Sensing or Intuition?

[SwimmerGal97]

The part I find hardest about typing myself is whether I use sensing or Intuition, so I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out if I'm S or N and if possible, if I use Se, Si, Ne, or Ni more. When doing research into mbti, the biggest difference between the two types seems to be whether the persons head is in the future or in the here and now. I'm very much a daydreamer however my daydreams aren't in some magical fantasy world, but our world. I crave excitement and don't get much in my daily school/work life so I create it in my head (think like explosions, and crime and spies etc). People who use S over N are obviously going to daydreamers but I imagine they're less fantastical, more real world based which is my first confusion as I may have got that completely wrong and the outside influence could be indicative of being extroverted.

Secondly, I'm very empathetic. Putting myself in other people's shoes and seeing from their perspective and an entirely new range of perspectives is something I'm good at, which seems like an N thing but could mean I'm a feeler, but the here and now interaction that comes with the empathy, sort of syncing up to people I meet could also be sensing.

The big picture is something I'm interested in, I like to see how things fit together, which is an N thing, however I'm also attuned to details and examples. Something that stands out to me is, when learning about political ideologies in history class, I find it kind of difficult to grasp without examples that create images in my head to allow me to visualise the theory in action however I can talk and think about things like the existence of God and the meaning (or possibly lack thereof) for ages. I feel most comfortable talking about those things on a one to one basis or in my head, possibly an I trait. I struggle with abstract concepts but still like to think relatively big picture and real world even if I am just talking not doing for example, the education system.

On the big picture/small picture theme, I get the impression the N starts big picture and works in and S does the opposite. I do a bit of both. I need to see how things fit in to the large picture but a recent experience has left me wondering if I work best the other way round. I'm doing a level art at the moment, an the project we've just started is a 9 month one on anything we want. Sounds great. However ive found I'm struggling having so much choice. Everything is too broad and I prefer being given a starting point to work out from, such as 'weathering', like we have in the past. Maybe this is more of a P/J problem though, in that as much as I love freedom, I require structure or I don't know what to do with myself. My preferred way of working is being told this is what needs doing, do it by this time and then I can do it my way because I hate being told how to do things.

My final point is the issue on art and literature. I see S's and scientists and mechanics and anyhting practical and N's as philosophers and authors and anything with deep meaning. Not to say either type is limited though. I like creating art. I love using paint and creating an image however I'm not a fan of infusing it with meaning and message and tend to take things at face value. With art, I look at the way colour and form interact and with poetry and writing I tend to go off imagery created in my head, do things sounds nice, do they flow. I have little interest in what the author or poet is trying to say. That being said, when interacting with people, I always read between the lines and can pick up well on tone. I've been told I'm too subtle. Like at work when I see the rota and there are too many hours (I'm contacted 8 but often do double that), I'll say 'wow, that is a LOT of hours, that's going to be really tricky to fit in around school' to my supervisor. If someone said that to me I'd know that meant they wanted fewer hours (provided the hours were overtime not contacted hours). Regarding how I view the world, I think of myself as a story teller. For example, last year we were holidaying in Cornwall and we had an evening barbecue on a beach. It was July so the weather was gloriously warm, we were the only people on this 2 mile beach (it was about 8 at night) and the view was incredible- perfect light sand, insanely clear turquiose water with crashing waves, these hundred foot rocks jutting out of ground at various points along the beach, covered on purple flowers towards the top, caves of varying sizes you can explore and the caves were damp and a little creppy and straight out of a book and you could see through to the other side of the cliff and it was just wild sea with sunlight glinting off the waves and the sun was setting and it was the most intense warm golden orange ever and the whole experience was amazing, but whilst taking all that in, my mind wasnt only looking at sensory things like a sensor would but it wasn't thinking about abstract things or other ideas like an intuitive, more it was narrating the scene as if I were writing it in a story and the settings would be perfect, sometimes I'd throw in some people that weren't with us but that I could picture being there with and I do this alot in my life, i narrate and describe scenes I'm 'action out'. I've actually tried writing before but I really don't have the patience and my mind develops stories faster than my hands can write or type so I gave up.

If you need me to explains on any points, feel free to ask. What do you think: S or N?

 

[Raspberry_rain]

Do you know any of your other letters? I think that would help some because the different types use N and S differently. For example an ENFP (me) has extroverted intuition as their strongest function and introverted sensing as their weakest function. Other types have more of a balance. You seem to have more of a balance for sure. I would say that whichever one you are, it probably isn't your dominant function. My guess is you are an ISFP but I could be way off lol. That would give you extroverted sensing as your secondary function and introverted intuition as your tertiary. You definitely seem more like a sensor. I can tell by how you described your story about the beach. You have an amazing talent for details and visual descriptions. Also starting with the small picture and working out is more characteristic of a sensor. I for one can NOT do that. My brain freezes up if I try to start small and work out. I have to have a big picture in my head before I can begin to piece together any smaller details. Sensors also struggle more with the abstract while intuitives struggle more with the concrete. You seem to struggle more with the abstract. I could go on about why I think you're a sensor but I don't want to write you a book You definitely also seem to have introverted intuition though which is characteristic of an ISFP. You're able to see multiple perspectives and you like to piece things together mentally but you need examples to do so. That definitely sounds like tertiary introverted intuition. I hope that helped some! As with anyone I would recommend (if you haven't already) taking a good type test. They're pretty accurate if you answer honestly. Definitely the best place to start

