The concept of Psychological Type, when applied to you and your life, can literally be life-changing. It can be like a light being turned on – either instant illumination or perhaps a dimmer switch where the intensity of the light is slowly turned up until what you see is clearly lit and visible – perhaps for the very first time.
We’ve already seen how powerful and impactful a mirror understanding your Type can be in the previous Modules, and specifically Module 4 where we looked at Discovering Your Gifts.
We’re going to continue our exploration into the land of Psychological Type, and specifically into the dynamic nature of your Type.
You see, no one is a “type”. Well, they are no more a type than they are a “tall” or a “blue-eyed”. Your Type is one aspect that makes up who you are, amongst many other factors. Your unique group of qualities and characteristics make you truly unique. There is literally nobody just like you on the face of the planet.
And yet, there are patterns that make up who you are. All of us fall into various groups that encompass important aspects of who we are, and it is through our association with these groups and these patterns that apply to those groups that we can learn much about ourselves.
The Structure of Your Type
Your Style Type is a four-letter code that is short-hand for some fairly sophisticated, researched, and validated concepts to do with personality, and what makes up our psychological framework.
Your four-letter code, your “type”, has a particular – and intricate – structure to it.
Your Style Type letters are not additive. A completely inaccurate, yet concerningly common view, is that it works like this: If you’re, say, an INFP then that must mean that the equation works like this: I + N + F + P = You. No – that is not how psychological type works.
Jung and Myers, the creators of this model of personality, identified deeper, more exciting truths about how our personalities develop and mature.
Your Style Type is more than just the sum of your four letters. It has a dynamic structure to it.
The Dynamic Nature of Your Type
This dynamic nature of your Type focuses on the two middle letters of your four-letter Type code. If you haven’t already, identify now the two middle letters of your Style Type – they will be SF, ST, NF or NT. You can read more about these here.
You may have noticed that we call these two middle letters your Super Style – as they are the core of your Style Type preferences.
These two letters are referred to as “functions”, and one of these two letters indicates your Dominant or Leading Function and the other your Auxiliary or Supporting Function.
The four functions are Sensing (S), iNtuition (N), Thinking (T) and Feeling (F).
According to CG Jung:
“The four functions are somewhat like the four points of the compass; they are just as arbitrary and just as indispensable” – Modern Man in Search of a Soul
The Compass of Your Type
Before you continue on, take a moment to jot down the two middle letters of your Style Type code. We call this your Super Style.
For Sensing write S
For iNtuition write N
and then
For Feeling write F
For Thinking write T
For example: ISTJ would write down Sensing and Thinking (ST); ENFP would write down iNtuition and Feeling (NF).
The Power of Style Type Dynamics
There is an order of psychological type preferences, with the Dominant function being the most important, then a second, third, and fourth preference (referred to as auxiliary, tertiary and inferior functions).
Type theory and the considerable research done on this aspect of psychological type development suggests that these parts of our personality develop in a relatively chronological order, from childhood through to later in life.
The key concept of type development is this:
Confidence and self-esteem are built on a strong foundation of trusting your most preferred personality preferences—your dominant and auxiliary functions.
Which is why this is such a central concept to explore. When you get a grasp of your leading function especially, suddenly a whole new aspect to your personality, and your interactions with others, becomes clearer.
It can be life changing.
The Dynamic Nature of Type Development
A word about type development. This is important to touch on, as we don’t want to give the impression that this theory of type dynamics and type development is predictive or that our personalities are on some pre-set and never-to-be-changed track. Nothing of the sort!
This theory of type dynamics and development assumes that we grow – we experience things in our lives that we respond and react to, we choose pathways to growth and change, and at other times change and growth “happen to us”. However it occurs, we are alive and dynamic beings – not static or one-tracked.
Over the course of your life, different personality preferences may emerge and be used more often, as well as more easily.
As you develop and experience life, the way you see the world and the way you behave often expands. You learn to behave in certain ways, depending on what your circumstances are and what is required of you. This is very true when you have work that calls for skills and behaviors that are outside of your innate way of being, such as you can learn how to pay more attention to detail even if you naturally focus on the big picture, or you learn to become more organized and plan ahead even if you prefer a more go-with-the-flow or organic way of approaching life.
This is a natural part of adult development, of becoming more self-aware, and is to be expected.
The Energy Factor
It’s equally important to recognize that this natural development does not mean your personality preferences have changed. Even if the context you find yourself in does not support your personality preferences, they are still there—striving to be used.
Like a cork held under water, your innate personality preferences will naturally pop to the surface once any resistance (in the form of needing to behave outside of your personality preferences) is removed.
If life allows you to be who you really are, your innate preferences will always come to the fore.
Whilst we all learn to develop a suite of behaviors, it’s important to recognize that living for too long outside your natural personality preferences comes at great cost. You can experience great stress and anxiety when your natural personality preferences are not allowed to develop and be used naturally.
And working outside of your innate preferences costs energy – the conscious energy required to alter, adjust, and modify your behavior and natural approach, rather than being yourself.
Your most preferred personality preferences—your leading and supporting functions—will always be at the core of your personality.
The Dynamic Nature of Your Type
Your Style Type code is a shorthand to describe the interaction of your personality preferences, which ones you naturally use first, and which you use best—that you trust the most and use without conscious thought.
One of the four letters in your Style Type code represents the most developed preference of your personality DNA. According to the psychological type theory of type dynamics, this aspect of your personality has the most influence on you and how you approach life.
This is usually called the dominant function—your favorite function, your ‘go to’ function, the one that you rely on and trust over the others.
According to type theory, this innate part of your personality developed first, when you were a child –this is why you might not be all that conscious of your dominant function, it’s so elemental to who you are that you may be simply unaware of its presence and impact.
As the theory goes, your auxiliary or supporting function developed next, and is always in service to your dominant leading function.
