On the Semantics of the Eight Socionic Functions in Their Program and Creative Positions

V. L. Talanov

Main theses of the article (summary):

1) The computational model proposed by A. Khizhnyak for 16 new socionic pseudofunctions is discussed. It is concluded that the trait weighting coefficients he proposed do not make it possible to calculate the functions and their properties (if only because they deny the immanent connection between a function and its rational/irrational pole), although they may be useful for studying the integral properties of psychotypes that are simultaneously determined by many functions and that have one of the 8 functions specifically in the program or creative position.

2) The coefficients proposed by A. Khizhnyak are practically equivalent to elementary operations of averaging the properties of two psychotypes that respectively have the given function in the program or creative position. However, in Khizhnyak’s version of the trait weighting coefficients, the loadings for Logic–Ethics and Intuition–Sensing are additionally strengthened slightly (by a factor of 1,4) relative to the loadings for Extraversion–Introversion and Rationality–Irrationality. Mathematically, this is not uniquely justified; nevertheless, when the properties of two psychotypes are averaged, it promotes somewhat more selective extraction of properties associated with Logic–Ethics and Intuition–Sensing, while moderately damping properties determined by Rationality–Irrationality and Extraversion–Introversion. In the end, this proves useful when considering the semantics of properties obtained by averaging two psychotypes, although the same result can be achieved by other, mathematically better justified means (for example, after obtaining the entire list of averaged properties of two psychotypes, simply extracting the required questions from it according to a criterion by comparing the magnitudes of the eight loadings in the functional profile of the statements, where the functional profile is calculated using the formulas from the article http://sociotoday.narod.ru/funkcii1.html - see also Table «A» in the present article). Across 6663 questionnaire statements, the mean mutual correlation of the calculated loadings, obtained either using A. Khizhnyak’s formulas in Table «B» or by elementary averaging of the properties of two psychotypes (Table «C»), is 0,9853 (thus, the difference between the loadings for the 16 function positions obtained by the two methods amounts to only approximately 3% of the variance of the properties (3% is the difference between one and the square of the correlation coefficient)).

3) The semantic analysis conducted showed that the loadings in Table «B» (A. Khizhnyak) are unsuitable for identifying properties directly attributable to a function in the creative position. The alternative trait loadings presented by us in Table «D» are of somewhat better quality for this purpose, but they too are imperfect.

4) Nevertheless, on the basis of A. Khizhnyak’s coefficients, which in practice are convenient for selectively studying the functional properties of psychotypes (because they reduce the contribution of properties of little interest to us that are linked to general Rationality–Irrationality and general Extraversion–Introversion, and are therefore spread evenly across several functions at once), we analyzed 6663 questionnaire statements, selectively assigning them to the properties associated with the placement of each of the eight functions in either the program or creative position. Thus, 16 situations were considered, among which all of the analyzed questionnaire statements were distributed. The resulting tables of questionnaire-item distributions (see Tables 1–16) differ very little from the corresponding tables obtained by simple arithmetic averaging of the properties of two psychotypes (for example, averaging the properties of ILE and IEE to identify marker properties of Ne in the program position).

5) On the basis of an analysis of the semantics of particular properties (that is, the wording of questionnaire statements found to be maximally associated with the program or creative position of one of the 8 functions and presented in Tables 1–16), we drew general conclusions about the principal integral properties of the eight socionic functions (according to Tables 1–16 and Table «F» at the end of the article, their position in the TIM does not appreciably affect the properties of the function). Conclusions were drawn about the mental operations associated with the functions, as well as about the possible physiological basis and hypothetical factors in the evolutionary formation of each of the eight socionic functions of the psyche. Some important conclusions (especially concerning Ti and Te, as well as both intuitive functions) are published here for the first time.

6) The main useful innovation of the present research consists in the concurrent derivation of detailed semantics of the properties associated with the two positions of each of the 8 socionic functions (respectively, the program or creative position), as well as in the conclusions we drew on this basis regarding the generalized semantics of the 8 socionic functions and their probable physiological basis and possible evolutionary prehistory.

Introduction

On September 3, 2015, in his post on Socioforum (On the Metric of V. L. Talanov’s Functions), Tyumen socionist Andrey Khizhnyak proposed extending the table of trait-loading weights derived by V. Talanov in http://sociotoday.narod.ru/funkcii1.html, which is intended for calculating the magnitudes of the 8 socionic functions from the magnitudes of the 15 trait loadings of a socionic trait profile (see Table «A»), so that instead of 8 socionic functions it would calculate 16 quasi-functions (see Table «B»). According to A. Khizhnyak’s conception, a function bearing the same name but occupying two different positions (program and creative) has qualitative differences. This is indicated, first, by the socionic traits Carefree, Yielding, Tactics, and Constructivism, and, second, directly by V. Talanov’s socionic Model «T», which proceeds from hypothesized psychophysiological differences between a function in the program and creative positions (in the program position, its ranges of signal excitation and inhibition differ; in the creative position, they are equal). Indeed, because Model T, which is based on these psychophysiological assumptions, successfully predicts and describes intertype relations, while at the same time being based on the introduction of effectively 16 varieties of functions instead of 8, it would be interesting to attempt to approach a description of 16 functions by using an expanded metric for transforming trait loadings into loadings on 16 hypothetical quasi-functions. A. Khizhnyak’s Table «B» proposes precisely such a hypothetical metric, although, as A. Khizhnyak himself wrote, it had not yet been tested for correspondence between the quasi-functions calculated from it and actual socionic functions in the program or creative positions. In the present study we performed our own test of A. Khizhnyak’s hypothesis. Unfortunately, for the coefficients given in Table «B», it was not confirmed, either in terms of the semantics of Model T or in terms of traditional socionic conceptions of the properties and semantics of a function in its creative position. Nevertheless, the approach proposed by A. Khizhnyak is of interest. Using a similar metric but different coefficients (Table D), we were able to obtain a relatively better approximation to the properties of creative functions, although most likely not an ideal one either. The present work will also show that although the metric of trait-loading coefficients proposed by A. Khizhnyak does not lead to the semantics of creative functions, it does somewhat increase the contrast in the study of the semantics of a function in the program position, which can sometimes be useful because the coefficients of this metric moderately attenuate the noise-producing influence exerted on the directly functional component of the semantics by general Rationality–Irrationality and general Extraversion–Introversion properties of psychotypes.

Analytical examination – why the coefficients in Table «B» do not make it possible to calculate function magnitudes selectively in the program and creative positions

1. Let us begin with the obvious. Table «B» prescribes creative intuition to be a rational function and, for example, creative logic to be an irrational function. We are, however, accustomed to Rationality–Irrationality being an immanent, inseparable property of a function, and in this light rational intuition is nonsense. This immediately raises the suspicion that the trait loadings in the second part of Table «B» do not yield the properties of the functions themselves when they occupy the creative position, but instead describe the integral properties of psychotypes in which the function occupies that position. The difference between these two hypothetical descriptions is very large. In the first case, for example, for Ne we should obtain the properties of Ne itself and only Ne in the creative position; in the second case, we have the sum of the properties of the LII and EII psychotypes, in which what is associated with Ne occupies only a small place, while the properties associated with the vulnerable position of Se (characterizing its weakness), the demonstrative position of Ni, and the activating position of Si are most likely to come to the foreground. But these are not the functions that interest us (especially not in their inseparable aggregate influence); what interests us is the separately isolated contribution to the properties of creative Ne alone!

2. Unfortunately, that is indeed what happens. Look at Table «C». This table gives the trait weights used to calculate the averaged properties of pairs of types. In the first half of the table, these are for pairs of types related by kindred relations, and in the second half, for pairs related by business relations. When we use this table, summing the products of its trait loadings and the algebraic magnitudes of the peaks of the corresponding traits in the trait profile of a particular person or questionnaire item, the resulting magnitude of, for example, creative Ne is identically equal to the mean magnitude of the LII and EII peaks in the type profile of that same person or questionnaire item. If you wish, you can do a little mathematics yourself to verify this. But we have long known very well that the arithmetic averaging of the properties of LII and EII (like that of any other pair of types linked by business relations) characterizes not Ne in its pure form, but the combined influence of Ne, Se, Ni, and Si, and the contribution of Ne, or of any other creative function, to this sum of properties is always far less than half (in fact, it is much smaller still, less than 10%). Do the trait-loading coefficients in Table «C» differ greatly from Khizhnyak’s coefficients in Table «B»? No, they differ minimally. The difference between them is not qualitative; it consists only in the fact that in Table «C», which identically produces simple arithmetic averaging of the properties of pairs of kindred or business-related types, the relative weight of Extraversion–Introversion, Rationality–Irrationality, and Statics is 1,4 times greater than in Table «B», which by design is supposedly intended to yield the pure properties of the functions. But perhaps this small proportional difference between the tables in the weights of their coefficients for the three traits is precisely what is decisive and substantial? Unfortunately, not at all.

