A person, being in a communicative space, constantly interacts with other people. At the same time, such functions inherent in the body as the assimilation of information and the method of decision-making are involved. They are carried out by the human brain — a kind of information processing point, which has an input and output. At the input, the brain receives information, at the output it gives a ready-made solution.
People perceive information differently. Some — literally and concretely, perfectly remembering details, facts, figures, while others pay little attention to small details, they see the world through images, they guess trends behind concrete facts. They say they have a sixth sense.
People also make decisions differently. Some are based on objective analysis. Others listen to their own hearts, to their own and other people’s feelings. What is more important — the mind or feelings? The typology says: to each his own.
According to the views of K.-G. Jung, all people according to the way of perception of information can be divided into two groups:
S — people who perceive only practical, specific information (one that can be seen, heard, touched).
N — people who perceive conceptual, non-verbal, «invisible» information.
In two more groups, Jung united people by way of decision making:
T — people who objectively, logically evaluate information and similarly make decisions.
F — people who subjectively evaluate information from an ethical point of view and also make decisions.
A person who collects specific information (S) can make decisions both objectively and subjectively. The same applies to a person who receives information by type N. Thus, K.-G. Jung identified four basic mental functions.
Sensory — S (from the English. «Sensation» — sensing) — the function of a specific perception of the world through the senses.
Intuition — N (from English. «Intuition» — intuitive) — a function of abstract perception of the world in holistic images and pictures of fantasy.
Logic — T (from the English. «Thinking» — thinking, thinking) — the mental function of the human psyche, processing information and making decisions objectively, impartially.
Ethics — F (from the English. «Feeling» — feeling) — the mental function of subjective judgment or evaluation, based on involvement in the inner, spiritual world of the people around.
The functions in each of these pairs are mutually exclusive, that is, a particular person perceives information in one way, the most developed, for example, sensory (S) may prevail over intuition (N) and vice versa. And a person makes decisions also on the basis of the predominant evaluative function: either logic or ethics.
K.-G. Jung introduced two more parameters of the human psyche: extraversion (E) and introversion (I).
Extraversion is an active and energy-consuming setting of the psyche, aiming a person at expansion. People with this quality are tuned to active communication. In most cases, they are communicative and intellectual leaders.
Introversion is a passive and energy-saving, protective setting of the psyche. Introverts are self-focused. They are more reserved than extroverts, and are much less likely to find themselves in leadership roles, especially in large groups.
Thus, four mental functions have received an extraverted or introverted coloring. Now the personality model has become more voluminous, versatile and complete. Based on all the above parameters, eight basic psychotypes are distinguished (it should be clarified that in the works of C.-G. Jung there are no clear descriptions of the “portraits” of psychotypes.).
Extroverts:
ES — sensory extrovert
EN — intuitive extrovert
ET — logical extrovert
EF — ethical extrovert
Introverts:
IS — sensory introvert
IN — intuitive introvert
IT is a logical introvert
IF — ethical introvert
Based on Jung’s approach, today everyone can be guided by the following postulates.