Sensing and Intuition, Thinking and Feeling
There’s a classic joke where a student chose a course called “Choices and Future”, only to find out in the classroom that it was about “Options and Futures”, because their English names are both Options and Futures. A few days ago, the hotel where I had a meeting was right across from the Shanghai Futures Exchange, which made me think of a question: What are our judgments and choices about the future based on?
Recently, I read two books, “Gifts Differing” and “How NASA Builds Teams”, and found that this reflects the differences in people’s ways of thinking. Sensing and iNtuition, Thinking and Feeling are the two most critical differences.
Before the main text, you might want to think about the differences in the characters of Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie, Tang Monk, and Sha Monk in “Journey to the West”, and how they work together as a team?
Shanghai Futures Exchange
Personality
MBTI Personality
Many people have heard of the MBTI personality assessment, which is the life’s work of the author of “Gifts Differing”. Here I recommend a free website 16 Personalities. Since I learned about MBTI in junior high school, I have taken it many times and have always been a steady INTJ; I took it recently and found that I have become an ENTJ, probably because I often need to have meetings and communicate in the company for the past three and a half years. Several friends in my circle also said that they changed from I to E (introverted to extroverted) after work due to the need for communication. The meanings of these letters can be summarized in the following table:
| Dimension | ||
|---|---|---|
| Extraversion/Introversion | Extraversion | Introversion |
| Sensing/Intuition | Sensing | iNtuition |
| Thinking/Feeling | Thinking | Feeling |
| Judging/Perceiving | Judging | Perceiving |
Most people are probably most familiar with introversion and extraversion, which is also the easiest characteristic to observe. Introverts are more focused on the internal world of concepts and viewpoints, while extraverts are more focused on the external world of people and things.
The remaining 3 dimensions are not well known to many people, but in terms of making judgments and choices, the sensing and thinking dimensions are the most important. “Gifts Differing” points out:
- The sensing dimension refers to how we perceive the external world, “sensing” refers to the five senses, extended to the perception of the current actual situation; “intuition” is association and imagination.
- The thinking dimension refers to how we make conclusions, “thinking” refers to the logical process, “feeling” refers to personal and subjective value judgments.
When dealing with the external world, there may be conflicts between the two thinking processes of sensing and thinking, and one of them will be more primary, which is the meaning of the judging/perceiving dimension. For example, if the reader agrees or disagrees with the content of this article, this is using the thinking process; if the reader maintains an open attitude when reading here, then it is using the sensing method. People who prefer to use the thinking method like to organize their lives in an orderly manner, while those who use the sensing method are more go-with-the-flow.
After reading this book, it is easy to know which dimension each question in the MBTI personality test is testing, and which option is more inclined to which direction. Many companies also require personality tests during interviews, and some of the questions are testing these personality traits.
I used to be an INTJ, introverted-intuition-thinking-judging, which means I prefer to look forward to the future intuition rather than focus on the present sensing, and I prefer to use logical thinking rather than feeling to make judgments, and between intuition and thinking, I prefer to use thinking to deal with the external world. Now I have become an ENTJ, extraversion (79%)-intuition (84%)-thinking (79%)-judging (71%), and I still prefer to use thinking to deal with the external world between intuition and thinking.
My distinct personality tendency also has obvious weaknesses. For example, in the personality test, there is a question about whether to try to reason or empathize when people around are emotional. I prefer to reason, but obviously, empathy is more suitable for soothing the emotions of people around, which reflects the difference in the thinking-feeling dimension.
Understanding personality traits can help choose careers and play to strengths. For example, INTJ is more suitable for scientists, while ENTJ is more suitable for commanders. The most suitable personality for engineers is ISTJ, because engineers need to focus on the present, sensing is more important than intuition, which is different from scientists who need to look to the future.
However, having unsuitable personality traits does not mean that one cannot excel in this profession. For example, it is generally believed that extroverted people are more suitable for managers, but many well-known managers are actually introverted.
How to Judge Sensing/Intuition
If it is still difficult to judge from the simple description, you can refer to the following table:
| Perception | Sensing | Intuition |
|---|---|---|
| Way of perceiving the world | Direct observation, personal experience | Unconscious association and imagination |
| Way of facing life | Observational, pursuit of pleasure | Expectational, pursuit of inspiration and imagination |
| Enjoy life | Yes, love life itself | Initiator, innovator and promoter, not interested in life itself |
| Imitation and innovation | Desire to have and enjoy, imitate what others have and do | Desire for opportunities and possibilities, not caring about what others do |
| Dislike | Sacrifice present enjoyment for future benefits | Willing to sacrifice present enjoyment, not living in the present |
| How to contribute to society | Enjoyment and entertainment, beauty and luxury | Invention, innovation, initiative and leadership |
“The Talent Difference” suggests that, generally speaking, students who prefer intuition are more interested in academic research than those who prefer sensation, and are more likely to pursue higher education. Whether a student is admitted depends on exam scores and interview performance, but in the process of growth, the student has silently made a preference for what type of education to accept.
