Exercises for Accessing the Functions-Attitudes:
You might want to figure out how to access the mental functions to see how you are using them; this is a set of exercises that type practitioners have developed to help people understand how comfortable they are with the various mental functions.
For these exercises, you need to pick an object which could be anything: a pen, an apple, an orange, a piece of candy, etc.
[TABLE="class: mental-function-exercise, width: 600"]
[TR]
[TD="class: label heading, align: center"]Function- Attitude[/TD]
[TD="class: label heading, align: center"]Exercise[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: label, align: center"]Extraverted Sensing[/TD]
[TD]Explore the object with your five senses as you are experiencing the object right now; look at the object, taste it (if edible!), smell it, crunch it to hear the sound, smell its aroma.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: label, align: center"]Introverted Sensing[/TD]
[TD]Hold the object and think of an experience you have had with an object that is similar; recall the sensory detail of the experience that you had with the object; what it was, what it looked like, what you did with it, who was there, what you were wearing, when it was[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: label, align: center"]Extraverted Intuition[/TD]
[TD]With someone else, talk about everything you could do with the object that you have not done before.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: label, align: center"]Introverted Intuition[/TD]
[TD]Close your eyes and identify what the object symbolizes or means to you.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: label, align: center"]Extraverted Thinking[/TD]
[TD]Take several disparate objects and organize those using objective criteria; ask someone else to identify the criteria that you used.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: label, align: center"]Introverted Thinking[/TD]
[TD]Think of all the different kinds of objects that you have and categorize them in your mind into mutually exclusive groupings; write those categories down to determine if there are any overlapping categories.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: label, align: center"]Extraverted Feeling[/TD]
[TD]Do something for someone with the object that will make them feel good.[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="class: label, align: center"]Introverted Feeling[/TD]
[TD]Close your eyes and see if the object reflects anything that is really important to you — reflect on those deeply held values.[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
The five levels of understanding are as follows:
- Verifying and Understanding your basic four letter MBTI Type
- Understanding Type Dynamics
- Growing through Type Development
- Understanding the Jungian Psyche Model
- Moving through Individuation
Level One: Verifying and Understanding Your Basic Four-Letter MBTI Type
Benefits: The ‘aha’s’ of affirmation of who you are and insight into those who are different from you.
The first level of understanding in our lifelong journey of individuation is to become conscious of who we are in relationship to our self and others, through the lens of the MBTI® instrument and our four-letter type code. This involves:
- Taking the indicator, receiving a thorough feedback session with a certified practitioner, and verifying one’s “Best-Fit Type
- Experiencing the differences among types; that people have different “lenses” through which they view the world and come to different conclusions”.
- Learning to accept and value the differences and the gifts of each type
The insights and “a-ha’s” people experience when they learn about their type is what has made the MBTI® indicator so popular. After learning about their type, people are often heard saying things like: “Yes, this is me, and it’s OK to be me” or “Oh, I know why I have trouble getting along with my sister” or “It saved my marriage” or “It helped me to work more productively with my team.” These insights can be life-changing.
The majority of people who take the MBTI® instrument do not move much farther beyond this level of interpretation, and that is OK. For many, this level of understanding is enough; but others, when given clues that there is more, become intrigued and go further along the path of understanding.
Level Two: Type Dynamics – Understanding the Dynamic Nature of Your Four-Letter MBTI Type
“Using psychological type as the basis for understanding development and consciously directing our growth, bridges type theory with the Jungian psyche and the process of individuation.” - Katharine D. Myers
Benefits: Affirming your particular gifts and understanding how and when to use those gifts to operate more consciously in the world. Knowing that you have choices to use the mental processes that are appropriate for the situation. Gaining an awareness of, and appreciation for, individual differences at a deeper level.
Moving beyond the four- letter type code to the next level of understanding — to Level Two on the 5 levels triangle — involves gaining an understanding of Type Dynamics, or how the Eight Function-Attitudes interact within your particular type code to develop the personality that is you.
