Know your Modal Disposition

The Mode State Stage (MSS) model reflects psychiatrist Dr Carl Jung’s four functions (Sharp 12) – feeling, intuition, sensing, and thinking – as quadrants of the circle (for this diagram, see modestatestage.com/mode-state-stage-an-overview) representing the whole of cognition and Jung's psychological functions – otherwise described as personality inclination and mindset. The model also incorporates Jung’s two attitudes, introversion (subject- and inner-world inclination) and extroversion (object- and outer-world inclination). This means that the two attitudes, introversion and extroversion, apply for each mode, or function – for example, introverted feeling and extroverted feeling.

In the Mode State Stage (MSS) model, the two attitudes and the four functions, or modes, are represented as the four quadrants of the circle of awareness and functioning, as follows:

• Lower-right quadrant: Feeler (introverted and extroverted)
• Upper-right quadrant: Intuitive (introverted and extroverted)
• Lower-left quadrant: Sensate (introverted and extroverted)
• Upper-left quadrant: Thinker (introverted and extroverted).

The above classification reflects Jung’s eight types, based on combining the previously mentioned two attitudes and four functions.
To these primary modes are added the secondary modes, or functions, possible in each quadrant, for each mode. In the case of the example given, that is, for the feeling mode, the secondary mode could be either intuition or sensation (the two adjacent quadrants). The diagonal quadrant, in this case, thinking, is the least available, or conscious, mode. (Note that this applies for all of the quadrants, so that one’s diagonal mode is one’s least available, or conscious, mode.)

The notation commonly used in Jungian 16-type personality typology models is used here as well. Hence, the four types with feeling as the dominant mode are introverted feeling-intuition (INF), introverted feeling-sensation (ISF), extroverted feeling-intuition (ENF), and extroverted feeling-sensation (ESF).

To these three-letter codes are added the two fourth-letter possibilities (’J’ for ‘Judging’ and ‘P’ for ‘Perceiving’) as conceived by Myers and Briggs (Briggs Myers & Myers 33). These were the terms that Jung used to characterize the functions feeling and thinking as judging, or evaluative, in nature, and intuiting and sensing as perceptive, or non-evaluative, in nature.

According to Isabel Briggs Myers (Briggs Myers & Myers 42-43), for extroverts the primary function, or mode, determines their approach to the physical, or object, world, while for introverts, it is the secondary function, or mode, that determines how they interact with the outer, or object, world.

Thus, the four Jungian types for each of the quadrants are as follows (Martin 10):

• Feeler – lower-right quadrant: INFP, ISFP, ENFJ, ESFJ
• Intuitive – upper-right quadrant: INFJ, INTJ, ENFP, ENTP
• Sensate – lower-left quadrant: ISFJ, ISTJ, ESFP, ESTP
• Thinker – upper-left quadrant: INTP, ISTP, ENTJ, ESTJ

Those who share a primary mode, represented by a shared quadrant of the mode-representative circle, are best positioned to form sustainable close relationships, both romantic and platonic – put another way, they mostly just ‘get’ one another. Thus, we could say that those who share our primary mode are those with whom we have primary compatibility.

We have secondary compatibility with those whose primary mode is in a quadrant adjacent to our primary mode, or quadrant, on the mode-representative circle. Their modes could be said to be complementary to ours, in that communication with them may not be as natural and easy as with those with whom we share a primary mode or quadrant, but communication – while sometimes challenging – is possible, especially when we are aware of our modal disposition. With the added awareness that complementarity is the basis of optimal individual and collective functioning, we are well positioned to people our lives mostly with those in our shared quadrants and complementary modes, and quadrants.

Communication with those in the quadrant diagonal to ours will typically be the most challenging (Pascal 41-43). Yet, communication with those whose mode, or quadrant, is diagonal to ours will be optimized with an awareness of our modal disposition. The potential for constructive communication will be amplified with specific acquired communication skills and the involvement, where and when necessary, of a person from one of our adjacent (or complementary) modes (or quadrants), acting as an intermediary, or ‘personality-complementary intermediary’.

Note that there are questions that have arisen about possible derivatives of the above groupings, or classifications, that might place one or more of the above types or modes in an adjacent quadrant. An example of this is the INTJ-Investigative (or scientist) and the INTJ-Artistic types – a combination of the Jungian 16-type classification (and notation) with the Holland (RAISEC) career classifications – with the INTJ-Investigative demonstrating thinking-mode dominance (upper-left quadrant) and the INTJ-Artistic demonstrating intuitive-mode dominance.

The possible derivatives of the Jungian two-attitude, four-function (or ‘modes’ in the MSS model) resultant eight and sixteen modes/types will be explored in future blogs.

References

Martin, C. R. 2001 Looking at Type: The Fundamentals Using Psychological Type

Pascal, E. 1994 Jung to Live by

Sharp, D. 1987 Personality Type

Note: All of the publications in the above 'References' list are available for purchase from the 'Publications' page of the Mode State Stage website.