Welcome to the MBTI community! A crash course in MBTI (with a brief note on socionics)
Look. I get it. It takes a lot of time to really get into MBTI and Enneagram and sometimes you just want to ask a person things and get an answer and be done. Then they respond and are like “um that’s not a real thing.” So here’s a way to understand what is a real thing. This is not in depth at all. You have to put the work in to really get things. I can’t beam them into your head.. But it’s a start.
Also this post is long but I tried to make things as simple as possible. The tone is going to be a little “See Spot Run” as a result which as xkcd says, is not actually a bad thing.
An Enneagram post will follow shortly.
MBTI - Cognitive Functions: 16 types, made up of combinations of four functions. People will talk about shadow functions. It’s fun to think about when you know what you’re doing. You do not know what you’re doing (yet) so just ignore them.
The function categories are: sensing (perceiving concrete things), intuition (perceiving abstract things), thinking (making judgments based on logic) and feeling (making judgments based on morality). They can be extroverted (focused on the outside world) or introverted (focused on the inner world). The functions all have 2 letters in them. The first stands for the category (first letter of the category except for intuition which is N instead), the second is i for introverted or e for extroverted. Also lots of people spell extroverted as extraverted. That is in fact probably the correct way to do it but it looks weird to me and so I’m just going to do my thing.
Sometimes people spell intuition like this: iNtuition. This makes the fact that ‘N’ is used more apparent, or you can just know how to spell the word intuition and that we use the letter N and not make it look like the world’s worst Apple product.
You have one of each category of function! Two perceiving and two judging. One of your perceiving functions is extroverted and one is introverted, and the same goes for judging. So Se and Ni always go together, as do Si and Ne (the perceiving functions). The judging function pairs are Te and Fi, and Fe and Ti.
Really oversimplified descriptions:
Se: Objectively perceives the outside concrete world and their experiences in it. This usually translates to being very aware and adaptable to their surroundings, regardless of how things are behaving.
Si: subjectively perceives the outside concrete world and their experiences in it. This usually translates to them trusting past experiences they have had and expecting things to behave as they previously have.
Ne: objectively perceives concepts. This usually translates to getting lots of inspiration and ideas from everywhere and making unrelated connections about how things may behave.
Ni: subjectively perceives concepts. This usually translates to having a very specific and personal vision of how they believe things will behave.
Fe: Uses outside systems of morality to make judgments. This usually translates to prioritizing overall benefit to groups of people rather than specific individuals.
Fi: Uses inner systems of morality to make judgments. This usually translates to prioritizing individuality and authenticity over group harmony.
Te: Uses outside systems of logic to make judgments. This usually translates to prioritizing efficiency and hard evidence to get something done over having every possible piece of evidence or the most elegant solution.
Ti: uses inner systems of logic to make judgments. This usually translates to prioritizing internal logical consistency and having all the possible information and the most elegant solution over getting something done quickly and in a way easily communicated to others.
MBTI - your function stack:
Your first function is your strongest function. This is the dominant function. It’s your default way of doing things. It can be any one of those 8 functions I introduced. People will say “I’m a <function name>-dom” to indicate that.
Your fourth function is your inferior function. It’s what you’re worst at. This is the function that’s normally paired with your dominant function (so if you’re an Se dom, your inferior function is Ni).
Your second function is also pretty strong. It’s your auxiliary function. If your dominant function is extroverted, your auxiliary one will be introverted (and vice versa), and if your dominant function is a judging function your auxiliary one will be a perceiving function (and vice versa).
Your third function is called your tertiary function and it will be the function that’s paired with your aux function.
Look at your dominant function. If it’s extroverted, you are an extrovert (this doesn’t mean the traditional ‘energized by people’ thing it does outside of MBTI. MBTI doesn’t have a concept of ambiversion. Also everyone is to some extent ambiverted in that introverts don’t burst into flames when they have to talk to people and extroverts don’t die when they haven’t been around a person for 5 seconds, so chill). If it’s introverted, you’re an introvert (ditto). The first letter of your type is E or I, respectively.
Look at the first letter in your dominant function. If it’s a perceiving function (S or N) then that’s the second letter in your type, and the first letter of your aux function is the third letter in your type. If it’s a judging function (F or T) then that’s the third letter in your type, and the first letter of your aux function is the second letter in your type.
Now: if one of your top two functions (dom and aux) is Fe or Te (an extroverted judging function), you are a judger and the last letter in your type is J. If one of your top two functions is Ne or Se (an extroverted perceiving function), then you are a perceiver and the last letter in your type is P.
Let’s say you think your dominant function is Se. Then your inferior function has to be Ni. You then look at the descriptions for the introverted judging functions (Ti and Fi) and think that your auxiliary function is Fi, which means your tertiary must be Te. Your functions in order are Se-Fi-Te-Ni.
To figure your type’s name out: your first function is extroverted, so you’re an EXXX.
Your first function is a perceiving function and the letter is S - ESXX
Your second function’s letter is F - ESFX
You have Se in your top two functions, so your type is ESFP.
A guy named Keirsey split up the types into groups that he thought behaved similarly and named them:
XXSJ - The Guardians or The Sentinels
A lot of people aren’t big fans of this split both because the names aren’t particularly useful and because the system is inconsistent in terms of functions, but you will see these terms sometimes.
