Socionics – Wikipedia

Pseudoscientific theory in psychology and sociology

Socionics, in psychology and sociology, is a pseudoscientific[11] theory of information processing and personality types. It is distinguished by its information model of the psyche (called "Model A") and a model of interpersonal relations. It incorporates Carl Jung's work on Psychological Types with Antoni Kpiski's theory of information metabolism. Socionics is a modification of Jung's personality type theory that uses eight psychic functions, in contrast to Jung's model, which used only four. These functions are supposed to process information at varying levels of competency and interact with the corresponding function in other individuals, giving rise to predictable reactions and impressionsa theory of intertype relations.[12][13] In contrast to the generally accepted views in science on age-related variability of the human psyche,[14][15] socionics postulates the presence of 16 psychological types unchanged throughout life.[16] The issue of the existence of personality types is considered by modern science to be extremely controversial.[15]

Socionics was developed in the 1970s and 1980s, primarily by the Lithuanian researcher Aura Augustinaviit, an economist and dean of the Vilnius Pedagogical University's department of family science.[17] The name "socionics" is derived from the word "society", because Augustinaviit believed that each personality type has a distinct purpose in society, which can be described and explained by socionics.[18][19][20]

The central idea of socionics is that information is intuitively divisible into eight categories, called information aspects or information elements, which a person's psyche processes using eight psychological functions.[21] Each sociotype has a different correspondence between functions and information elements, which results in different ways of perceiving, processing, and producing information. This in turn results in distinct thinking patterns, values, and responses to arguments, all of which are encompassed within socionic type. Socionics' theory of intertype relations is based on the interaction of these functions between types.[19][21][22]

Independent authors point to the insufficient empirical validity of socionics both in its basis and in its further development, as well as the practical absence of studies on socionics outside the former USSR.[23] In the West, the term 'socionics' (German: Sozionik) is used in a different sense, to refer to an interdisciplinary area of research on distributed artificial intelligence systems and their applications to sociology.[24][25]

In 1995 socionics was recognized as a discovery by the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences (not to be confused with Russian Academy of Sciences), and its creator Aura Augustinaviit was granted a certificate of discovery (diploma) and a medal.[26][27]

The special commission of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Commission on Pseudoscience) has placed socionics among such well-known pseudosciences as astrology and homeopathy.[2]

Socionics provides a means of predicting the character of relations and degree of business compatibility, information sharing and psychological compatibility of people before their joining in one collective group, i.e. to solve the "inverse task" of sociometry.[28]

According to Aleksandr Bukalov and Betty Lou Leaver, socionics uses Jungian typology, informational model of psyche, and theory of information metabolism for political and sociological analysis.[29][30]

According to G. Fink and B. Mayrhofer, socionics is considered one of the four most popular models of personality (including cybernetic theory Maruyama, five-factor model, Big Five" and typology MyersBriggs Type Indicator), deserving special attention because of its importance in the study of personality.[31]

According to J. Horwood, and A. Maw socionics is a science developed by Ausra Augustinaviciute in the 1970s. Augustinaviciute and her colleagues worked with Carl Jung's personality typologies to develop personality-based relationship profiles. It was found that the nature and development of interpersonal relationships (both professional and personal) are far from random. Instead, they are based on how well suited each individual's psychological profiles are to one another, allowing Augustinaviciute to develop 16 'socionic types' predicting and describing the interpersonal relationships between any combination of Jung's personality types.[20]

According to R. Blutner and E. Hochnadel, "socionics is not so much a theory of personalities per se, but much more a theory of type relations providing an analysis of the relationships that arise as a consequence of the interaction of people with different personalities."[32]

Philosopher L. Monastyrsky treats socionics as pre-science. At the same time, L. Monastyrsky himself proposes to pay attention to "the concept of socionic type".[33]

Philosopher E. Pletuhina defines socionics as the study about the information interaction of the human psyche with the outside world, between people. She also defines it as the doctrine of psychological types of people and the relationships between them, as well as notes that the particular quality of socionics is that it considers the innate qualities of the human psyche, including the personality type, which cannot be arbitrarily changed without prejudice to the mental and physical health.[34]

The basic structure of socionics was established in the 1960s and 1970s by Aura Augustinaviit,[35][clarification needed] along with a group of enthusiasts who met in Vilnius, Lithuania. What resulted from their discussions and Augustinaviit's personal investigations was an information model of the psyche and of interpersonal interaction based on Jung's typology but with eight psychic functions rather than four.[36] Augustinaviit's first works on socionics[32] were published between 1978 and 1980.

