Return to Socionics.us home  
  Russian version links write author site map guestbook about site back to home page theory >> model of the psyche
Introduction to Socionics
Socionics Theory
Socionic Types
Intertype Relations
Socionics in Practice
Issues and Philosophy
Famous People's Types
Notes on Socionics Works and Articles
Interviews and Reports
Wikisocion
Socionics Blog
Socionics Tests
Socionics.us
Web

 
pop-up charts
socionic types
   

The Socionic Model of the Psyche


According to socionics, all eight information elements are perceived by the psyche, but "with different degrees of differentiation and awareness" (Augusta, The Socion, or Socionics Basics). Hence, the socionic model of the psyche (commonly referred to as "Model A") has eight positions, or functions. Different types have different information elements in each of the eight positions. Thus, there are eight different possible varieties of each of the functions, depending on which information element "occupies" the particular function. However, information elements cannot be placed randomly in the model; there are rules for how each model is constructed that limit the number of types to 16 (see below).

For more information about the socionic model, see this article with a great visual at my blog.

***UPDATE 10/28/2007: I have been working on a much more in-depth discussion of Model A at Wikisocion. Come take a look.

Location of functions in model of psyche, their names and basic characteristics:

numbering

order
1
Leading function
strong
mental
accepting
2

Creative function

strong
mental
producing
4

Vulnerable function
weak
mental
producing
3

Role function

weak
mental
accepting
EGO BLOCK mental
ring
SUPER-EGO BLOCK
numbering

order
6

Mobilizing function

weak
vital
producing
5

Suggestive function

weak
vital
accepting
7
Ignoring function
strong
vital
accepting
8
Demonstrative function
strong
vital
producing
SUPER-ID BLOCK vital
ring
ID BLOCK
   
 
3    4 1    2
5    6 7    8
   

*NOTE: In my type charts on other pages until recently I used a different function layout, shown at right. This horizontal layout has some advantages (it has the functions of the mental and vital track next to each other), but the vertical layout above is considered official.

Descriptions:
(condensed from "Funktsionika," an article published by R. K. Sedykh in 1990)

accepting
(1, 3, 5, 7) 		Ability to reflect or “photograph” and reproduce information of a certain kind.
producing
(2, 4, 6, 8) 		Ability to produce new things of a certain kind based on information from the preceding accepting function.
strong
(1, 2, 7, 8) 		Individual has a confident command and large amount of information of a certain kind and can forcefully influence other people and his surroundings in a certain way.
weak
(3, 4, 5, 6)		 Individual has a weak command and insufficient amount of information of a certain kind and is subject to others' influence in this area.

mental
(1, 2, 3, 4)

Individual analyzes a certain aspect of reality consciously and strives to verbalize it.
vital
(5, 6, 7, 8) 		Individual studies a certain aspect of reality subconsciously – subjectively or “through oneself” through hands-on contact.

Rules for constructing a type, or Why are there only 16 types?

There are 40320 possible orderings of 8 information elements, but only 16 of these are viable socionic types. Why? Here are the basic logical rules for constructing a type model:

  • each and every information element must appear in the model once
  • the mental and vital tracks (loops) consist of either all static elements (extraverted intuition, extraverted sensing, introverted logic, introverted ethics) or all dynamic elements (extraverted logic, extraverted ethics, introverted intuition, introverted sensing)
  • the accepting and producing functions contain either all rational (extraverted logic, extraverted ethics, introverted logic, introverted ethics) or all irrational elements (extraverted intuition, extraverted sensing, introverted intuition, introverted sensing)
  • each block consists of one extraverted (extraverted intuition, extraverted sensing, extraverted logic, extraverted ethics) and one introverted (introverted intuition, introverted sensing, introverted logic, introverted ethics) elements
  • the vital track is a mirror image of the mental track, but with elements of the opposite "vertness" (i.e. the Super-id mirrors the Super-ego, and the Id mirrors the Ego)

Now lets try to build a type, making one of two possible decision at each step:

  1. choose static or dynamic elements for the vital track:
    we choose dynamic
  2. choose rational or irrational elements for the accepting functions:
    we choose rational
  3. choose extraverted logic or extraverted ethics as the first function
    we choose extraverted logic
  4.  
    extraverted logic introverted sensing
    introverted intuition extraverted ethics
    extraverted intuition introverted ethics
    introverted logic extraverted sensing
       
    choose introverted intuition or introverted sensing as the second function
    we choose introverted sensing

Thus, having made the above decisions, and obeying the logical rules we accepted above, we get the a model that corresponds exactly to LSE (at right):

Can't we change the rules and create a greater number of types with different orderings of elements?
Sure, but only if you change the definitions of the functions as well! This combination of logical rules and function definitions came from 1) observation of people — e.g. that having extraverted logic and introverted sensing as one's first two functions also implies certain perceptual patterns relating to the other information elements, and 2) the need for logical consistency.



01/25/2007 Stormy
What is the reasoning behind the following?

"The mental and vital tracks (loops) consist of either all static elements or all dynamic elements."

"The accepting and producing functions contain either all rational or all irrational elements."
01/27/2007 Author
One of these days I'll do a review of Augusta's work where she discusses all of this, rather than try to substantiate it myself.