After a lot of questions regarding this: here’s my full, long answer. Disclaimer that this is not 100% within the realms of the MBTI theory or the Jungian function theory. I didn’t get any of the interpretations from a direct external resource. This is the sense that I have made of everything that I have read and researched over the last few years, and this is how I have learned to type people.
Now, I’m going to split this post into three parts
How to type someone through overall type descriptions
How to type someone through identifying cognitive functions
How to actually identify each cognitive function.
MBTI Types Identification - General
I’m going to put a lot of techniques into this category, but this is basically all the ways to type someone without the use of cognitive functions.
So the first way to type someone or yourself is to go one by one and identify where they stand on each dichotomy distinction. Introvert or extravert? Intuitive or sensor? Feeler or thinker? Perceptive or Judger? A rundown of what all of these words can be defined as:
Introvert - less social, more introspective
Extravert - more social, likes to interact with outside world
Intuitive - conceptual and innate understanding of abstract ideas
Sensor - concerned with the concrete real world
Feeler - more subjective, emotional, easily moved
Thinker - more objective, thoughtful, thinks things through
Perceptive - unorganized, spontaneous, laid-back
Judger - organized, prefers planning and structure
All very basic, simple, clean-cut. A lot of people consider these four dimensions to be scales rather than being either/or, so you type someone based on which of the two they’re closer to in each dichotomy.
Because every combination of letters can lead to very different outcomes, it is sometimes more accurate to use the dichotomies to distinguish yourself in the letters that you are sure about, and then finalize your type by reading all of the descriptions of the potential types you could be (distinctions that you are unsure about -- often N and S). So read the descriptions about how each type’s personality is overall and see which description resonates with you more. Try different sources, not just one website.
Instead of reading the overall descriptions of the types (ie INFPs are idealists), try looking deeper into some habits that are associated with each type (ie INFPs are likely to enjoy all kinds of art, especially in the fantasy genre). Since stereotypes are more specific than broad terminology, they can be a better indicator of your or someone else’s type. Habits and behavior is much easier to notice, and since people's habits and actions more often than not are a result of their personality, they are likely to correlate. Of course, a person being an INFP may not be the cause of them daydreaming a lot, but it is a likely correlation. Not all stereotypes about a type have to apply to you for it to be your type, but since these are specific things, if a lot of the stereotypical habits of a type match up with you, it is likely your type.
One of the easiest ways of determining a person’s personality type can be simply by asking them to take a personality test. Now, there are a lot of tests out there you can take, and they are all different. The ones that I’ve seen pop up the most are the 6 personalities test, the Similar Minds test, the Similar Minds cognitive functions test, and the Human Metrics test. You can also go with the 123 test, the Psych Central test, or the Celebrity Types test. There are a lot out there. If you are ever unsure of your type, try multiple tests. They all have their pros and cons that I will not go into right now, but here is a good accuracy review that you can use as reference, rating the Keys 2 Cognition test the highest.
There are many more tests out there are well, but the one I personally like the most is the Similar Minds cognitive functions test simply because it opens up the door to the cognitive function theory.
Speaking of which... let’s see how to type people according to their cognitive function stack.
MBTI Types Identification - Functions
The sheer basics can be found on my Functions page. Give it a read if you do not know the basics about the Jungian cognitive functions and how they stack up in order to form a type, and let’s get straight into it.
(1) - dominant/auxiliary functions
This is how I type most people and how I type songs while making the MBTI playlist. For this, you just have to pinpoint the most prominent cognitive function in a person, what they do without thinking, their most natural or obvious inclination. To give a few examples, for a person who likes being in charge, it might be Te. For a person who has a wild imagination, it might be Ne. Just look for the biggest and most prominent part of their personality that correlates with one of the signs.
Once you have chosen the first function, know that you know have two types that this person could be. If the first function was Te, the second will either be Si or Ni. When your options are limited, it can be easier or harder to type. Every case is different. Pick whatever seems more appropriate.
Now, the third part is identifying which function is dominant and which is auxiliary, and for this you actually have to identify their third (tertiary) function. Why? Because the third function balances out the second, so whichever function seems to have a balance is going to be your auxiliary function. The one that is imbalanced and dominating in its own right is going to be your dominant function. If you identified the first function as Te and the second as Si, and you feel that the Te is more balanced because although they like being in charge, saying what’s on their mind, and being definite, they are also the kind of people who say what they personally feel is appropriate (Te auxiliary, Fi tertiary) rather than not judging appropriateness at all before they say things (Te dominant, Fi inferior). At this point, you have their stack sorted out, and this person is ISTJ according to their stack.
