Posted on 08.01.2020
The idea of socionics focuses on the study of human's mind of information processing, and like psychology and sociology, its theory stems from observations and is a generalization of how the mind works on a fundamental level. It does not quite enforce what a person is good and bad at, nor does it imply potential friendship or compatibility between two individuals. Based on the environment a person is in, there can be very significant variations of behavior even between people with the same archetype. In fact, the environment is so significant to one's development that the difference could be as large as getting typed as contrary types. For example, a person grown up in a wealthy family could afford to care less about exerting themselves to live a decent life, which is the natural characteristics of introverted sensing, while another person with the same archetype but a less financially-stable background might be forced to overwork themselves just to stay afloat, which is a behavior of essentially utilizing their extraverted sensing abilities. FYI, introverted sensing (Si) and extraverted sensing (Se) are two contrary functions that extinguish each other. Hopefully, I will be able to elaborate more about sensing and the other functions in another post, but the punchline is that one could unwillingly use their under-preferred or weak functions to fulfill their environmental needs.
On the other hand, systems such as MBTI and 16Personalities.com use different social roles to explain what each type is. It is almost inevitable that people's priorities in life change, and therefore by matching one individual to a certain role may not be the most consistent approach throughout one's lifetime. So, observing behaviors is not always the best approach to learning what a person's archetype is.
However, socionics does imply that there is an underlying pattern behind different people's thought processes they might share. Let's take Si – introverted sensing, again as an example. It is a function that values comfort and stability. A person who values Si highly may conditionally thrust themselves into situations where they will need to work their ass off, but even during these difficult situations, they will always try to make the decision that will make them the most comfortable. Therefore, a comfort-valuing person CAN be hardworking (logically they are not mutually exclusive as well), but their means of hard work may simply be living a comfortable life, which is deeply engrained in their archetype.
Before we examine into socionics' Model A – which consists of the four blocks and their embedded functions, we need to take a look at the three properties correlated to each block:
Value — This is one of the most used orders of sequence even in the four-function models. The valued blocks are the ego and the super-id, while the undervalued blocks are the id and the super-ego. This property is characterized by the willingness of using a certain function in a block, no matter how strong or accessible it is.
Strength — This is the order of how developed a function would be for an individual under normal and mentally-healthy circumstances. Since strength can vary throughout one's lifetime, I would instead describe this property how 'nuanced' the function is. Therefore, the more dimensions a function has, the broader a person understands the aspects of the function's applications. We start with the most intricate 4-D functions — the leading and demonstrative functions, then 3-D — the creative and ignoring functions, then at 2-D we have the role and mobilizing functions. Lastly, the weakest functions are the 1-D functions — the vulnerable and suggestive functions.
Consciousness — This is the order of accessibility of a certain function. The higher the accessibility, the easier it is to notice its significance in life and improve on that aspect of life. Usually, the conscious blocks — the ego and super-ego blocks — are more visible since they are presented as the 'strengths and weaknesses' of a person on a surface level. The unconscious blocks — the id and super-id — are functions that require a person to slowly discover by experience, yet not being able to sufficiently grasp or notice the inner workings of these functions. Learning socionics will help consolidate these unconscious concepts into consciousness.
With this in mind, we can take a look at Model A's structure. The model is very simple, with eight slots for each archetype organized into four blocks — the ego, super-ego, super-id, and id. This is shown in the chart below:
| Strength | Conscious | Unconscious |
|---|---|---|
| Strong | Ego | Id |
| 4-D | Leading (Dominant) Function | Demonstrative Function |
| 3-D | Creative (Auxiliary) Function | Ignoring Function |
| Weak | Super-ego | Super-Id |
| 2-D | Role Function | Mobilizing (Hidden Agenda) Function |
| 1-D | Vulnerable (PoLR) Function | Suggestive (Inferior) Function |
Model A describes the ego as the most conscious and easily-accessible. These two functions are the most visible and strong in the psyche and are usually where a person's confidence comes from. The ego block has two functions:
Leading Function – Better known as the dominant function, or the first function. Usually, we would shorthand someone with a certain dominant function as a [function name]-dom. The strongest, conscious, and most important piece in the psyche, and an individual knows very well how to 'play' with this function according to their own needs.
Creative Function – Also known as the auxiliary function, or the second function. The third strongest function in the psyche. A tool function for the benefits of the leading function, and usually the front line of interacting and communicating with the world. This is a strong function but only used under the command of the leading function.
This block comprises of the functions that a person uses, sometimes grudgingly, to compromise the ego block to conform to more social and balanced behavior, and presents the 'weak sauce' of a person. The super-ego block has two functions:
Role Function – The third conscious and the sixth strongest in the psyche. Despite its slight weakness, it is so conscious that sometimes it is hard to tell if a person is using its leading or role function until you know them better. This role function is also known as the eighth function since it is the least valued function of all in the psyche because it is seen as a function that one has to put up with people they don't know too well or don't yet feel comfortable around, which hinders the expressions of the ego functions.
