Detailed Study of the Semantic Clusters of Introverted Sensing (the Socionic Function Si, “Sensing of Sensations”)

V. L. Talanov, St. Petersburg, February 2016

Contents:

1. Summary
2. Methodology
3. Semantic Clusters of Introverted Sensing and Their Socionic Profiles
   • Type Profiles of the Clusters
   • Trait Profiles of the Clusters
   • Function Profiles of the Clusters
   • Calculation of Functions from the Trait Profile
   • Profiles of the 15 Generalized Cluster Groups
4. Characteristics of the 15 Generalized Cluster Groups
5. Contribution of Environmental and Temperamental Factors to Si - An Analysis Using Analysis of Variance
6. Introverted Sensing and Evolution
7. Introverted Sensing and Brain Physiology
8. References

Summary

In socionics, a branch of neo-Jungian personality typology widespread in Russia and Ukraine, the temperamental level of human personality is classified on the basis of the hierarchy of eight principal mental functions inherent in each person. These functions include two forms of sensing – so-called “black” sensing (also “extraverted,” “static,” “force sensing,” or simply “Se”) and so-called “white” sensing (also “introverted,” “dynamic,” “sensing of sensations,” or simply “Si”). On the basis of the hierarchy of the eight mental functions, socionics distinguishes 16 psychological types, each possessing a set of psychological characteristics predominantly specific to it. The reverse approach is also possible, in which people are first classified into types on the basis of marker properties of the types (that is, into 16 conventionally distinguished sectors within a multidimensional psychological space of properties, with each person assigned to the one of the 16 sectors closest to them), after which the properties of the eight mental functions are studied on the basis of the resulting partition. Using this latter approach, the author obtained reliable function profiles characterizing 6663 questionnaire items, including both items used in socionics to diagnose psychotypes and “ballast” items. The resulting material made it possible to analyze the semantic clusters formed by questionnaire statements most closely associated with each of the eight socionic mental functions. The present work provides detailed results of this analysis for Introverted Sensing and presents the properties of 104 of its semantic clusters. Analysis of variance showed that environmental factors influencing the formation of Introverted Sensing properties (upbringing, occupation, etc.) are minimal and practically equal to zero. Finally, the article analyzes the probable evolutionary origins of the emergence of Introverted Sensing as an independent mental function and provides a brief review of hypotheses concerning its physiological basis.

Methodology

For the purposes of the present work, the semantic clusters of Introverted Sensing were analyzed by the author using 6663 initial questionnaire items with known socionic type, trait, and function profiles (validated on samples ranging from 300 to 7000 people). The clusters were then assembled manually from approximately 1700 selected items that had an experimentally identified extreme loading on Si relative to the other socionic functions. Items were grouped into clusters according to semantic similarity of their wording, while also checking that the type profile of the item under consideration was correlated predominantly with the profiles of other items in that particular cluster. The 104 semantic clusters of Introverted Sensing ultimately obtained were subsequently divided, with the aid of EXCEL, into 15 groups (superclusters), but this time solely on the basis of similarity between their socionic profiles.

The initial type profiles of the 6663 items were obtained using several self-learning sociodiagnostic questionnaires. Each type profile consists of 16 numbers, one for each of the 16 socionic psychotypes. Each number is equal to the deviation from the population mean level, expressed in units of the population standard deviation, shown by representatives of that psychotype in the degree of their agreement with the given questionnaire statement. As a rule, several questionnaires in which the given item was tested are used to calculate each number. The final number is the weighted mean of the results from all questionnaires, taking into account the number of representatives of the given type among their respondents. The 16 numbers forming the type profile of a questionnaire item can be regarded as diagnostic coefficients for subsequently calculating the type profiles of new respondents answering this and other items in a subsequent questionnaire. The respondent’s complete type profile is then formed from 16 linear correlation coefficients calculated between the vector of the respondent’s answers to all questionnaire items, after normalization of those answers, and 16 vectors of diagnostic coefficients, one for each of the 16 types, taken from the known type profiles of the corresponding questionnaire items.

At the beginning of the author’s work with sociodiagnostic questionnaires, specifically several years ago at the start of the research program, the initial diagnostic coefficients of the questionnaires were obtained entirely, as a first approximation, from the sociotypes, one of the 16 possible types, preliminarily self-reported by the test participants, while also taking into account the probability of that typing as reported by the respondents and their self-reported level of socionics experience. On the basis of the resulting coefficients, first-stage type diagnosis was conducted independently of the reported types, making it possible to determine the types of all respondents, both those who had preliminarily reported their types and those who had not. At this stage, reported psychotypes that differed grossly from the newly diagnosed ones were rejected, and the training procedure for deriving diagnostic coefficients from the answers of respondents with preliminarily reported psychotypes was repeated. Diagnosis was then performed again using the refined system of coefficients. The results of this diagnosis, now for all respondents in the sample, were again used to obtain a system of diagnostic coefficients for diagnosing each of the 16 psychotypes, but at this point the reported types were no longer taken into account.

