Another Way of Labeling Psychological Types
© Hal Dendurent

C.G. Jung proposed in his Psychological Types a way of categorizing the basic ways people orient themselves for living in their environments. He identified two “perceiving” capacities (Intuition [I] and Sensation [S]) and two for “judging” (Thinking [T] and Feeling [F]). These capacities describe the ways people prefer to relate to their world, that is, the manner in which they take things in and make decisions. Jung also recognized two “attitudes,” Introversion (i) and Extraversion (e), by which each capacity is expressed. Introversion centers around an individual’s inner experience while extraversion is oriented toward the outside world.

Jung went on to describe psychological type as a system for organizing the ways people function, recognizing that all have different preferences for doing so. Each of us is basically introverted or extraverted, and as a consequence the ways we use the S, N, T, and F capacities differ. Thus one can speak of eight functions. Jung held that each person prefers one of these above the others.

Isabel Briggs Myers modified Jung’s scheme by conceiving the four capacities (T, F, S, N) and attitudes (I, E) to be paired opposites. She also added in Jung’s general categories of Perceiving (P) and Judging (J) as another set of opposites and developed the familiar Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which resulted in sixteen types labeled as follows: ISTJ, ISFJ, ISTP, ISFP, INTJ, INTP, INFJ, INFP, ESTJ, ESTP, ESFJ, ESFP, ENTJ, ENTP, ENFJ, ENFP. Myers’ scheme was in turn modified by others interested in psychological type.

A common characteristic of most of these systems is that the preferences are ordered. The individual’s strongest preference is called that person’s “dominant” function and that, in turn, is accompanied by an “auxiliary” function. Take two examples. The ENTP, who prefers to exercise extraverted intuition (Ne), and then, as a helping function, introverted thinking (Ti), may be designated NeTi. An ISFJ prefers to use the dominant function Si in combination with the auxiliary function Fe, and so that person is an SiFe. This way of looking at psychological type recognizes that, in a sense, everybody is both introverted and extraverted. It is just that with different people one attitude is emphasized over the other.

Myers' J/P distinction is supposed to reflect the preferred lifestyle of an individual. However, some, including myself, have questioned the validity and usefulness of this category. It doesn’t seem necessary. In line with this doubt, this paper proposes a scheme of labels for sixteen types which correspond to those of the MBTI but omit J/P.

The table shows the MBTI types followed by the dominant (D) and auxiliary (A) functions for each type. The suggested three letter equivalent label then follows.

Type

D

A

Label

ISTJ

Si

Te

IST

ISTP

Ti

Se

ITS

ISFJ

Si

Fe

ISF

ISFP

Fi

Se

IFS

INTJ

Ni

Te

INT

INTP

Ti

Ne

ITN

INFJ

Ni

Fe

INF

INFP

Fi

Ne

IFN

ESTJ

Te

Si

ETS

ESTP

Se

Ti

EST

ESFJ

Fe

Si

EFS

ESFP

Se

Fi

ESF

ENTJ

Te

Ni

ETN

ENTP

Ne

Ti

ENT

ENFJ

Fe

Ni

EFN

ENFP

Ne

Fi

ENF

This is a more natural way of understanding and expressing a person’s type. The first letter emphasizes the introverted or extraverted attitude, the second the dominant function, and the third the auxiliary. The table embodies a more convenient shorthand for the types. For example, introverted sensing with extraverted feeling can be designated SiFe, but the subscripts are rather off-putting. ISF is clear and straightforward. Similarly, ENT makes the concept of extraverted intuition with introverted thinking immediately understandable.

Will this nomenclature catch on? Only if this web page gets a lot of hits!