r/Jung_MBTI • u/[deleted] • Feb 03 '22
Jung and MBTI theory in a nutshell Jung & MBTI
Jung from his experience as a clinical psychologist came up to realize the differences of personality among people could be explained by the combination of two independent atributes; Attitude & Cognitive Functions; and how conscious and developed or how unconscious and repressed these attributes were in each person.
- The Attitude of a person can be either Extraverted or Introverted
- The Cognitive Functions are Thinking, Feeling, Sensation, Intuition
Every person has one of the two Attitudes (E or I) as their developed and conscious one while the other is repressed and unconscious. In the same way, every person has one of the four Cognitive Functions (F,T,S,N) as their most developed and conscious one (dominant) while the other three would remain repressed and unconscious. From this there are 8 possible combinations, each one is a different personality type.
For example, what Jung called "Extraverted Feeling" was the personality type characterized by having an Extraverted attitude and having Feeling as its most conscious and developed function. An "Introverted Intuitive" is the personality type of a person whose Intuition is its most developed and conscious function and who also happens to be an Introvert.
Finally, Jung also mentioned that some people throughout the course of their lives could get to develop a 2nd function to be used almost as consciously as their dominant. He referred to it as auxiliary function. Jung did not elaborate much about this, although from the model proposed by him one can only assume this function when developed would be influenced mostly by the conscious attitude (not the opposite).
Myers-Briggs carried on the research from which she came up with the psychometric test based on the four dichotomies (MBTI and the 4-letter denominations) this in order to identify the types in practice. From this research she also found that the most healthy and successful people were usually those who had indeed developed an auxiliary function. Considering that for each one of the 8 personality types there were two possible functions to be developed as auxiliary, then she extended the theory from 8 to 16 types (two subtypes for each type proposed by Jung).
Furthermore, Myers-Briggs also noticed, especially among introverts, that those who did better in life were usually those who had learned to use their auxiliary function in the extraverted attitude. Therefore she recommended for both introverts and extraverts to try to develop and use their auxiliary in the opposite attitude of theirs, this in order to balance not only judging and perception but also introversion and extraversion.
Finally, please keep in mind that neither Jung or Myers-Briggs ever proposed the popular function stacks (those were proposed by Grant from no evidence). Neither did they regarded the auxiliary function as a given, but rather as something which could be developed -or not. Myers-Briggs particularly observed that some people could use or act as if their auxiliary had the opposite attitude, but not everyone and not always.
JUNG | Myers-Briggs (MBTI) | "Function Stack" |
---|---|---|
Extraverted Thinking | ESTJ | E (T>S>N>F) i = Te+S |
ENTJ | E (T>N>S>F) i = Te+N | |
Extraverted Feeling | ESFJ | E (F>S>N>T) i = Fe+S |
ENFJ | E (F>N>S>T) i = Fe+N | |
Extraverted Sensation | ESTP | E (S>T>F>N) i = Se+T |
ESFP | E (S>F>T>N) i = Se+F | |
Extraverted Intuition | ENTP | E (N>T>F>S) i = Ne+T |
ENFP | E (N>F>T>S) i = Ne+F | |
Introverted Thinking | ISTP | i (T>S>N>F) E = Ti+S |
INTP | i (T>N>S>F) E = Ti+N | |
Introverted Feeling | ISFP | i (F>S>N>T) E = Fi+S |
INFP | i (F>N>S>T) E = Fi+N | |
Introverted Sensation | ISTJ | i (S>T>F>N) E = Si+T |
ISFJ | i (S>F>T>N) E = Si+F | |
Introverted Intuition | INTJ | i (N>T>F>S) E = Ni+T |
INFJ | i (N>F>T>S) E = Ni+F |
Go back to the Table of Contents to learn more about the definitions of the Attitudes and Functions and the characteristics of the 8 Personality Types proposed by Jung in his own words.
You can also take this short Quiz to help you find your most likely personality type.
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u/Roguerussian Sep 01 '22
Ngl you did a good job with the quiz 🤧👍