3. That it is “not at all” can readily be checked and confirmed in several ways. First, for some set of people who answered sociodiagnostic questionnaires, or for a set of diagnostic questions (provided that their type profiles and therefore their trait profiles are known from previously obtained empirical data), one can separately calculate, for each member of these sets, the values characterizing their creative_Ne (we use this function merely as an example, but the same can be done for creative_Si, creative_Ti, program_Ti, and so on). Having calculated, for example, two series of corresponding creative_Ne values for all questionnaire items (one series using the coefficients of Table «B», the other using the coefficients of Table «C»), we can then calculate the linear correlation coefficient between the two series of data. It turns out that, in a large array of questionnaire items with known profiles (we used more than 6000), the magnitudes of the creative Ne quasi-function calculated separately using the two tables correlate with one another at 0,9853 (almost the maximum possible value, one). Such a high correlation coefficient means that the properties of creative_Ne calculated using the two different tables differ from one another, in terms of the non-overlapping variance of their properties, by only 3 percent on average. This is far too little to claim that the properties of the creative_Ne quasi-function obtained using Table «B» can reflect anything other than the same sum of the influences of four functions on the integral properties of the averaged LII+EII, just as in Table «C», where the contribution of Ne itself among the other functions is less than 10%.

4. Let us now conduct an even more convincing direct experiment. Once again, we have more than 6000 questionnaire items with known diagnostic profiles (both empirically obtained type profiles and the trait profiles calculated from them). From the trait loadings it is easy to calculate the functional profiles of these questions as well. For now, let us do this for the “ordinary 8 functions” using the mathematically well-founded formulas in Table «A», that is, calculate the question loadings on the eight functions without taking into account their program, creative, or any other position in the TIM. We now have these functional profiles for all 6000 questions, in which each function in the profile is characterized by an algebraic number: positive if the contribution of that function to the properties of the particular question is above the mean contribution of all 8 functions, and negative if the contribution of that function to the psychological properties described by the question is below the mean level for the functions. The larger the number, the more strongly that particular socionic function is responsible for the psychological properties associated with the questionnaire item. Next, using the same trait profiles for the 6000 questions, we can also calculate their functional loadings on the 16 new quasi-functions, according to the coefficients of either Table «B», Table «C», or another alternative Table «D» (which we will also need later for comparison). Once we have calculated, for each table and each question, the magnitudes of these 16 quasi-functions, we can again calculate correlations. This time, however, they will be correlations between the resulting 16 quasi-functions and the previous ordinary 8 functions, which had already been calculated using the repeatedly tested and mathematically valid algorithm embodied in Table «A». We will not claim that the quasi-functions program_Ne and creative_Ne, calculated using the coefficients of Table «B», must necessarily correlate with the simple function Ne, calculated from Table «A» (which does not take into account the possibility of its qualitatively different position in the TIM), with a positive correlation of exactly one. Of course that will not happen, nor should it. But in any case, the correlation between “plain Ne” on the one hand and program_Ne and creative_Ne on the other should be sufficiently high. If the difference in properties between “plain Ne” and creative_Ne does not exceed 30%, then the correlation coefficient between them should be greater than 0,83 (because in that case the proportion of shared variance, which is identical to the square of the correlation coefficient, will be greater than 0,83*0,83=0,70). Let us now see what actually results; the data from all calculations actually performed are summarized in Table «E». It turns out that the correlation between the “creative” quasi-functions calculated according to Table «B» and the eight socionic functions of the same name (more precisely, the corresponding itemwise loadings in the array of 6663 questionnaire items with known profiles) averages only 0,21. This magnitude of correlation corresponds to only 4% shared variance between the functions, which is wholly unacceptable.

5. A much higher correlation (about +0,72) between the creative quasi-functions and the 8 socionic functions calculated using Table «A» is obtained with an entirely different system of coefficients for calculating the 16 quasi-functions, shown in Table «D». This system of coefficients evidently approximates the immanent properties of the creative functions much better than Table «B», although it too is certainly not the only possible system and is unlikely to be perfect.

6. For readers who are not versed in the subtleties of mathematics and formal logic, the preceding reasoning was unlikely to be convincing. For their sake, and simply to achieve final and visually clear evidence, in Tables 1–16 we divided the 6663 questionnaire items into 16 groups, each containing those items for which one of the quasi-functions calculated from their type or trait profile using Khizhnyak’s Table «B» has the highest value among all 16 quasi-functions. Thus, the questionnaire items selected into the first 8 tables reflect the semantics of the 8 program quasi-functions, while Tables 9 through 16 reflect the semantics of the 8 creative quasi-functions calculated using Table «B». After examining these tables (and the generalized portraits of the quasi-functions accompanying them), anyone can see that while the semantic portrait of the 8 program quasi-functions is more or less satisfactory (as it is when they are calculated using the alternative Tables «C» or «D»), the semantic portraits of the 8 creative quasi-functions are very far from the expected semantics of the functions themselves when they occupy the creative position, and instead much more closely reflect a deficit of the mobilizing function. Nor does the semantics of the quasi-functions in Table «B» coincide with the hypothesized semantics of the eight creative functions of Model «T».

Table «A». Trait weights for calculating the expression profile of the 8 functions of the psyche from any trait or type profile obtained for a person or questionnaire statement (table taken from V. L. Talanov’s work http://sociotoday.narod.ru/funkcii1.html)

Table «B». Trait weights for calculating 16 hypothetical functions which, according to A. Khizhnyak’s assumption (On the Metric of V. L. Talanov’s Functions), could be placed in correspondence with the 16 functions of V. Talanov’s Model «T»

Table «B» (continued)

Table «C». Trait weights used for simple averaging of the properties of two psychotypes with the specified function in the program or creative position (using the trait loadings given in the table is equivalent to directly calculating the formulas Ni_program=mean(ILI;IEI), Ni_creative=mean(LIE;EIE), etc.)

Table «C» (continued)

Table «D». An alternative set of trait weighting coefficients to Table «B»; on its basis one likewise obtains a complete, partially degenerate system of certain new pseudofunctions (with 11 degrees of freedom) which, however, compared with Table «B», corresponds much better to the semantics of the familiar 8 socionic functions when they are selectively located not only in the program but also in the creative position. Nevertheless, although this system of quasi-functions comes much closer to the requirements of Model T and the semantics of the creative position of the functions, it too does not fully satisfy them.

Table «E». Linear correlations between item loadings on the 8 socionic functions and loadings on the system of 16 quasi-functions (separately for quasi-functions calculated using the coefficients of Tables B, C, and D). The correlation coefficients were calculated on an array of 6663 questionnaire items with previously known empirical type and trait profiles, from which their profiles on the 16 quasi-functions were also calculated.

Brief Consideration of the Mutual Correlations Among the Eight Socionic Functions of the Psyche

Independently of the consideration of quasi-functions, analysis of the intercorrelations of item loadings for the 8 socionic functions traditionally recognized in socionics is of interest in its own right. Table «E» (its lower part) shows that the system of 8 socionic functions is far from symmetrical in its mutual correlations; that is, the mutual distances within pairs of complementary functions or pairs of functions of the same name but opposite “colors” are far from equal and are specific to different pairs. This “variegation” cannot be regarded merely as a result of measurement errors or uneven selection of questions in the large item array we used for correlation analysis, because it is systematic, recurs in very different human samples and very different questionnaires, and admits of certain explanations. The strongest negative correlation among pairs of complementary functions is observed between Fe and Ti; recall that these functions are the most sensitive to sex hormones, and it is precisely they that maximally “separate” the two sexes from one another. Ti and Te have quite a lot in common, meaning that these functions, if not in their mechanisms, are at least functionally rather closely coupled, whereas Si and Se have almost nothing in common, primarily, presumably, because of their diametrically opposite relationship to the serotonergic system. Si, associated with high serotonergic activity, is the most peaceable of the 8 functions. By contrast, Se, partly associated with a deficiency of serotonergic activity, is the most aggressive; this accounts for the substantial divergence of these functions in psychological space. The pair of two functions with different Rationality–Irrationality polarities, Si and Fi, apparently overlap in their mechanisms to some extent, producing mutual positive correlational attraction. Similarly, there is an elevated association between Te and Se, possibly mediated by the common involvement of the sex hormone testosterone in their mechanisms (the former is the “hunting” function, while the latter is associated with territorial aggression). Among functions of the same Rationality–Irrationality pole and the same color, the greatest similarity is found in the Ti and Fi pair, and the least similarity in the Te and Fe pair, which to a considerable extent “negate” one another. Various departures from symmetry in the intercorrelation matrix of the 8 mental functions should, on the whole, be regarded as a normal and natural pattern. The functions are relatively independent constructs of the psyche in which heterogeneous neural mechanisms are linked by very strong correlational relationships. This internal coupling formed over the course of evolution, which directed neural processes toward being linked into certain functional blocks useful for solving particular standard classes of tasks. Socionics considers 8 such blocks, although they can probably be subdivided further, and not necessarily symmetrically. Nor does anything imply that the 8 blocks already considered scientifically must form an absolutely symmetrical structure and be strictly equidistant from one another in the space of psychological properties. Approximate equidistance, in places accompanied by asymmetrical overlap of mechanisms, is precisely what evolution should and can produce in the course of forming functional constructs of the central nervous system.