I believe that the mainstream values of the current society tend to be intuitive, so the value recognition of innovation and progress is higher than enjoying life itself, especially many families have the academic complex of “all things are inferior, only reading is high”. But the perceptual way of sensing type is not wrong and should be treated equally. For example, the last line of the table above, enjoyment, entertainment, beauty, and luxury are also a way to contribute to society.
Because the memory and processing methods of sensing information and intuitive information in the brain are different, many people will wonder, why do I have a strong memory for logical information, but I can’t remember the details of the story, and I can’t remember people after seeing them several times? I am an intuitive person, often based on sporadic information, analyzing the development trend of things, and accustomed to following the feeling. Some other sensing people may be like an encyclopedia, able to remember a large amount of data, names, and story plots, but it is difficult to infer new conclusions based on these facts.
In actual work, the thinking mode of sensing type is more competent in many positions than the intuitive type. For example, sensing people think that it is not prudent to stop when they catch an answer. They must fully understand the facts before they can make a conclusion, rather than drawing conclusions based on the imagination of things. For example, engineers need to carefully check the details of the project to ensure that there will be no mistakes. Studies have shown that in exams and intelligence tests, sensing people often do questions slowly because they need to read the questions three or four times to ensure that they understand the questions, or they need to check repeatedly, which leads to low scores. But this may become an advantage in real engineering projects.
Sensing people are generally down-to-earth, and intuitive people generally look up at the stars, so sensing people often feel that intuitive people are drawing cakes every day, and intuitive people often feel that sensing people lack imagination and creativity. In a team, both people who look up at the stars and people who are down-to-earth are needed, and they need to cooperate to complete the task best.
How to judge thinking/emotion
| Judgement | Thinking | Emotion |
|---|---|---|
| Judgement method | True and false | Pleasing or not |
| Emotion and logic | Value logic | Value emotion |
| People and things | More interested in things | More interested in interpersonal relationships |
| Reality and tact | Value reality | Value tact |
| Management and social | Stronger management ability | Stronger social ability |
| Questioning and agreeing | Used to question other people’s conclusions | Used to agree with other people’s conclusions |
| Friendly and indifferent | Business is business, lack of friendship | Friendly |
| Expression method | State the theme, argument, and conclusion in a logical sequence | Repeat details more |
| How to contribute to society | Criticize customs and concepts from a thought perspective | Support beautiful work and activities |
| Gender difference | More men | More women |
Thinking and emotion are dimensions that are relatively easy to identify based on behavior. For example, people who often express different opinions are more likely to be thinking types. In our high school Chinese composition, the method of proving by examples is emotional, and the method of logical reasoning is thinking. In public speeches, emotional speeches are more likely to arouse empathy and move people; while in serious academic discussions, thinking is obviously needed.
For the new crown epidemic, a thinking person might say that most young people can heal themselves in a few days, the death rate is only a few ten thousandths, not enough to be anxious, compared to the higher economic cost of strict epidemic prevention; an emotional person might say, are you willing to have this few ten thousandths of a chance to happen to the elderly at home? Even if we are young people, getting the new crown is much more uncomfortable than a cold. I know someone who got the new crown, and there are still sequelae now.
When the girlfriend is angry, the thinking person may try to figure out the reason for the anger and help her solve the problem; the emotional person will first soothe the girlfriend’s emotions. For example, when I was working on the evaluation community, she was sad because she couldn’t understand the table structure of the database, and I was just drawing E-R diagrams, which made her angry. The first lesson we learned as a small team leader in the company is to deal with emotions first and then deal with things. Conversely, when a thinking person is angry, he may also hope that friends will help solve the problem, rather than say useless comforting words.
To give another example, a very good friend wants to cheat in exams or interviews, a thinking person may stick to principles, and an emotional person may feel that helping friends is more important. When watching a movie, emotional people are easily moved by the plot, while thinking people may think that these are all made up by the screenwriter, and they are constantly looking for loopholes.
