After a diagnostic interview, an analysis of Ben’s answers suggests the 8 IM Elements may best be assigned to the functions of Model A in the following order, making his best fit type the ‘Intuitive Ethical Energiser’ or ‘IEE’.
Leading function – Ideas (I1) The most prevalent theme throughout Ben’s answers to this interview is the sheer breadth of interests he has. From Socionics to music, poetry, education, running, anthropology, linguistics and political debate, Ben repeatedly drew attention to those things that interested him, regardless of whether they were beneficial or not. Furthermore, it became clear that his motivations can be traced back to this capture of interest, and the desire to explore or find out whatever is unusual or new. For instance, his taking on a more authoritative role as a Resident Assistant is described as an exploration of role-play.; his exercise routine of running and weight-lifting, experimenting with music and meditation, a means of seeing potential effects on his body; the variety of different languages and musical instruments he can speak and play, a clear sign of variety even within his interests; his playing devil’s advocate in Twitter debates, a means of exploring how those with strong political opinions are likely to react. A clear pattern emerges of someone who rapidly takes on new interests, finds out whatever he can about the interest, then as its novelty depreciates, he piles it on an increasing back-burner. It is perhaps most notable that in his political discussions, Ben is oddly described as ‘stubborn’, in that he is stubbornly unstubborn. He is described as being unwilling to accept that other people will not accept alternative viewpoints, as if intellectual openness is a fundamental quality of approaching the world. This is characteristic of the Leading function, which by nature imposes its expectations, even with a characteristically indirect IM Element like Ideas.
Leading function – Ideas (I1) The most prevalent theme throughout Ben’s answers to this interview is the sheer breadth of interests he has. From Socionics to music, poetry, education, running, anthropology, linguistics and political debate, Ben repeatedly drew attention to those things that interested him, regardless of whether they were beneficial or not. Furthermore, it became clear that his motivations can be traced back to this capture of interest, and the desire to explore or find out whatever is unusual or new. For instance, his taking on a more authoritative role as a Resident Assistant is described as an exploration of role-play.; his exercise routine of running and weight-lifting, experimenting with music and meditation, a means of seeing potential effects on his body; the variety of different languages and musical instruments he can speak and play, a clear sign of variety even within his interests; his playing devil’s advocate in Twitter debates, a means of exploring how those with strong political opinions are likely to react. A clear pattern emerges of someone who rapidly takes on new interests, finds out whatever he can about the interest, then as its novelty depreciates, he piles it on an increasing back-burner. It is perhaps most notable that in his political discussions, Ben is oddly described as ‘stubborn’, in that he is stubbornly unstubborn. He is described as being unwilling to accept that other people will not accept alternative viewpoints, as if intellectual openness is a fundamental quality of approaching the world. This is characteristic of the Leading function, which by nature imposes its expectations, even with a characteristically indirect IM Element like Ideas.
Creative function – Relations (R2)
While the Leading function is clear to Ben, the Creative function was harder to tease out mid-interview. This is not unusual, as while the Leading function is supposed to be obvious and imposed on our surroundings, the nature of the Creative function is more subtle in aiding the fulfilment of the Leading function. For Ben, this subtle aide to the exploration of his interests is the forming of friendships with those central to the pursuit of his various interests, whether that is attending poetry class or playing video games. He is confident that he can connect with almost anyone he meets, a sign of Relations being a strong function, but rarely does he draw attention to this being a motivating force in and of itself. As such, this area is flexible for Ben. He makes friends wherever his interests take him, even reaching out to native Russian speakers and spending hours talking with them over weekends to help him get a grip of the Russian language. Beyond his interests, he seems to have no difficulty keeping as friends those he especially likes the qualities of and feels that he can have a good relationship with, or feels he can learn from. This can be seen with his church friends whom he has retained for many years. However, there is little sign that he proactively does this for its own sake or pushes an expectation of greater intimacy or loyalty in conversation. This is perhaps most clear in his hesitancy to pursue and stick with a romantic relationship, one that exists entirely for its own sake of intimacy, rather than aiding pursuit of interesting projects. While this absence of romantic relations has made identifying Relations as his Creative function more tricky, it is also not inconsistent with having Relations as a Creative function. The ‘flavouring’ effect of the Creative on the Leading can also be seen in how his interests are more often creative and interpersonal, rather than logical or structural. After mentioning what is ‘interesting’ to him, the mention of what is ‘meaningful’ is next in frequency, and Ben seems to direct his interests more often than not to the exploration of the human condition, whether these are the intentions and signifiers of meaning/importance of others in a variety of cultures, or his own nature and development.
