Charles Martin, Ph.D.
Looking at Type™: The Fundamentals
Published and copyrighted by CAPT in 1997
Type is more than simply the four basic preferences; it is in fact
a dynamic and complex interrelated system of personality. The different
components of a person's psychological type work in an interrelated
way to establish balance and effectiveness. Type is a lifelong developmental
process, and many factors can affect the direction of type development.
The Mental Functions
In type language, you have four mental functions: Sensing, Intuition,
Thinking and Feeling. The four mental functions are the basis for
much of your mental activity.
Two are for gathering information-that is, they are used for perceiving:
Perceiving Sensing (S) perception of details and current realities
functions Intuition (N) perception of patterns and future possibilities
Two are for organizing information and for making decisions-that
is, they are used for judging:
Judging Thinking (T) decisions based on principles and logical
consequences functions Feeling (F) decisions based on values and
consequences for people
Knowing how the four functions relate to each other, and in what
order you prefer them, can tell you a great deal about yourself:
for example, how you prefer to communicate, what you consider to
be important, and the kinds of activities and careers you find motivating
or stressful.
Everyone has and uses the four functions, Sensing, Intuition, Thinking
and Feeling, but the order in which they are used, preferred, and
developed varies from person to person. For example, some people
find logical closure (T) to be the most important thing, and secondarily
attend to the facts and details (S). They give less weight to the
possibilities (N), and the least weight to the people-impact of
decisions (F). For someone else the order might be just the reverse,
or some other order entirely.
In type theory, the order in which we prefer these processes is
inborn. The four-letter type formula is a shorthand way of telling
us about the order in which a person prefers to use the four mental
functions.
THE DOMINANT FUNCTION:
EVERYONE HAS ONE FAVORITE FUNCTION
AMONG THE FOUR FUNCTIONS, AND EVERYONE USES THAT FAVORITE FUNCTION
IN THEIR FAVORITE (EXTRAVERTED OR INTROVERTED) WORLD.
We develop one of these four mental functions to a greater degree
than any of the other three. This first and favorite function is
like the captain of a ship, having the most important role in guiding
us, and it becomes the type core of our conscious personality. This
mental function is called the dominant function. During the
first part of your life, you come to rely on your favorite function,
and you tend to develop the most skills with it.
Some people, for example, give the most weight to their Intuition.
They trust that function the most and they are the most energized
when they use it. As children, they probably tended to focus on
Intuition (assuming their family supported it), and they probably
became involved in activities where they could use their imagination
and focus on possibilities.
Functions develop by being used consciously and purposefully for
things that matter. As the dominant is used, it becomes strengthened
and differentiated from the other functions. We tend to have
the most skills and conscious use of this function, and we tend
to trust it the most.
Extraverts by definition prefer to live in the outer world. Therefore
they use their dominant function in the outer world. They put their
best foot forward.
Introverts by definition prefer to live in their inner world. Therefore
they use their dominant function in their inner world, and their
development of that function is less visible.
THE AUXILIARY FUNCTION:
EVERYONE HAS A SECOND FAVORITE FUNCTION
THAT GIVES BALANCE TO THEIR DOMINANT FUNCTION.
If individuals used only their dominant function all of the time,
they would be too one-sided. Their second favorite function is called
the auxiliary, because it helps give balance to the
dominant function. The auxiliary function is very important in your
life but always ranks second in importance to your dominant function.
Your auxiliary function is the other of the two middle letters of
your four-letter type pattern.
There are two ways your auxiliary gives balance to your dominant
function. The auxiliary provides balance for the individual's dominant
in two ways: (1) it provides needed judgment (T or F ) for dominant
perceiving types (S or N dominant), and needed perception for dominant
judging types, and (2) it provides needed introversion for extraverts,
and needed extraversion for introverts. For extraverts the auxiliary
function is introverted, and for introverts it is extraverted.
The dominant and auxiliary are the two middle letters (ST, SF,
NF, NT) of your four-letter type.
THE TERTIARY AND INFERIOR FUNCTIONS:
YOUR THIRD AND FOURTH-PREFERRED FUNCTIONS
TEND TO BE LESS INTERESTING TO YOU,
AND YOU TEND TO HAVE FEWER SKILLS ASSOCIATED WITH THEM.
Your third-preferred function is called your tertiary, and
your fourth-preferred function is called your least-preferred or
inferior function.
Though you use all four mental functions, your third and fourth-preferred
functions tend to be less interesting and less well-developed than
your dominant and auxiliary functions. You tend to use them less
consciously. As you grow and develop, you learn that there is a
time and place to use your third and fourth functions as well. Your
development of these functions tends to occur later in life, and
you may experience great satisfaction in their development.
For example, if Intuition and Feeling are your two most favored
functions, you will probably be more inclined to focus on the future,
the abstract, harmony and especially "possibilities for people."
Subsequently, you may have some difficulty developing interests
or skills in using your Sensing and Thinking, because these are
the opposites of your natural preferences.
The inferior, or least well developed function, is the opposite
from the dominant function. This function can provide clues about
which areas of your life you tend to avoid and involves skills you
tend to have the hardest time developing. For example, if Thinking
were your dominant function, Feeling would be your least-preferred
function. You would probably have significantly less interest in
and fewer skills with the Feeling function (e.g., attending to harmony
in relationships, giving weight to the personal aspects of decision
making).
Extended use of your inferior function, and your tertiary to some
degree, tends to require a great deal of energy, and ongoing use
of them may leave you Feeling stressed or tired.
Lifelong Development
It is not a hard and fast rule, but people generally tend to develop
the four functions throughout their lives in the order in which
they prefer them. As you grow and move through life, the way you
see the world and how you behave tends to change and broaden. This
is due not only to your gaining experience but also to your development
of the four functions. As you spend time later in life developing
your tertiary and least-preferred functions, the range of behaviors
available to you and the career and lifestyle options you consider
may open up.
However, remember that you can rely on the dominant and auxiliary
functions as the core functions of your conscious personality and
the basis for much of your self-esteem.
Discovering Your True Type and Type Falsification
Again, people tend to develop the functions in the order in which
they are preferred. If type development follows its natural path,
individuals will come to use and trust most their dominant function,
then their auxiliary function. Your true type is the type
that represents your natural preferences.
Sometimes family, school and culture do not allow individuals to
develop along their natural paths. For example, a child who tries
to make logical and objective decisions using Thinking may be made
to feel guilty for not attending enough to family harmony and other
Feeling values. In this manner, an individual may be discouraged
from developing his or her naturally preferred dominant and/or auxiliary
functions, and instead be pushed to develop another less-preferred
function first. This is called type falsification, and can negatively
impact a person's ability to trust his or her decision-making process
or to differentiate and attend to important information in his or
her life.
Everyone is an individual with his or her own life history, and
clearly there is much more to people than type. Discovering your
true type is only a part of the larger lifelong endeavor of getting
to know who you are. Remember, in your exploration of type theory,
you are the one who ultimately decides which type description fits
you best, and which type is your true type.