(2) - introversion/extraversion tendency
Follow the first two steps of the last approach, but after that, instead of identifying the tertiary function to figure out the order, judge whether they are more introverted or extraverted – not just in the social sense, but do they interact with their environment more or are they more introspective and in their mind? If you know whether they exist more in the internal dimension or the external dimension, and you know their strongest inclination for each dimension, you can safely judge whether their dominant function is introverted or extraverted. Be careful doing this though because more often than not, the extraverted tendencies show themselves more than introverted tendencies, so be careful. You can also judge based on the social aspect because more often than not, it does correlate with their true internal/external tendency.
If a person is toxic and/or overbearing, their dominant function will be extremely prominent and used in a negative way. For that, educate yourself on how each function is when it is toxic, and if you see those tendencies in a person, it will almost always be their dominant function. Once you have the dominant function, again you’ll have two choices as the auxiliary function, and after that, you will have your full stack. For example, if the person in the ongoing example hated stepping out of their comfort zone and were very stuck up about doing things the way they’ve always done it, never taking a risk, this is a toxic version of the Si function. If much of this toxic behavior comes out verbally and brashly, you can also pinpoint the Te. The person is as a result an ISTJ.
This is also another example of an unhealthy personality, and it is when you’re noticing two functions in them that are very prominent that are both introverted or both extraverted, and either side doesn’t balance the other one out. This is because the auxiliary function is being repressed. If a person has more-than-normal introverted inclinations and next-to-no extraverted inclinations (like quite a lot of people on this website), chances are that their personality is very unhealthy, and they are stuck in an introverted loop. Their function stack is: Xi Xe Xi Xe. You can now pinpoint their functions by looking only at the first and third function. If this is a person that gets offended very easily, doesn’t like being told that they are wrong, and takes everything very personally, their first function is probably Fi.
Now, their tertiary function could either be Si or Ni. So you have to look at… well how do they create the opinions that they believe are so superior to everyone else’s? Is it how they have always felt or due to experience that others are too ignorant to understand, or is it based on a very theoretical sense of right and wrong that they believe others are too stupid to be able to comprehend? The first would make them Si, the latter Ni. In the first case, they would be INFP, the latter ISFP.
^^ Now all of these are ways that you can identify someone if you are able to identify cognitive functions. How do you identify cognitive functions though?
This is a little bit more tricky
Cognitive Functions Identification
This is basically putting 2 and 2 together and making 4. There are two components of a cognitive function. For example, for Ne, it is Intuition and extraversion. Let’s call Intuition the nature of the function and extraversion the dimension that it exists in (external dimension). See if you can pinpoint both things, and there’s your function. Instead of me giving you a singular example, let me tell you how to pinpoint each function like this.
Te - Thinking - Clear, objective, thought-based, not significantly affected by one’s emotions, like dealing with facts and logic. Extraversion - Outward expression of information, their preference for clarity often leads to organization of external environment. Together, this is Te.
Ti - Thinking - Again, clear, objective, thought-based, not significantly affected by one’s emotions, like dealing with facts and logic. Introversion - personal, do not deal with the outward expression of objectivity but internal knowledge and introspection, and their preference of clarity leads them to want to know everything about a subject. The 2 + 2 here is Ti.
Fe - Feeling - Subjective, emotional, dealing with what is appropriate, sense of right and wrong. Extraversion - deal with appropriateness, what is socially acceptable, affected by other people’s mood, feelings, and the atmosphere, prone to expressing feelings. Together, the two tendencies make Fe.
Fi - Feeling - Again, subjective, emotional, dealing with morality, sense of right and wrong. Introversion - personal, concerned with own perspective only, and again: subjective (not subject to a lot of external input or influence). Together, this is a feeling function that exists in an internal dimension, ergo Fi.
Ne - Intuition - Very concept-based, likes the figurative more than the literal, prone to making connections, instinctive not consciously done. Extraversion - make outward connections, vocal about their connections, have a random but identifiable train of thought to other people (external environment). Intuition in the external dimension is Ne.
Ni - Intuition - Again, very concept-based, likes the figurative more than the literal, prone to making connections, instinctive not consciously done. Introversion - make inward connections, relate ideas to concepts already known or through internally processed connections, and as a result, their train of thought is often not identifiable by other people (external environment). Intuition in the internal dimension is Ni.
Se - Sensing - Deal with the concrete and not the conceptual, very engaged in the real physical world, like the literal more than the figurative. Extraversion - like to use their senses to be fully in tune with the outside world and are fully present in any given moment, focus on the here and now, likely to be kinesthetic learners. The two make Se.