The resulting diagnostic coefficients were used in subsequent questionnaires employing the same items. Material accumulated from new questionnaires was used to refine the previously obtained system of diagnostic coefficients. At the final stage, when all material from all questionnaires had already been collected, an additional procedure for symmetrizing the diagnostic coefficients was performed. The reason is that the system of diagnostic coefficients, and the corresponding socionic type profiles of all respondents obtained with its aid, deviate quite strongly from symmetry. This means that socionic traits that are supposed to be orthogonal, that is, mutually correlated with a correlation coefficient of zero, are in fact far from orthogonal in the full respondent dataset – even after the sample has been corrected, or equalized, for unequal representation of the types by means of a special mathematical-statistical procedure. This departure from orthogonality, which reveals socionic asymmetry, concerns the basic Jungian traits and, to an even greater extent, the so-called 11 “weak” Reinin traits. For example, intuition is empirically found to be strongly correlated with ethics and irrationality. Some of these “parasitic” correlations are justified and genuine because they have an understandable physiological basis, but some are indeed parasitic because they are caused by distortions in the psychotypes initially self-reported by respondents. Some psychotypes are preferred by people over others, and people’s self-identification by psychotype is also influenced by certain false but widespread socionic myths.

Taken together, all these causes, which reflect both genuine physiologically determined asymmetry of socionic parameters and mere artifacts of human mentality, produce distortions in socionic traits and cause them to depart from mutual orthogonality. If this orthogonality is completely eliminated artificially from the system of diagnostic coefficients, the average percentage agreement between diagnosed and reported types falls from approximately 62% to 50%. However, the new subsequent systems of diagnostic coefficients obtained after this, based on types newly diagnosed with their aid, again gradually lead to the emergence of nonorthogonality among the traits. This should already be regarded as a genuine asymmetry of socionic parameters that repeatedly re-establishes itself.

Using recurrent procedures and weighted criteria for optimal symmetrization, which on the one hand maximize the proportion of agreement between diagnosed and reported types and on the other minimize the mutual correlations among the 15 socionic traits, the author succeeded in obtaining a system of diagnostic coefficients that, first, is stable under subsequent recurrent “self-learning” procedures of the system; second, ensures minimal correlations among the socionic traits; and third, while doing so, ensures an agreement rate between the resulting type diagnoses and the types reported by respondents of no worse than 58-59%. There are therefore grounds for believing that this final system of diagnostic coefficients, and the type profiles of test subjects obtained with its aid in any questionnaires, best reflect the true structure of the distribution and interrelationships of socionic parameters in the population. For the purposes of the present work, the socionic profiles of questionnaire items obtained using precisely this system of diagnostic coefficients were used. It should immediately be noted, however, that use of the “uncorrected” system of diagnostic coefficients, based only on respondents’ reported types and without any corrections for the detected trait asymmetry, leads to exactly the same conclusions regarding the identified clusters, with only very minor shifts.

Throughout the article, “correlations” means linear correlation coefficients.

Semantic Clusters of Introverted Sensing and Their Socionic Profiles

The detailed item-by-item composition of all 104 semantic clusters of Si identified by us can be found in a separate PDF file at the following address: https://yadi.sk/i/9UIJspZkoxa8G

Here we provide only the list of clusters together with their socionic profiles. The type profile of each cluster is the result of averaging the type profiles of all items included in the cluster, taking into account, of course, the scored response version for the item, “yes” or “no”; for the “no” version, the profile added to the sum is multiplied by minus one. The standard deviation of the final cluster type profile is chosen so that it equals the mean of the standard deviations of the type profiles of all items included in the cluster. The trait and function profiles of a cluster are derived from the type profile purely mathematically using known procedures. These are described below in the presentation of Parts 2 and 3 of Table 1.

Table 1, Part 1. Type Profiles for 104 Semantic Clusters of Introverted Sensing

Clusters are grouped and presented in descending order of their exclusive association with Introverted Sensing (see Part 3 of Table 1). Each type profile is the result of averaging the type profiles of all items included in the cluster. In turn, for each individual questionnaire item in a cluster, the coefficients of its type profile show how far the property encoded in the item deviates on average from the population mean, in units of the population standard deviation, for representatives of each specific TIM among all 16. Type profiles form the basis from which all subsequent socionic profiles are derived, including trait and function profiles (see Table 1 - Parts 2, 3, and 4).