Vulnerable Function– The seventh function, and the Achille's heel of the archetype, hence also known as the point of least resistance, or commonly, PoLR (pronounced as 'polar'). It is the weakest function in the psyche, and a conscious function (fourth conscious) in fact, since people start being aware of it indirectly through the mistakes and regrets they have had because of not just the weakness but also their negligence in this function. This function could never be used very in a smooth way. Sometimes it will come out sporadically and over-the-top strong.
The super-id — characteristics that an individual unconsciously strives for but is unable to achieve effectively due to the lack of strength in the super-ego functions. These are unconscious traits that an individual might not realize at all until meeting the duality of their archetype, since their duality will be able to easily take care of these weak functions on behalf of them. The super-id block has two functions:
Suggestive Function – This, in MBTI, is commonly referred to as the inferior function or the fourth function, and the second weakest function in the psyche. However, in socionics, it is also known as the dual-seeking function since it is not only emphasizing its weakness but also one's preference for achieving the qualities of the function, either by themselves in the long term or by finding a partner with these traits. Even if the person learns how to access this unconscious (fifth conscious in the psyche and the first unconscious) function, their lack of confidence will eventually pull them back to their ego functions.
Mobilizing Function – Also known as the third function. This is the fifth strongest and third valued function in the psyche, and also known as the 'hidden agenda function'. Since it is unconscious (sixth unconscious after the suggestive function), this function manifests as a hidden trait that a person is sort of immaturely insistent on in the short term. This is the most isolated function due to one's lack of ability to apply the vulnerable function and failure in acknowledging the importance of the vulnerable function. In MBTI, there is the 'loop' theory, which says that if one becomes stuck in the loop of the leading and the mobilizing functions, it will hinder the effectiveness to use the creative function since both the leading and mobilizing functions are either both introverted or extraverted. I believe this theory is very relevant to the properties of this function.
This strong block is heavily shadowed by the ego, and therefore extremely unconscious. The id acts merely as supporting roles to the ego and does not like immediate contact with the surrounding environment because of its contrary nature to the ego. However, by having a source of the super-id functions, the duality's id could supply and support and assist their partner's lack of ability in the super-ego block. The id block has two functions:
Ignoring Function – The fifth function and the fourth-strongest. Also known as the contrary function or the function of extinguishment. An individual usually takes advantage of the skills in their ignoring functions as a supply to polish their ego functions, but they find the remaining elements of the function's characteristics meaningless and actively rejects them. One usually respects and keeps a certain distance with other individuals who take this function too seriously, although they could use the function 'in a different style'. This function so invisible that it is seen almost only when you are in a very close relationship with the person.
Demonstrative Function – The sixth function and the second strongest right after the leading function. This function is so strong that it naturally oozes out of the psyche when a person uses their ego functions, but they might disregard its existence since they constantly see this function as a stumbling block to fully apply their creative functions, which is comparatively not as strong. Though repelled by the demonstrative function, one tends to look up to people who could master this function, and therefore some believe that acknowledging this function prevents burnout and retains the sharpness of the creative function.
As a side note, the numbering of the functions is based on the order of value for the archetype. There are other numbering systems that uses the consciousness as their main way of ordering the functions, but I find it easier to comprehend by listing the functions in the order of preference. The charts below are summaries of the configurations of the socionics archetype depicted above.
As I have emphasized previously, Model A does not guarantee that a certain archetype will have a certain order of value. In fact, as I have realized on the Sociotype.com website, Model A does not explicitly state the order of value between the valued and undervalued function stacks. Therefore, function 1-4 are collectively called valued functions, while function 5-8 are undervalued functions. An interesting conclusion that is not stated in Model A is that the fourth function (suggestive function) is often taken quite seriously by an individual. Usually, an individual will show their desire in manifesting their suggestive function as a long-term life goal. However, because the desires of the suggestive function take such a long time to solidify that the suggestive function is not seen as seemingly important as the creative and mobilizing functions (second and third functions), both of which are stronger at handling daily tasks in the short term than the suggestive function. These two functions, conversely, are often seen as just tools for interacting with the world because of the powerful dominant function that overrides the purpose of these functions. Therefore, I believe that the suggestive function should come before the creative and mobilizing function if time is factored into the model.
However, the traits of the creative and mobilizing functions do present themselves prominently in the early stage of an individual life before the dominant function is fully developed. As tool functions, these two functions will first be used extensively to promote the development of the 4-D functions and create a balanced psyche depicted in Model A's order of strength. This shows that it is possible to have the 2-D and 3-D functions to be temporarily stronger than the 4-D function at a young age.
On a side note: Although the demonstrative function and the creative function have opposite orientations (one extraverted and the other introverted), the strength of the creative function fundamentally stems from the 4-D demonstrative function due to its similar domain of interest (for example, extraverted sensing demonstrative is always going to be paired up with introverted sensing creative, and both are sensing functions), and I expect that the demonstrative function should thus create a feedback loop in polishing the creative function. Often enought in reality, people disregard the importance of the demonstrative function, which becomes the cause of stress and dissatisfaction in life in most cases.
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