What is the Socionics Personality Model?
As the love child between sociology and personality psychology, Socionics offers a more rigorous and interpersonal view of personality typology theory. By framing the eight Jungian functions in eight positions (i.e. Model A), the resulting 16 Sociotypes are uniquely related to each other.
Coined by Ausra Augustina in the 1970s, she came from an academic background under the family science department from Vilnius Pedagogical University. During her studies, she created Socionics from the ground-up from on-site observation during her practicum period.
She created the intertype relations chart of the 16 Sociotypes, which has nicknames as follows:
- Identity
- Quasi-Identity
- Congenerity
- Requester Recipient
- Cooperation
- Requester
- Super-Ego
- Activation
- Extinguishment
- Mirror
- Mirage
- Supervisor
- Semi-Duality
- Supervisee
- Duality
- Conflict
The Socionics model depicts a framework for compatibility and sees potential to improve team-building in management and business, which translates to increased growth across various departments. The humanitarian sciences are also well-equipped for Socionics—philosophy, linguistics, anthropology, literature, and so forth.
Translation from Jungian Notation
Sources reference the J/P switch to p/j from the typing by Briggs and Myers to Socionics. However, the two systems operate on different groupings of cognitive functions and focuses (i.e. behavior versus interpersonal relations).
Alphas: ILE (ENTp), SEI (ISFp), ESE (ESFj), LII (INTj)
Betas: EIE (ENFj), LSI (ISTj), SLE (ESTp), IEI (INFp)
Gammas: SEE (ESFp), ILI (INTp), LIE (ENTj), ESI (ISFj)
Deltas: LSE (ESTj), EII (INFj), IEE (ENFp), SLI (ISTp)
Quadras
Socionics quadras arrange the Sociotypes into four groups of four—sharing workflow preferences and general worldviews. Primary friendships also tend to fall under a particular quadra.
| Alpha (Ti, Ne, Fe, Si) ILE, SEI, ESE, LII | Beta (Ti, Se, Fe, Ni) EIE, LSI, SLE, IEI |
| Gamma (Fi, Se, Te, Ni) SEE, ILI, LIE, ESI | Delta (Fi, Ne, Te, Si) LSE, EII, IEE, SLI |
Clubs
Socionics clubs sort the 16 Sociotypes into four groups, which tend to share hobbies, interests, as well as creative pursuits. Sociotypes in the same club also have similar thought processes and intellectual or academic values.
| Researchers (NT) ILE, LIE, ILI, LII | Socials (SF) SEE, ESE, SEI, ESI |
| Pragmatists (ST) SLE, LSE, SLI, LSI | Humanitarians (NF) IEE, EIE, IEI, EII |
Temperaments
Extraversion–Introversion and Irrational–Rational dichotomies. Similar to the four temperaments model proposed by Hippocrates (i.e. EP – Sanguine, EJ – Choleric, IP – Phlegmatic, IJ – Melancholic).
| EP (Flexible–Maneuvering) ILE, SLE, SEE, IEE | EJ (Linear–Assertive) ESE, EIE, LIE, LSE |
| IP (Receptive–Adaptive) IEI, SEI, ILI, SLI | IJ (Balanced–Stable) LII, LSI, ESI, EII |
Socionics Dichotomies
There are 15 total scales in the Socionics dichotomies, four (4) of them being unique to Socionics:
- Introverted–Extraverted
- Rational–Irrational
- Intuitive–Sensing
- Logical–Ethical
Below are the remaining 11 dichotomies (also commonly known as the Reinin dichotomies):
- Static–Dynamic
- Positivist–Negativist
- Asking–Declaring
- Tactical–Strategic
- Constructivist–Emotivist
- Result–Process
- Yielding–Obstinate
- Carefree–Farsighted
- Judicious–Decisive
- Aristocracy–Democracy
- Merry–Serious
The goal of the dichotomies is to effectively map out a series of scales to accurately determine various Sociotypes. Currently, more research is needed within the Socionics framework to paint a clearer picture of various behaviors manifested in each Sociotype.
