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An Introduction to Socionics Part 1: The Jungian Dichotomies and IM Elements

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Socionics - A theory that combines Jungian psychology and sociology in categorising types of personality and how those different personalities interact with each other. It is taught in 150 different universities around Eastern Europe.

Carl Jung - A Swiss psychiatrist who wrote on Psychological Types, leading to the formulation of two typology systems, MBTI and Socionics.

Antoni Kępiński – A Polish psychiatrist who came up with a psychological theory of human interactions called Information Metabolism in which we process information into behaviour like an organism metabolises food into energy.

Aušra Augustinavičiūtė – Lithuanian psychologist and sociologist who combined Jung’s Psychological Types with Kępiński’s to create Classical Socionics.

Victor Gulenko – Ukrainian clinical psychologist and sociologist who formulated additional groupings in Socionics.


Jungian Dichotomies - The original four dichotomies that can be found in MBTI and Socionics. These are Extroversion/Introversion, Intuition/Sensation, Logic/Ethics and Rationality/Irrationality.

1. Extroversion and Introversion

  • Extroversion - The attitude of breadth, ravenously accumulating more and more information. Motivated towards tackling the objects themselves. An 'Extroverted' person may be more active, doing a large variety of things.

  • Introversion - The attitude of depth, refining information down to the most important parts. Focused on understanding one's own relation to the object. An 'Introverted' person may be less active, preferring to specialise in a few things.

2. Rationality and Irrationality

  • Rationality - The attitude of 'what ought', processing judgements on things whether sentimental (Ethics) or systematic (Logic). Considers what ought to be done. A 'Rational' person's primary reason for action is to maintain or fulfil standards and ideals.

  • Irrationality - The attitude of 'what is', processing perceptions of things whether physical (Sensation) or abstract (Intuition). Considers what is or could be done. An 'Irrational' person's primary reason for action is to pursue or satisfy desires and needs.

3. Intuition and Sensation

  • Intuition - Internal perception; the abstract, hypothetical and imagined. Intuitive types are more inclined to perceive with the mind than the body, being more capable with concepts than real things. Intuition deals with the vague and general, allowing consideration of what might happen somewhere in our future. Symbolised by a Triangle.

  • Sensation - External perception; the real, concrete and experienced. Sensory types are more inclined to perceive with the body than the mind, being more capable with real things than concepts. Sensation deals with the precise and day to day allowing awareness of what is happening in the here and now. Symbolised by a Circle.

4. Ethics and Logic

  • Ethics - Internal judgement; the emotional, personal and felt. Ethical types are more inclined to judge with the heart than the head, being more capable with other people than systems and processes. Ethics deals with how people ought to feel about things, allowing charismatic socialising and persuasion. Symbolised by an L-Block.

  • Logic - External judgement; the systematic, factual and reasoned. Logical types are more inclined to judge with the head than the heart, being more capable with systems and processes than other people. Logic deals with how facts and statements ought to work together, allowing apt organisation and problem-solving. Symbolised by a Square.


Temperament – Gulenko combined the Extroversion/Introversion dichotomy with the Rationality/Irrationality dichotomy to create the four temperaments. These are general attitudes that shape how people approach the world around them. This is the first major grouping of the sixteen types in Socionics.

  • Linear-Assertive – Extroverted and Rational. Possesses an expansive mind-set over judgements. Proactively takes on the responsibility of making the world conform to how it ought to be. Dynamically makes changes to the world in order to maintain standards. More likely to take charge and instruct others. Dislikes laziness of others preventing responsibility from being fulfilled. Associated with the Choleric temperament. Types: ESE, EIE, LIE & LSE.

  • Flexible-Manoeuvring – Extroverted and Irrational. Possesses an expansive mind-set over perceptions. Actively pursues wants and desires in the world around them, satisfying an increasing appetite for more things. Statically fixates on numerous desires and chases them. More likely to chase after something on pure desire or interest. Dislikes the strict pedantry of others preventing desires from being satisfied. Associated with the Sanguine temperament. Types: ILE, SLE, SEE & IEE.

  • Balanced-Stable – Introverted and Rational. Possesses a contractive mind-set over judgements. Statically adheres to fixed personal standards and ideals. Rigorously seeks perfectionism in their actions and readily applies self-critique. More likely to act infallibly in the fewer activities that they take on. Dislikes the impulses and whims of others spoiling their hard work. Associated with the Melancholic temperament. Types: LII, LSI, ESI & EII.

