"What the F*** is cognitive functions?"
I whispered to myself while scrolling down on the page with the description of my MBTI type. Introverted thinking? But I am an extrovert. Why do I possess feeling when I am a thinker? It was quite confusing at first, but it didn´t take long before I began to catch the essence of it. There is a lot of misunderstandings about the MBTI, and a lot of persons think it is only about the four letter types. This is not true. The four letters is a simple way to categorize the 16 personality types, but the real psychology of MBTI is all about the cognitive function. Understanding these functions is the basic for understanding your type and your self.
So what the f*** is cognitive functions? To put it easy: cognitive functions have everything and nothing to do with the four letter types (quite easy, eh?). Every human being possess 8 cognitive functions:
Te - Extraverted thinking
Ti - Introverted thinking
Ne - Extraverted intuition
Ni - Introverted intuition
(Notice: Extraverted, not Extroverted)
The extraverted functions seek towards the outer world, and the introverted seek towards the inner (just like an introverted and an extroverted person do). F.ex: Fi focus on the inner feelings of the person, while Fe focus on the feelings of other people.
So - if everybody posess all of these functions, why don´t we use all of them at once?
The answer is: the human brain do not have the capacity to do so. Instead the brain fix this problem by orginazing them in a order from the function you prefere to use the most to the function you use the last. This is where MBTI comes in. The four letters describes which order you use your cognitive functions. Here is a nice little chart of how the personality types use the functions:
Your first, or dominant, function is the function you prefer to use before all of the other functions. Notice the introverted types first function is introverted, and the extroverted types first function is extraverted. Introverts seek towards their inner world before they turn to the other, and the other way around with extroverts. The second function is your auxiliary, the third is your tertiary, and fourth inferior.
Here is another thing you should notice: xxxJs first rational function is extravert, and the xxxPs are introverted. Another thing is that your dominant and auxiliary function is the same as your letter nr. 2&3 in your type. (ex: ENTP´s two first functions are Ne-Ti). This is how the four letter types and the cognitive functions correlate.
The reason it is only showed 4 functions for each type is because the 5th-8th function are the shadow functions. Shadow functions are hidden deep inside your mind, and only emerge to help you in special situation when your four main functions can´t find a solution (they are not so important).
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