Si - Sensing - Again, deal with the concrete and not the conceptual, very engaged in the real physical world, like the literal more than the figurative. Introversion - heavily internalize what goes own in the outside world, use it as experience, also likely to be kinesthetic learners, attention to detail, rely on memory. Altogether, this is the equation for Si.
You see what I mean? Extremely literal. The core of the functions will always be feeling, thinking, intuition, or sensing, but adding the extraversion and introversion dimension to it literally is a good indicator of what that function does. Using this as a go-to can be very accurate.
Now, when you read descriptions of overall types, the terminology can either include or exclude the cognitive functions. If this description is along the lines of “Because ISTJs have Si and Te as their strongest functions, they like an established structure” and it gives you an explanation of how this combination can lead to certain preferences in the type, this is what I mean by descriptions. You are starting with the overall type and then looking inward into the more specific components of the type. These descriptions will explain cognitive functions within the context of which type you are talking about. If you have a type in mind for someone, whether it is using the dichotomies or any other indicator that you are unsure about, this can be a good way to confirm or deny your suspicion.
Following how I distinguished descriptions and stereotypes before, stereotypes are much more specific, and they relate more to habits and don’t have to apply to everyone. This doesn’t discuss the functions within the context of any type but overall. Let me share some such explanations with you:
Te - organized, prefer structure, very decisive, make very objective decisions, prefer clarity, very direct and to-the-point, don’t tend to have a filter when they speak, like to voice what they think and correct people, in arguments more likely to talk than listen, look less towards logic and more towards basic concrete facts, very practical
Ti - much more scattered, not as objective in their thinking because they think of things for the sake of thinking about them, will think about space and aliens and the future, aren’t usually vocal about their thoughts, less direct, don’t draw a very rigid line between right and wrong, less likely to correct people, prefer logic more than facts, tend to like logic games, puzzles, and games like chess (things that have no practical value but stimulate their mind).
Fe - very social, know what’s socially appropriate and adhere to it, like keeping the mood, atmosphere, and morale up, easily affected by the aforementioned things, can feel when a person is feeling a certain way, easily connect with other people through their emotions, can be very convincing, tend to like pleasing people, don’t like arguments and fights
Fi - very personal, have strong opinions and can be a bit stubborn, don’t like being told that they are wrong, have a strong identity of self and it reflects in everything, prone to say “I feel” “I think” “In my opinion.” Need time to figure out how they feel about something, very subjective, treasure people’s unique perspective of things.
Ne - outward connection of ideas, like brainstorming, prone to go off on tangents when they are talking, love research, can find connections between seemingly unrelated things, wild imagination, used to create fantasy stories/art, love to theorize, use figurative language a lot, like to ask “what if,” stimulated by a lot of information, connect details to each other and to the bigger picture, like new opportunities and experiences
Ni - inward connection of ideas, relate theoretical ideas to themselves and process them inwardly, their thoughts are likely to go off on a tangent, and you’ll never know how they got from point A to point B, also like theories, have a strong sense of others, good at instinctive reasoning, pick up on small details, go from the big picture to the details
Se - in tune with the physical environment, generally like to do activities that heighten their adrenaline and stimulate their senses, quick to remember things they picked up on through senses (smells, colors, etc), very present-oriented more so than the past or future, don’t overthink things, it is what it is, more into concrete truth than concepts
Si - internalize the physical environment, tend to be past-oriented because they remember information from their environment and apply it in the future, treasure experience, tend to go with what they know, don’t like too much experimenting, reliable, tend to be very sentimental, remember specific dates and faces
You can find much more detail in this detailed post by me, but for now, this is enough. These are specific habits or tendencies that heavily correlate with each type, and if you an pinpoint a lot of these habits in a person, that function is likely to be one of their stronger functions.
Another way to type a person who has a toxic and imbalanced personality is to pinpoint a specific function that is in its toxic state. This function will usually end up being the dominant function. Let me reference you over to another old post of mine that lists a few tendencies of an unhealthy function. A function itself goes unhealthy when its counterpart is heavily underdeveloped, so a dominant function will be toxic because the inferior is undeveloped. This is why an unhealthy Te might be inconsiderate and brash (underdeveloped Fi), and an unhealthy Fi might be stubborn and easily offended (underdeveloped Te). You can use this to pinpoint singular functions.
This is basically all of the ways that I know to type a person: you can steer clear of cognitive functions and stick to dichotomies and descriptions representative of dichotomies. You can also use cognitive functions; you can look into the dynamics of the cognitive functions within a suspected type or use detected cognitive functions to deduce a person’s type.
There might of course be other ways to type a person, but if you’re asking me, this is the only help that I can provide you aside from answering your more specific questions, so make of this what you will ^^
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