A By-Product of the Study – Detailed Description of the Semantics of the Eight Socionic Functions in the Program Position

Although the formulas in Table «B» do not make it possible to obtain quasi-functions that would selectively reflect the semantics of the 8 socionic functions in the creative position, the quasi-functions obtained from its first half (as also when they are calculated using Tables «C» or «D») reflect the semantics of socionic functions in the program position quite satisfactorily. Using the previously obtained empirical trait profiles for 6663 questionnaire items and the coefficients in Table «B», we calculated their loadings on each of the 16 quasi-functions. Each table (numbered 1 through 16) collected the questions having the maximum loading on one of the 16 quasi-functions. Thus, the resulting 16 tables listing questionnaire items reflect the semantics of the 16 quasi-functions. The first 8 tables very closely approximate the averaged semantics of TIMs having one of the 8 socionic functions in its program position; the final 8 tables characterize the averaged semantics of TIMs having one of the socionic functions in the creative position. The semantics of the first 8 tables correspond very precisely to the semantics of the functions themselves in the program position. The semantics of the following 8 tables do not coincide with the intrinsic semantics of the creative functions, but the semantics of those functions can nevertheless be extracted from them by comparison with the semantics of the 8 socionic functions calculated using Table «A» without regard to their position in the TIM (using this table gives us the universal semantics of the 8 functions). The result of this comparative work is presented at the end of the article in Table «F».

In total, to construct Tables 1–16, we analyzed 6663 questionnaire statements for which we had accumulated sufficient socionic statistics (from 320 to 7700 respondents per item, with an average of 1180 respondents per item). For each item, the magnitude of each of the 16 quasi-functions was calculated using the coefficients in Table «B» applied to the item’s trait profile. Before this, the trait profile had been calculated by a fully unambiguous algorithm from the type profile of these items, which in turn had previously been obtained empirically. The tables did not include all items found to be exclusively associated with a given quasi-function, but only the items with the highest loadings (and therefore the most illustrative with respect to the semantics of its properties).

Each table listing empirically obtained question-statements that serve as markers of the program or creative position of a function in the TIM is preceded by an integrative (brief) description, compiled by us, of the properties of TIMs associated with the placement of the function in the corresponding position. These generalized descriptions are based exclusively on the empirical table of marker statements that follows them.

For a better understanding of both the semantics and the possible physiological mechanisms of any mental function, it is very important to determine what competitive advantages were built into the mechanism of its evolutionary emergence and subsequent consolidation in the psyche. Therefore, in the generalized description of each of the 8 functions in the program position, we additionally included a section describing, in the author’s view, the possible competitive advantages that may once have directed the process of its evolutionary selection and formation in primates. The description also includes a section briefly summarizing our assumptions (based on empirically obtained correlations with physiological markers of the brain) concerning the possible cerebral physiological correlates and physiological mechanisms of the function, and a section summarizing as briefly as possible the conditionally positive and conditionally negative consequences of placing the socionic function in the program or creative position (because there is no perfection in the world, and every stick always has two ends).

Ni program, T

Principal properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): diffuseness of attention; detachment and disconnection from the surrounding world and withdrawal from it into fantasies and dreams; consequently, weakened “care empathy” with increased egocentrism; frequent illusions of depersonalization and especially derealization of the surroundings; increased predisposition to illusions and hallucinations (verbal and visual); constant “replaying” in the mind of various fictional situations that develop sequentially (that is, plot-based situations, which in this respect have much in common with dreams). Frequent plot-based modeling also gives rise to an enhanced predictive ability (although, because irrational types have a low need for planning, it is weaker than in rational creative Ni). There are low internal energy, lazy passivity toward the challenges of the external world, an increased tendency toward masochistic fantasies and autoaggression, a rather depressive mood background, and a sense that the world is hostile toward oneself.

At the physiological level, the function is supported primarily by features specific to it in dopaminergic and serotonergic neurotransmission in the thalamus, basal ganglia, hippocampus, and neocortex. It is specifically program Ni that is associated with a sharply elevated predisposition to productive (hallucinations) and negative (impoverishment of interpersonal emotions and impoverishment of motivations) symptoms of the schizoid spectrum. In the normal range, this personality trait, without pathological progression, is called schizothymia. Since 2000, neuroscience has shown that schizothymia is associated with a number of features of several families of dopamine receptors in the neocortex, striatum, and thalamus; in particular, schizothymia is associated with deficient binding of D2 dopamine receptors in the thalamus. The “mental wanderings” through memory characteristic of Ni, involving fantasy construction of new dynamic scenes, that is, scenes extended over time, from its episodes, as well as the rather minor-depressive and often autoaggressive mood background characteristic of this function, indicate active involvement of the right-hemisphere hippocampus in its mechanisms.

Hypothetical evolutionary advantages of the function in our distant ancestors: modeling the possible development of social situations and, through this, avoiding potentially negative and dangerous moments; in a positive sense, situational adaptation, on the basis of scenario predictions, to an aggressive member of the troop in the expectation of its protection, which in turn is granted in gratitude for flexible and loyally submissive support (a more or less suitable, though exaggerated, archetypal image: Toadwart from the animated series Adventures of the Gummi Bears).

Conditionally positive properties of program Ni (from the standpoint of most people with a Russian mentality): high predictive ability and literary talent, which follow from the function’s association with dynamic fantasy. Because the function is also most often accompanied by the dynamic unfolding of vivid mental visual images, it is often associated with a talent for “drawing from memory.” Its conditionally negative properties are increased depressiveness, more often a hostile attitude toward both oneself and other people, passivity, and predisposition to mental disorders of the schizoid spectrum. Nevertheless, among all functions, program Ni interacts least with society, and therefore is rarely praised and rarely criticized, because it equally rarely helps or interferes with other, unrelated people.

Table 1 (Ni program). The table (as with the subsequent tables for the other functions) includes not all items exclusively associated with program Ni, but only a subset of the items with the highest loadings.

Ne program, I

Principal properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): disorganization; unrealistic and impractical activity; inconsistency, often failing to finish what was started; a tendency toward impulsive improvisation instead of planning; breadth of interests; everyday carelessness; unstable, jumping attention and easy distractibility; rapidity of thoughts and the associations arising in their course, often very remote ones; a tendency toward jumps, sudden and abrupt turns, in thought and conversation; easily becoming fired up and absorbed; sociability; inventiveness; rapid generation of many possibilities that arise associatively in the mind; intolerance of monotony; curiosity and attraction to novelty and everything unusual and unexpectedly incomprehensible. Adventure and journeys into unknown regions and distant lands attract such a person. The orienting response is rapidly exhausted; the experience of suffered loss is weakened (the loss is ignored or quickly forgotten), and for the same reason there is a complete absence of grudge-holding; there is a predisposition to poorer coordination of movements, especially fine movements. Speech impairments (low speech intelligibility), awkward or dancing handwriting, compulsive movements (tics), illusions of disorientation in place and time, confusion of the temporal order of events represented in memory, difficulty transferring information from short-term to long-term memory, and trismus (jaw spasms) are often observed. The general mood background is more often positive (in both ILE and IEE), corresponding to high dopaminergic activity (and possibly also elevated serotonergic activity) in the brain, rather than minor-key as in the case of Ni.

At the physiological level, the function is supported primarily by features specific to it in dopaminergic transmission in the thalamus, basal ganglia, and neocortex. It is possible that in many cases these involve the same dopamine-receptor features as in program Ni, but, unlike Ni, against a general background of increased dopaminergic and serotonergic activity. At the structural-functional level of the brain, many properties of the function (including memory impairment, speech impairment, and handwriting disturbances) indicate accompanying functional weakening of the neocortex (including the motor and speech cortices, cingulate cortex, and areas responsible for inhibitory control), as well as weakening of insular-cortex functions and, possibly, the region known as the precuneus. Reduced proactive aggression, indifference to losses, and lack of grudge-holding can be interpreted as a result of hypothesized reduced functional activity in the right-hemisphere temporal limbic region (including the amygdala and hippocampus).

