About Aspects and Functions in Socionics by Prokofieva

About Aspects and Functions in Socionics

Would everything on Earth be dead,

As if the world has never had

The life in it that flowered,

If no living person yet

The source of life discovered.

S. Marshak

The first division: objects - relationships

The second division: statics - dynamics

Subject of studies Statics Dynamics Objects Statics of objects Dynamics of objects Relationships Statics of relationships Dynamics of relationships

The third division: evident (explicit) - implicit

Eight Information Aspects

Statics of objects  Dynamics of objects

The way of information manifestation Statics of objects Dynamics of objects Explicit/Evident Implicit

Statics of relationships  Dynamics of relationships

The way of information manifestation Statics of relationships Dynamics of relationships Explicit/Evident Implicit (hidden)

Sensation is dynamics: we sense taste only when it is changing, otherwise our receptors adapt themselves to it and stop responding. Our organs of sense only react to changes in taste, smell, colours etc. There is no statics of sensing, when adaptation appears, we stop sensing.

Sensation is relation: our perception of taste, colour, pain depends on us: everyone has his own taste, somebody likes sweet pain and the sensations of pleasant fatigue is very relative.

Sensation is evident: sensed.

Subject of studies Statics Dynamics Objects Statics of objects ; Dynamics of objects ; Subjects Statics of relationships ; Dynamics of relationships ;

The first division of the flow into information about objects and relationships cover all the information about the world. It would be more exact if we say that this is just the view on any phenomenon: from the point of view of objects features or from the point of view of relationships. Here no information has been lost.

The second division of information is also full. We considered every phenomenon in the world either in statics (freezing it for analysis of its features) or in dynamics (considering it moving, changing developing etc. and synthesizing, gathering all this changing information). Here we have not also missed any information.

And the last division  to evident and implicit (hidden) features of any phenomenon whether it is an object, relationships or a process. Evident features can be easily seen, perceived and registered. The implicit are the ones about which we can judge indirectly, guessing. This is again the full division. Nothing has been left without our consideration.

aspects.jpg



Picture 1. Information aspects about the world Picture 1. Information aspects about the world

Big encyclopaedic dictionary. M. 1991

A. Augustinavicuite. Information metabolism model. //Sosionics, mentology and personality psychology, ¹ 1, 1995.

C.G. Jung. Psychological Types.  SPb.: Uventa  M.: Progress  Univers, 1995.

A. Augustinavicuite. About symbols. Meaning of symbols used in socionics. //Socionics, mentology and personality psychology, ¹ 2, 1998.

I.D. Vaisband. Who am I? A bit about socionics.// Znanie  sila, ¹¹ 1,3  10, 1992.