According to Betty Lou Leaver, Madeline Ehrman, and Boris Shekhtman, like the MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI), socionics is a sixteen-type derivative of Jung's work. Unlike MBTI, which is widely criticized[37] for the lack of validity and utility,[38] the socionics model, which is in some use in Eastern and Western Europe, as well as throughout Eurasia, Central Asia, and the Baltic nations,[39] strives to stay very close to the original descriptions and type labels suggested by Carl Jung.[40] According to Betty Lou Leaver, "today's concepts of personality emanate most frequently from the work of Carl Jung, whose theories and research have blossomed into a juncture of philosophical and sociological inquiry. This field of inquiry has been called socionics."[30]

According to Sergei Moshenkov and Tung Tang Wing, "MBTI and Socionics are contemporary sister sciences that categorize and describe human personality types in accordance to the predominance of certain mental faculties called psychic functions by Dr. Carl Jung."[41]

A. Shmelev in his review of the book "MBTI: type definition" by I. Myers-Briggs and P. Myers notes the highest popularity of socionic books in Russian and remarks that their authors are appealing to the literary and artistic associations of the mass reader, in contradistinction to books on MBTI, which contain the empirical and statistical data on the types distribution in professional groups.[42] S.A. Bogomaz considers the socionic typology as a version of post-Jung typology and believes that on a number of criteria it is more perspective than MBTI for the study of the differences between people, because it expands the volume of the typological features and offers an opportunity to form various typological groups with different motivations, attitudes, temperament, perception of information and thinking styles. It is also important the existence of preconditions to study intertype relations, that are substantially not developed within MBTI. S.A. Bogomaz thinks that the creation of the theory of intertype relationships is undoubtedly contribution of A.Augustinavichiute to the development of Jung typologies.[43]

Currently, socionic methods are widely used in academic and applied research. According to the catalog DisserCat[44] from 1996 to 2011 in Russia, Ukraine and other countries were defended more than 800 doctoral theses,[45][46] using methods and analytic tools of socionics in management, education, psychology, anthropology, medicine, philosophy, philology, sports, and law.[47]

The International Institute of Socionics publishes four scientific peer-reviewed journals on the practical application of the methods of socionics in management, consulting, psychology, pedagogy, education, psychotherapy, and humanities.[48] The Institute gives "popularization and proliferation of socionic knowledge" as one of its goals.[49]

There are several socionics organizations.The International Institute of Socionics[50][51] (IIS) was established in 1991 in Kyiv, Ukraine, and for years has held the most prominent annual international socionics conference. The institute pursues the continued development of socionics theory, renders commercial consulting services, and since 1994 has released a bimonthly journal Socionics, Mentology, and Personality Psychology (six issues a year). Topics in the journal usually range anywhere from studies and applications of the primary principles of socionics to speculative extensions of the theory.[52] The director and founder of the institute is Dr. Aleksandr Bukalov. In 2006 the institute established an International Academic Board to issue bachelors, masters, and PhD degrees in socionics.[53]

The Scientific Research Socionics Institute is located in Moscow, Russia, and is led by Tatyana Prokofieva.[54][55] The institute primarily studies socionics, personality and relationships within a socionics context, and develops methods of individual and business consulting.[56] Furthermore, the institute provides socionics instruction allowing participants to receive a bachelors or master's degree in socionics according to the criteria of the International Institute of Socionics.[57]

The Applied Socionics School[58] founded in 2003 is located in Moscow, Russia, with local branches in several cities (Murmansk,[59] Petrozavodsk,[60] Rostov-na-Donu,[61] and Krasnodar), and is led by Elena Udalova.[62] The School developed educational courses about basic knowledge of socionics, the intertype relations, and sociotype distortions, as well as local trainings devoted to the introverted ethics and introverted intuition. The local trainings are conducted for persons of sociotypes having their strengths in respective functions (Fi or Ni, respectively).

