Welcome to the land of Cognitive functions! Knowing what cognitive functions make up a personality type and how it manifests will help you understand yourself and others much better. Let's get into it!
Core Functions - Feeling, Thinking, Sensing and Intuition
Every single personality type have these four functions, although some are more stronger and more natural to use than other functions. Sensing (S) and intuition (I) are perceiving functions, meaning that it is how you take in information. For example when you are driving, you are constantly taking in information of what cars are around you, what signs there are. These perceiving functions work alongside the judging functions which is thinking (T) and feeling (F). These functions are responsible for evaluating and organising the information that you have perceived. For example, when you see a give way, you can decide when it is safe to go based on the information you have perceived. Both of these perceiving and judging functions are the basis of how humans work.
So basically, the perceiving functions (sensing and intuition) is responsible for gathering and processing information, and judging functions (thinking and feeling) determines how we decide what to do with that information, how we organise our world, and the criteria we use to evaluate choices and actions.
Judging Functions
Feeling (F)
One's feeling function judges and evaluates information based on emotion. For example someone may decide to compliment someone because they wanted them to feel better. This is just one influence of our decision making though.
Thinking (T)
One's thinking function is the other influence of our decision making and interpreting of information. It judges data based on objective and rational logic. For example someone may decide to buy the cheaper dress because they want to save money.
Perceiving Functions
P.s. It's sort of hard to describe perceiving functions because it's difficult to explain how we naturally take in the world around us, but I'll try my best.
Sensing (S)
To take in information, this function allows one to look at reality in a concrete and detailed way. Taking in the facts and what is tangible and real. For example, noticing that it is raining.
Intuition (N)
On the other hand, intuition perceives information beyond what is immediately visible, tangible, or concrete. It focuses on abstract possibilities, underlying patterns, and potential meanings rather than sensory facts. Intuition perceives the world by unconsciously looking at potential outcomes, connections, and how things could unfold in the future. It looks at the bigger picture and finds meaning behind what is real and observable. For example, having a gut feeling that it's going to rain soon.
So, these are a brief explanation of the four core functions that everybody has. It doesn't stop there though. There is an 'introverted' and 'extroverted' version of each of these functions, which explains how the core function is used.
Cognitive Functions
Introverted Feeling (Fi) versus Extroverted Feeling (Fe)
Fi is a judging function which looks at emotions within to make decisions and evaluate information. Because of this, they tend to hold strong values and be very in touch with their feelings. They don't usually like to share their feelings unless to someone very close to them. They are also very sympathetic and compassionate for others as they can easily put themselves in others shoes.
Fe is a judging function which looks at emotions outwards to make decisions and evaluate information. Because of this, they tend to be very aware of the emotional 'vibe' around them and be sensitive to how others feel. They empathise in a spontaneous 'feeling the energy' type of way and are quite open about their feelings. This function feels a responsibility to keep harmony by creating and feeling for others.
Introverted Thinking (Ti) versus Extroverted Thinking (Te)
Ti is a judging function which looks at internal logical structures to make decisions and evaluate information. Because of this, they tend to want to know how and why things work and create consistent logical principles. They are very good at deductive logic and like to analyse things thoroughly to understand them fully.
Te is a judging function which looks at external logical structures to make decisions and evaluate information. Because of this, they tend to be good at organising systems externally to effectively, efficiently and logically achieve a goal. They also tend to categorise and organise people around them to 'get things done'. They usually focus on what will work for the people around them.
Introverted Sensing (Si) versus Extroverted Sensing (Se)
Si is a perceiving function which gathers and processes information based on concrete facts and detailed experiences. Because of this, they tend to refer to the past a lot and remember it with specific details.
Se is a perceiving function which gathers and processes information based on what is physically and tangibly around them. They focus on what is real through their senses and quick to react to the present moment and notice what is happening in their environment in detail.