Hypothetical evolutionary advantages of the function in our distant ancestors: searching for and publicizing new territories and new resource opportunities (the most distant excursions away from the troop’s habitat, searching for places rich in fruit trees or hunting resources, trying new fruits, etc.).

Conditionally positive properties of program Ne (from the standpoint of most people with a Russian mentality): breadth of interests, generation of creative ideas, rapid perception of a broad spectrum of new possibilities, inventiveness, curiosity and innovativeness, openness and benevolence toward other people, and everyday decency above the average level. Conditionally negative properties: disorganization, carelessness, scattered and unstable interests with insufficient consistency of action, especially in the final “last inches” of completion; impracticality, absent-mindedness, forgetfulness, insufficient critical judgment toward one’s own sometimes fanciful ideas, insufficient caution, and poor intelligibility of rapid speech (also accompanied by jumps in thought).

Table 2 (Ne program)

Si program, S

Principal properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): increased striving for comfort and coziness, pleasures and pleasant sensations; focus on the present moment, with extremely rare and difficult “looking ahead” into the future and very rare recourse to one’s memories; unhurried smoothness of movements and speech; muscular relaxation; avoidance of conflicts and problems; striving for a golden mean and a position of neutral noninterference; tolerance; lack of anxiety; serenity; well-developed tactile and olfactory analyzers; capacity for precise fine movements and well-developed sequential motor programs. The favorite color is most often green (the color of nature, peace, and calm).

At the physiological level, the semantics of the function indicate active involvement of the brain’s serotonergic system in supporting it. This is indicated both by the calm and peaceful mood background associated with the function and by the almost complete blockade of thoughts about the future and past that accompanies it (in special psychochemical experiments, a similar blockade emerges sharply specifically during stimulation of a number of serotonergic receptors), as well as by the strengthened size constancy in visual perception in the case of Si (but, conversely, weakened in the case of Ni), for which there are also grounds to consider the serotonergic system responsible. High serotonergic activity is also most likely indicated by the frequent occurrence of “pleasant stretching” sensations in the muscles, which also appear, among other conditions, during stimulation of certain types of serotonin receptors by lysergamide. A predominance of serotonergic over dopaminergic activity is also indirectly indicated by increased intestinal peristalsis (including accumulation of gas), which in a statistically reliable tendency is associated with strong program Si. General central adrenergic activity in program Si is probably reduced; this is indicated both by the accompanying relaxed posture and blockade of “fight-or-flight” reactions and by the reliably narrower pupil size among carriers of Si. Cholinergic activity appears to be approximately at an average level (the absence of a sharp increase is indicated by free breathing and non-conflictual, non-radical behavior, while the absence of a sharp decrease is supported by pupils that are not wide but, on the contrary, much more often constricted). Still, Si probably corresponds to moderately reduced cholinergic activity, because vulnerable Si is characterized by symptoms of its obvious increase in the form of conflict-prone radicalism of behavior. At the structural level of the brain, Si can be hypothesized to involve well-developed function of the motor and premotor regions of the frontal cortex. The predisposition of Si carriers to certain forms of aphasia (impairments in rapidly perceiving the meaning of heard phrases, accurately repeating them in dictation, or independently constructing phrases) indicates functional weakening of specific auditory-speech regions of the cerebral cortex. Si deficiency (in carriers of creative Ni) leads to increased seizure susceptibility, as is quite unambiguously indicated by the properties of creative Ni (see below; increased seizure susceptibility is characteristic of both LIE and EIE). By contrast, high Si promotes muscular relaxation. Si (especially in the creative position, but also in the program position) is characterized by a tendency toward left-hemisphere asymmetry in the auditory and visual analyzer systems (that is, relative to the population-average level, their left-hemisphere divisions have a certain advantage over the right-hemisphere divisions). In this connection, A. Luria’s data immediately come to mind showing that the left hemisphere is more “emotionally bright” than the right.

Hypothetical evolutionary advantages of the function in our distant ancestors: it tries not to push into the front ranks, while within the general mass it secures survival advantages through increased motivation for food (it will never miss what is its own) and developed manual motor skills (in our very distant ancestors, skill in cracking nuts and shells and making the simplest tools, and, still more importantly, frequent grooming provided to a broad, only weakly selective circle of other members of the troop, thereby securing their goodwill).

Conditionally positive properties of program Si (from the standpoint of most people with a Russian mentality): an optimistic and, in any case, calm and balanced mood background; an accommodating disposition; the ability to create convenience and comfort for oneself and partly for others; good manual skills and highly developed fine motor ability; good awareness of one’s own body and a well-developed map of external space relative to the position and movements of one’s own body; highly developed sensitivity of the tactile and gustatory analyzers. Conditionally negative properties: laziness; excessive hedonism; indifference to the past and future, with correspondingly weakened ability to learn lessons, plan one’s life, and foresee the development of events; inability to think about the future; a “whatever” attitude, that is, an indifferent and permissive attitude toward one’s own and other people’s problems; weakness of civic position, with readiness to adapt to any regime; weakened memorization of verbal material; a tendency toward difficulty constructing long phrases.

Se program, F

Main properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): lust for power; need for a leadership position and for further territorial expansion; lack of ceremony; striving for dominance, “toughness,” and conspicuous status display; contempt for “weaklings”; liking to demonstrate one’s superiority and position as “master”; increased need for frequent manifestations of personal proactive aggression (territorial aggression, “cold-nosed” aggression); tendency to exploit others; dividing people into categories of victims, rivals, and subordinates; preference for force-based solutions to problems; frequent use of intimidation and provocation of forceful confrontation, struggle, and rivalry; not condemning lies and slander and being able to use them because they are regarded as permissible weapons; liking to insist on one’s own way and having difficulty limiting one’s desires and drives; energetic and pushy. Likes and respects physical sports, especially strength sports; agile and quick-moving; has good coordination of movement, accelerated reaction speed, excellent visual estimation, tenacious visual memory, a large capacity of working short-term memory, and visual attention that operates without strain, especially failing to miss anything in the surroundings if it may be useful in solving tasks of struggle or concerns symbolic signs of power and subordination. The muscles are generally ready for rapid mobilization and instantaneous “explosive” action. At the physiological level there is a reliable tendency toward reduced pain sensitivity and faster healing of wounds and abrasions, as well as increased antiviral immunity.

Regulation of the Se function at the level of brain neurotransmitters is most likely multifactorial: it may involve, among other things, hypothalamic NMDA receptors and the dopaminergic, serotonergic, cholinergic, and vasopressinergic neurotransmitter systems. A number of properties (features of muscular constitution, and a tendency toward a lower voice pitch in carriers of Se regardless of sex) indicate some degree of participation of the sex hormone testosterone in the formation of strong Se; a number of modern studies of the mechanisms of aggression likewise indicate partial involvement of testosterone (comparison of the two sexes among respondents to socionic questionnaires by the percentage of people with strong Se also shows a small male advantage in this respect). The opposition of Se to Ne is hypothetically explained (and this is supported by a number of modern studies) primarily by opposite-direction shifts, for Se and Ne, in the characteristics of dopamine receptors in the thalamus and basal ganglia, with approximately equally elevated overall dopamine expression in the corresponding structures in the case of these functions. Apparently, because the mechanism of opposite-direction shifts in dopamine receptors is important but not the only mechanism, there is no universal one-hundred-percent opposition between Se and Ne for all people, just as there is none between other socionic functions. The opposition of Se to Ni is also likely supported substantially by their differences in serotonergic, cholinergic, and vasopressinergic mechanisms of the brain’s limbic system, as well as by an additional reduction in overall dopaminergic activity in the case of Ni. At the level of brain structures, Se is apparently characterized, among other things, by suppression of some inhibitory and controlling functions of the right neocortex and, conversely, activation of the right-hemisphere limbic sphere.