The School of System Socionics[63] was founded by Vladimir Davidovich Ermak in November 1991 in Kyiv, Ukraine. In 2005 official School of System Socionics web site was founded by I.M. Eglit. Since then it has become creative laboratory of practical socionics and platform for training socionistsexperts in TIM identification. The School has developed Methodology of remote TIM Identification, introduced a school-standard identification protocol and computer-aided type identification techniques.[citation needed]

Through the work of the International Institute of Socionics and other schools of socionics, there are four peer-reviewed journals and an annual International conference on socionics.[64] A.V. Bukalov and O.B. Karpenko note that socionics is taught in more than 150 universities[47][65][66] in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and other CIS countries, as well as in Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania, either as a separate course, or, in view of the applicability of the various methods of socionics Humanities, as part of educational courses on Sociology, Pedagogy, Social Psychology, Management and Psychology of Management, human resource management, Conflictology, social services and Tourism, Computer Science and Programming, Philosophy, Neurology, Journalism, Library Science, Social Work, Didactics and others, including Engineering disciplines.[46][65][67]

Some universities in Russia (including Altai State Technical University,[68]Bashkir State University,[69][70]Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University,[71] andSaint Petersburg State University[72]) Ukraine,[73] Bulgaria,[74] Romania[75] have published or commissioned a number of textbooks and monographs on socionics, or on psychology, pedagogy and management, which socionics and its methods are devoted to specific topics.

There are new areas of research, such as educational socionics,[76][77] sociological socionics,[78] aviation socionics,[79][80] library socionics,[81][82] technical socionics, linguistic socionics, penitentiary socionics, and socionics in other subject areas.

Socionics is used in education process, not only as a tool for teachers to manage the learning process,[83] but also as a basis for the development and improvement of education and training.[74] Bogdanova claim that a teacher holding socionic knowledge and technologies can consciously collaborate with others and improve professional efficiency.[84] Targeted use of intertype relations helps intensify the didactic process, increase the motivation of students.[85] Socionics is also used to assess the individual psychological and personal qualities to forecast the success of employee career.[86]

Izmailova and Kiseleva found socionics interesting to be applied in advertising[87] and marketing, because it allows you to explain the reasons for the behavior of consumers.[88]

Socionics is a tool for the study of personality and creativity of the writer, the typology of the characters in his works.[89] The method of linguistic-socionic modeling proposed by L. M. Komissarova,[90] used for analysis of individual lexicon of language personality.[91] A translation of socionic characteristics in verbal ones is called the "method of linguistic-socionic modeling" and widely used.[92][93]

Socionic methods have been proposed for the modeling of information processes in the "human-machine" systems,[94] and practically used to model systems "aircraft operator" in pilots' training,[79] and other similar areas.

Due to the variety of applications of socionics, its concepts and information models, in the 1990s, Bukalov was proposed to distinguish socionics of personality, or differential socionics, and generalized, more abstract integral socionics.[95] Bukalov believes that the concept of information metabolism, cybernetic modeling and general systems theory extends beyond of psychology and sociology, and consider the relationship of technical information devices, and the types of information human interactions as operator with various technical and electronic management systems of major industries, including chemical, nuclear power stations, complex computer complexes with adaptive tunable to a specific operator interfaces.[95]

International Institute of Socionics lists a number of academic publications on socionics in English in peer-reviewed journals.[96] Since 2000 socionics as a scientific discipline and a field of research has been recognized in Russia and Ukraine.[96][97] The 2015 academic research and applied work in the field of socionics was held in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Estonia, Austria, Germany, and others, as well as in the United States.[96]

Socionists[who?] have devised humanitarian, political, and information technologies that have been applied to various fields of human activity.[98][99] Socionic techniques have been applied at more than 120 enterprises from Russia, Ukraine, Germany, and the Baltics by members of the International Institute of Socionics.[99] Socionics is widely used in management, recruitment consultancy (professional orientation, team-compatibility, building company's strategy according to employees types), trainings of aviation and space crews, pedagogy (researches on interaction between teacher and students, problems of learning), family consultancy (marriage and divorce issues, age problems), fundamental science researches (mathematical modeling, genetics, psychophysics, morphology external parameters of socionics types), psychology games and trainings.[100][101][102][103]