Introverted Intuition (Ni) versus Extroverted Intuition (Ne)
Ni is a perceiving function which gathers and processes information based on their internal vision for the future, patterns and insights. Because of this, they tend to have a strong imagination and be very insightful without needing a lot of detail. Ni also tends to process this information by synthesising everything into one cohesive concept, filtering out any small details that don't align with this big vision.
Ne is a perceiving function which gathers and processes information by exploring possibilites and drawing connections between ideas in the external world. Because of this, they tend to be great at idea generating, speculating about the future and think of many possibilities and opportunities. Ne also tends to process this information by expanding and branching out, seeking many different perspectives, interpretations and potential outcomes.
So these are the introverted and the extroverted versions of the core functions. As you can see, extraverted functions are more spontaneous and reactive to their environment, while introverted ones are reflective and personal. The next thing to understand about personality types is the cognitive stack which is what makes up a persons 4 cognitive functions, affecting how they interpret and live their every day life.
Cognitive Stack
Every single person has a stack of four cognitive functions, with two perceiving functions (one introverted and one introverted) and two judging functions (one introverted and one introverted). They are stacked so you have a dominant, auxiliary, tertiary and inferior function, going from strongest to weakest. If someone's dominant/first (strongest) function is introverted, then their auxiliary/second function will be extraverted, their tertiary/third function will be introverted and their inferior/fourth function will be extroverted. This alternating pattern ensures that one is relatively balanced with their internal and external worlds.
An example of a personality types cognitive function is the ISFJ which will look like this:
This is an illustration to represent how the cognitive functions that make up an ISFJ may work. As you can see, the dominant function (introverted sensing) is the biggest, illustrating that it is the strongest function for an ISFJ. The auxiliary function is (extraverted feelings) is the second biggest, demonstrating how it is the second strongest. Usually a person will mainly use the top two functions in every day life, although their tertiary and inferior functions do still play a significant role. For an ISFJ, their tertiary function is introverted intuition, and their inferior function is extraverted intuition. The lines drawn across is there to represent the connection between the two functions that are perceiving and judging. So for an ISFJ, their perceiving functions are Si and Ne, and their judging ones are Ti and Fe. The functions on the right side are extraverted and the ones on the left are introverted.
So how do you find out your cognitive stack?
First you need to get your four letters that represent one of the 16 personality types. You can find this by taking the 16 personalities test, although these tests can be inaccurate, they still are likely to get most of the letters right. For example, let's say we are trying to find the cognitive stack for an ENTP.
- Look at first and last latter, so E and P. This means extraverted and perceiving. The two extraverted and perceiving functions we know are Se and Ne.
- Look at the second letter. Is it N or S? In this case it is N, so that means they lead with extraverted intuition (Ne).
- Look at third letter. Is it T or F? In this case it is T, an because the dominant function is extraverted, that means the auxiliary has to be introverted. This means that an ENTP's auxiliary function is introverted thinking (Ti).
- From here it's easy. You get the other judging function that isn't used, so feeling (F) and make it extraverted because the auxiliary was introverted and they have to be alternating. So tertiary is extraverted feeling (Fe).
You can also figure this out by making it the opposite of the auxiliary function. So if thinking, make it feeling, and if introverted, make it extraverted.
- Then you only have sensing (S) left, and it has to be introverted because the auxiliary was extraverted.
There, now you have it, an ENTP's cognitive function is this: Ne, Ti, Fe, Si.
Also illustrated below:
Thank you guys for reading all this and I hope you guys enjoyed this explanation on cognitive functions! Now you know what personality types are truly made up of and how the theory works. Just know that cognitive functions manifest differently when placed at different levels and alongside different functions. So Ne won't show itself in the same way as an ENTP and an ISFJ because they are at different positions. I hope learning about this will help you understand yourself and others better.
If you're interested in buying a compatibility chart for $3.50 to show how compatible any two types are, click here: Compatibility chart
If you're interested in going deeper into how to distinguish between opposite cognitive functions, click here: Free guide