I think this is an interesting topic.
i think a lot of the type-related differences in emotion center around how much of our emotional state we perceive, and how much weight and meaning we give to those perceptions. I think we all have the same kinds of emotional reactions.
I think it's good to note that our perception of emotions is closely tied with our perceptions of our physical state. From
Mindsight, by Daniel Siegel:
Mindsight said:
Our awareness of another person’s state of mind depends on how well we know our own. The insula brings the resonating state within us upward into the middle prefrontal cortex, where we make a map of our internal world. So we feel others’ feelings by actually feeling our own—we notice the belly fill with laughter at the party or with sadness at the funeral home. All of our subcortical data—our heart rate, breathing, and muscle tension, our limbic coloring of emotion—travels up the insula to inform the cortex of our state of mind. This is the brain reason that people who are more aware of their bodies have been found to be more empathic. The insula is the key: When we can sense our own internal state, the fundamental pathway for resonating with others is open as well.
So, for Fi-doms, a lot of our early challenges center around learning not to be overwhelmed by our emotional perceptions (and other physical perceptions, for that matter). Because we tend to be unable to ignore our emotional states, we tend to come across as being self-centered and having an ego-centric view of reality. In a sense, that's true... because we haven't learned how to manage our emotional states or detach from them.
Also, our own awareness of our internal emotional state can also lead to feeling overwhelmed by the emotional states of others, as mediated (perhaps) by mirror neurons:
Mindsight said:
The internal maps created by mirror neurons are automatic—they do not require consciousness or effort. We are hardwired from birth to detect sequences and make maps in our brains of the internal state—the intentional stance—of other people. And this mirroring is “cross-modalâ€â€”it operates in all sensory channels, not just vision—so that a sound, a touch, a smell, can cue us to the internal state and intentions of another. By embedding the mind of another into our own firing patterns, our mirror neurons may provide the foundation for our mindsight maps.
Clearly the above process is not unique to any particular type... but I suspect the feeling types are more likely to place more weight on emotional perceptions and processes.
Thinking types, on the whole, are less likely (especially when young) to see emotions as having as much inherent worth as other factors (such as truth, accuracy and consistency). They tend to see emotions as something whose influence one should intentionally exclude (or place less emphasis upon) when making a decision.
Of course, it's not such a simple dichotomy since factoring in the emotional reactions of others (and oneself) has very practical benefits. So even if one doesn't see emotions as much more than noise, there can be benefit in factoring the emotional reactions of others into the decision making process.
Another interesting aspect is the side effect that emotional awareness goes hand in hand with physical awareness. Those who seek to downplay emotional awareness (either because it is painful or merely distracting and irrelevant) run the risk of also dampening their physical awareness.
My dad, a fairly extreme ESTJ, has had very little physical awareness. He destroyed his knees jogging because he just ignored the pain. His dentist had to get him to stop flossing because he flossed too hard into his gums. Now, at the age of 75, he's taking pilates—mom badgered him into it! He's struggling with learning how to feel the muscles in his body stretch and work, and how to engage only the muscles needed. His whole life he's tended to give everything 100% and clench every muscle in his body when exerting himself in any way.
Now, most ESTJs are not anywhere near that extreme, but I do think it's more likely for an ESTJ to dampen their emotional and physical awareness than for many another types.
So, my guess for the general valuation of emotion would be (least to most): Te Ti Fe Fi
Fe/Fi and Brain Hemispheres
Also, in the same vein, there is some intriguing evidence for Fe mapping reasonably well to the more left hemisphere sorts of emotional processing, and Fi mapping more to right hemisphere emotional processing (from
The Developing Mind, also by Siegel):
Developing Mind said:
In contrast, the right hemisphere is proposed to be more “acceptiveâ€â€”that is, receptive and self-regulatory-as evidenced by the infant’s left handed self-touching and the right hemisphere’s being better developed than the left and responsive to the prosody of “motherese†(nonverbal, sing-song quality of tone of voice). These findings are supported by the notion that the left hemisphere is more active in motor expression and “approach,†mediated by activity of the neurotransmitter dopamine. The right hemisphere, in contrast, mediates “withdrawal†in social situations and is more involved in attentive and reflective states, mediated by activity of the neurotransmitter noradrenaline.
Which maps fairly neatly to the Fi tendency to do emotional processing internally. Also:
Developing Mind said:
The right hemisphere, via the orbitofrontal cortex, also appears to be more capable than the left hemisphere of regulating states of bodily arousal.This suggests that whatever factors directly impinge on right-hemisphere processing, such as bodily input or nonverbal emotional expressions in the voices, body signals, and facial reactions of others, may have a direct impact on a person’s own emotional state before the involvement of a linguistically based consciousness or a rational, linear analysis of an ongoing experience.
Which maps both to the Fi tendency to focus on non-verbal communication and have trouble expressing the kinds of processing involved when making decisions.
Developing Mind said:
Of note are findings suggesting that the left hemisphere plays a more significant role in the communication of emotions that conform to social rules.
Which maps well to the "external harmony" focus of Fe, vs Fi's "internal harmony" focus.
(BTW, I don't think that any particular Jungian function resides entirely in some small area of the brain. However, I do suspect there are patterns such that people of a given type tend to rely more on specific areas of the brain.)