Hypothetical evolutionary advantages of the function among our distant ancestors: the strongest possible striving to raise one’s social rank in the troop, using physical strength and all mechanisms of proactive aggression for this purpose (fights for dominance, and after dominance is established, threats, intimidation, persecution of potential male and female rivals, and demonstrative persecution of low-ranking individuals). On the one hand, frequent fights (especially among social primates, where fatal outcomes are not uncommon) reduce the average survival of Se individuals, but on the other hand, achieved dominance provides advantages in access to food and very substantial reproductive advantages. The association of Se with an increased reproductive instinct is supported by the fact that libido and sexual activity correlate positively in the population with two functions: Se and Fe. Incidentally, Se is on average somewhat higher in men than in women, which also appears entirely natural in light of the linkage between Se and sexual dominance (although this sex difference is far smaller than in the case of Ti and Fe). Note that in the modern era, when duels have ceased and bloody wars are fought not by professional armies but by conscripts, Se, because of its elevated sexuality, has received an additional stimulus for mass propagation in the human gene pool. Lines of highly aggressive or, conversely, low-aggression mice can be bred in only three generations of selection. Apparently the same is true of humans. It is entirely possible that nineteenth-century humanity was, on average, much more peaceable and less psychopathic than humanity today. The famous German scientist Konrad Lorenz saw this danger and was the first to state it as early as the mid-1930s.

Conditionally positive properties of program Se (from the standpoint of most people of Russian mentality): physical strength, agility, physical endurance, and quickness of movement (Se has an objective physiological predisposition toward these properties, and they are also trained and cultivated first and foremost within the value system characteristic of Se); high immunity to viral diseases; rapid recovery after injuries; high sexuality; talent as a commander; will to win; “toughness” (especially valued by the ordinary person in a ruler, in the hope that the ruler will someday impale the person’s neighbor from the courtyard); readiness for intense struggle under stress; fearlessness; speed of decision-making. Conditionally negative properties: extreme lust for power; aggressiveness; tendency to usurp power and establish one’s dominance by any means and at any cost, including at the expense of society’s interests; governance by generating fear, threats, deception, and forceful suppression (which always horrifies the intelligentsia, becomes uncomfortable for the majority, and is destructive to the economy, including by criminalizing it); inability to exercise self-restraint; lack of principles and conviction that any means are acceptable for personal victory and attainment of superiority; excessive attachment to “status display” (formal symbols of status superiority); constant search for enemies (desired objects for confrontation); frequent use of lies and slander as means of solving problems (Se likes any weapon, and from the standpoint of Se slander is merely one variety of weapon); boorishness and impudence; coarseness and cruelty (especially on a logical background); egocentrism and disregard for other people’s and common interests; destructive influence on the stable system of relations established in society or a group and on civil peace; contempt for the weak; exploitation of subordinates; tendency to divide all people into only three categories: potential victims, enemies (rivals), and obedient subjects.

Table 4 (program Se)

Ti program, L

Main properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): an analytical mind oriented toward algorithms, programs, and dry analysis of facts; accepts nothing “on faith”; likes analyzing and ordering, sorting information and objects into categories; strives to achieve complete clarity regarding objects that enter its sphere of interest; likes comparing objects with a standard and bringing them as close as possible to that standard (maintaining the stability of one’s own financial balance is one such task), and for the same reason tends toward standardization and unification of objects; tends to organize objects within static hierarchical models (on an intuitive psychological background this occurs in science, on a sensory background in life); cool-headed, somewhat emotionally blind, maintains distance from people, taciturn, secretive about personal experiences and private life; respects factual knowledge and formal logic; patient and meticulous in any undertaking; in conversation reasons and argues sequentially and in detail, without “jumping”; usually characterized by high internal concentration; characterized by even stability of mood and stability of habits, values a constant environment; not impulsive, very high self-control; tends toward perfectionism in activity, including intensive elaboration of details; likes carrying out control checks and rechecks of one’s own decisions and their implementation by performers simultaneously according to many criteria; follows instructions and regulations more strictly than others.

Among the properties of program Ti, there are few reliable physiological markers. First and foremost, the clear superiority of the visual analyzer over the auditory one is noteworthy, in terms of their importance to the subject as channels for obtaining information. Analysis of the properties of vulnerable Ti indicates, moreover, that strong Ti should be accompanied by a substantial weakening of cognitive empathy, that is, the capacity for rational prediction of other people’s intentions and “reading” of emotional states. However, all this is insufficient for conclusions about the brain structures and neurotransmitter systems that primarily support Ti. White dermographism, which tends to be characteristic not only of Ti, may indicate increased involvement of the cholinergic system in its mechanisms. Good memory indirectly points in the same direction. However, these conclusions are not particularly reliable either: some other important markers of cholinergic activity are absent among Ti properties. Comparison of the two sexes among respondents to socionic questionnaires shows a substantial male predominance over females in the percentage of representatives of Ti types, which indirectly indicates testosterone involvement in formation of this function.

Hypothetical evolutionary advantages of the function among our distant ancestors: a predominantly individual, hermit-like tactic in food searching that proves faster and more successful than that of others because of good spatial memory for all known surrounding food sources and effective practical use of their precise classificatory evaluation as more or less promising in value, more or less distant and inaccessible, more or less known to other individuals, and so forth. This strategy is most successful and provides nutritional advantages under conditions of individual resource searching and territorial conservatism, but it does not provide safety advantages and may threaten social ostracism. To solve these problems, Ti individuals benefit from interaction with Fe individuals, who use part of the fruits obtained by Ti individuals and, through their calls, either warn of danger or, somewhat later, summon the other individuals to feast on the remains. The emotional leadership of Fe individuals in the troop provides additional socialization for Ti individuals as well. In addition to gathering within a limited territory, Ti individuals are also excellently adapted to hunting game from ambush, usually located not too far from the home or encampment. This is facilitated by Ti’s visual acuity, high patience, and the physiologically characteristic weaker odor of sweat in program Ti. Ti’s “specialization,” among other things, for ambush hunting, where silent ability not only to observe visually but also patiently to listen to the surrounding world is required, could well have produced the still-preserved association of Ti with the ability to listen to other people without interrupting them.

The basic operating mechanism of Ti consists in manipulating static standards, that is, standards that do not change over time, and constantly comparing real objects with these standards, trying either to select a standard maximally close to the object or, conversely, to minimize the deviations of the object itself from an existing specified standard. Quality control, standardization, striving for perfection of form, completeness of description, elimination of defects and roughness in models used for description, and maintenance of a constant order corresponding to a familiar standard are all situations in which Ti operates. The mechanisms of Ti most likely derive from mechanisms that, even before Ti emerged, were already used by the vertebrate visual system to recognize objects in the surrounding world by comparing them with samples (reference images) stored in memory. It is no accident that Ti to this day gravitates toward use of visual memory and visual-spatial imagination, although it has long since ceased to be tied only to purely visual tasks and can quite readily operate with abstract parameters. But because this is nevertheless a function that gravitates toward vision, it tends to perceive deviations of objects, perhaps even entirely abstract-philosophical ones, from a certain perfect standard as kinds of conceptual “deformations.” It sees its task as minimizing these deformations. Since complex objects to which the concept of deformation applies are usually called structures, the designation “structural” logic has therefore become attached to Ti with considerable justification.

Conditionally positive properties of program Ti (from the standpoint of most people of Russian mentality): good verbal memory; developed formal-logical and logical-analytical abilities; capacity for highly adequate sorting of information and identification of the principal, key properties of an object by which it is related to other objects and classified; high ability to construct hierarchical classificatory schemes (“trees”); developed spatial imagination and logical-spatial comparison operators (higher, lower, farther left, farther right, larger, smaller, and so forth); cool-headedness and comparatively high stress resistance; patience and ability to sit “in ambush”; imperturbability and balance; deliberateness of actions and highly developed self-control; responsibility; perfectionism, a tendency toward intensive thoroughness in detailed elaboration of any questions; high interest in politics and mechanisms of the state; clear “legal” thinking. High abilities in analytics and programming and respect for scientific knowledge. Conditionally negative properties: sharply reduced capacity for cognitive empathy (understanding other people’s motives and states), and consequently a large interpersonal distance and slow development of closeness; outward emotional impenetrability and coldness displayed externally, not necessarily corresponding to the internal state; often, poor intonational richness of speech; conservatism regarding one’s everyday surroundings, even in LII and still more in LSI; avoidance of risky situations, sometimes excessive; because of inherent perfectionism, sometimes getting stuck “polishing” minor details; tendency toward fanaticism in one’s convictions and principles.

