[edcoaching]

What are the rudiments of development in type?

Type development is all about good use of Perception and Judgment.

We all have a Perceiving function (Sensing or Intuition) that we use to take in information. It's fairly irrational according to Jung--information floods our brains at all time and our preference for S or N filters what we pay attention to first.

We also all have a Judging function (Thinking or Feeling) that helps us come to closure or "judgment."

Type development is about skillful use of these two functions, which usually comes about as we enter adulthood. Think about it...immaturity is often described as, "She just rushes to decisions, doesn't consider the alternatives, never asks for advice..." which is an example of someone who hasn't adequately developed a Perceiving function. Or, "He can't make up his mind about anything. He's been drifting from job to job [or school to school or major to major]..." which is an example of someone who hasn't adequately developed a Judging function.

Hopefully by early adulthood these dominant and auxiliary functions have developed enough that we use them well and were able to establish our careers and relationships and fulfilling interests. That's what the first half of life is all about. Then in the second half of life (and this process can actually begine around the age of 18...or not at all, which is where we get curmudgeons...) we start to develop the third and fourth functions because

• for true maturity, one must be able to perceive the trees (S) and the forest (N)
• And, one must know when to add to judgments objectivity (T) and subjectivity (F)

We never gain as much faculty with these third and fourth preferences, and in fact most people need to use learned skills and behaviors to use them well, but the growth and richness in the second half of life are from working on these functions. There are some great, obscure books out there, Navigating Midlife by Corlett and Millner and Creative Aging by Millner (who passed away this year...) that convey stories of people developing their third and fourth functions that provide hints to all of us on how we might make aging as rich a process as possible.

And also, is there an informal way to use type in every day life we could "take away" based on the concept of Best-fit type?

Do you mean for typewatching--trying to figure out other people's types--or for interacting to help them figure it out, or something else?