by T. N. ProkofievaBasing on psyche functions Jung described psychological types, but he did not put in terms diagnostic method for real people. Thats why Jungs typology was considered for long years to be working only when used by its author and is not good for practical work. As we see that this typology is very effective in practice and is certainly needed both for a psychologist and an average person, it would be good to find the means and tools for defining, diagnosing psychological types.Till the present time a lot of not so experienced socionics try to identify types by eye: If he reminds of someone whose type I know, then he should belong to the same type. Similarity in appearance and behaviour can only be a hint to a hypothesis. But for the reliable type identification the scrupulous analysis of information metabolism by all the eight functions is necessary. We will show how we divide information about the world into aspects.Whats the way to approach the division of information into aspects so that it would reflect the work of the psychological functions described by Jung? There is a very important thing which has not yet been properly marked in socionic literature.If the functions process all the information about the world, then the division into aspects should be full, that is, take in all phenomena scientifically described. It should not have any blank spots.While studying the information effect on the psyche, we should imagine that any part of information about everything that happens in the world should refer to at least one of the components  aspects  or to their combination.Lets describe the information division into aspects in socionics remembering this important requirement.Starting to speak about the information aspects we should explain what information is and how its meaning has changed by the second half of the XX-th century. The Big encyclopedic dictionary gives the following definition [1].To understand the way our psyche processes the information and its effect on our psychological state and relationships with the world, we should divide all the flow of the information getting to a person into separate components  aspects. This will help to model the process of information exchange by the human psyche.The aspect is the information type. It shows what kind of information is meant, what it is about.Jung started describing psychological types with the directions of human psyche extraversion  introversion.Every phenomenon in the world can be considered either from the point of view of objects or from the point of view of relationships.So, we have divided all the information flow into two big parts:1. information about objects;2. information about relationships.Information aspects about objects are called extraverted.Information aspects about relationships are called introverted.Both of these mechanisms are necessary for every persons psyche. A. Augustinavichuite writes: The necessary condition for the functioning of any organism is the double bond with the world around For the brain functioning as an information metabolism device it should be provided for with signals both from outside and the organism itself"[2].Differences in the personality types are determined by the mechanism (one of these two) which is more often, customarily, surely, successfully and effectively used by the person. Let us remind of the fact that we can speak about a harmoniously developed personality when a person uses his strong and weak features almost like the proportion of golden section: approximately 60:40. That is a harmoniously developed extravert in about 60% of cases uses the mechanism of extraversion: is interested in the objects of the outer world, people, affairs etc. And about 40% of his attention is drawn to his inner world: to himself, his own attitude to the objects (people, affairs). An introvert accordingly vice versa .Discussing the complicated matter of information division into aspects we will turn from time to time to one and the same example to see how it manifests itself in life. Lets take an example including various information and see how it is divided into aspects.The second large-scale information division suggested by A. Augustinavichuite is connected with considering phenomena in statics and dynamics. This division concerns both objects and relationships. Following Newtons mechanics we can state that everything happening in the world can be studied from the statics point of view (fixing, freezing the studied subject, whether it is an object or relationships), or from the dymanics point of view (moving, developing, in the process of changing).In the first case we are interested in ingenuous features of objects or relationships (statics), and in the second one  in processes, happening to these objects or relationships (dynamics).* Information aspects about the features of objects and relationships stable at the time of observation, are called static.* Information aspects about the processes of changes, development, movement are called dynamic.We should mention that there is no pure statics over the time anywhere in the world. Everything moves, everything changes. Statics could be taken only as a fact of a certain moment but no object ever remains static (unchanged) from a moment to a moment. Static approach is typical of a phenomenon analysis, that is, for detailed studies of its features.In the second case information about movement, development is gathered in different time periods for dynamic features study. That is the information synthesis.Studying any phenomenon in the world can be done either from the static information aspects point of view or dynamic one. This corresponds with two main scientific methods: analysis and synthesis. However, everything early mentioned concerns not only the scientific examining the information, but also everyday life.Socionic division of information aspects into static and dynamic ones corresponds to personality types division into static and dynamic. The way of information processing is reflected in peculiarities in behaviour and reactions. The first ones  statics  are more static in their manifestation, there are fewer movements, less gesticulation. They are more inclined to observations and analysis. The second ones  dynamics  are more active, even sitting in their place, they more often change their posture, gesticulate. They more often notice changes in a situation.