 

[rmrf]

From your post alone, i think you use more Sensing than Intuition. Both are ways in which you take in infomation. A loose analogy is that Sensing/Intuition deals with receiving cognitive data, Feeling/Thinking producing data

The way I describe Intuition is being able to think on the fly; the ability to comprehend things without having to explicitly think about them.

I'll give you some examples:

For instance, imagine you are studying for an exam (e.g multiple choice on things covered in lectures). Would you ,

(S): go-over your notes, use flash cards, etc, with the aim of hardcoding the answer/fact itself into memory. When you do the test, you search your mind for the answer itself, trying to remember what was said in lectures

(N): Revise by thinking about the topic itself works, rather than remembering the answer, you learn about why the answer is what it is. In the test, you don't focus on rembering details, you pretty much just 'get' the answer from reading the question.

Another example, you get a new electronic device, with an unfamiliar user interface. Do you

(S) - look at the manual, or learn each function individually
(N) - Play with it for a little bit, and just 'work it out', like a quick trial/error

The concept of Jungian Intuition is a very abstract concept, that is difficult to describe 'concretely', so to comprehend it easily, I think requires Intuition to immediately work out what it means; examine your own cognition and see what part of it is intuition.

Your comment "I see S's and scientists and mechanics and anyhting practical and N's as philosophers and authors and anything with deep meaning", is a over-generalisation, not that it's wrong per se, but it's more complex than just being able to make such general rules of thumb. Sensing types prefer to describe things as rules, statements, equations, like break things down into the sum of their parts. Intuition, generally speaking, looks at the "big picture", the thing itself.

Think about how you see the MBTI functions. Do you look at it in terms of a set of rules, for determining what letter is what, like a formula, see it as which basket you fall in, e.g "I am INTP, so I am logical" Or do you look through your mind, look at each function in terms of how it manifests in your mind, the nature of your version Te/Se/Fi/Fe... when and where you use each function etc. If you see MBTI functions more as peices of consciousness rather than amorphous descriptions, that is indicative of Intuition

I am very much Intuitive rather than Sensing, and once you become more familiar with the two types of perception, you should recognise that from this post

 

[Raspberry_rain]

From your post alone, i think you use more Sensing than Intuition. Both are ways in which you take in infomation. A loose analogy is that Sensing/Intuition deals with receiving cognitive data, Feeling/Thinking producing data

The way I describe Intuition is being able to think on the fly; the ability to comprehend things without having to explicitly think about them.

I'll give you some examples:

For instance, imagine you are studying for an exam (e.g multiple choice on things covered in lectures). Would you ,

(S): go-over your notes, use flash cards, etc, with the aim of hardcoding the answer/fact itself into memory. When you do the test, you search your mind for the answer itself, trying to remember what was said in lectures

(N): Revise by thinking about the topic itself works, rather than remembering the answer, you learn about why the answer is what it is. In the test, you don't focus on rembering details, you pretty much just 'get' the answer from reading the question.

Another example, you get a new electronic device, with an unfamiliar user interface. Do you

(S) - look at the manual, or learn each function individually
(N) - Play with it for a little bit, and just 'work it out', like a quick trial/error

The concept of Jungian Intuition is a very abstract concept, that is difficult to describe 'concretely', so to comprehend it easily, I think requires Intuition to immediately work out what it means; examine your own cognition and see what part of it is intuition.

Your comment "I see S's and scientists and mechanics and anyhting practical and N's as philosophers and authors and anything with deep meaning", is a over-generalisation, not that it's wrong per se, but it's more complex than just being able to make such general rules of thumb. Sensing types prefer to describe things as rules, statements, equations, like break things down into the sum of their parts. Intuition, generally speaking, looks at the "big picture", the thing itself.

Think about how you see the MBTI functions. Do you look at it in terms of a set of rules, for determining what letter is what, like a formula, see it as which basket you fall in, e.g "I am INTP, so I am logical" Or do you look through your mind, look at each function in terms of how it manifests in your mind, the nature of your version Te/Se/Fi/Fe... when and where you use each function etc. If you see MBTI functions more as peices of consciousness rather than amorphous descriptions, that is indicative of Intuition

I am very much Intuitive rather than Sensing, and once you become more familiar with the two types of perception, you should recognise that from this post

Excellent description. So true too! It's actually incredibly hard for me sometimes to explain how I know things (even when I was responding to that post) because I "just do". It can be both really helpful and really frustrating. You completely nailed it.