Role function – Force (F3)
It is apparent from the interview that Ben is largely a friendly, easygoing and curious person, more interested in getting to know and understand interpersonal differences than to confront them. Nevertheless, his time working as a Residential Assistant at his university exemplifies the Role function perfectly. Ben is required to play the part of an authority figure in his dormitory, checking up on students and ensuring no noisy disruptions at late hours. For Ben, adopting a confrontational stance and asserting his authority on students feels unnatural to him and he describes it as a persona he has to ‘fake’. Perhaps due to his Leading function, Ben frames this act as yet another exploration of his own capabilities and his differences with other RAs who are more confrontational, and as such, is curious enough to keep trying it out for the time being. Nevertheless, beyond this particular job, a general reluctance to engage with Force can be seen, such as his non-judgmental, tolerant nature, his aversion to tense, dramatic work environments and his unwillingness to work on less interesting tasks for greater financial reward or other material resources. From this, we can see that Force is something Ben can ‘put on’ when aligned to his desires and needs, but is not something he likes doing, or something he does particularly well.
Vulnerable function – Laws (L4)
The nature of the Vulnerable, rather like a black hole, is to be observed via its absence from behaviour, rather than its appearance. This makes it rather counter-intuitive to identify. For Ben, the one approach to information that refused to appear after repeated questioning was its formation of into coherent structures. When answering questions for which there was no anecdote or clear factual example, rather than offer a general rule, Ben would adopt vague, subjective language, defaulting to talking about how something felt to him. In answering questions this way, Ben passes over Laws in favour of Intuition and Ethics. An example of this can be seen when Ben was asked about his moral principles. Instead of clearly articulating a rule or maxim, Ben said that any such principles are abstractions of the feelings he experiences when something he does not like is done to him. At the same time, he appreciates that there is nothing to make another person, with a very different set of views, more or less moral than he is. As such, where another might use Laws to help them clearly articulate their thoughts, Ben passes this information over in favour of subjective feelings and attitudes. In addition, the absence of Laws can be seen in how Ben approaches his various interests, such as learning Russian, taking a trial-and-error approach with a chaotic mix of different phone apps and conversations with native-speaking Russians . He tries out an eclectic range of different approaches to learning or mastering an interesting skill, without any sign of a linear, logical progression. The one point where Ben did acknowledge the existence of structure in his life was when talking about the strict religiosity of his upbringing, which were clearly characterised in his description as unwanted and restrictive, easily fitting into the Super-Ego.
Suggestive function – Senses (S5)
Ben readily prioritises the importance of health, wellness and well-being in his values, with a philosophy of ‘becoming whole’ and maintaining balance. In addition, he prefers to maintain a calm, accepting manner with other people, not looking to upset his relationships with others. There is also a ‘flavouring’ of Senses in his approach to learning, creating environments of ‘passive learning’ where integrating knowledge becomes a byproduct of other activity, rather than an active pursuit. Nevertheless, there is little evidence that Ben embodies harmony in the present moment over and above his ravenous intellectual curiosity. Attention to detail and the satisfaction of daily needs is not brought up in the interview, while other regular trivia, such as the managing of one’s finances, are described as too much of a strain to adequately handle. When possessed by an interesting idea or enthused by a project, Ben is quite willing to put comfort to one side, being happy to wake up at unusual hours in the fulfilment of his Resident Advisor role and to uproot his life to take up a job in a different country. However, it is also clear that an ongoing disruption to the harmony and calm of the moment takes a great toll on Ben’s happiness, as seen which his description of the ‘soul-killing’ job, where an atmosphere of not being able to sit down, ever-present drama and high turnover were seen as hygiene factors that profoundly reduced his satisfaction. From this, we can identify Senses as a value and a need, rather than something that Ben actively brings to his surroundings, and something that when deprived of, can have an adverse impact on Ben’s psychological well being.
