.) |
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This page assumes you understand the basics covered in the section, "On Temperament and Personality Typing" and also it's suggested you know your own type first (Find out your 4 letter type by taking the temperament tests on this website (Take the Temperament Tests). You might also find the section, "Typing Charts," helpful. Each of your preferences regarding 4 letters is not an all-or-none thing. There are different degrees of weighting in each category. See my explanation in 3. First Letter: E/I Preference.
IntroductionThe temperament schema used here assigns a four letter code for each of 16 temperament types. I prefer to divide these sixteen types into four groups of four (4X4=16) based on their appearance to the outside world. It is important to note that this does not refer to a person's superior or dominant function (the one they most rely upon to bring themselves orientation to life. For more on this, refer to the section, "Four Groupings of Type."
Consciousness Consciousness distinguishes between two types of facts: 1. material facts which can be or have the potential to be measured; and 2. psychic acts which cannot be measured directly. The center of consciousness is the ego, the perceiving "I." Without there being an ego, one cannot say that there is human consciousness as we know it in a normal adult. The unconscious is simply that which is not conscious to the ego at any given moment in time. We distinguish between a personal unconscious (those contents that were once conscious and are now forgotten or those that were too subliminal to be perceived or repressed out of incompatibility with the ego) and a collective unconscious (those contents which can be appreciated in images that are common to all cultures and in every time period of recorded history). All contents of the personal unconscious can potentially become conscious whereas this is not the case regarding the collective unconscious. One cannot directly know any content emanating from the unconscious. The unconscious cannot be explred directly. We infer that something was unconscious from the nature of the content. The unconscious itself is entirely of an unknown nature. Expressions about it are the expression of consciousness. Consciousness is an intermittent and limited function. We spend a significant part of our lives as unconscious beings (for example, sleep). The unconscious is continuous and vast; it is the orignial state of humankind as can clearly be seen from the study of child development. Consciousness develops out of the unconscious. Conscious is only able to hold a limited number images at once; it only gives us a fragmentary picture of reality. Consciousness is not the natural state of human beings; it is tiring and requires the expenditure of huge amounts of energy. Will power is the common name given to describe this expenditure of energy by consciousness, specifically ego-consciousness. The Four Functions The idea that we think or feel in our head is a modern Western idea that accurately describes our perception of these functions. However, this is not the case in all cultures and at all times. For example, the ancient Greeks felt that the phren (means mind or soul and corresponds to our modern-day diaphragm) was the seat or center of psychic activity, what we call consciousness. Most native American cultures feel that the center of a human being is their heart. This is also the case in the Judeo-Christian scriptues. We carry this forward in our use of the word heart, as the center of a matter. Some cultures localize the center of activity in the belly or abdomen. One uses the four functions to bring orientation to the ego. When one is speaking of the functions of thinking and feeling, it is much different from the idea the people have thoughts and feeling. We raise a mode of image processing is to the level of a function when it is able to bring orientation and adaptation to a person. Explanation of Each of the Four Letters1. Second Letter: S/N Preference The S/N scale refers to the most comfortable and natural mode a person habitually uses when perceiving information: from the five senses (S) or from "hunches" or intuition (N). Sensation and intuition are called a-rational or irrational functions since they simple are, that is, they come into consciousness of their own accord and require no cognitive processing. The ego uses perception to orient itself to the ectopsychic background of life. Sensation (S) tells us that something is that it exists. However, it does not tell us what the thing is. For the sensate person, information is primarily perceived from comes from the here-and-now stimuli of ordinary life -- the foreground of life. The ectopsychic information means the sum-total of external facts -- stimuli emanating from both the outside environment and the body Intuition (N) is the other mode of perception that seems, from the ego's standpoint, to arrive within consciousness as a hunch or a sense. What we generally mean by intuition is information on the background of a situation, its possibilities, or its relation to time, that is, its existence in the past or what it might be in the future. One might say that it is the function which tells someone what they cannot know or cannot see. One can often tell an intuitive from a sensate person by watching their eyes. When their attention is focused, a sensate's eyes will focus on a single point, usually straight ahead while an intuitve's eyes will appear unfocused. 2. Third Letter: T/F Preference The T/F scale refers to the most comfortable and natural mode a person uses to order the perceptions they have made and / or to make decisions about them, either primarily through thinking (T) or feeling (F). Both thinking and feeling are called the rational functions meaning that a cognitive operation must take place for them to manifest. Thinking (T) tells us what a thing is. Thinking gives a name to something and give one the potential to form a concept or principle. Through thinking the object of thought is compared to a memory and can be differentiated from it. For example, we know that something is tall when it is compared to something that is short. Thus, through thinking, one can develop a category or principle by which to decide or think about something. In this example, the category would be height. Feeling (F) is the perception through feeling-tones of a thing's value or what it is worth to you. Something deeply felt means that it is of high value to the individual. On a higher level, feeling allows for the rational ordering of things by value. A feeling tone always implies that there has been an evaluation. It is important to realize that someone cannot think simultaneously with feeling and vice versa. The two functions exclude each other's simultaneous action. However, every though has a corresponding feeling-ton and every feeling-tone has a corresponding thought. Let's take an example: a couple's decision to buy a new couch. Here, the man makes his descision by feeling (F); his idea is that a new couch will create a "homey atmosphere." He enjoys entertaining. He places a high value in having a home in which people feel comfortable and welcome. His wife is a thinker (T) and is the one who balances the check book. Though she understands her husband's feeling about the couch, she looks first at the amount of money they have in the bank and has decided they can't afford a new couch. Unless the two understand that they come at the decision from the opposite spectrum, a fight is sure to happen. 3. First Letter: E/I Preference The E/I scale refers to whether one is an extravert (E) or introvert (I). While the S/N and T/F scale are referred to as the four functions, the E/I scale is called an individual's attitude type or attitude preference. The Extravert (E) tends to gain energy from people-contacts ("people-recharging") while the introvert (I) needs to retreat from people to regain their energy ("quiet-recharging"). Introverts may become drained if they have people-encounters that are too long or with too many people. Extraverts (E) trust more that an accurate perception and judgement of the outer object brings them a more reliable adaptation to life whereas the Introvert (I) has the opposite trust or reliance upon the subect. The following characteristics adapted from "Gifts Differing" highlight some of the differences between the E/I preference: Extraverts
Introverts
A person may described as a high introvert, the prototype being a monk or recluse as distinguished from a low introvert, who may even be mistaken for an extravert by some. Of course, people all vary in their need to recharge through quiet or people. The strength of a preference on a scale is sometimes called its "power rating" which can be quantified objectively by a typing test such as the Gray-Wheelwright-Winer type indicator test or the Keirsey Temperament Sorter. 4. Fourth Letter: J/P Preference This preference is often difficult preference to understand because of the confusion resulting in its name: Judging (J) or Perceving (P). A "J" does not mean that the person is judgmental nor does a one being a "P" mean a person is "non-judgmental." The preference refers to how one approaches the act of perception. The judger (J) tends to end perception and move to organizing the perception regardless of whether it takes place by sensing (S) or intuition (N). The perceiver (P) tends to remain in the perceiving mode. Another way to consider this is that J's tend to want to stop "listening" seeking closure about a content that confronts them. So the J leans toward early evaluation or decision making while the P leans toward later or even not evaluating or deciding unless forced to. All ordering or decision making, whether made through a thinking (T) or feeling (F) preference requires that perception stop. There comes a time when we must decide things and to do this, we must at least temporarily shut down our sense or intuitive perceptions.
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