  • Receptive-Adaptive – Introverted and Irrational. Possesses a contractive mind-set over perceptions. Focuses on refining and satisfying the few needs or desires. Dynamically adapts their methods to the environment. More likely to go with the flow, making subtle changes to satisfy the main desires and abstaining from unneeded action. Dislikes bossiness of others infringing on their internal harmony. Associated with the Phlegmatic temperament. Types: SEI, IEI, ILI, SLI.


Club – We can combine the Intuition/Sensation dichotomy with the Logic/Ethics dichotomy to create the four Clubs. These are classifications of our Strengths and Weaknesses, showing what activities and areas of interest we are likely to find ourselves operating in.

  • Researcher – Intuitive and Logical. Most equipped to deal with abstract problem-solving, either creating strategies and methods for long term developments (e.g. economics and business management) or working with theoretical structures to classify and understand the world (e.g. theoretical science and mathematics). Types: ILE, LII, ILI & LIE.

  • Humanitarian – Intuitive and Ethical. Most equipped to deal with creative output on the human condition, either passionately making others aware of a long-term purpose (public speaking and drama) or creating new opportunities for moral improvement in the world (e.g. charity and psychotherapy). Types: EIE, IEI, EII & IEE.

  • Pragmatist – Sensory and Logical. Most equipped to deal with real solutions to physical problems, either assertively enforcing structures and hierarchy (e.g. martial warfare and policing) or refining methodologies to make daily processes run comfortably and efficiently (e.g. medicine and engineering). Types: LSI, SLE, LSE & SLI.

  • Socialite – Sensory and Ethical. Most equipped to socialise with and persuade people, either catering to the emotional and physical wellbeing of others (e.g. cooking and entertainment) or making strong connections with people to achieve ends (e.g. diplomacy and etiquette). Types: SEI, ESE, SEE & ESI.


Information Metabolism (IM) Element – We can combine the Extroversion/Introversion dichotomy with both the Intuition/Sensation and Logic/Ethics dichotomies to form the eight IM Elements. These are theoretical constructs that convert (metabolise) certain kinds of information into behaviour. Each is geared towards a certain kind of information which is then acted upon via the process of Information Metabolism.

  • Extroverted Intuition – Intuition of Potential. Considers the essence of objects and the multiple possibilities contained within. This instils an attitude of opportunity-seeking, pursuing freedom of choice and maximising the possibilities as well as tolerance of multiple, alternative viewpoints. Symbolised by a Black Triangle. Leading Types: ILE & IEE. Creative Types: LII & EII.

  • Introverted Intuition – Intuition of Time. Focuses on the likely flow of causes and effects from the past through to the future. This instils an attitude of foresight and prediction, attempting to conceive of how events will develop over the long term and adapting oneself to benefit from these predictions. Symbolised by a White Triangle. Leading Types: IEI & ILI. Creative Types: EIE & LIE.

  • Extroverted Sensation – Sensation of Force. Scans the environment for items of desire and motivates assertive action towards claiming those items. This instils an attitude of lust and combat, pursuing one’s ambitions in the real world and conquering threats to gain more territory. Symbolised by a Black Circle. Leading Types: SLE & SEE. Creative Types: LSI & ESI.

  • Introverted Sensation – Sensation of Perception. Refines sensory experiences down to those that are most enjoyable, seeking to increase pleasure in the moment. This instils an attitude of aesthetic and comfort, adjusting oneself to the environment and making small changes to the environment so that it is most pleasing to the senses. Symbolised by a White Circle. Leading Types: SEI & SLI. Creative Types: ESE & LSE.

  • Extroverted Logic – Logic of Practicality. Actively develops methods by which processes work more productively. This instils an attitude of efficiency, readily absorbing relevant information and using that information to make the environment work better and instructing others on how to do things that lead to profitable effects. Symbolised by a Black Square. Leading Types: LIE & LSE. Creative Types: ILI & SLI.

