SEI - Sensory Ethical Integrator - "The Nurturer"

This is the profile for the Sensory Ethical Integrator (SEI). To see more type profiles, click here.

Julia Child

1. Senses
SEIs are primarily disposed towards the enjoyment of their surroundings and satisfaction of sensory desires. Sensitive to their environment, SEIs are naturally attuned to the temperature, colour, smell, feel, etc. of the space they occupy and will endeavour to finely tune these qualities according to their tastes. They are most given to maintaining pleasant, relaxing atmospheres that satisfy their physical needs and tastes in harmony with the surroundings, while nurturing the blissful coexistence of others. An emphasis is often placed on aesthetic beauty, with colours and shapes being arranged in the right manner for people to enjoy. Similarly, SEIs are very conscious of the physical needs of their body, being able to pick up on when they are hungry or tired and finding the right thing to satisfy their needs. In this way, the SEI lifestyle is one that prioritises a sort of blissful and contented well being in the present day. Furthermore, SEIs are disposed to experiment and play with different sensations, refining stimuli down to those which are most pleasurable. In addition, they are usually very able to flatter their bodies with tasteful choices of clothing, although always the priority is comfort, with sloppier outfits also being donned for ease of wear. As such, SEIs may be peaceful hedonists, gourmands in food and drink or sculptors of attractive artwork, tweaking the cacophony of the world around them to create harmony in its place.    

Bob Ross

2. Emotions
Alongside physical harmony, SEIs also adapt and adjust themselves to the emotions of the people around them. In order to feel comfortable in their surroundings, SEIs need to keep the emotional environment positive and pleasant. As such, they are adept at keeping the peace between those around them and know how to subtly say the right thing to calm down heated tempers and raise people's spirits during an unhappy period. SEIs are often jolly and friendly in their dealings with others, knowing in the moment how to change how they are coming across to others with a disarming simplicity, putting people at ease and resulting in them being well liked by all. SEIs are often highly sociable and may have a close-knit circle of friends to have fun with, often socialising during recreational outings. Although rarely the leader of activity in such groups, they will very readily support a light-hearted bonhomie on the one-to-one, cheering up their friends with an earthy, often physical sense of humour and keeping them involved. When enjoying their recreation, SEIs most prefer to share their experiences with others, and gain more satisfaction knowing that the people around them are enjoying themselves too. By tapping into the emotions of others, the physical enjoyment is enhanced to create an overall atmosphere of happy contentedness.

Regina Spektor

3. Time
SEIs are usually capable of thinking ahead and imagining how things are likely to turn out in the future. Many SEIs will have a sense of where their life is meant to be going and are often able to take up reasonably linear careers with a steady, predictable outcome. SEIs will also have a reasonable sense of when something needs to be actively done and where leaving the matter alone will be sufficient. However, SEIs naturally prefer to focus on the present and their enjoyment of what is happening now around them, rather than what may or may not happen in the future. Similarly, they will be disinterested in relating their actions to some higher cause, preferring to savour experiences and activities for their own sake. This may manifest in a slowness to respond to urgency and a tendency to stick to a slower, more leisurely pace. SEIs may grow pessimistic having to maintain a lifestyle that seems to be heading in one direction and find they actually prefer a lifestyle of variety and multiple opportunities to explore. Furthermore, SEIs are most often unwilling to make any sacrifices of their comfort for some future goal or greater good. Sooner than suffering pain or an absence of their comfort, SEIs will likely forego more prudent actions that further down the line might prove to be important. This tendency can lead to problems with achieving long-term rewards, with SEIs making choices based on their ease in the moment and forgetting to look ahead to see if their choices might be fruitful later on. They will be less inclined to continuously assess their choices over time to see if they are working or not, usually persisting in the way that feels right to them until a major problem is hit further on. However, SEIs are less averse to reflecting on trends and looking ahead when it is directed to the motivations and emotions of people. On occasion they will be more likely to think about how people are likely to react to something, using these insights to avoid social conflicts.

