# Am I understanding this right?



## Sciencing (Aug 30, 2018)

So I come to Socionics from a point of view of knowing _nothing_ about it, however I am reasonably familiar with the ideas behind MBTI (just terrible at applying them to others). I looked through information in the stickies and I feel like there's several books worth of background knowledge to make them make sense and then even more to connect them to the conversations people are having in this subsection.

I've taken a couple of tests and my type doesn't change - I'm an ISTJ in the MBTI and an ISTj in socionics. Occasionally tests of both types refuse to decide whether I am S or N. I understand (correctly or otherwise) that this is because I/E, S/N and F/T mean essentially the same thing in both systems as dichotomies, and that in MBTI J says my (judging) T function is my _extroverted_ function while in Socionics j says my (judging) T function is my _dominant_ function. So far so good - frankly the way Socionics works it out makes more sense to me.

However, in MBTI being an ISTJ means my dominant and auxiliary functions are Si and Te respectively, whereas in Socionics being an ISTj means my dominant and auxiliary functions are Ti and Se respectively. This is apparently the case for all extroverts whose j/p switches and all introverts whose type remains the same. Are there people whose types mismatch in other ways?

How does any of this work? Are the two systems seeing completely different Sciencings? Do they define their functions differently? It seems so - I (at least somewhat) match the functions each system says I have by definitions in their own spaces but not each other's. If so, why are they using the same function names, and how are their non-J/P dichotomies doing the same thing as one another?

Clearly I have lost the plot _somewhere_ but I think all the resources I'm seeing assume either more or less starting understanding than I have so it's hard for me to understand what the two systems are trying to achieve separately from one another.


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## Wisteria (Apr 2, 2015)

Have you read my introduction thread? It was my attempt to explain the basics of socionics to newbies  It's different from MBTI, and I explained the reasons for that in my other thread. 

I wouldn't recommend using MBTI to understand socionics as a theory. They're both personality theories with 16 types so it might make sense for a correlation to be there, but there are clear differences. MBTI can indicate the functions you are using, while socionics is a measure of your ability to use those functions, and how exactly you use them (what situations you use them, how you develop them, etc)

If you type as ISTj and ISTJ in test, it likely means you're using a Sensing function and a Thinking function. The MBTI test doesnt actually indicate which functions you're using. It's purely dichotomies, so it's simply sensing and thinking, rather than Si and Te. MBTI doesn't actually endorse the functions. MBTI isn't designed to identify your cognitive functions.

Socionics doesn't actually use the term "functions" for Si and Te, Se and Ti, etc. These are actually called the Information elements. The functions in socionics are about the position of it. Also keep in mind that an ISTj doesn't just use Si-Te, they use all elements.


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## Sciencing (Aug 30, 2018)

Your name was immediately familiar when I saw you had replied so I think I must have read your thread at some point. Having re-found it I wish it had been stickied over the others - maybe it would have made more sense if I hadn't been pre-confused by the stickied threads XD

I think I understand why I'm not understanding now at least; thanks for your explanation!  I guess I need to ignore the shared naming systems for the time being, learn socionics' approach from the ground up and not worry about whether the systems fit each other.


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## DavidH (Apr 21, 2017)

MBTI is literally a test. Socionics has no test.

MBTI doesn’t use functions. People on this website discussing something that isn’t MBTI while calling it MBTI discuss functions.


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## Fenty (Jun 17, 2014)

The j/p is switched for introverts.


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