How to judge the main process of dealing with the external world
Note that in the table below, the judging type is divided into thinking or emotion, and the sensing type is divided into sensation or intuition. Judgement and perception are dimensions that measure the relative importance of these two dimensions.
| Dealing with the external world | Judgement | Perception |
|---|---|---|
| Curiosity and decision | Decision | Curiosity |
| Lifestyle | Plan, standard, and habit | Go with the flow, easy to adapt |
| Choice | Clear choice, dislike unexpected situations | Like to keep possibilities in life |
| Decision speed | Resolve and solve things as quickly as possible | Collect as much information as possible before major decisions |
| Input or output | Happy to output what you are doing to others | Happy to observe what others are doing |
| Behavior mode | Self-restrained, goal-oriented, aggressive | Flexible, adaptable, tolerant of others |
Judging talents include systematic and orderly work, planned life, persistent efforts, decisiveness, and authority, while perceiving talents include spontaneity, openness, understanding, tolerance, curiosity, desire for experience, and adaptability.
When we do personality tests, we sometimes find questions like “Do you like to follow rules” and “Do you like to experience different kinds of life”. These are not distinguishing between sensing and intuition, or thinking and feeling, but distinguishing which pair is more dominant in the two pairs of sensing/intuition and thinking/feeling.
Sometimes, we may find a colleague who is on the fast track of career development suddenly resigns, wants to go abroad, return to his hometown, or engage in a completely different field or profession. This may be a perceptive person who wants to change to a new lifestyle, while a judging person may not understand such a choice.
Companies need to clock in and out every day, even a minute difference is not allowed. Perceptive people may think this is a distrust of employees, while judging people may think that strict systems are needed to prevent slackness.
Before going on a trip, judging people like to plan the itinerary for each day in advance, make a good strategy, and pack their suitcases neatly; while perceptive people may just go and decide where to go on the spot. When shopping in a mall or online, those who still can’t decide after comparing three stores and going around and around may be perceptive.
Through the above methods, without doing a personality assessment, you can probably determine your own personality type, and even determine the personality types of your familiar family members, friends, and colleagues.
Team “Personality”
“4D Excellent Team” is a relatively fast-food practical book, which proposes to divide people or teams into four quadrants based on perception and judgment:
| Perception\Judgment | Feeling | Thinking |
|---|---|---|
| Intuition | Cultivation (Green) | Prospect (Blue) |
| Sensing | Inclusion (Yellow) | Guidance (Orange) |
Interpretation of the four quadrants:
- Green Cultivation Type: Naturally pay attention to people’s needs and common values; serve others, family, religion, and beliefs; support others to achieve happiness and success; succeed without harming others; the biggest challenge lies in the orange discipline and organization; Journey to the West character: Pig Bajie.
- Yellow Inclusion Type: Naturally participate in team cooperation, establish relationships with people; we are here to cooperate with each other; promote team operation and cooperation; succeed because of harmony. The biggest challenge lies in the blue innovation and goal sense. Journey to the West character: Sha Monk.
- Blue Prospect Type: Naturally pay attention to ideas and concepts, and strive to do the best; novel and grand ideas are the most important; have ideas, and promote their own ideas (many times, because they are too fast to respond to others); succeed because of excellence and innovation. The biggest challenge lies in the yellow inclusiveness and cooperation. Journey to the West character: Sun Wukong.
- Orange Guidance Type: Naturally focus on tasks, processes, and certainty; have plans for work and implement them according to the plan; have a rigorous attitude in execution and abide by discipline; succeed because of the process and consistency. The biggest challenge lies in ignoring people’s reasonable personal needs. Journey to the West character: Tang Monk.
Of course, “4D Excellent Team” is a translated book, and it does not mention “Journey to the West”. But I found that the ancient Chinese were really amazing. The four disciples just formed the four quadrants of intuition and sensation, emotion and thinking, and achieved the legendary achievement of the journey to the west through team cooperation.
The most suitable personality for companies and research institutions
The book points out that most companies are orange guidance types, and most research institutions are blue prospect types. To judge whether an organization is blue (intuition) or orange (sensation) dominated, you can refer to the following table:
| Question | Blue (Prospect, Intuition) | Orange (Guidance, Sensation) |
|---|---|---|
| Final decision-making power | Super competent thinkers, geniuses | Managers at the top of the organizational structure |
| Cooperation process | Love to argue, regardless of whether they are angry | Organized by process and management system |
| Value orientation | Innovation and excellence | Process and certainty |
| Decision-making process driver | Technical experts | Management |
| Administrative management process | Casual, temporary | Written, strictly implemented |
| Personal behavior | Free, sometimes chaotic | Strong discipline, well organized |
Many scholars and doctors join the company and experience some discomfort. Part of the reason is the conflict between blue (intuition) and orange (sensation) culture. Most start-ups, mature company innovation teams are blue prospect types, while mature companies, commercial teams are orange guidance types. If a team does not match the type of its customers or superior organizations, it may cause some conflicts.
It can be noticed that on the dimension of emotion and thinking, both companies and research institutions tend to think, because the purpose of these organizations is to make rational judgments and achieve certain goals; making everyone in the organization happy is only a secondary goal.