Model A
Augustina proposed the eight Jungian functions in eight respective positions, as part of the following blocks:
Ego (1, 2)
- Most confident
- Prone to overuse
- Autopilot in day-to-day life
- Derives purpose
- Indifferent to praise
Superego (3, 4)
- Lacks confidence
- Sensitive to criticism
- Prone to overreaction
- Source of stress & anxiety
- Appreciates praise
Superid (5, 6)
- Poorly developed
- Seen as chores best left to others
- Source of recreation
- Appreciates help
Id (7, 8)
- Most well-developed
- Seen as boring & meaningless
- Prone to being ignored
- Source of skill growth
- Indifferent to help
| 1 – Leading Ego (Strong) (Accepting) | 2 – Creative Ego (Strong) (Producing) | 3 – Role Superego (Weak) (Accepting) | 4 – Vulnerable Superego (Weak) (Producing) |
| 5 – Suggestive Superid (Weak) (Accepting) | 6 – Mobilizing Superid (Weak) (Producing) | 7 – Ignoring Id (Strong) (Accepting) | 8 – Demonstrative Id (Strong) (Producing) |
Model A categorizes functions to serve distinct roles and work together to facilitate emergent patterns in thought and action, both internally and externally—like a house with rooms for specific purposes, and differing levels of importance and frequency of visits.
Information Metabolism (IM)
Information Metabolism emphasizes concepts of flow, transfer, movement, and spectrum of the psyche—which is split up into four components:
Comparable to the biological processes of metabolization, Information Metabolism highlights the energies present within each Sociotype that interact with the environment to produce resulting behaviors.
- Ego
- Superego
- Superid
- Id
The main three-component model of the psyche is well-known: Id, Ego, and Superego. What then, is the Superid? It can be thought of as the mediator between the Id and the Superego, which has the tendency to emerge during existential crises or bouts of hopelessness.
PoLR Descriptions
As a measure of each Sociotype’s most vulnerable function, PoLR takes a stab at each Sociotype’s weakness to light, in relation to their weaker functions (e.g. Role, Vulnerable, Suggestive, Mobilizing).
PoLR stands for the Vulnerable function in Socionics, which is the area that often unconsciously gets each Sociotype into trouble—with the core reason being staggeringly difficult to figure out.
As a general rule of thumb, the PoLR function is hidden in plain sight and goes unacknowledged until it is forcefully pushed to perform under massive amounts of stress. And then it makes its presence known (ready or not), on full blast.
Bitwise Operations
Walking into mathematics and computer science, Socionics can be moulded from the default Gulenko-Jungian (G-J) notation to bitwise base-2, and even hexadecimal formats. In a digital era with user-experience personas and large-scale data operations, Socionics may potentially have an upper hand.
The Socionics bitwise operations chart:
| G-J Type | Base-2 | Base-10 | Base-16 | Relation |
| ENTp | 0000 | 0 | 0 | Identity |
| ENTj | 0001 | 1 | 1 | Quasi-Identity |
| ENFp | 0010 | 2 | 2 | Congenerity |
| ENFj | 0011 | 3 | 3 | Requester Recipient |
| ESTp | 0100 | 4 | 4 | Cooperation |
| ESTj | 0101 | 5 | 5 | Requester |
| ESFp | 0110 | 6 | 6 | Super-Ego |
| ESFj | 0111 | 7 | 7 | Activation |
| INTp | 1000 | 8 | 8 | Extinguishment |
| INTj | 1001 | 9 | 9 | Mirror |
| INFp | 1010 | 10 | A | Mirage |
| INFj | 1011 | 11 | B | Supervisor |
| ISTp | 1100 | 12 | C | Semi-Duality |
| ISTj | 1101 | 13 | D | Supervisee |
| ISFp | 1110 | 14 | E | Duality |
| ISFj | 1111 | 15 | F | Conflict |
Summary: Socionics
- Translation from Jungian Notation
- Quadras
- Clubs
- Temperaments
- Dichotomies
- Model A
- Information Metabolism
- PoLR (Vulnerable Function)
- Bitwise Operations
References
Bukalov, Aleksandr. (2000). Socionics: humanitarian, social, political and information intellectual technologies of the XXI century. Socionics, mentology and personality psychology.
Bukalov, Aleksandr & Karpenko, Olga. (2013). Socionics and Management. Management and personnel: psychology of management, socionics and sociology. 2013. 5-9.
Karpenko, Olga & Bukalov, Aleksandr. (2013). Socionics as an academic scientific discipline. Socionics, mentology and personality psychology.
Pietrak, Karol. (2017). The Foundations of Socionics – A Review. Cognitive Systems Research. 47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogsys.2017.07.001.