Table 5 (program Ti)

Te program, P

Main properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): professes the principle of utility and focuses on increasing the efficiency of its activity, including efficiency in use of time; almost always chooses decisions quickly and without hesitation, rapidly evaluating them according to a habitual algorithm from the standpoint of efficiency; in general thinks quickly and is distinguished by high mental working capacity with good concentration, rapid memory, and clarity of thought; is usually prepared to sacrifice principles for efficiency; attends to professional growth, plans life and career by stages, and at the same time always has a plan of action for the next day; possesses high purposefulness and organization and is drawn to demanding areas of business or energetic administrative work; a workaholic who does not tolerate idleness, including a tendency to hide from a bad mood in intensive work, that is, in the program function; distinguished by business acumen, practicality, economy, and equally businesslike care for loved ones; plans expenditures well over time, specifically planning them over time rather than merely tracking and controlling the current budget balance as Ti does; poorly understands other people’s attitudes toward oneself; prefers speaking oneself rather than listening to someone else, and for this reason usually “drowns out” others in a group; likes intensive workloads and willingly takes responsibility; a “marathon runner” in life style, including in the most literal sense that long-distance running also attracts it; does not fear or avoid stress, and under stress its business energy and enterprise only increase; oriented well in current time; prefers the language of concrete and unambiguous facts, in which one thing strictly and sequentially “links” to another, building a substantiated chain of actions; dislikes probabilistic reasoning; has difficulty understanding hints and ambiguities, and for this reason the meaning of many jokes and anecdotes also escapes it. All forms of empathy, both cognitive and emotional, are sharply reduced. Te likes hunting wild animals, but what attracts it in this activity is not shooting from an ambush, nor the process of killing the victim as can occur with Se, but tracking the victim and pursuing it for a long time by driving and surrounding it, processes that are almost purely Te in character.

The basic formula of Te is: formulation of a task – planning and execution of an efficient chain of linked actions – result (Ti, by contrast, is mainly perpetually occupied with relating an object to its static standard model). Because the efficiency of actions within the chain must constantly be evaluated in relation to the next intended steps and to the planned result, Te is compelled constantly to “run ahead” into the future. It does this, however, not in the form of branching and almost arbitrary plot fantasies unpredictable in their course, as Ni does, but as though marking in thought with flags the stages of future actions that causally lead to the result. If Ti is absolutely necessary for successful individual work by a designer on a separate component of a construction that must satisfy specified requirements, where Ti’s spatial imagination and its gift for relating an object to specified criteria of a standard model are both important, then Te is indispensable for successful sequential organization of the labor of many performers in a design bureau. Ti often gets stuck in perfectionistic “polishing” of an object until it corresponds maximally to specified standard criteria, a vice sometimes shared by the author of these lines, whereas Te does not care about “polishing” and is occupied with organizing a sequential chain of actions extended over time. Perfectionism is entirely unnecessary here, and any rubbish will do as long as it works at the required step. If Ti is characterized by a peculiar aesthetic perception that evaluates the perfection of a picture frozen in time, such aestheticism is alien to Te. It does not like returning to stages already passed in order to evaluate their aesthetic perfection; it has no need for this. Done, and out of sight. Only the final result matters. Ti is very important in the work of a design engineer, architect, photographer, and even a designer. Te, for example, is important in the work of a military commander or factory director. But in any real logical activity both functions are always present, being engaged in one proportion or another. The work of an air traffic controller tracking aircraft routes on a display combines the use of Te (planning routes ahead in time so that they will not intersect subsequently) and Ti (constant use of Ti criteria of correspondence to safety standards, continuous comparison of the situation with those standards). Or, for example, in the game “Tetris,” Ti is responsible for the immediate efficiency of rotating and placing the pieces falling from above, taking account of their geometric form and spatial position in relation to the shape of the available spaces below (fitting an object to a standard). Te is responsible for placing the pieces while necessarily anticipating and taking into account the future need, at subsequent steps, for convenient free spaces for the next falling pieces. Champions at “Tetris” should have both functions well developed, both Ti and Te. Incidentally, these indisputable facts cast doubt on socionic Model A, according to which functions of the second ring as though do not exist at all for the individual. Both logical functions are also actively used in chess: Te examines and plans stages several moves ahead (“drive hunting”), while Ti visually evaluates at the current moment the quality of the existing position in terms of its apparent “deformations” that disturb its balance, that is, its weak points and potential threats, as well as deformations toward its strong points and therefore possible directions for developing one’s attack. This information is then used by Te in planning the stages of subsequent actions. Unlike chess, purely Ti games included, for example, the amusements with which I. Stalin liked to entertain himself in his leisure time. Thus, he asked his associates to estimate the outdoor air temperature without looking at a thermometer; the winner was the person whose estimate was most accurate and deviated least from the thermometer standard, while the loser was the person farthest from the truth. Target shooting for accuracy, despite its apparently logical primitiveness, is also a purely Ti amusement: achieving as small a deviation as possible from the standard, from hitting the bull’s-eye. Tic-tac-toe on an unlimited board uses both logical functions, as in chess, but the contribution of the Te component to this game is very high: Te thinks through a chain of actions several moves ahead, planning and arranging in advance, at future moves far removed from the present moment, the construction of one’s own traps and avoidance of other people’s traps. Examination of Table E, whose lower part presents the intercorrelations among the eight mental functions, also shows that among all pairs of same-named but opposite-color functions, Te and Ti are most closely correlated with one another, apparently as a consequence of the fact that in most real practical tasks these functions have difficulty doing entirely without one another.

As in the case of Ti, Te has few clear markers permitting it to be linked to particular brain regions or neurotransmitter systems. In the case of Te, the problem is aggravated by the fact that even in samples of 500–700 people, weak Te loadings for individual questions are not entirely reliable, because carriers of this function in the program position are a minority in any sample and together constitute no more than 5% of its size. It can be stated with confidence only that carriers of program Te apparently have reduced functional activity of right-hemisphere auditory regions, as indicated by poorer musical hearing and elements of Wernicke aphasia in its right-hemisphere variant. Good memory, in turn, indicates high functioning of the corresponding regions of the left-hemisphere prefrontal cortex. The clear difficulties experienced by carriers of program Te in understanding ambiguities, hints, and ambiguous or probabilistic reasoning in general are noteworthy, but it is currently difficult to make a corresponding regional localization on this basis.

Hypothetical evolutionary advantages of the function among our distant ancestors: the advantages of Te manifest themselves in hunting that involves pursuing game over long distances, whether in individual hunting or as part of small groups of hunters who know one another well. Te’s nutritional advantages are provided both by its ability to plan actions over time and construct sequences of actions coordinated with other hunters, and by the high working capacity associated with Te, attention to the efficiency of each step in anticipation of the next step, economical expenditure of energy, and prolonged physical endurance, which are especially important for pursuing game over long distances. The function acquires its evolutionary benefits only after primitive humans shifted from plant food to meat. It provides advantages in both individual hunting and especially group drive hunting, because among other things it is oriented toward increasing the efficiency of technologies of group business interaction. Planning, anticipation of subsequent steps, and organization of interactions among group members are especially important in group drives of game. The function’s connection with hunting makes it more advantageous for males, as is also the case with Ti. It is possible that Te was developed considerably more strongly among Neanderthals who inhabited the margins of glaciers than among Cro-Magnons originating from the south. The gene pool of modern Europeans contains genes of both. The percentage of Neanderthal genes is presumably higher among the peoples of modern Northern Europe. We also suppose that Te is, on average, higher among them, which is indirectly supported by features of the modern culture of descendants of the former Saxons, Angles, and Scandinavians.

For Te in hunting, its linkage with Fi may also be useful: for the sake of success in the hunt, the individual characters and possible actions of one’s hunting partners must be “sensed” in advance. Nevertheless, across the array of question-level functional loadings, Te as a whole correlates deeply negatively with its supplementary function, Fi, with a mean correlation coefficient of -0,50. However, Fi divides into several different, approximately eight or nine, semantic clusters, including cognitive empathy (attention to other people’s motives and relations and rational understanding of them, without necessary sympathy); emotional empathy (empathy of sympathy, compassion, and care); predisposition to anxiety and fears; getting stuck on experiences of shame and pangs of conscience; dependence on other people’s attitudes and opinions; tendency toward increased emotional-autonomic reactions (palpitations, sweating, and so forth when emotionally aroused); attention to observance of social norms and morality; religiosity. The last two Fi clusters, attention to moral norms and predisposition toward church and religiosity, are socially norm-regulating components of Fi. In their activity they are most closely associated not with the limbic brain, as the other components are, but with the principal source of “rational” functions, the frontal cortex, primarily the right-hemisphere frontal cortex in the case of Fi. Whether because of their increased socionic rationality and connection with the frontal cortex or for an evolutionary reason, since successful Te hunting among our ancestors may also have required increased obligation to observe rules of group behavior, it is precisely these two components of Fi that correlate with Te not negatively, as the others do, but at a neutral zero level or even weakly positively.