  • Introverted Logic – Logic of Structure. Orders and structures the environment according to rules and principles, creating classificatory systems wherein objects are granted logical meaning. This instils an attitude of consistency and principle, adhering to one’s principles and avoiding situations where these rules might be compromised. Symbolised by a White Square. Leading Types: LII & LSI. Creative Types: ILE & SLE.

  • Extroverted Ethics – Ethics of Emotions. Actively expresses emotions in order to affect the mood of the people in the area, instilling enthusiasm to create group cohesion. This instils an attitude of dramatic expression and group motivation, readily making people feel the way they should be feeling. Symbolised by a Black L-Block. Leading Types: ESE & EIE. Creative Types: SEI & IEI.

  • Introverted Ethics – Ethics of Relations. Consults one’s personal sentiments in relation to external stimuli, ascertaining whether the thing is ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and being able to pick up on similar sentiments in others to form meaningful relationships. This instils an attitude of sincerity, requiring one to act true to one’s personal feelings on matters. Symbolised by a White L-Block. Leading Types: ESI & EII. Creative Types: SEE & IEE.
 

Alea_iacta_est

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ILE reporting. My favorite thing about Socionics (and maybe the only thing at this point) is the fact that it acknowledges that the top shadow functions (in my case Ni and Te) are just as strong as their counterparts (Ne, Ti); it is just that Ne and Ti are preferred.
 
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You skipped Part 0: To What Extent Is This Pseudoscience Nonsense?

To what extent are you a supporter of "pseudoscience nonsense" by belonging to an MBTI forum?

At least Socionics has a structure coherent enough to be put up to empirical testing and has been done so to a certain degree in Eastern Europe.
 
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Socionics is bullshit. Designed for people who don't know any better.

And what is MBTI then? catpiss?

If you read the articles, you'll find that Socionics is a far more complex and comprehensive theory than the one you're used to with finer definitions that lead to more accurate assessments than anything MBTI can offer.
 
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ILE reporting. My favorite thing about Socionics (and maybe the only thing at this point) is the fact that it acknowledges that the top shadow functions (in my case Ni and Te) are just as strong as their counterparts (Ne, Ti); it is just that Ne and Ti are preferred.

It's why cognitive function tests don't really work. The only differences between an ILE and an LIE is that of Rationality/Irrationality and Alpha Values/Gamme Vaues. The strengths and weaknesses are identical.
 

Dr Mobius

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To what extent are you a supporter of "pseudoscience nonsense" by belonging to an MBTI forum?

At least Socionics has a structure coherent enough to be put up to empirical testing and has been done so to a certain degree in Eastern Europe.

Ah what in the world are you talking about? MBTI can at least be loosely correlated to The Big Five, which is statistically verifiable*. Socionics on the other hand is based on 1930’s Psychology (duality is just a very strange extension of the Oedipus Complex.) which unfortunately contains all the eastern mysticism that the modern psychology institutions have spent the last half a century trying to distance itself from. Socionics is not, and will never be considered remotely scientific.

Yes at this point I’m sure you’re thinking, what about all those 150 universities that teach it? Let’s be honest here absolutely no one in a modern western society thinks to themselves; “well I’m off to the ex-soviet union to get a quality education.” I honestly don’t think I have ever read about any scientific development of note from there; not exactly bastions of knowledge and innovation.

Now I’m sure this looks like I’m just bashing socionics, but what I’m really trying to do is give it a reality check. Socionics is a form of spiritualism; it requires you take a leap of faith. The type dynamics are based on how you subjectively feel about someone, the religious symbolism, the numerology, the holistic nature of duality. Which given its origins is hardly surprising; you can take the religion away from the people, but you can’t take the religion out of people, the need will still remain. I just wish that socionists would be content with their own personal belief instead of feeling the need to come to MBTI forums and demand that others worship as they do. It’s the equivalent of Jehovah Witnesses knocking on your door constantly.

*The closet thing that you are going to get for whole personality “empirical evidence."
 

Alea_iacta_est

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It's why cognitive function tests don't really work. The only differences between an ILE and an LIE is that of Rationality/Irrationality and Alpha Values/Gamme Vaues. The strengths and weaknesses are identical.

Out of curiosity, does Socionics still hold to the idea that you can develop functions consciously? Because I think I underwent some stress a few months back and actually began developing Ni and using it more often (strange isn't it).
 

badger055

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And what is MBTI then? catpiss?