Management is the area concerned with the application of both theoretical and practical socionics methods and S-technologies.[104][105] Socionics methods and techniques were successfully implemented by the fellow consultants of International Institute of Socionics and their colleagues in management, reorganization, and team building in more than 150 firms, banks and companies in Germany, Latvia, Russia, Ukraine and other countries, included 30 enterprises of the Russian gas concern "Gazprom" in the North of Russia.[28] Management of Deutsche Bank is using socionics methods to evaluate potential of its future employees.[106]

Prof. J. Horwood and Prof. A. Maw socionics used to form the surgical ambulances[20] Socinics model has been implemented in enterprises of the world's largest aluminium company Rusal for evaluating its employees.[107] Different tools are used to define sociotypes, this involves observing and testing based on well-known test methods.[108]

Numerous researches[who?] dedicated to practical and theoretical socionics have proved its efficiency in forming collectives, particularly special and related to security systems. For example, experimental research of aircraft control services, which was conducted at St. Petersburg State University had shown that quality of interaction integral controller which was calculated on the basis of SMoIR (socionics model of intertype relationships) is correlated with sociometric data colour test relations.[109] Also there are a number of scientific monographs and textbooks about significant role of socionics practices and methods in forming effective teams.

Authors of these works point out that modeling of situations in groups can be done in two ways: by forming small groups based on socionics structure (quadras, clubs and temperament types) or by analysis of intertype relations between team members. Choice of approach depends on the goals set. If a goal is to analyse a situation in the team and the interaction between its members, then the best choice is the intertype analysis between members[110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][clarification needed][119][120]

Socionics methods are described in more than 110 PhD and doctoral dissertations in management, economics, organizational psychology.[121]

Socionics allocates 16 types of the relations from most attractive and comfortable up to disputed. The understanding of a nature of these relations helps to solve a number of problems of the interpersonal relations, including aspects of psychological and sexual compatibility. The researches of married couples by Aleksandr Bukalov, Olga Karpenko, and Galina Chykyrysova, have shown that the family relations submit to the laws, which are opened by socionics. The study of socionic type allocation in casually selected married couples confirmed the main rules of the theory of intertype relations in socionics.[122][123] So, the dual relations (full addition) make 45% and the intraquadral relations make 64% of investigated couples.

Security management of dangerous chemical or nuclear enterprises requires special methods of recruitment and work. To provide high security level on nuclear power plants by optimizing the human factor defined a number of ergonomic factors which have an influence on a person in a modern management system: the intensity of work, time factor, isolation of workplace that causes tight interpersonal contacts; monotony of work; lack of physical activity; negative external influences (noise, vibration, etc.).

Each of these factors and especially their combination leads to extreme modes and related stresses (not to mention other circumstances that faced operational staff of plants). However, those approaches are difficult to implement because of financial and timing loss. Except factors caused by external operational activity there are many social stressors as well.[citation needed]

Social stressors may cause mistakes, but more often its provoking mistakes in situations, where they are the most likely to happen.[citation needed] So, a person who doesn't have clear understanding of his duties, or somebody who takes his work as a dangerous activity, will commit more mistakes while working in short supply than a person who is not stressed by social factors. In order to reduce this kind of stressor, on some plants, for example on Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant were implemented testing, which were conducting communication trainings and other socionics methods.[124] Also socionics approaches are taught in terms of courses training staff reserve on Leningrad nuclear power plant.[125]

Socionics principles implemented to security system of nuclear power plants are described in a textbook.[126] It includes analysis of the social structure of the staff, the concept of which coincides with the notion of psychoinformative space of collectives in integral socionics.[127][128] Socionics tools combined with psycho informational theory of relationships are using to describe various models of human interaction with complex technological processes that take place in enterprises and transport.[129]

The concepts and methods of socionics are widely used in pedagogy, this collaboration creates a new scientific branch pedagogical socionics.[130][131]