Conditionally positive properties of program Te (approved from the standpoint of most people of Russian mentality): good memory, both in the sense of memorization and in terms of instantly finding a needed fact in memory; concentration, clarity of thought, and speed of thinking; pragmatic interest in the future and a good sense of a future moment, especially in Ni intuitives, although Te itself also facilitates penetration into the future; purposefulness; organization; stress resistance; calculation and consistency in use of one’s time and other resources; planning of one’s career and activity, both long-term and short-term, elevated even compared with other rational functions; ability, and need, constantly to evaluate the efficiency of actions undertaken in terms of their influence on subsequent steps, as well as criteria of benefit, optimality, resource economy, and so forth; workaholism; high abilities in business and operational management; attraction to studying and mastering technological chains. Logic in Te has not the static classificatory-structural character of Ti but a dynamic character, and therefore its objects are more often evaluated not by the visual analyzer, as in Ti, but by the auditory analyzer, which is better adapted to the temporal unfolding of a sequence of linked events. The subject matter of Te is precisely construction of an efficient temporal chain of logically linked events. Therefore Te is always interested not in systems and theoretical schemes frozen in time but in practice, even among LIE intuitives, that is, in technologies for achieving a goal that unfold over time. This, and not their properties of Decisiveness–Judiciousness, is the principal reason why you will more often encounter LII and ILE in a scientific institution, but ILI and LIE at an exchange. Te has no equal in selecting and evaluating facts needed to construct optimal technologies. Conditionally negative properties of the function: Te is oriented toward unambiguously optimal connections between events and is repelled by ambiguity. Ambiguity in no way provides a rigid causal connection between two consecutive steps and therefore, from Te’s standpoint, ambiguity is defective work. In addition, Te combines poorly with Ne and suppresses Fi, and for this reason it is quite deaf to jokes, hints, and sayings with double and figurative meanings that make use of ambiguity and these functions. For the same reason, it also does not understand and dislikes all kinds of symbolic ambiguity in art. Te correlates negatively with musical hearing. Against its background there is a substantially increased predisposition to symptoms of autism and alexithymia (depletion of Fe, inability to experience and verbalize emotions). Human lying, being a variety of weapon, is an egocentric product primarily of Se. But program Te is more tolerant of other people’s lying than program Ti, because for Ti another person’s lie disrupts the aesthetic picture of the world and its perfectionistic informational purity, whereas for Te it is merely one of the possible technologies of other people’s actions toward achieving some goal.

Table 6 (program Te)

Fi program, R

Main properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): exacting in moral evaluations; values fidelity and devotion; is strongly affected by other people’s experiences and has very highly developed emotional empathy, that is, empathy of care or of internally syntonic compassion and co-experience that is expressively restrained compared with Fe. Penetrating cognitive empathy, detached “cold-nosed” penetration into what another person experiences, feels, and thinks, is also developed, but it usually does not exceed the emotional empathy of compassion. Increased inclination and predisposition toward prolonged doubts, distress, and pangs of conscience; often becomes nervous over trifles; substantially increased frequency of anxious states and states of internal fear without clear causes; emotionally charged memories frequently flare up; increased inclination toward religion; vulnerable to hostile or ungrateful attitudes from others. Emotional-autonomic reactions are very intense, including palpitations, flushing of the face, sweating, and others that arise in states of emotional arousal.

A number of physiological markers, for example a predominant direction of turning to the right, indicate right-hemisphere dominance in frontal-parietal cortical regions. The observed tendency toward poorer perception of spatial-logical relations indicates functional weakening of left-hemisphere regions whose lesions are associated with spatial-logical deficits and semantic aphasia. A number of symptoms, including weaker memory for names of objects and difficulty formulating utterances, also indicate functional weakening of several left-hemisphere cortical speech regions. Attention to observance of social norms indicates active functioning of the medial-basal portions of the right frontal cortex. A very large number of properties indicate increased activation and sensitivity of amygdala nuclei and, overall, functional activation of the limbic sphere.

Hypothetical evolutionary advantages of the function among our distant ancestors: the question of the distinctive features and advantages of the strategy of program Fi among primitive humans remains unclear and open. If sympathy and empathy of care can be interpreted as care for a hunter returning to the encampment, it is difficult to understand what evolutionary-adaptive benefit might be provided by intensified fears, persistent pangs of conscience, and increased emotional-autonomic reactions. It is possible that the secret of Fi lies in differences between feeding strategies in Te+Fi and Ti+Fe pairs. One may suppose that the Ti+Fe pair among our primate ancestors gravitated toward feeding within a constant limited territory, consisting mainly in gathering fruit, and in this case all members of the group, males and females, fed jointly. In this case logic is useful to males precisely in a static form, visually alert to fruit and retentive of “good places,” but not inclined toward long-distance movement and not requiring construction of complex chains of actions, while ethics is useful to females precisely in the Fe form, loud and calling, warning of danger or summoning the troop to eat. In the case of the “hunting pair” Te+Fi, however, where males in a small group leave alone for a long and lengthy hunt while an equally small number of females with predominantly Fi remain in the small encampment awaiting them and their prey, an advantageous strategy for Fi may consist precisely in an increased tendency toward fears and the accompanying rapid, one-trial and lifelong imprinting by the brain’s amygdala of any unpleasant and dangerous experiences associated with wild animals, alien outsiders, and so forth. In this case, however, one point remains unclear: how the increased sweating of a female Fi carrier, arising against the background of any fear, could contribute to her rescue from a predator roaming near the encampment.

Conditionally positive properties of program Fi (from the standpoint of most people of Russian mentality): compassion, responsiveness, attentiveness, decency, morality, conscientiousness, understanding of other people’s feelings and motives, modesty, responsibility, sense of duty, self-sacrifice. Conditionally negative properties: increased vulnerability, tendency toward pangs of conscience and exaggerated guilt, frequent experience of fear and increased anxiety, lack of self-confidence, getting stuck on one’s doubts and unpleasant emotional experiences, emotionally ethical mawkishness, and persistent difficulty distinguishing what is principal.

Table 7 (program Fi)

Fe program, E

Main properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): external events, with little dependence on their objective significance, easily evoke a strong internal emotional response and uplift in a carrier of program Fe, either in the language of tragic emotions and emotions of indignation or in the language of emotions of joy; likes to “let go” of or even deliberately “wind up” one’s emotions, using them as a means of attracting attention or of communication, in which the ability to infect other people with one’s emotions or at least make them react somehow is regarded as positive reinforcement; cannot tolerate solitude and needs communication more than others; the face generally reflects one’s feelings; externally emotionally expressive through facial expressions, gesticulation, and voice intonation; if laughter, then loud laughter; if tragic intonations, then emphasized ones; feelings, passions, emotional memories, and experiences also occupy a substantial place in one’s thoughts; easily enters an excited state; as a rule reacts emotionally to any unexpected events; easily understands the emotional subtext of speech and therefore immediately understands hints; speech usually contains many adjectives; in conversation likes topics concerning emotionally evocative events; often uses a mirror; tends toward self-expression in clothing and likes attracting attention to oneself.

Among physiological markers of the function, increased predisposition to allergic reactions is noteworthy, although this also occurs with Ni, as are sensitivity to rhythmic sequences and a certain tendency toward weakening of visual perceptual constancy. Conclusions from this, however, would be premature. Increased activation of right-hemisphere auditory-speech regions responsible for perception and reproduction of intonations is also beyond doubt; however, in the case of Fe, unlike Fi, this apparently does not occur at the expense of left-hemisphere auditory-speech regions.

Hypothetical evolutionary advantages of the function among our distant ancestors: Fe is poorly adapted both to hunting and to gathering. Apparently its principal advantages consist, first, in group and social utility: among primates, Fe subjects more often than others warn the troop of danger or summon other individuals to a rich feeding site. The individual benefit of Fe for an organism may consist in increasing its safety, because it gathers a crowd around itself in which it becomes the emotional communicative leader, and in its mutually beneficial interaction with Ti individuals (see the section on program Ti). In addition, Fe apparently provides certain sexual advantages, which is indirectly supported by the positive correlation of libido and sexual activity with Se and Fe, as well as by increased numbers of children among Fe. If among our ancestors a Ti husband is not gathering but is hunting from an ambush not far from home, precisely the kind of hunting preferred by Ti, while the Fe wife remains at home nearby, then in this case too she can call her husband for help with her cries in the event of danger. By contrast, Fi wives whose husbands leave for distant hunts involving tracking game, the form of hunting preferred by Te, receive no help from cries for assistance. They do not cry out, but rely on instincts of flight or concealment dictated by fear.

