Carl Jung’s cognitive functions are the building blocks for the 16 personality types, most commonly used in the Myers-Briggs theory. (Colloquially, people refer to it as MBTI.) There are two categories of cognitive processes: perceiving and judging. Perceiving is further broken down into either sensing or intuition, while judging is broken down into feeling or thinking. Basically, your perception in daily life is either based on your intuition or sensory data (or a combination of both), and people typically make judgement calls or decisions based on logic (thinking) or feeling-based values.
These 4 types of cognitive processes (thinking, feeling, sensing, and intuition) are each broken down into either an extraverted or introverted variant, which finally culminates in the 8 cognitive functions proposed by Carl Jung: Extraverted Sensing (Se), Introverted Sensing (Si), Extraverted Intuition (Ne), Introverted Intuition (Ni), Extraverted Thinking (Te), Introverted Thinking (Ti), Extraverted Feeling (Fe) and Introverted Feeling (Fi).
What Do Cognitive Functions Define?
An individual’s cognitive functions define or determine their thought process, which means that all cognitive functions are cerebral, no matter which function. Oftentimes, we see certain cognitive functions over simplified down to physical acts or skills, but cognitive functions do not determine skills. They determine the thought process behind an action. Any personality type can perform any action. In addition, cognitive functions determine your awareness, or your lens for reality. There’s also no guarantee that an individual will excel at using any of their cognitive functions. The difference between high and low function use is not dictated by how good we are at using a function, but rather which cognitive functions we default to. Each cognitive function has a specific priority, and each cognitive function plays a certain role in the function stack.
How Does The Cognitive Function Stack Work?
Here at Practical Typing, we are proponents of the 4 function model, rather than the 8 function model. (The 8 function model seems unnecessarily convoluted and confusing. Any behavior explained by it usually has a much simpler explanation via the 4 function model.) Whether or not you agree with the 8 function model or the 4 function model, the top 4 functions in your cognitive function stack map to your 4 letter type.
Each of those top 4 cognitive functions possess certain attributes based on their specific placement in the function stack. Among those 4 functions will be an extraverted perceiving function, introverted perceiving function, extraverted judging function, and introverted judging function. One will be sensing; one will be intuition; one will be thinking; and one will be feeling. Your top 2 functions will come most naturally to you, and will be comprised of an introverted and an extraverted function; one will be perceiving and one will be judging. Therefore, theoretically, you should be able to approach life with a balance between judging and perceiving, and extraversion and introversion. All the Judging types will have an Extraverted Judging function in their top 2, while all the Perceivers will have an Extraverted Perceiving function in their top 2. View this article for more information: Guide To Understanding the Function Stack
Why Use Cognitive Functions At All?
The cognitive functions serve as a more accurate way of breaking down the 4 letter types and the way they each think and act. All the articles on this site will be based on the cognitive function’s type theory. Unfortunately, much of the personality theory content online is fraught with stereotyping, romanticized types, and unclear theories that only end up further confusing readers and proliferating the false stereotypes. Our goal on this site will be to break each function down into a practical explanation that will allow you to understand how each function is externally and internally manifesting for each type.
Cognitive Function Groups
Follow the links below to get a description of each function. Don’t forget to visit the glossary if you run across a confusing term in any of the articles.
