Socionic Functions - General Definitions

Se - the desire and ability to assert oneself, impose one’s needs on others, and maintain one’s dominance through a clearer and more unwavering focus on what one wants.

Si - the desire and ability to satisfy one’s own and others’ current needs to a high standard, through greater concentration on the actual reality of the present moment.

Ne - the desire and ability to seek and discover, for oneself and others, new alternatives that have not yet been realized, through perceiving multiple possible structures of reality.

Ni - the desire and ability to conceal and deactualize elements of existing reality for oneself and others, through perceiving multiple possible variants of the logic of the past and future.

Fi - the desire and ability to establish connections and maintain close relationships with individual people, drawing on an understanding of their personal characteristics and individual styles of thinking.

Fe - the desire and ability to synchronize with and enter into emotional resonance with other people, drawing on an understanding of general trends in matters of attractiveness and fashion.

Ti - the desire and ability to create and maintain long-range order, drawing on an understanding of universal mathematical and logical regularities that are independent of the observer.

Te - the desire and ability to produce utility and benefit through one’s actions, drawing on knowledge and exploitation of “ugly” and unfashionable facts that therefore confer an advantage at the moment.

Qi - the desire and ability to separate oneself and maintain one’s independence through greater selectivity in one’s willingness to accept anything and identify it as personally one’s own.

Qe - the desire and ability to preserve oneself through a stronger and faster reaction of irritation and rejection upon contact with anything foreign, potentially harmful and dangerous.

Di - the desire and ability to sacrifice individual interests for the preservation of one’s group as a whole, through a greater willingness to accept a group opinion as one’s own.

De - the desire and ability to improve quality of life and reduce individual risks through group interaction, through a willingness, free of squeamishness, to come into contact with what is foreign.