Pletuhina noted that the parent, trainer or teacher, who knows the theory of socionics, who also understands an idea of the "image of a socionics type" and who can determine the child's personality type with a sufficient degree of probability can use those opportunities of the individual approaches that socionics provides to raise and educate a child.[34]

The role that socionics takes in the educational process is not limited to being a teacher's tool for the managing process.[132] It is also a base for development and improving the educational system and for preparing staff. Teachers armed with socionics technology can consciously establish relationships with other people and increase efficiency of their pedagogical skills.[133] Rational implementation of intertype relationships can push educational process to become more intensive and increase students' motivation.[134][135]

Socionics is also researched practical methods and techniques dedicated to evaluation person's individual psychological values to prognoses professional success.[136] Keneva, Marchenko, and Minaev argue that socionics might become a theoretical base for personal-oriented educational technologies.[137][138]

In Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center which located in Star City, Russia socionics methods are successfully used since 1992 for training Russian astronauts and international astronauts' crews and preparing them to spaceflights.[citation needed] Interpersonal issues and effective collaboration are extremely important in extreme conditions while working in a close space and are vital for successful spaceflight.[139] In Star City conducted number of science seminars based on socionics methods and person typology to training space crews. Problem of forming space crews by socionics methods was a central topic at the International conference on space researches,[140] at the Space forum 2011 and at the conference "Piloted flights into Space", which were taken place in Star City and in The Russian Academy of Sciences, also these issues were taken a part in works of Doctor of medical science professor Bohdashevsky, Doctor of philosophy Bukalov A.V. and Doctor of philosophy Karpenko O.B.[141]

Socionics methods appeared helpful for aviation due to the safety of flights, passengers and crew members. This reasons leads to development of such branch as aviation socionics, which is a part of training process for crew members of aircraft.

According to order of the Ministry of transport of Russian Federation Flight Standards Department approved a default application "Training of pilots in the field of human factor", which expects basic socionics knowledge not only among pilots and other crew members, but also prognosing interaction in air crews by socionics methods, including such topics: "Topic 5. Aviation socionics and its place in solving human factor": sources of aviation socionics. The doctrine of Jung's personality type. A. Augustinavichiute and sources of socionics. Current status of socionics science. Sociotypes and its classification. Intertype interaction. Socionic components of professional characteristics. Topic 6. "The problem of forming flight crew and other aviation groups with high collaboration in it": The document, which regulate the formation flight crews. Socionics approaches in forming teams: quadras and typology of "non-quadral" teams. Forming teams in the concept of pursepoful systems. Topic 7. "Forming effective teams based on socionics model": Fuzzy sets: terms and definitions. Socionics model of human being. Socionics model of a crew member. Crew members as a collective operator. Socionics characteristic of crew members. Evaluation of effective collaboration. Conditions to reach synergism. Socionics prognosis in evaluation crew members. Socionics model of intertype interactions. Socionics model of crew members and its evaluation. Using socionics model of intertype interactions to form effective team. Topic 8. "Problems in evaluation relationships "human-machine" ": evaluation of interaction within system "pilot-aircraft". Criteria of interactions' evaluating. Socionics aspects of pilot-aircraft interaction. Preventing pilot's mistakes by constructive and technical tools"[142]

There are numerous studies, dissertations[143][144] and fundamental monographs in this field.[145]

To improve interaction among crew members, specialists of Saint Petersburg University examined 2330 people by socionics methods, including students of St. Petersburg State University of Civil Aviation, Russian State Pedagogical University of A.I. Herzen, St. Petersburg State University of Culture and Arts; aircrews of airlines: "Syberia", "Atlant-Soyuz Airlines", "Ural Airlines", "Lukoylavia", "Gazpromavia", "Tomsk Avia", "Enimex" (Estonia), "Air Kazakhstan", "AZAL", "Kazair West", "RusAir" and others; air traffic controllers from Moscow, Khabarovsk, Rostov-on-Don, Novokuznetsk, Magadan, Norilsk, Saratov, Omsk, Kemerovo, New Urengoy, Syktyvkar, Nalchik, Ust-UTA, Kolpasevo, Pechora, Evenkii, Yakutia and Sakhalin; professors from almost all flight academies of Russia; delegates from Azerbaijan, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, and Estonia.