Conditionally positive properties of program Fe (from the standpoint of most people of Russian mentality): it benefits society in all spheres where intensive emotional communication and, especially, transmission of emotional signals to a broad audience are required (performer in film or on stage, lead singer in a marching formation of soldiers, toastmaster at a table, and so forth). In a narrower audience, Fe is useful as a motivator that awakens people from dormancy, and for this reason Fe carriers often like, for example, the profession of psychotherapist. In women, Fe has also from ancient times served as a sexual communicator attracting males. Conditionally negative properties of Fe are associated with excessive excitability (noisiness, propensity to hysterics and reactions of anger that may be perceived by some of those present as inadequate), as well as with logical weakness of one degree or another that accompanies any ethics function.

Table 8 (program Fe)

Ne creative, BS-I

Main properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): features linked to Se deficiency occupy the first and principal place in the list of properties associated with the creative position of Ne in the functional hierarchy (the same is BS-I according to Khizhnyak in Gulenko temperament-system terms). These include increased peacefulness and readiness for altruistic self-sacrifice, risk avoidance, weak development of assertive qualities, diffuse visual attention, indecisiveness and absence of an instantaneous reaction in critical situations, inability to subordinate people and demand things from them, avoidance of eye contact in communication, avoidance of life conflicts, and increased tendency toward shyness. Some motor awkwardness, awkward posture and “constrained” movements, as well as increased sensitivity to pain and very strong inhibition of basic biological instincts, are also associated primarily with Se deficiency. Irritable intolerance of various manifestations of Se that affect the interests of the subject and other people is also characteristically increased, that is, intolerance of lying, fraud, aggression, violence, lack of ceremony, and selfishness.

Features linked directly to intuition follow in the list of immanent properties of creative Ne with a very large lag in rank, number, and weight. Among them are pleasure in penetrating the essence of things and phenomena, disinterested curiosity, and difficulty rapidly selecting appropriate words in speech (Ne is associated with a substantial deterioration in the selectivity of perceptual and memory filters, and this deterioration is especially pronounced against an introverted-rational temperament, which itself suppresses dopaminergic brain mechanisms that provide selectivity). Also present are abstract dreams about recipes for improving the world, although their motivation is also supported by vulnerable Se (in general, the abstractness of fantasies aimed at searching for a suitable object-solution distinguishes Ne from dynamic Ni, which is instead characterized by plot fantasies extended over time). Not only Se deficiency but also direct manifestation of Ne may include a tendency toward inhibition in holistic perception and understanding of a situation, for example when, on picking up the telephone, creative Ne feels confused because it cannot promptly “switch into” the situation, does not sense and understand the meaning of the call, and does not anticipate the interlocutor’s intentions quickly enough. Also worth mentioning is the tendency toward abstract generalizations against a background of faded and nonconcrete, “erased” perception of the surrounding world. Features of Ne predominating over sensing may also include difficulty perceiving visual individual differences among objects. As already noted, Ne on an introverted background is associated with a substantial deterioration in the quality of the brain’s perceptual filters, which may lead both to general fadedness and lack of concreteness of perception, hence also the tendency toward generalizations and “general” approaches in general, and, in some cases, to perceptual illusions and sometimes even perceptual hallucinations. In the same series are effects gravitating mainly toward creative Ne, although sometimes also produced by intuition in all its other varieties, of “insight” and feelings of “revelation,” when a person suddenly seems to acquire an understanding of the essence of things, which an hour or two later is replaced by a more sober understanding of the falsity and banality of the pseudo-insight (the mechanism of this intuitive illusory effect is approximately the same as in perceptual illusions and hallucinations).

Conditionally positive properties of people with creative Ne (from the standpoint of most people of Russian mentality): striving to arrange social life according to rules and law, excluding crime, deception, and violence from it; personal decency; peacefulness; increased altruism. Conditionally negative properties: indecisiveness, especially on an ethical background; awkward posture and movement, “unsportiness”; striving to avoid stressful situations and situations of elevated risk; increased sensitivity to pain; shyness, although other people perceive this defect as harmless.

Table 9 (properties of TIMs with Ne in the creative position)

Ni creative, LA-I

Main properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): from vulnerable Si comes the fact that a possessor of creative Ni (LA-I) seeks stress and tension, likes pressure-producing tension, likes fantasies and projects involving risk, challenge, and global scale, and generally likes provoking a situation and playing toward escalation. Such a person is also prepared to drive themselves to exhaustion and is prone to frequent unpleasant memories of frustration and unpleasant sensations, and sometimes tends deliberately to torment themselves, ranging from intentionally created difficulties and discomforts that “must be overcome” to deliberately inflicted pain and masochism (Si, recall, is characterized by striving for pleasant sensations and focusing on them). Vulnerable Si also produces reduced appetite, inattention to the comfort of clothing, and irritation at everyday domestic matters.

From Ni, the principal properties include the fact that the subject with creative Ni directs thought toward future events, substantially more than the introverted possessor of program Ni, and partly also the fact that such a person likes critical tense situations with a shortage of time. The observed predisposition toward manifestations of akathisia, that is, a tendency toward irresistible and uncomfortably experienced inability to sit still and analogous mentally uncomfortable, diffusely restless agitation, can also partly be explained by vulnerable Si, but partly can be attributed to Ni.

Conditionally positive properties of people with creative Ni (from the standpoint of most people of Russian mentality): high interest in forecasting the future and ability to penetrate it effectively in thought; active civic position; large-scale plans; readiness to disturb an established equilibrium and go “against the current”; restless behavioral dynamism. Conditionally negative properties: tendency toward states of frustration (irritable dissatisfaction); weak sensing of the needs of one’s own body; predisposition to hypochondria; increased convulsive readiness; everyday selfishness, weak care for partners, and generally weak partnership qualities.

Table 10 (properties of TIMs with Ni in the creative position)

Se creative, BS-S

Main properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): the properties of creative Se (BS-S) are well summarized by two words: conservatism and demandingness, in observance of the order desired by the subject. Conservatism, contempt for “fantasizing,” striving for unanimity and unambiguity of judgments, and a tendency toward prohibitions and restriction of the diversity of possibilities in the model of “ideal order” characteristic of TIMs with creative Se, with which the greatest number of highly loaded questions are associated, are causally determined by vulnerable Ne. Only rigid demandingness regarding order, discipline, and subordination is a manifestation of Se itself.

Conditionally positive properties of people with creative Se (from the standpoint of most people of Russian mentality): developed visual attention and accurate visual estimation; maintenance of cleanliness and order; discipline; respect for traditions; love of sports; anti-liberalism. Conditionally negative properties: bureaucratism; tendency toward paranoia; intolerance of diversity and dissent, tendency to cut everyone and everything to one pattern; excessive conservatism; suppression of novelty and innovation; reactionism; prohibitive tendencies; xenophobia; vindictiveness; jealousy; tendency toward nepotism and, often, corrupt abuses when impunity is possible (whatever falls under the control of creative Se quickly begins to be regarded by it as “its own private garden”; recall the immortal Nicholas I formulation: “profession - master of the Russian land”).

Table 11 (properties of TIMs with Se in the creative position)

Si creative, LA-S

Main properties (according to the empirical list below of marker questionnaire statements maximally associated with the function in this position): a substantial proportion of questions with high loadings are associated with vulnerable Ni, that is, with negation of Ni properties. These include not only contempt for “empty dreaming,” but also habitual briskness in activity, energy and practicality, increased and engaged attention to one’s household, and partly also engaged concern for people close to oneself, a tendency to care for and protect them (Ni is characterized by detachment from those around it). At the same time, many questionnaire statements exclusively associated with creative Si, concerning sensitivity to smells, pleasure obtained from caregiving, care, protection, household management, and creation of comfort, as well as good coordination of movement and a developed internal map of the surrounding space, contain a direct Si component. For the auditory and visual analyzers there is a tendency toward dominance of their left-hemisphere divisions (the same sign of asymmetry, though somewhat less pronounced, is also observed for program Si). There is increased love of bright sunlight and a need for “light baths,” which can be interpreted as a need to maintain a sufficiently high serotonin level (the brain’s production of serotonin is quite rigidly linked to morning insolation). Curiously, this association is not observed for program Si, perhaps because we generally take greater care of our creative functions, since by definition everything is already fine with program functions.

Conditionally positive properties of people with creative Si (from the standpoint of most people of Russian mentality): household competence; caring protection of loved ones; realism; diligence; tendency toward openness in relationships; hospitality toward guests; love of children; neatness; good taste in clothing and striving to dress fashionably; attentive maintenance of one’s body in good physical shape, including regular morning exercise; good coordination of movement. Conditionally negative properties: because of considerable indifference toward the past and future, muted civic position; ignoring warnings; underestimation of possible future dangers, ranging from illnesses, one’s own and others’, to denial of negative forecasts concerning development of social events.

Table 12 (properties of TIMs with Si in the creative position)