Jung and Personality Types

Both Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) and Socionics emerged from the work of the psychologist C.G. Jung. He developed his theory of psychological types based on his observation that healthy people approached psychologically from different perspectives. Leveraging the works of others and his own clinical practice, Jung started with two psychological types: introverts and extroverts. Jung added to this framework in his book Psychological Types.

Jung's psychological types differentiates people based on the primary modes of processing information. Jung distinguishes between four basic functions and two attitudes of consciousness. When we combine the functions and attitudes, we arrive at sixteen distinct psychological types. These types form the basis for MBTI and Socionics.

Functions of Consciousness

Jung had four basic functions of consciousness:

• Intuiting - Noticing what could be or what was (possibilities), patterns and inherent meaning in an object.
• Sensing - Noticing that the item exists. Sensation perceives the object without any evaluation of it.
• Thinking - Recognizing and defining an item Thinking seeks to understand reality through a rational and systematic approach. Thinking judges items as being either true or false.
• Feeling - Valuing the item. Feeling approaches reality by giving objects subjective worth or values. Feeling judges objects based on likes and dislikes.

Jung divided the functions into two dyads (groups of two). The two dyads are defined as rational (or judging) and irrational (or perceiving). The rational dyad consists of the Thinking and Feeling functions, and the irrational dyad is the Intuiting and Sensing functions.

Attitudes of Consciousness

The two attitudes of consciousness define the orientation of the function:

• Introversion - Focusing on objects within the body
• Extroversion - Focusing on objects outside the body

Psychological Types

When we combine the four basic functions with the two attitudes, we arrive at eight functions:

• Extroverted Intuition
• Introverted Intuition
• Extroverted Sensation
• Introverted Sensation
• Extroverted Thinking
• Introverted Thinking
• Extroverted Feeling
• Introverted Feeling

Although everyone has all of these functions (and use them everyday), we tend to favor certain ones. Our most-favored function is defined as our primary function.

We also have secondary functions. These functions are not arbitrary; they depend on the primary function. The secondary function must differ in both attitude (extroversion/introversion) and rationality/irrationality.

For example, if your primary function is "Introverted Intuition", then you secondary function must either be "Extroverted Thinking" or "Extroverted Feeling".

This gives us sixteen possible personality types.

The following table shows the sixteen personality types, plus the different acronyms used by MBTI and Socionics to denote the types.

Primary Function (Secondary Function)	MBTI	Socionics
Introverted Intuition (Extroverted Feeling)	INFJ	INFP
Introverted Intuition (Extroverted Thinking)	INTJ	INTP
Extroverted Intuition (Introverted Feeling)	ENFP	ENFP
Extroverted Intuition (Introverted Thinking)	ENTP	ENTP
Introverted Sensing (Extroverted Feeling)	ISFJ	ISFP
Introverted Sensing (Extroverted Thinking)	ISTJ	ISTP
Extroverted Sensing (Introverted Feeling)	ESFP	ESFP
Extroverted Sensing (Introverted Thinking)	ESTP	ESTP
Introverted Feeling (Extroverted Intuition)	INFP	INFJ
Introverted Feeling (Extroverted Sensing)	ISFP	ISFJ
Extroverted Feeling (Introverted Intuition)	ENFJ	ENFJ
Extroverted Feeling (Introverted Sensing)	ESFJ	ESFJ
Introverted Thinking (Extroverted Intuition)	INTP	INTJ
Introverted Thinking (Extroverted Sensing)	ISTP	ISTJ
Extroverted Thinking (Introverted Intuition)	ENTJ	ENTJ
Extroverted Thinking (Introverted Sensing)	ESTJ	ESTJ

Note: Although Myers-Briggs and Socionics do not correlate on their acronyms for the introverted psychological types, an introvert may find that they have identical acronyms for both systems. Upon reading a description from Myers-Briggs, the introvert could say that it was right on. Upon reading the Socionics description, the introvert could again think that the description was right on. How could this be? One reason is that the Myers-Briggs test actually tests your inclination toward each option, that is, are you more E or I, more S or N, etc. It does not test for the different functions as described above. See MBTI & Socionics for more information.