If you read the articles, you'll find that Socionics is a far more complex and comprehensive theory than the one you're used to with finer definitions that lead to more accurate assessments than anything MBTI can offer.

Complex doesn't mean better. Socionics exploits your intuition. Intuition wants to assume patterns that sometimes aren't there. Ne wants to include everything. You don't know how to screen stuff out. Yea socionics gives your intuition something meaty to bite into but at the end of the day you are playing make believe with yourself. That's all I'm going to say on this.
 

LittleV

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Trait theory will always beat out typologies in modern science. Many personality psychologists agree with typologies; they're useful to theorize with, and agreeing with any inventory is subjective... but it's all we've got. You can't come up with new research ideas to publish without playing around.
 
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Ah what in the world are you talking about? MBTI can at least be loosely correlated to The Big Five, which is statistically verifiable*. Socionics on the other hand is based on 1930’s Psychology (duality is just a very strange extension of the Oedipus Complex.) which unfortunately contains all the eastern mysticism that the modern psychology institutions have spent the last half a century trying to distance itself from. Socionics is not, and will never be considered remotely scientific.

Yes at this point I’m sure you’re thinking, what about all those 150 universities that teach it? Let’s be honest here absolutely no one in a modern western society thinks to themselves; “well I’m off to the ex-soviet union to get a quality education.” I honestly don’t think I have ever read about any scientific development of note from there; not exactly bastions of knowledge and innovation.

Now I’m sure this looks like I’m just bashing socionics, but what I’m really trying to do is give it a reality check. Socionics is a form of spiritualism; it requires you take a leap of faith. The type dynamics are based on how you subjectively feel about someone, the religious symbolism, the numerology, the holistic nature of duality. Which given its origins is hardly surprising; you can take the religion away from the people, but you can’t take the religion out of people, the need will still remain. I just wish that socionists would be content with their own personal belief instead of feeling the need to come to MBTI forums and demand that others worship as they do. It’s the equivalent of Jehovah Witnesses knocking on your door constantly.

*The closet thing that you are going to get for whole personality “empirical evidence."

The loose correlation to the Big Five is in no way a justification of MBTI, a theory that must be proved on its Jungian functions rather than the superficial dichotomies. Even with that argument, Socionics bears the same loose correlation.

I wouldn't say that Duality is an extension of the 'Oedipus Complex'. I've never heard of that comparison before and frankly it doesn't fit. At no point does Socionics claim to match young males up with their mothers. One could argue that the idea of duality stems from the Taoist concept of Yin and Yang, the idea that opposites can complement eachother when working together which I think is demonstrably true. Assuming two people with very different skill sets share the shame overall goals and value (Quadra Values), their different abilities contribute to a greater working whole which is the reason for models such as the CPI that put together different people of different roles and capabilities.

Socionics has an integral structure that is coherent and definitions that are precisely defined. This means that they can be put up for experimental verification because experiments can be formed to test whether the structure holds in real life, whether, given the definitions of X and Y, the results hold that people who demonstrate X in the way that Y says do Z. This cannot be said of MBTI where the definitions are imprecise and hard to see in day to day behaviour.

What's wrong with the education in the soviet union compared to the majority of community college institutions in the US? If there are Harvard, Yale or MIT graduates here, then I'd say there's a gap to close but otherwise that's just unfounded snobbery. I myself am at an institution of that ilk and I think that with empirical testing Socionics can be verified. Whether it is accepted by the scientific canon is another matter but not one of empirical validity.

I would not say that Socionics is a form of spiritualism... Enneagram may be that but Socionics simply focuses on different kinds of information and the mind's ability to process those different kinds of information as an explanation of personality differences. The inter-type relations are hypotheses based on how one structure of preferred information might interact with a different structure of preferred information given the axioms. They also have yet to be empirically verified but are able to be empirically verified, which I argue is more than can be said for MBTI.
 
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Complex doesn't mean better. Socionics exploits your intuition. Intuition wants to assume patterns that sometimes aren't there. Ne wants to include everything. You don't know how to screen stuff out. Yea socionics gives your intuition something meaty to bite into but at the end of the day you are playing make believe with yourself. That's all I'm going to say on this.

