The chicken or the egg?

[funkadelik]

Which came first: MBTI/Jungian functions or the theory of MBTI/Jungian functions?

I guess I could elaborate with, "the general pattern seems to go that as people learn more about MBTI, the more faith they put in it and the more it reinforces itself in their minds and behavioural patterns, thus reinforcing their faith in the theory and its 'accuracy.'

So which came first: the theory that gave birth to these functions as an idea that people follow behaviourally (consciously or unconsciously), or the functions that hatched the theory because they actually exist to be systematically explained?"

If it is, indeed, the latter, then does anyone have any idea how we evolved to have the functions Jung claimed we have? I'm not talking about how each function helps us evolutionarily, but how it is we evolved into having certain behavioural traits that can be explained, simply, by a set of - what is it - 8 functions and their combinations?

Just a little speculation. Curious about what other people think...

 

[Cybin]

I think the Jungian functions are on a vein of real patterns in human cognition. I do not think they are a perfect or complete explanation, but I also do not think people act out the functions because of the theory. The basic attributes of the Jungian functions also permeate other archetypal views of human personalities, and also confirmed some of my own suspicions about my interaction with people before I knew of any personality matrix beyond astrology (which I never cared enough to read in to). I would love to find a neurological basis for the types and functions. I think that would be pretty exciting, and I don't think too far from a possibility.

 

[Mephistopheles]

Only read the title, but I just love scrambled eggs, so -> egg!

Seriously, I agree with Cybin. I barely speak with other people about MBTI, usually only to let them confirm the type I assigned to them(either by giving them directly a text about that type or by giving them a test). Still, they mostly act like MBTI would predict.