* * *Combining now the two above-mentioned approaches we get division of the whole information flow about the world into 4 big groups (table 1):- on the one hand, division into information aspects about objects and relationships;- on the other hand, division into statics and dynamics.Table 1. Information aspects about the worldIt is evident that any phenomenon in the world can be viewed from one of these four points.These information groups in their turn are divided into 2 parts each and as a result we have eight aspects corresponding to the eight Jungs functions.Information of each of discussed four aspects can manifest itself in two ways:- as visible to the naked eye, evident, seen, apparent;- as till proper time invisible, unapparent though existing objectively.That is, the first group includes the information about evident things, it is notable, perceptible. And the information on the second group is easier to hide, it can be guessed about by indirect signs. Lets call these groups of information signals evident and implicit accordingly.Why should we introduce a new term?A. Augustinavichuite divided the information about objects into inner and outer ones. To divide the information about relationships no such common principle was suggested. A. Augustinavichuite divided relationships in statics into subjective and objective ones. There was no term for the relationships in dynamics. Nevertheless the uniting term for the third information division into aspects is necessary for the clear-eyed understanding of the world and psyche information structure.First, I also wanted to call information aspects about relationships inner and outer ones for the terminology unification, like R.K. Sedykh had done. But it does not work. The simple question: is a sensation an outer thing? And feeling?  causes bewilderment. This way can bring to great confusion.It took a long time to choose such common term.Concrete  abstract?Factual  supposed?Subjective  objective?Sensed  ephemeral?Evident  incredible?As a result of a lengthy search we settled on the terms evident  implicit (hidden).The terms evident  implicit are introduced as run-time names. Possibly, in future somebody will offer better ones. The matter of term choice is complicated not only for us at present. Jung spoke about the fact that the terms do not fully reflect the essence of a phenomenon: In reality we should know what names we give to what things. Psychology is a virgin land where a language has to consolidate its grip [3].Is it worth at all introducing the whole unified division here? First, I had an opinion that there is separate division in every of the previously described groups and they are not interconnected. But observations and logical reasoning suggest such division being clearly indicated. It is not for nothing that intuition, and not feeling, is sometimes compared to logical thinking. It is not for nothing, that a doctor takes into consideration his patients sensations separating them from emotions.Those life spheres where logics and sensorics prevail, we take as sound, solid, ponderable and exact. And the conclusions based on the feelings and intuition are often taken as subjective. Feelings and intuition are said to be ephemeral.Information about evident, noticeable outwardly is referred to the visible aspects.To the implicit aspects  the information about the things which can be unnoticeable for a long time, the things about which one can guess by indirect signs, which can be concealed easier.Lets consider each of the four groups mentioned in table q separately and try to put in words definitions of the information aspects basing on A. Augustinavichuites [4] and I.D. Vaisbands [5] works.To make writing it down more comfortable A. Augustinavichuite gave graphical signs to each of the aspects. She marked the information aspects about objects with black signs and the information aspects about relationships  with white signs.The first two groups of aspects are the information about objects: statics of objects and dynamics of objects. They are located in the upper line of table 1. We will show them in a form of a separate table.Table 2. Information aspects about objectsThis is the information about the features of the object itself. A. Augustinavichuite has picked out the objects inner and outer characteristics. Outer (evident) static object features are its form, size, beauty, effect. Inner (implicit, hidden) static objects features are its inner organization, structure, abilities, capacities. All the information about objects in statics which can be analyzed in included in these two groups.Why do we refuse to use the terms inner  outer here? The reason is not to mix it up with the division into extraverted and introverted aspects which are also sometimes called outer and inner. To be precise: extraverted and introverted aspects are outer or inner ones for an observer accordingly. Speaking about evident and implicit features of the object itself (or relationships) we mean outer and inner features of this object (or relation), that is referring to the considered object.- Information aspect about an objects evident features, outer ones: its form, beauty, strength, will, concentration is called will sensorics.- Information aspect about an objects implicit features, inner ones: structure, capacities, abilities is called intuition of opportunities.If we look at an object in dynamics we should speak about a process, about the things happening to the object. A. Augustinavichuite suggests the following division of the process features. She refers movements, objects actions and work done by them to outer (evident) process features. And to inner (implicit) ones  inner changes, stimulus for actions which happen in the inner world of a person, inner energy, emotional state of people. These two groups of informational signals are dynamics signals: outer (evident) and inner (implicit, hidden) ones.- Information aspect of the objects evident dynamics: actions, movements is called logics of actions.- Information aspect of the objects implicit dynamics: inner energy, activation, stimulus for action and emotional state, mood is called ethics ofemotions.We have considered the information about objects (the upper cells of table 1). Now lets consider the information about relationships (the lower cells of table 1). It can be considered the same way: relationships in statics and relationships in dynamics (table 3).Table 3. Information aspects of relationshipsThese are relations between static objects. A. Augustinavichuite divides relationships in statics into 2 groups which she called objective and subjective.Objective relationships: distances between objects, positional relationships, comparison characteristics of their sizes. Subjective relationships between objects: attraction  repulsion, peoples feelings and interrelations. According to our agreement we will use unified terms here: objective relationships are evident relationships and subjective relationships are implicit ones, they are not always manifested, sometimes hidden, not everything in them could be seen with naked eye.- Information aspect of the evident statics of relationships, of correlation between objects: positional relationships, distances, measuring of an object by an object is called logics of relationships.