Even more than Intuition, Socionics is formed from Ti. As such, after the fundamentals, the rest of Socionics is deduced by combining elements together (much like Doodle God acually). To deny Socionics you'll have to deny the fundamentals i.e. that information can be divided into the concrete and abstract, the factual and the personal.

To deny these fundamentals means that in order to stay consistent, you can no longer claim to be ISTP or any other MBTI type. You certainly cannot uphold your position of intuition exploitation while also claiming to be of an Enneagram tritype.
 
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You have no idea what you're talking about.

And you have no idea that I have no idea what I'm talking about... otherwise you'd make an adequate critique of my points rather than resorting to convenient assertions like that.
 
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Quite the opposite in fact - complex almost certainly means worse. See Ockham's razor and Kolmogorov complexity. We must prefer the simpler theories first.

Ockham's razor requires that things be simplified if they can be while fulfilling the same purpose. Every part of Socionics complexity (at least what I explain in my articles) stems from the system not being able to explain things accurately without this complexity. It is a comprehensive complexity, not a superfluous one. There four different kinds of information which each exists in two forms i.e. 8 different aspects and so we need 8 different IM Elements to process them. As such a model of information metabolism MUST describe each of the 8 for each person. Conventional MBTI fails to increase its complexity when appropriate because this need to describe all 8 IM Elements performing 8 different functions for a person is ignored. For some reason, MBTI refuses to explain how an ENTP uses Te when he clearly does use it.


In the same way, it would be silly to apply Ockham's razor to things that require complexity to function, like the vast number of names we give things in teh world. Would it be right to call everything in the world a single name like 'table'?

Table is sitting on a table, responding to table about a table about table - that is essentially the misuse of Ockham's razor you are suggesting.
 
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Out of curiosity, does Socionics still hold to the idea that you can develop functions consciously? Because I think I underwent some stress a few months back and actually began developing Ni and using it more often (strange isn't it).

It depends on what you mean by developing...

For instance, an ILE has Ni in the 7th position, making it the Ignoring function. ILE is strong at Ni but ignores it because he prefers to view abstract information in an Extroverted way. However, Ni will often play it's role in the background as you can't really pursue the latent possibilities without an awareness with the long term outcomes. An ILE will be able to begrudgingly focus on Ni and Te properly when required to though, for instance setting out a long term strategy in pursuit of a new project. They will just see this as a means of appeasing others demands rather than something important in its own right.

Development really comes into the foreground when looking at the slightly weak (3-dimensional) functions, such as the Role and the Mobilising. For an ILE, these are Se and Fe and the ILE will often work on them until he has achieved a level of accuracy. For instance, I have developed my Fe by going into performing arts, learning to better convey emotions to affect others.
 

Julius_Van_Der_Beak

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which unfortunately contains all the eastern mysticism that the modern psychology institutions have spent the last half a century trying to distance itself from

If this is the case, why are they teaching meditation in psychiatric wards?

Now I’m sure this looks like I’m just bashing socionics, but what I’m really trying to do is give it a reality check. Socionics is a form of spiritualism; it requires you take a leap of faith. The type dynamics are based on how you subjectively feel about someone, the religious symbolism, the numerology, the holistic nature of duality. Which given its origins is hardly surprising; you can take the religion away from the people, but you can’t take the religion out of people, the need will still remain. I just wish that socionists would be content with their own personal belief instead of feeling the need to come to MBTI forums and demand that others worship as they do.

Maybe I'm too brainwashed by eastern mysticism, but I see them as different ways of talking about the same thing.

Assuming two people with very different skill sets share the shame overall goals and value (Quadra Values), their different abilities contribute to a greater working whole which is the reason for models such as the CPI that put together different people of different roles and capabilities.

This is why I love Socionics. The quadra is interesting and seems to have some merit. The emphasis on function stacking also allows for a great deal of variation.
 

badger055

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Even more than Intuition, Socionics is formed from Ti. As such, after the fundamentals, the rest of Socionics is deduced by combining elements together (much like Doodle God acually). To deny Socionics you'll have to deny the fundamentals i.e. that information can be divided into the concrete and abstract, the factual and the personal.

To deny these fundamentals means that in order to stay consistent, you can no longer claim to be ISTP or any other MBTI type. You certainly cannot uphold your position of intuition exploitation while also claiming to be of an Enneagram tritype.

You're a ***. Enjoy your [day].
 
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