Knowing what our favorite functions are — what mental functions we access more easily and use best (our dominant and our auxiliary), and how our inferior function can be problematic, helps us to gain a better understanding of why we behave as we do when we are feeling our best, and when we are “not ourselves.” The more familiar we become with how we think — how our mental functions operate within us, the less we are apt to feel “stuck” in situations that are challenging or perplexing. We become more able, and have more tools, to adapt to challenges and we learn to forgive ourselves and others when we are “not ourselves.”
Level Three: Type Development – Growing and Developing in Your Type
(See the PDF, Using Psychological Type as a Model for Conscious Growth for more information.)
Benefits: Acquiring a map or compass, or a “how-to” model for your growth and development. Understanding your type development path for learning new skills and behaviors and shedding old habits that may no longer be serving your best interests. An increased sense of balance and flexibility and new found sources of energy and personal satisfaction.
Level Three, the next level up on the 5 Levels triangle, is looking at and following the path for your growth and development through the lens of Type Development. Myers coined the phrase “16 paths to excellence” to indicate that there are 16 different type codes that have their own development map or path, through the type hierarchy.
Theoretically, Jung and Myers believed that the primary task of type development in the first half of life is to develop a strong dominant and auxiliary function and a strong ego, which gives us a degree of consistency, predictability and effectiveness for dealing with our life circumstances. In the second half of life, we turn our attention to those mental functions which have previously resided in the unconscious; we incorporate those parts of self that were previously neglected and unrealized.
However, Myers believed that good type development can be achieved at any age, by anyone who cares to understand his or her own type; type development does not necessarily take place in a linear fashion, but is influenced by the environment and life’s circumstances as well.
Insight into how you have developed particular mental functions and related skills, and how they relate to your type, are all a part of Level Three understanding.
Level Four: Understanding Yourself in Terms of Jung’s Psyche Model
(See PDf Nancy Millner’s article on individuation for more information.)
Benefits: A knowing that you are more than your four-letter type code and your ego; an ability to make choices that are more conscious rather than being driven by unconscious ones. Gaining an understanding of where Myers four-letter type and Jung’s theory of psychological types resides within the larger model of the psyche.
Moving to Level Four in the triangle is an introduction to Jung’s model of the “psyche.” The psyche can be thought of as all of our conscious and unconscious psychological energy. We can loosely think of the psyche as the non—physical aspects of ourselves. The psyche is composed of many theoretical constructs that are important to understand at this level.
The psyche is that mysterious part of us that is there to help us become more whole and balanced. The model of the psyche provides a bigger picture of who we are, and how we can search for and come to know who we are beyond our ego and our persona — and where our true Self lies within the individual and collective conscious and unconscious. The psyche is what helps us to maintain balance between the opposite forces in our life, propelling us forward to reach our untapped potential.
At this level of understanding, we begin to see how our type code fits into the bigger picture of Jungian psychology as a whole — how it enhances and how it limits our growth and development, and of what parts of ourselves we need to differentiate, or of what to become more conscious . We can begin to recognize the dynamic nature of psychic energy and begin to track how it has worked through the different stages of our lives; we can make different, more conscious choices as life moves forward.
Level Five: Grasping Jung’s Model of Individuation
Benefits: The ever increasing realization of who you truly are through the journey toward Self and your own psychological reality.
Level Five is about gaining insight into Jung’s theory of our lifelong journey toward our true Self or our soul. Level Five is at the top of the triangle, because it is the hardest of the levels to reach, and very few people who have been introduced to their type embark on the difficult but rewarding journey toward individuation.
Jung believed that we have an innate urge to grow along our type-guided path; to go beyond ego to become the totality of all that we are. We can either ignore our innate urge toward growth, or help this development through our conscious awareness of the process. Individuation is about the lifelong journey from unconscious to conscious unity. The process requires the difficult work of becoming ever more familiar with our own personal psychology and looking deeply our unconscious world through analysis of our dreams, images, complexes, archetypes and our shadow to help us incorporate these aspects of ourselves into our conscious knowing of who we are.
Jung believed that individuation is a lifelong process and that as humans, we never reach a fully individuated state; however, we can expand our knowing of Self through the process of having the content of our unconscious minds slowly reveal itself to us. For MBTI practitioners and interested users alike, the Indicator and knowing your typology can serve as the first step of becoming more self-aware and can serve as a compass on the journey of wholeness.