4. Pragmatism

François Hollande

Although often dutiful workers, the comfort-seeking of SEIs can clash with demands to work hard and
improve upon oneself. SEIs are disposed to finding a way of doing something that feels comfortable to them and can be highly resistant to people telling them they have to make changes in order to aid productivity. Any demand to constantly upgrade one's methods is quickly exhausting to the SEI, as it will usually require a mental strain to learn the new procedure and the extra effort to master the new technique. Instead, the SEI will often have a set idea of the things they are able to do and give up when the task seems beyond their immediate capability, preferring not to have to handle the difficult task while it is not sufficiently infringing on their enjoyment. They will respond negatively to being told they must improve or even what they must do to improve, much preferring being shown interesting, possible things they could do. SEIs prefer a consistent system which, due to its stability, can be fulfilled regularly and predictably without exhaustion. These sorts of approaches can often be criticised as 'lazy' by other types. In addition, the desire to avoid strain can undermine their attempts to remain comfortable, with SEIs sometimes not making the best decisions for their health due to the work and preparation involved, in favour of more immediate satisfactions. Furthermore, SEIs will usually disdain people who set themselves up as experts and presume to know what is best for them, especially in regards to their comfort and well-being. This can often result in stubbornness on the part of the SEI and the attitude that their personal experience trumps statistical studies and academic expertise, which might frustrate doctors. When under sufficient pressure, an SEI may increase their productivity to get an important job done, putting their comfort needs on hold for the shortest time possible. However, such approaches are often too late, resulting in deadlines often being missed.

Gisele Bündchen

5. Ideas
The disposition of SEIs towards the things they find enjoyable and pleasurable in the moment can lead to a settling effect, with them often finding a certain comfort zone to stick to. Consequently, SEIs can often find themselves living a monotonous existence, exploring the same comforts again and again with the same people in the same places. As such, SEIs greatly appreciate the excitement and novelty brought about by others and look forward to entertaining notions and different perspectives they themselves had not thought of. SEIs love being exposed to new ideas and perspectives, excitedly growing in enthusiasm when presented with a clever analogy or theory that brings lots of different scenarios together in a beautiful, neat explanation. As such, SEIs are often quite intellectually curious, wanting to explore more of life's complexity and decipher its mysterious ambiguity, but often lacking the confidence in their ideas and their logical impressiveness to embrace such pursuits on their own. Furthermore, SEIs are limited in their assessments of themselves, often only knowing what they have done and are used to doing but rarely having confidence in speculating as to what they could do in an unfamiliar situation. Often SEIs will not see themselves as having any special qualities and present themselves as average or less. For this reason, they are very appreciative of people who can get a good, general grasp of their capabilities and vocalise to them the things they might do wonderfully but had never thought to try. Such people are able to widen the scope of possibility for the SEI and allow them a greater range of experiences to savour and share with others.

Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva

6. Laws

SEIs tend to find great symmetrical beauty in consistent structures of understanding, and may be drawn to the neatness of such systems in their daily lives. To best lead a relaxing lifestyle, SEIs take pride in the construction of, or adherence to, orderly schedules that provide continuity and organisation in a well-balanced routine. SEIs like to demonstrate their reliability and competence in terms of their ability to take note of the rules of a system and follow through meticulously. However, these tendencies towards routine organisation are less aspired to by SEIs than the intellectual understanding of unusual phenomena and abstract concepts that such systems provide. SEIs enjoy showing that they understand complex theoretical phenomena according to a set framework and any creation of theirs, whether mathematical, legal or artistic, will provide a great feeling of accomplishment if complimented by others. However, SEIs may be overly reliant on such systems and, when some flaw is encountered, may be resistant to thinking up pragmatic changes outside the rules. Not only is such a pragmatic change strenuous to them, but it also disrupts the beauty of the system as an unsightly exception. As such, SEIs may trap themselves in a set approach when faced with the more complex outcomes of practical life.

Gwyneth Paltrow

7. Force
The harmony created by SEIs depends on an absence of coercion or intense forcefulness and they will largely try to dissipate aggression that breaches this calm. SEIs naturally come across as soft and welcoming in their interactions with others and avoid aggressive interactions unless in good humour, often to the point of trying to keep light-hearted peace in an emergency situation where forcefulness might be needed. However, SEIs are more than capable of defending themselves and, when pushed into a situation where they are unavoidably uncomfortable, will fight back with unexpected and explosive ferocity. Such scenarios of force, as well as other situations where the SEI is required to increase their activity and productive output, occur in the form of short bursts to minimise physical and mental toil, with other needs being temporarily put to the side. However, the need for comfort and enjoyment has to be fulfilled eventually and sustained activity will tire SEIs. Additionally, SEIs are slow to anger and have far more skilful ways of dealing with attacks from others. Although usually able to mediate between warring parties, an affront to their person is handled more simplistically. Their affable stubbornness causes most attempts at coercion to simply bounce off, often to the frustration of the attacker. Similarly, they may respond to pressure by ignoring it, continuing unfazed in what they are doing. Despite this, SEIs are often more emotionally sensitive, caring about what others think of them. Although hard to coerce or push, they may have their feelings hurt by words where actions will fail.