Table 1, Part 2. Trait Profiles of the 104 Semantic Clusters of Introverted Sensing

Trait profiles were obtained by formal calculation from the type profiles: the sum of the eight type-profile coefficients for TIMs at the positive pole of a trait is reduced by the sum of the eight coefficients for TIMs at the negative pole of that trait, and the result is divided by 16.

Table 1, Part 3. Decomposition of the 104 Semantic Clusters of Introverted Sensing Across All 8 Socionic Functions

The values of the clusters for each function are the result of formally converting the cluster’s type profile (Table 1, Part 1) into a trait profile (Table 1, Part 2), and then into a function profile using the coefficients from Table 2.

Table 1, Part 4. Mean Cluster Values by Quadra

The quadral mean-TIM values are given in units of the population standard deviation and recalculated from the type profile. To calculate a quadral mean value, the type-profile coefficients corresponding to the TIMs belonging to that quadra are averaged.

When considering Table 1, Part 4, a question may arise: why do some clusters of Introverted Sensing statistically gravitate toward quadras for which Si is not a valued function? The point is that Si, whether valued or not, is present in every TIM. For example, ESI and LSI have fairly strong Si, although their Si, in the strong “demonstrative” position, is not valued. Therefore, the table of quadral tendencies should not be absolutized – the tendencies shown in it are only the result of averaging the contributions of four different types, and these tendencies do not necessarily extend to every type in the quadra under consideration. To determine the relationship of a cluster to each specific sociotype, one should refer not to this table but directly to Table 1, Part 1, which presents the type profiles of the clusters.

Table 2. Optimized Coefficient Table for Calculating the 8 Functions from the Trait Profile

The value of a function is equal to the scalar product, that is, the sum of element-wise products, of the function row from this table and the trait-profile row of the corresponding questionnaire item, or the trait profile of a generalized cluster from Table 1, Part 2, or a person’s trait profile. The resulting set of values for the eight functions, that is, the function profile, is already normalized with practically the same standard deviation as the corresponding type profile that served as the starting point for all calculations. The functions obtained from the traits using this system of coefficients subsequently provide exact inverse reconstruction of all traits associated with the functions as simple sums of the corresponding functions, without additional coefficients.

Table 3. Socionic Profiles of the 15 Generalized Clusters of Introverted Sensing

The generalized clusters are enlarged groups formed from the 104 primary clusters on the basis of similarity between their profiles.

Characteristics of the 15 Generalized Cluster Groups

Group No. 1 – combines primary clusters whose function profiles are characterized by an almost exclusive association with Si, with only a moderate additional decrease in Ni accompanying the Si peak. In content, these clusters are heterogeneous. Noteworthy among them is sensorimotor dominance of the left hemisphere, which indicates an affinity of Si with the left-hemisphere frontal cortex, and possibly in part also the parietal cortex.

Group No. 2 – combines primary clusters whose function profiles are characterized by an increase in Se simultaneously with Si, at nearly the same level but slightly lower, while both intuitive functions show a deep decrease, somewhat greater for Ni. In content, these are mainly, first, all clusters associated with good spatial abilities, including mental-rotation operations, and second, all clusters indicating a strong deficit in the ability to model any situations connected with future or past time.

Group No. 3 – differs from the preceding group only in that, in addition to an increase in Se and a decrease in the intuitive functions, its function profile shows an additional increase in the ethical functions and a decrease in the logical functions. In terms of the content of the clusters included in the group, these are attraction to comfort, attention to tastes and smells and to sensations of one’s own body, strong appetite, pursuit of pleasures, love of tactile sensations, touching and “hugging,” memory for sounds and absolute pitch, visual memory for image details, sensory and household-oriented care, seeking patronage from other people, and finally complete indifference to politics and, more generally, to any social and intellectual subject matter. The expected leader of this group is SEI, and the expected outsider is LIE.

Group No. 4 – is also similar in profile to the second group, but here the leading additional “deviation” in the function profile is not a decrease in Ni but a very strong decrease in Ne. In the type profile, this group has very even peaks for all eight sensing types, with a small advantage for introverted types. In terms of content, it includes precision of fine motor skills, practicality in everyday life, the importance of concrete visual evidence to the subject, incuriosity and lack of interest in philosophical abstractions, ordinariness and conventionality of thoughts and lifestyle, and moderate conventional right-wing conservatism in views.

Group No. 5 – is distinguished by an additional increase in irrationality and, especially, by a moderate increase in Ni in addition to the Si peak, together with a sharp decrease in Te. The group has two champions, SEI and SLI, and after their peaks the peaks of IEI and ILI are also elevated. The content of the group’s properties is adynamia, apathy, laziness, muscular relaxation, idleness, withdrawal from problems, and a contemplative style of life.

