skylights
i love
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2010
- Messages
- 7,756
- MBTI Type
- INFP
- Enneagram
- 6w7
- Instinctual Variant
- so/sx
I'm curious as to how you guys understand the functions in the context of an average, everyday activity, including how splits between extraversion and introversion are handled, and so on.
For example, let's take the activity of doing math problems for homework - something fairly simple.
First of all - What, exactly, are the cognitive functions? Do we engage all of them, all the time, or do we engage one at a time, or do we engage groups? Are there certain functions that cannot be engaged together? Are there brain processes that take place in addition to the functions, or do the functions sufficiently describe our mental processing?
To begin, you pull out your homework sheet, place it on the table, and scan the problems. We can assume you're either using Ne or Se to take in that information - but how do we know which one, or both? If you linger longer on patterns and overall trends, you're using Ne (I assume, since that is what I do) - but how does your experience differ if you are using Se? You more clearly note the amount of problems, the complexity of the problems, the kind of questions being asked?
And then, internally, you must begin making some assessment of this homework. "It looks hard" - Is that T speaking? If we're comparing the external homework information to our internal knowledge of our skills, is that tandem usage of Te and Ni/Si, or Ne/Se and Ti? Or if we make a judgment like "this seems like it will not be useful to my education", is that Fi speaking? Ti? How do we bridge the gap between internal and external? Is it a simple transfer of a group of information? We divide between internal and external, but technically, all information is internal - generated by our minds. Is the extraversion/introversion split real at all, short of in theory?
I ask all of this because when I raised a real-life example in a previous thread, it became clear to me that I have a good concept of each of the functions themselves, but little real understanding of how they are supposed to work together - how they (supposedly) act in reality.
I know I just threw a lot of questions and concepts out there - feel free to address any of those, or just add any additional thoughts on the topic.
For example, let's take the activity of doing math problems for homework - something fairly simple.
First of all - What, exactly, are the cognitive functions? Do we engage all of them, all the time, or do we engage one at a time, or do we engage groups? Are there certain functions that cannot be engaged together? Are there brain processes that take place in addition to the functions, or do the functions sufficiently describe our mental processing?
To begin, you pull out your homework sheet, place it on the table, and scan the problems. We can assume you're either using Ne or Se to take in that information - but how do we know which one, or both? If you linger longer on patterns and overall trends, you're using Ne (I assume, since that is what I do) - but how does your experience differ if you are using Se? You more clearly note the amount of problems, the complexity of the problems, the kind of questions being asked?
And then, internally, you must begin making some assessment of this homework. "It looks hard" - Is that T speaking? If we're comparing the external homework information to our internal knowledge of our skills, is that tandem usage of Te and Ni/Si, or Ne/Se and Ti? Or if we make a judgment like "this seems like it will not be useful to my education", is that Fi speaking? Ti? How do we bridge the gap between internal and external? Is it a simple transfer of a group of information? We divide between internal and external, but technically, all information is internal - generated by our minds. Is the extraversion/introversion split real at all, short of in theory?
I ask all of this because when I raised a real-life example in a previous thread, it became clear to me that I have a good concept of each of the functions themselves, but little real understanding of how they are supposed to work together - how they (supposedly) act in reality.
I know I just threw a lot of questions and concepts out there - feel free to address any of those, or just add any additional thoughts on the topic.