Nero

8. Relations
The social nature of SEIs manifests most on the one-to-one, with them being able to quickly befriend
people with a laid-back and disarming charm. SEIs are in their element in non-pressurised situations where people can interact freely with each other. They have a good sense of who they enjoy the company of and who they do not, and will subtly bring together those people they think contribute the most to a fun and interesting environment. However, SEIs refrain from making any personal judgements of others clear, not placing an emphasis on the qualities of the person, but rather their effect on the physical and emotional atmosphere. SEIs are usually very tolerant of people around them as long as they are not killing the mood or making the environment tense. Similarly, they are less likely to place much expectation or obligation on those they happen to be close to, despite regularly maintaining contact with those who increase enjoyment. Instead, SEIs approach relationships in terms of having quality time with other people in the moment, creating enjoyable and pleasurable experiences with others and selecting the right people to have these experiences with. 

Some famous people we think are SEIs:

• Adele
• Anne, Queen of Great Britain
• Chester A. Arthur
• Stanley Baldwin
• Björk
• Leonid Brezhnev
• Mel Brooks
• James Buchanan
• Giselle Bündchen
• Jimmy Carter
• Louis C. K.
• James Corden
• The 14th Dalai Lama
• Edward VII
• John Farnham
• Antoni Gaudí
• Francisco Franco
• George IV of the United Kingdom
• George V
• Jonah Hill
• Alfred Hitchcock
• François Hollande
• John Howard
• Phil Jackson
• James VI and I
• John VI of Portugal
• Kim Jong-un
• David Letterman
• George Lucas
• Nicolás Maduro
• Marie Antoinette
• Nero
• Frederick North, Lord North
• Gwyneth Paltrow
• Andy Richter
• Bob Ross
• Gioachino Rossini
• Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
• Regina Spektor
• Tiffany Trump
• Valens
• Vitellius
• William I, German Emperor
• Harold Wilson
• Steve Wozniak
• Huldrych Zwingli

Some fictional characters we think are SEIs:

• Choji Akimichi (Naruto)
• Belgium (Hetalia)
• Bing Bong (Inside Out)
• Mr. Charles Bingley (Pride & Prejudice)
• George Costanza (Seinfeld)
• Dionysus (Greek Mythology)
• Gluttony (Fullmetal Alchemist)
• Italy Veneziano (Hetalia)
• Rajesh Koothrappali (The Big Bang Theory)
• Beth March (Little Women)
• Pumbaa (The Lion King)
• Mayuri Shiina (Steins;Gate)
• Homer Simpson (The Simpsons)
• Horace Slughorn (Harry Potter)
• Samwell Tarly (A Song of Ice and Fire)
• Joey Tribbiani (Friends)
• Ron Weasley (Harry Potter)
• Winnie-the-Pooh (Winnie-the-Pooh)

A Very Abridged Introduction to Socionics

Where Socionics differs most significantly from the MBTI is its focus on Quadras, four groupings of four personality types, united by having similar values and ways of looking at the world. The most beneficial relationships are thought to occur between people of the same Quadra. Each Quadra is composed of two opposite halves, known as Clubs, which naturally complement each other. These Clubs, which are the same in terms of their strengths and weaknesses, are known as either Researchers and Socialites or Pragmatists and Humanitarians. Finally, each Club within each Quadra splits into two types of opposing Temperaments, i.e. differing levels of energy and flexibility. All in all, this results in 16 types.

The following presentation in quotes was written by Rana Levy from World Socionics Society: 

Alpha 

Alpha types are ILE, SEI, ESE and LII. They are childlike in their values.

Researchers – “Alphas understand and are content with different viewpoints and concepts. They are open to multiple possibilities and are also characterized as having unconstrained openness towards ideas and people. They are not prone to dismissing or eliminating differing viewpoints or lifestyles of others. They seek consistency and clarity of their worldviews and desire structured and systematic principles to which they define ideas and concepts.” Alpha Researchers are either the sanguine ILE or melancholic LII.

