Socionics/MBTT societal distinction

[Ezra]

This is a distinction made by my father after I introduced him to socionics (with a bit of interpretation and reworking from myself). Socionics and MBTT are products of their respective environments. Notice how socionics comes from a country influenced by communism (indeed, it once was), and focuses on a theory of how humans help one another, whereas MBTT, which comes from a relatively individualistic, liberal society, focuses far more on the individual, and gives more concern for how that individual affects those around them rather than how they interact with those around them (which is what socionics is about). It's a very subtle distinction, almost imperceptible, but a distinction it is.

MBTT: the individual (singular) affects (others).
Socionics: people (a collective body) interact (with one another).

What do you reckon?

[Expat]

MBTT: the individual (singular) affects (others).
Socionics: people (a collective body) interact (with one another).

What do you reckon?

Socionics is far more about people interacting in pairs, one to one, over the longer term, than as a collective body; although, of course, when you move into quadras, quadra dominance, etc, you get into collective bodies.

Socionics originated from an ILE turning to and to understand her problems with . Not sure how that worked with Myers-Briggs, but to me it seems more like for 's sake.

Now, whether socionics "took off" in the former USSR because of that, and Myerst-Briggs in the US because of that, I don't know.

[Expat]

I just thought of an explanation.

Augusta's original observations, in the former Soviet Union, were of a larger number of couples - all still living under the same roof after several years, many very unhappy, others very happy, and she wanted to find out why.

The key point is -- why were very unhappy couples still together, or at least, still living under the same roof? Because that was the communist Soviet Union. You had to apply to the state for a place to live, which might take months or longer. And if you were a married couple that managed to get a reasonable flat meant for a couple, you couldn't just leave your partner and move to a single one, not like that. For many couples who would in the US or elsewhere just have separated, in the Soviet Union the most rational thing to do might be to make the best of it together, or at least still leave in the same apartment even if no longer a couple.

That's what provided Augusta with a lot of ideal empirical data. In the US, the "couples in a conflictor relationship" would have already split and the relationship would not be easily observed.

[Ezra]

What most interests me about your observations is the motivation behind creating a personality typing system. Spot on in Augusta's case, but I disagree with you on Myers-Briggs.

Say Myers and Briggs were NFs (either in socionics or in MBTT) - and I think it's realistic to assume this - their primary aim will be to help people. They're using their proficiency in Fi to help others to discover themselves; to learn more about who they are. I think this was the purpose of MBTT. Also, what I said in the other thread in reply to AK is pertinent here. And to extend what I was saying then with a thought I've just had, MBTT is about developing one's tertiary and inferior functions (those functions which one is naturally inept in but still shows evidence of) independently of another individual, while socionics is about finding someone who can help you develop your valued yet poor functions; someone who is proficient in what you are not; someone who wants the same thing from you.