# IM Elements (aka functions) VS Information Aspects



## Tellus (Dec 30, 2012)

Information aspect - Wikisocion

"The information elements (also IM elements, elements of information metabolism, or, confusingly, "functions") are eight mental categories that play a key role in interpersonal interaction. They are denoted using the same symbols and names as the information aspects. The difference between them is that *information elements are subjective properties of the psyche*, whereas *information aspects are objective properties of reality independent from psyche."
*"The eight information aspects form a category that is unique to socionics. Augusta, influenced by Antoni Kempinski's theory of information metabolism, concluded that the information that enters the psyche can be divided into different kinds, just as Jung divided psychic functions into different kinds. Information aspects represent an attempt to divide information into 8 different kinds."

Confusion with IM elements

"Though they are denoted by the same symbols,* information aspects are not to be confused with elements of information metabolism*, or "IM elements." *IM elements are the psychic modules that perceive, process, and produce corresponding information aspects.* Whether the information aspects can be referred to using the same names as the IM elements (i.e. "extraverted sensing," "introverted logic") is debatable."



Psychological functions and Information metabolism models

"The Polish psychiatrist, A. Kempinsky, has compared energetic metabolism (EM) to assimilation and processing the information by a human psyche. The essence of his information metabolism (IM) theory is the fact that outer information signals are similar to foods. By analogy with the energy metabolism of the cells Kempinsky showed that information is perceived by certain channels of a human psyche, assimilates, accumulates, is kept there, then is transformed and partially goes out to interact with the outer world, and some part of it remains inside and makes the person’s inner world. A. Kempinsky introduced the following image: *“The human psyche is fed with the information. His mental health depends of the quantity and quality of this information” *

Information metabolism is the process of assimilating, processing and transferring information by the human psyche. 

That is why socionics has the second name of the information metabolism theory. 

By analogy with the natural cell metabolism, the information flow coming to a person is decomposed into separate components by the human psyche. But only a certain channel, not at random, but exactly tuned into each of these components, is responsible for receiving and processing this information. In this connection *A. Augustinavichuite writes: “C.G. Jung’s discovery is the discovery of the selection mechanism of signals perceived by the psyche. This mechanism can be called an information metabolism (IM) code or the rules of the language with the help of which information is transferred”. 

Mental type determines the way of receiving information from the outer world by an individual and the selection of this information. The certain individual psyche structure determines the certain kind of “filtration system” for information processing. These are Jung’s functions (logics, ethics, intuition, sensorics). Dominant functions ensure a larger volume of information processed than weak ones."
*
Conclusion: IM elements are in essence the same as cognitive functions.


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## Tellus (Dec 30, 2012)

*IM elements vs functions:*

"The socionic model of the psyche (Model A) has eight positions, or functions. Different types have different information elements in each of the eight positions. Thus, there are eight different possible varieties of each of the functions, depending on which information element "occupies" the particular function. The functions describe how each information element is manifested in each type."


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