Socialites – “Alphas value and appreciate positive mood and emotional atmosphere of the people surrounding them. There is emphasis on collectivism, collaborating and universal participation in Alpha types. They are primarily optimistic and positive people who enjoy a range of uplifting emotionality and enjoy relaxing atmospheres. The Alpha types prefer environments that are comfortable, laid back, enjoyable and free of judgment and negativity.” Alpha Socialites are either the phlegmatic SEI or choleric ESE.

Beta 

Beta types are EIE, LSI, SLE and IEI. They are youthful in their values.

Humanitarians – “Beta types are driven to value and devalue people based on the sensibility of ideological principles rather than the individual character. The visionary nature of the Beta types is typically narrower in focus, and implemented in groups of people who share similar ideologies. Betas tend to enjoy collectivist environments in which the group can agree and move in similar directions. They are aware of changing atmospheres and signals in an exterior emotional space and are quickly able to recognize ideological conflicts quickly. There is an emphasis on emotional energy and can give them the appearance of being expressive. They value environments of free expression with no restrictions or censorship. (http://www.techhouse.org/socionics)” Beta Humanitarians are either the choleric EIE or phlegmatic IEI. 

Pragmatists – “Beta types value impactful action and direct initiative. They seek consistency and clarity in their worldviews and appreciate decisiveness and momentum in following through with goals. They are motivated by beliefs and worldviews that are internally consistent, which in turn helps them interpret messages of the world. There is an emphasis on logical principles and ideologies rather than expanding on multiple possibilities. There is attentiveness to contradiction/inconsistency and importance on transparency with regard to Beta types. Betas can also recognize and confront conflict, as they are aware that conflict is an inevitable aspect of the world.” Beta Pragmatists are either melancholic LSI or sanguine SLE.

Gamma 

Gamma types are SEE, ILI, LIE and ESI. They are mature in their values.

Socialites – “Gamma types move away from people they dislike or distrust. It is not abnormal for Gammas to judge harshly and cut their losses with individuals. The true colors of the individuals around the Gamma types is more important than the overall atmosphere or group emotion, as the Gamma types place less value on the environment and mood of others around them. This can result as a strict selectivity on who they trust and who they do not trust. There is also the aspect of character selection in the form of immediate impact - which can in turn make Gammas seem impulsive in some aspects with their judgments.” Gamma Socialites are either the sanguine SEE or melancholic ESI. 

Researchers – “Gamma types are characterized by independence and self-reliance. They are able to project long term plans and large scale visions of goals they would like to accomplish, and are appreciative of autonomous atmospheres where they are not reliant upon others. Gamma types are also adamant on gathering information from trustworthy and reliable sources as a means of analyzing data on their own. They value grounded implementation and pragmatism. Gamma types are typically less open to expansive ideas and prefer narrowing down possibilities as a means of having a singular goal.” Gamma Researchers are either the phlegmatic ILI or choleric LIE.

Delta 

Delta types are LSE, EII, IEE and SLI. They are senior in their values.

Pragmatists – “Deltas value self-sufficiency and pragmatism. They have an appreciation for positions in which they can build upon properties of the world in an efficient manner, and are prone to recognizing the immediate surroundings… Deltas are more concerned with what is factually accurate and trustworthy information than what is a consistent ideology or system. As such, Deltas will be inclined to find little value in otherworldly worldviews and will prefer an earthier, practical approach to solve problems. They typically have immediate and functional methods to integrate into communities they are a part of.” Delta Pragmatists are either the choleric LSE or phlegmatic SLI. 

Humanitarians – “Deltas are characterized as having good faith judgment and typically value the potential goodness of a person rather than harsh judgment. However - it is still important that they determine and evaluate the closeness of others and see the potential that people can offer. Deltas are prone to see the merit in exploring multiple possibilities, disciplines and schools of thought, which can manifest as being open minded and accepting of alternative lifestyles. There is merit to independent thought and self-growth for Deltas, as this is their preferred environment. As such - they are not typically interested in cultural or societal traditions or expectations, and can live eccentric lifestyles.” Delta Humanitarians are either the melancholic EII or sanguine IEE.