Sunday, September 23, 2007

Myers-Briggs Conversions

Basically, all Socionics types very roughly translate to their counterpart Myers-Briggs types (i.e. NiFe/INFp to INFP), except for extroverted ethical sensor types, which translate to their opposite in rationality (FeSi/ESFj to ESFP and SeFi/ESFp to ESFj). The functional explanation is as follows in the table below. (For further explanation of Socionics IM elements, read The Functions article.)

Of course, not all people of one Myers-Briggs type will be the same Socionics type, because it is a very rough conversion and will never be a "pure" translation. The same Myers-Briggs function and Socionics IM element will categorize aspects of reality very differently. There is so much overlap in conversion that there is no true translation of types.

The table below uses information from SharedPaths.com, where, with a good background understanding of Socionics IM elements, you can further explore the descrepencies between them and Myers-Briggs functions.

Myers-Briggs vs. Socionics
MB S Myers-Briggs Description
Fe
~ Fe
"They add warmth, diffuse conflict, gather in the lost sheep, make the misfit fit. What makes them happy, is making the people around them happy."

Fi ~ Fi "Fi types are governed by harmony, respect for natural boundaries. They need relevance. They are often quiet with intense feelings inside."

Ne
~ Ne
"Fun is dreaming up and pursuing options without any follow-through or accountability. They come up with an almost endless supply of options, and freely spew them into the world."

Ni ~ Ni "Ni types enjoy interpreting and understanding life, anticipating implications. They do this meditatively, with insights popping into their heads, almost like magic, focused inward unconsciously."

Se ~ Si "They have a comfortableness with their bodies, live in the present tense, accept reality as it is, and are tolerant of others. They enjoy highly sensory activities, and are pleasure-seeking."

Si /=
Se
"They mentally store data and information, and compare and contrast. They are realistic, sensible. They establish expectations. They trust the lessons of general and personal history and experience." (These are the few areas where it could correlate.)

Te
~ Te
"They enjoy finding solutions for practical problems, organizing the rational external world with a natural sense of order. They are efficient and direct, finding the shortest distance between two points, that which is and that which should be."

Ti ~ Ti "Ti types enjoy taking things apart to understand, putting pieces together to create a whole, creating theories, seeing how things fit into a framework. They use facts to prove ideas, thinking in outlines."


FeSi and SeFi Conversions

FeSi/ESFj converts to ESFP. Following are some ESFP Myers-Briggs descriptions from PersonalityPage.com that help explain why that ESFP is more like FeSi/ESFj than SeFi/ESFp:
  • "They are very observant about other people, and seem to sense what is wrong [strong Fe] with someone before others might, responding warmly with a solution to a practical need [valued Si]."
  • "They dislike theory and future-planning [undervalued Ni], but they are great for giving practical care [valued Si]."
  • "If the ESFP has not developed...they tend to become over-indulgent, and place more importance on immediate sensation and gratification [valued Si]"
  • "They may also avoid looking at long-term consequences of their actions. [undervalued Ni]"
  • "They're constantly putting on a show for others to entertain them and make them happy. [valued Fe]"
SeFi/ESFp converts to ESFJ. Following are some ESFJ Myers-Briggs descriptions from PersonalityPage.com that help explain why that ESFJ is more like SeFi/ESFp than FeSi/ESFj:
  • "They have a strong need...to be in control. [valued Se]"
  • "They weigh their values and morals against the world around them [valued Fi contextualizing]"
  • "ESFJs who have not had the advantage of developing their own values by weighing them against a good external value system may develop very questionable values. In such cases, the ESFJ most often genuinely believes in the integrity of their skewed value system. [valued Fi subjective perspective]"
  • "...drives them to control and manipulate [valued Se]"
  • "They're usually quite popular and good with people, and good at manipulating them. [strong Se+Fi]"
  • "They are driven to manipulate other to achieve their own ends, yet they believe that they are following a solid moral code of conduct. [strong Se+Fi]"
  • "An ESFJ who has developed in a less than ideal way may be prone to being quite insecure, and focus all of their attention on pleasing others [valued Fi]."
  • "He or she might also be very controling, or overly sensitive, [valued Se+Fi]"

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Very interesting. What is your take on the old 'enneagram'?

Peter

Lana said...

Well, peter11s, why don't you provide an email address? :>

Such as...the one provided here.

Diomedies said...

Just thought you should know that that the conversions here need a little editing.

In MBTI the j/p is applied to the Extraverted function, and in Socionics tht j/p is applied to the leading function. This makes no difference for extraverts, but for introverts this makes the socionics rational/irrational (aka j/p) function switch.

Heres some websites you can look at to check it out. Compare what you would consider the same type and you will find that they don't actually line up:

http://www.wikisocion.org/
http://typelogic.com/

By all means feel free to look at other sites too.

I hope you get this corrected as soon as possible!

Diomedies said...

I'm focusing on the information elements when I say this, by the way. In neither socionics or MBTI does ESFP have FeSi or ESFJ have SeFi.