- Information aspect of the implicit statics of relationships, of subjective relationships: attraction  repulsion, sympathy  antipathy is called ethics of relationships.Everything turned out to be a bit more difficult with the description of dynamics of relations than with the previous things. Unfortunately, there is no exact data on this group of aspects in literature. More often that are ready statements almost without explanations. As a result there is a great number of gaps in understanding these aspects between different socionic schools. In one sources sensations are described as inner ones and changes in time as outer ones. But that is not about the process of relationships! In others  vice versa: anticipation is inner one but then sensations are outer ones. Both are not very clear. It was not easy to find explanations.What is the matter here? The fact is that mostly extraverts-statics dealt with describing aspects. That is why extraverted static aspects are described quite exactly in books on socionics. Descriptions of extraverted dynamics and introverted statics are also clear. But introverted statics turned out to be black-out, displaced, not adequately realized. That is why it is described in most works in terms of extraverted aspects. The truth is that the author, also extravert-static at first found it difficult to find the right way to describe these aspects. I had to turn to socionic method: to involve introverts-dynamics in discussion. As a result of long argues and reasoning we arrived at the following conclusions.Dynamics of relationships includes as the very process of relationships course and relationships between dynamic processes as well. Here dynamics of relationships is always changes happening in these relationships.This group of aspects as the previous one has two sides.Changes can be noticeable, evident. These are visible manifestations of the process. Everything that is perceived, sensed with any organs of sense, things of current importance, occurring now and here, are included here. This is the process state changing, a persons state of health.The state of health is the relation with ones body in dynamics: better  worse. Sensations, comfort are the relations with the environment, space. Aesthetics, harmony are connected with our attitude to the things we have seen, heard, sensed.State is not a static, but a dynamic aspect. State is always described in comparison with the previous or possible following states. For example, in medicine the state of health is spoken about as dynamics: clinical course, recovery process, dynamics of in-between state. State, by its semantics is the position between one and another thing. And it is not statics, this happens, continues, there are its own accelerations and turbulences. State is changeable, it flows (to compare: disease activity).Thus, sensations are evident dynamics of relationships. Why?They characterize the state of relationships.So, we have come to the conclusion that the process of relationships development is characterized by state, but not only that. Process is a transition of states .It is characterized by changes occurring in time, changes in speed of the process, development of the situation in time. These changes can be accumulated latently. This is a hidden, implicit side of the relationships process. It is to be developed ( like a film ).What can be referred to the implicit, hidden dynamics of relationships? These are the things not seen with eyes and not registered with other organs of sense. This is the process ripening. Nothing evident has happened yet but inner changes are accumulated. These changes can not be noticed but can de anticipated. By small features, so slight that they are registered without the conscious, we foresee what will happen. Our psyche, as if solving a dynamical problem tells us the possible nest stage of the process after some time with the starting conditions and the speed of development.The history of the process is included here. What was previously, what will happen  it is not seen at present but it is registered by our organs of sense. Inner changes in the process, unnoticeable, occur. The process ripens. It is important here: the history of the process development, time and speed. This gives anticipation, foreseeing, forecasting.This turned to be the most mysterious aspect. Its not for nothing that such difficult to describe categories as mystical feeling, forecast of the future, hope.We will sum up with the following.Sensorics is a local view of the process of relationships changing. Intuition is global: it sees the relationships on the whole, in their development. For example, on the surface the relationships have become worse, but on the whole the positive dynamics of the development can be seen, if it exists.Lets compare: I feel sense cold  I feel (anticipate) future changes, it seems to me. The first one is evident, perceptible, the second  implicit, indistinct.- Information aspect of the evident dynamics, of a state: state of health, features of space, of the things happening at the same time is called sensorics of sensing.- Information aspect of implicit dynamics of relationships, of timing proportions between processes following each other, events is called intuition of time.At the beginning of this paragraph we mentioned that dynamics of relationships includes relationships between dynamic processes besides the very process of relationships passing. It is necessary to take into consideration the mutual influence of processes on each other (one starts the other changing its state). Two parallel processes can be compared by speed proportion and state proportion. There can be dynamics of speed and dynamics of states (for the constant speed is statics).If we compare states of health, states in one and the same process, we should talk of dynamics ofstates. If we compare speeds, for example, in the case when processes reach the same state with different speeds  that is dynamics of speeds.Thus, states proportions, parallel processes going on at the same time proportions are referred to evident dynamics of relationships. Temporal relationships, events speed proportion, tempo of the development are referred to implicit dynamics.Lets compare dynamics of objects and dynamics of relationships now. If evident dynamics of object is movement, actions, work being done, then evident dynamics of relationships is their state.* * *So, the first and a very important socionic theory step is dividing all the information flow coming to a person into 8 components and information about any phenomenon in the outer in inner world is referred to one of the eight aspects or their combination (table 4).We should emphasize that information about the world could be divided into aspects in any way. Why this one has been chosen? We mentioned earlier that dividing information into aspects should be full and should reflect the work of psyche functions described by C.G. Jung to study information effect on human psyche.Table 4. Information aspects about the worldInformation division is full. Why?It can be shown graphically in the following picture (picture 1)Source: http://en.socionics.ru/index.php?opt...253&Itemid=138