Group No. 6 – contains only one cluster, namely: green is the favorite color, resonating with the “strings of the soul” (the socionic profile is also correlated with enjoyment of tending and growing plants). The group’s trait profile has a substantial increase in Judiciousness, while its function profile shows an additional increase in Ne, a sharp decrease in Se, and a moderate decrease in Ni. In the type profile, SLI is the clear leader, while SEE and SLE are moderately negative.

Group No. 7 – also contains only one cluster, characterizing smooth tracking of a moving object with the eyes, without jumps. In the type profile, SLI is at the maximum and LII at the minimum.

Group No. 8 – is a large group of 13 clusters whose profiles tend toward a moderate additional increase in Fi and a decrease in Se. In terms of content, it includes conciliatoriness, nonradicalism, dislike of the color red, lack of ambition, lack of boastfulness, lack of anger, patience, dislike of risk and preference for simple, uncomplicated undertakings, as well as slowed verbal response and dislike of answering questions. In the type profile, introverts from the Judicious quadras lead, with the highest peaks for SLI and SEI, while the deepest minima are observed among extraverts from the Decisive quadras.

Group No. 9 – consists of 10 clusters with an additional increase in Se and Te and a decrease in Ni and Fi. In content, this is a group of optimism, contentment, and well-being. The group also excludes any painful abnormalities, such as migraines, nightmares, panic, paranoia, and compulsions, with one important exception: it includes a cluster of increased propensity toward alcoholism, that is, frequent use of alcohol for pleasure or to improve one’s mood.

Group No. 10 – consists of 4 clusters whose content is in one way or another associated with low emotional reactivity. In the profile, in addition to the Si peak, there is a very high Ti peak and a very strong decrease in Fe.

Group No. 11 – shows an additional increase in Se, Te, and Ti and a decrease in Ne and Ni, with the decrease in Ni expressed more sharply than the Si peak itself. The core of the group consists of interest in physical exercise, sports, and muscular work; it also includes lack of interest in books, nonmetaphorical speech, and the absence from one’s life experience of any visual deceptions, illusions, or hallucinations.

Group No. 12 – in content, combines clusters associated with a reserved character and the predominance of inhibitory processes in speech and motor activity. In the profile, in addition to the main Si peak, there is a moderate increase in all introverted functions and a decrease in all extraverted functions, especially pronounced for Ne.

Group No. 13 – shows, in addition to the Si peak, a decrease in Ti and Ni and an elevation of Ne and Se. Its core is a weakened sense of the passage of physical time and difficulty controlling and planning it.

Group No. 14 – home-centeredness, routineness, conservatism, adherence to moral normativity, resistance to monotony under conditions of sensory deprivation, without falling asleep, and neatness and evenness of handwriting. The profile is characterized by increases in Ti and Fi in addition to the principal Si peak, together with a sharp decrease in both intuitive functions, especially Ne.

Group No. 15 – is a group of two clusters that appear to have little in common in terms of content, namely a liking for prolonged sleep and a dislike of spicy dishes. The distinctive feature of the profile is a strong increase in Fe and a very strong decrease in Se.

Contribution of Environmental and Temperamental Components to Si - An Analysis Using Analysis of Variance

To conduct the analysis of variance, we will need a psychological questionnaire containing a sufficiently large number of Introverted Sensing items representing its various clusters and answered by a large number of respondents. We will use the SZ-form sociodiagnostic questionnaire for this purpose, for which we have responses from 958 nonduplicate respondents.

From the questionnaire items predominantly associated with Si, we will form two blocks in such a way that the items in one block belong to semantic clusters that do not overlap with the clusters in the other block.

We will then need two additional item blocks, Nos. 3 and 4, which we will form from the first two by equally mixing their items, so that Blocks Nos. 3 and 4 are composed of the same semantic item clusters represented by equal numbers of items. For each of the four blocks, we will calculate its integral sum, the sum of the respondent’s normalized answers to all items in the block, taking into account the “yes” or “no” response version corresponding to high Introverted Sensing. Thus, for each of the 958 questionnaire respondents, in addition to their answers we will obtain four block-level integral indices. Because the semantic clusters in Blocks Nos. 1 and 2 do not overlap, their mutual correlation across the complete sample of test subjects should be less than one, whereas the correlation between Blocks Nos. 3 and 4 should be as close as possible to the maximum value of one -

Table 4, Part 1. Experimental Item Block No. 1

Table 4, Part 2. Experimental Item Block No. 2