The Roles of the Cognitive Functions

I want to talk today about the roles of the cognitive functions and how they relate in the stack. There are the well known ones, of course, which are the roles for which the cognitive functions are named: (Ti/Te) thinking, (Fi/Fe) feeling, (Ni/Ne) intuition, and (Si/Se) sensing. I’m going to cover those in brief before moving on to some of the lesser known roles they play.

Ti/Te

Your thinking function regardless of its orientation is frequently linked with critical thinking, rationale and other logic based tasks. While the idea is mostly correct, true thought is the result of all of your functions combined. Your T function basically decides how you’re going to handle information removed from external emotion. The higher your T trait, the more likely you will be to look at the problem removed from the human aspect. It’s basically the core of what you use when critical thinking (the literal definition).

Fi/Fe

Your feeling function both compliments and opposes the thinking function (and vise-versa) one could say two sides of the same coin. It’s most commonly thought of as dealing with interactions with other people, our own emotional feedback, and navigating society intelligently. It can be used in tandem with your T function when problem solving. Typically, when the F trait is higher you will be more prone to focusing on the human aspect when problem solving.

Ni/Ne

Your intuition function is responsible for your abstract insights and ideas. It serves the role of being the link to your more subconscious mind. It is most commonly explained as pulling information out of thin air or making random leaps with little perceivable reason as to how. We don’t prescribe to the more mystical explanation and view it as a behind-the-scenes processing of information you gathered without consciously remembering.

Si/Se

Your sensing function dictates how you choose to respond to the world around you, whether that be to primarily observe the sensory information or react to it immediately. Either way, the sensory function deals with what we touch, taste, hear, smell, and see. They both desire sensory experiences, albeit Si tends to be far more picky than Se.

However, as I mentioned earlier, there are other roles that these functions play that cause them to be grouped differently, and that is what I want to primarily focus on. The divisions are: (Ti/Fi) Identity, (Te/Fe) Order, (Ne/Se) Exploration, (Ni/Si) Implication.

Ti/Fi

One might initially think there is no common ground or similarities between Ti and Fi, but just hear me out. We derive our personal identity from our introverted Judging function. Why? Well, the name pretty much says it all. Judging is going to cause us to form a viewpoint or an opinion on something and introversion turns it inward, or you could also say back on oneself. It is these internal judgements that we then begin to perceive as being our true self. It is the reason that we are so attached to our Fi or Ti conclusions. The higher in the stack, the more attached to them we will be and the stronger our sense of identity becomes. The higher a function is, the more importance and focus we choose to place on that function and what it produces.

Because Ti is a thinking function, the identity is going to be tied to the thinking axis that I explained farther up in the article. So, you will essentially be trying to form a judgement (or identity) of yourself based upon the logical construct you use to make sense of the world. Ti users will probably end up tying a good portion of their identity to what makes sense to them or how they make sense of things logically.

Fi, on the other hand, will be making these internal judgments with what they believe in mind. This is why in most traditional descriptions of Fi, it is described as where you derive your ‘morality’ from. You will use what is important to you (values) as a basis for your identity (this can include what you believe is right and wrong). Obviously, where these functions are in your stack can cause them to be anywhere from your obsession to completely ignored so bear that in mind.

Te/Fe

Te/Fe are judging functions as well, but instead of the judgments being turned inward on ourselves, they are facing outward, focused on the world. The judgements these functions produce will instill a desire in us to order our external world to be in line with them. The higher this set of functions finds itself in your stack, the greater that desire will be.

The result of Te/Fe’s influence causes the user to seek a level of control on the external world, as this is required to bring it into harmony with the external judgement that has been made. In short, Te doms will like to take control of the ideas and actions that impact how things are getting done. Fe doms, on the other hand, will desire to take control of their social environment. They will naturally gravitate toward roles where they can ensure the harmony that they want can be achieved.

Ne/Se

As extraverted perceiving functions, Ne/Se will desire interaction with the external world as a means to try out thoughts and ideas. They are primarily focused with the new or novel, having a propensity to get bored when a topic or experience has lasted too long. They have a knack for finding opportunities or ideas as they present themselves. Everything they process is in real time which can lead to excellent capitalization when short term success is the goal.

On the flip side, this penchant for real time processing can lead to varying levels of distractibility or difficulty seeing the true long term implications (Se by living in the moment, Ne by seeing too many future paths). The cause of the attributes just described have to do with the perceiving being extraverted. Because their priority is not to use the information they perceive for future planning or preparation, any external interactions may be gone once the moment passes. While external perception can store away data, it’s primary purpose is to react and interact with the world.

Ni/Si

The entire purpose of introverted perceiving is to analyze collected impressions or observations to determine their implications for the future. Si, as a sensing function, will cause the analysis of more sensory based information with less of a focus on impressions. Ni, on the other hand, will be primarily focused on the abstract details rather than the sensory. The result is the analysis of more impressions and patterns rather than sensory details. There is of course overlap between the two, but as a whole they will primarily desire to focus on their own style of information.

The higher in the stack, the greater the desire to observe and take in information will become. Dominant users will first and foremost want to add more observations before doing anything else. This is why Ni/Si doms are viewed as being the most cautious. The reason Si is seen as even more cautious than Ni has to do mostly with the type of information that it likes to collect. Analyzing sensory information as a whole takes longer to go through since it is uncompressed information. Ni, on the other hand, is easier to both store and review as it tends to strip away most details and only store impressions or take-aways. Storing information in this way also causes Ni to deal more in assumptions, since it typically doesn’t remember all of the details.

In conclusion…

So there you have it. Those are the roles of the functions and the different ways they split up. I hope you have found this article both informative and interesting.