Mobilising function – Pragmatism (P6)
While the exploration of interests constitutes Ben’s main aim, the development of the self through accumulation of factual knowledge offers a clear secondary motivation. Ben’s interests frequently involve learning new things and rather than simply absorb interesting information, Ben takes an active interest in trying to find the most efficient way of increasing how much he is learning. This can be seen very clearly in his faster-than-expected learning of Russian, where he made use of multiple phone applications and regular conversations with native Russian speakers to fast-track his learning, as well as placing himself in situations where he needed to develop his grasp of Russian to progress. Similarly, Ben’s approach to exercise is very much about trying out different methods to become a better runner, whether using meditation or music to create a more resilient mental state, or building up strength in the gym, or even running with weights to increase running power. In addition, Ben repeatedly emphasises the value of being able to learn from his friends, and is more likely to keep people close if he feels that they have special knowledge or a unique perspective that he may grow and develop from knowing about. Ben aspires to be an educator for a living, among a range of other careers, showing a clear desire to spend his life learning and eventually passing that knowledge on to others. For Ben, understanding does not come from comprehending the fundamental rules of something, but rather the ability to apply it in some beneficial way. As such, while failing to metabolise Laws, Ben readily attempts to metabolise Pragmatism in his understanding of how things work. Despite this, Ben gives little sign that he currently sees himself as a teacher of others, while readily portraying himself as a learner of others’ teachings. These different observations, when held together, make a strong case for Pragmatism as his Mobilising function.
Ignoring function – Time (T7)
Early into the interview, Ben displayed confidence in his ability to look ahead and foresee likely outcomes to current events. Nevertheless, he reveals a tendency to inadequately manage his time, frequently taking on many more projects than he can fully complete. In this way, we see a disjunction between capability and value, with Ben being able to visualise likely outcomes, while refusing to commit to any particular outcome, preferring to keep open and explore a variety of possibilities available to him. This is especially apparent when asked about his preferred career path, giving a list of potential jobs based on combinations of his interests, rather than a particular route he would like to take. Similarly, Ben is ready to criticise the notion that negative future outcomes are inevitable, rejecting both the beliefs of his religious background of an end-of-days and the political assumption that the society is in the process of deterioration, in each case, displaying an optimism that human ingenuity could overcome such challenges. Similarly, he expresses a desire not to be limited by the path prescribed to him by his family and religious upbringing. As such, Ben shows a capability with Time, but holds values contrary to it, and frequently resists embodying it in his thoughts and actions.
Demonstrative function – Emotions (E8)
While more inclined to draw attention to his many interests and the processes he has employed to aid his continued self-education, Ben consistently displays a confidence in his ability to appeal to and come across well to other people, and similarly, despite being largely calm and in control of his emotional states, is able to express these emotions to others ‘down to a T’, effortlessly communicating how he feels to others. Similarly, he is highly attuned to the emotions of others, being able to quickly pick up on unusual reactions and manage how people respond to him, easily picking out the correct response in each situation. This is backed up by his behaviour throughout the interview, readily employing emotive language, referring to his own feelings and enthusiasm. Similarly, it is backed up by his interests in music and poetry, feeling a greater affinity to expressive arts rather than practical sciences. For these reasons, Ben’s relationship with Emotions is as if they are second-nature, being easily shown and demonstrated, despite Ben not actively trying to draw attention to this or align it with his stated values or life philosophy.
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