4 How to Write and Present Technical Information
originally coined these words to mean exactly what their roots suggest: “extra-
vert” (turning out) and “introvert” (turning in).
Sensing and intuition are perceptive functions; here again, Jung uses psy-
chological jargon to describe how people take in (perceive) information. Those
who prefer sensing would rather rely on their five senses alone. Those who
prefer intuition use their five senses only to gain enough information to make
an educated guess about what they have perceived.
Both sensing and intuition provide the information with which we make
judgments. And we do that either through feeling or thinking. People who
prefer “feeling judgment” generally fit their perceptions into some precon-
ceived value system (cultural, personal, corporate, familial, religious) before
deciding what to do with the information. People who prefer “thinking judg-
ment” usually decide upon information based solely on its merit, irrespective
of fitting into a value system. In this case, too, society has colored the issue
with negative connotations. “Feeling” does not mean “weak and emotional,”
and “thinking” does not mean “dispassionate and logical.” In fact, Jung
thought of both functions as rational, trustworthy, and valuable ways of mak-
ing judgments.
Although this explanation is grossly oversimplified, it is about as far as
Jung explored the issue explicitly in his 1923 book Psychological Types. He
did, however, imply two other attitudes—judgment and perception—which
Katherine Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Myers described fully in
their later work, Gifts Differing, that led to a psychological evaluation instru-
ment (the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, or “MBTI” for short). Essentially,
“judgment” refers to people who would prefer bringing matters to closure.
“Perception” refers to people who would prefer to keep matters open-ended.
The MBTI enables people, with the aid of trained professionals, to determine
their type preferences, bettering their understanding of themselves and of
others.
So, again, what does this have to do with us? Simple: Four two-part prefer-
ences yield 16 personality types. The descriptions of these types can readily be
found on the web, as well as short, self-directed questionnaires to determine
your own type.
Understand—and this point is extremely important—that these personal-
ity types are not stereotypes into which you can be pigeonholed. In fact, Jung
contended that each one of us has some aspect of every single category. It’s
just that we prefer to use some categories over others. A helpful comparison
is handedness. Most of us are either right- or left-handed, but all of us can use
the unpreferred hand. Personality type is the same. Some of us are introverted,
but we are able to interact with other people on a social and professional basis.
Some of us prefer thinking judgment, but we are able to use and understand
value systems.