A loop is when you use your dominant and tertiary function without checking in on your secondary function.
This is not necessarily bad if you’re using it for a brief period of time. For example, let’s say you’re an INTJ and your friend is crying and doesn’t really want to talk about it. Your Te is most likely going to try to focus on solutions - how to make this stop, how to make them feel better. But this is an emotional/people-oriented situation, so using your Ni to predict what’s wrong and your Fi to act in a way that is in line with your values re: friendship might be more successful.
On the other hand it can be bad if you do this for an extended period of time. As you notice, the two functions are both in the same direction (introverted or extroverted) so introverts aren’t relying on any external direction or systems, and extroverts aren’t relying on any internal direction or systems. As a result, introverts can become irrational and out of touch with reality without some external input, and extroverts can become dominating and reckless.
Grips are when you unhealthily skip all your functions and go straight to your inferior function. These are almost always bad, and are not the same as using your inferior function in a healthy way.
The basic grip behaviors by inferior function are:
Se grip (Ni doms): engaging in purely physical and sometimes reckless behaviors to the point of loss of control. Can be anything - exercise, eating, drinking, drugs, sex, risky behaviors of all kinds.
Si grip (Ne doms): obsessiveness, hypochondria, hypercritical, haunted by the past, fixating on a single possibility instead of exploring many.
Ne grip (Si doms): (this is my inferior function so I’m a little more familiar with it). Either anxiety about the future, seeing catastrophe no matter what you do, or alternately wanting to throw away all your routines and habits and run away instead of getting rid of only what doesn’t work.
Ni grip (Se doms): Paranoia, obsession over the future, seeing or looking for signs/omens rather than the real world, withdrawing.
Fe grip (Ti doms): Emotional volatility, needing external validation from others or alternately feeling rejected and alienated from others.
Fi grip (Te doms): Hypersensitivity, self-pity, withdrawal, ‘me against the world’ mentality.
Te grip (Fi doms): harshness, micromanaging, abandoning values and doing anything to achieve your ends or alternately feeling incompetent.
Ti grip (Fe doms): overanalyzing, withdrawing from personal relationships in particular, or alternately becoming highly critical of people to whom you are close.
Basically: introverts tend to act/lash out as their inferior functions are extroverted, and extroverts tend to withdraw as their inferior functions are introverted, and the most clear sign is that they aren’t using their dom (or other) function.
MBTI - but I feel like I use all the functions!
You may have noticed that you can only have one extroverted perceiving function, one extroverted judging function, one introverted perceiving function, and one introverted judging function.
If you feel like you use functions that cannot both be in your top four (your stack), pick the one that you seem to use more and follow the rules. Will it necessarily be right? No. That’s why you have to learn more. Ultimately you still have to put in some effort ,but at least this way you’ll have a type that makes sense and exists, and if you find it doesn’t fit well, you can look into similar types that might fit better.
Why do you feel like you use multiple functions that can’t be in your stack? Usually it’s either because you don’t understand the functions yet (this isn’t your fault. They’re not easy to understand and they’re hard to describe well), and because you don’t pick up one function, use it, and then put it away. You’re constantly using them together, and that’s good because most situations require that you intake (perceive) information and then do something with it (judge). So trying to consider them in isolation can be hard.
Also: you don’t use your first function first in every single situation, because that wouldn’t work out well for you. So if you’re sometimes very outgoing and sometimes very withdrawn, and sometimes you make choices based on morality and sometimes on logic (etc, etc) you still have one MBTI type. People change how they behave depending on the situation. You still only have one MBTI type.
Finally, your functions are how you process information, but consider the big picture and your motivation. If you brainstormed once and it went well, or if you helped a group of friends get along once, that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an Ne or Fe user respectively. Think about how you generally and repeatedly behave. We all do some things that could be ‘typed’ one way or another, so consider why you do things and what your repeated behaviors and motivations are, not one-offs.
You don’t have more than one type. If you think you have more than one type, you don’t.
A brief note on socionics:
Socionics is an interpretation and expansion on the Jungian theory that also produced MBTI. It’s highly detailed but a bit more focused on behavior than cognition. The functions are have the same names and are similar but not exactly the same. I’m less knowledgeable about it than MBTI but since it looks a lot like MBTI, here’s what will help you notice if something’s a socionics post so that you can do your own research.
Socionics types are written a little differently. They only look at the dominant function. If it’s a perceiving one, you’re a perceiver (and they write that as a lowercase). If it’s a judging one, you’re a judger (also in lower case).
What this means practically is that if a type is an MBTI extrovert, the same functional stack (REMEMBER THAT MBTI FUNCTIONS AND SOCIONICS FUNCTIONS DON’T MATCH UP PERFECTLY) will result in a type that’s the same, except the last letter is lower case (ESFP -> ESFp).
If a type is an MBTI introvert, the last letter switches and becomes lowercase (INFJ->INFp).
Socionics goes into more depth about the four functions below your main stack, so if you’re interested in shadow functions, check it out. In socionics, your 5th and 6th functions (flip your dom and aux functions introversion/extroversion axis to get these) are actually pretty good, and you are terrible at the introverted/extroverted version of your tertiary function. This is sometimes called PoLR.
Socionics also groups the types into something called Quadras.