This data base represents result of 10 years of scientific work. In their researches authors are relying on fundamental works of the Kyiv School of Socionics, International Institute of Socionics, publications in journals "Socionics, mentology and personal psychology", "Management and staff: management psychology, socionics and sociology".[146]

Experimental researches of National Aviation University and Kropyvnytskyi Flight Academy of National Aviation University of Ukraine showed that sociometric and socionics approaches are playing a great role in the working process of aviation specialists, especially in forming flight crews and dispatcher changes.[citation needed]

By system approach were defined socionic types of aviation professionals' personalities and level of their interaction of professional performing in small groups as an example of control changes.[citation needed]

According to the experimental results were obtained socionics and sociometric data of air traffic controllers and correlation analyses of its parameters, also was determined the connection's intensity between person's interaction levels. The practical values of this research is to develop automated module to determine individual characteristic of operators and to evaluate the effectiveness of socionics in the management of air traffic, particular in special cases of flight[147]

Carl Jung describes four psychological functions that are capable of becoming applicable psychically, but to differing degrees in individuals:[148]

In addition to these four types, Jung defines a polarity between introverted and extraverted personalities. This distinction is based on how people invest energy: either into the inner, subjective, psychical world (usually called Seele, soul, by Jung), or toward their outer, objective, physical world (including one's body).

By Jung's rules, 16 psychological types exist. But in his book "Psychological Types" he described in detail only 8, distinguished by the 8 possible dominant functions. Contrary to Socionics and MBTI, Jung did not conclude that the types had two introverted functions and two extroverted functions. He instead outlined that extroverted personality types had a Dominant extroverted function, with the remaining functions being of varying if lower levels of development that range from being Inferior introverted functions that are necessarily retarded to auxiliary functions that lie in the middle.[149]

In socionics, Jung's cognitive functions are always either introverted (focused on refining quality) or extroverted (focused on increasing quantity), and are referred to as information metabolism elements (IM Elements).[150] These are said to process information aspects. To understand what an information aspect is, it is necessary to understand information metabolism as Augustinaviit understood it.

Augustinaviit states that the human mind uses eight elements of information metabolism (mental functions) to perceive the world, and each of these eight elements reflect one particular aspect of objective reality.[151] In her works she describes aspects of the world based on physical quantities such as potential and kinetic energy, space, time, and their properties.

Often, other socionists[who?] have equated these information elements with their definition and according to fundamental physical concepts as well (Matter-Time-Energy-Space) (N. Medvedev,[152] V. Ermak[153]). Matter is compared to Thinking, Energy to Feeling, Space to Sensing, and Time to Intuition. Given the division of aspects of the absolute between Extroverted ("black") and Introverted ("white"), being four times two, their number is eight.[citation needed]

The 8 socionics symbols ( ) were introduced by Augustinaviit while working with Jung's typology[154][clarification needed] and remain the dominant method of denoting the functions and the corresponding information aspects that they process. Text-based notation systems also enjoy use online, such as Victor Gulenko's 8 Latin letters ('P' for Pragmatism, 'E' for Emotions, 'F' for Force, 'I' for Ideas, 'L' for Laws, 'R' for Relation, 'S' for Senses, and 'T' for Time, correspondingly).[155] Among western enthusiasts, Myers-Briggs notation (Te, Fe, Se, Ne, Ti, Fi, Si, and Ni, correspondingly) is also popular.[156]

Socionics divides people into 16 different types, called sociotypes. They are most commonly referred to by their two strongest functions, which in socionics are called the leading function (Jung's dominant) and the creative function (Jung's auxiliary). The creative function is opposite to the leading function in extraversion and rationality. For example, if the dominant function is introverted logic (a rational and introverted function), the secondary function must be irrational and extraverted, which means it must be either extraverted sensing or extraverted intuition.[citation needed]

Aura Augustinaviit usually used names like sensory-logical introvert (SLI) to refer to the types. In SLI the leading function is introverted sensation and the creative function is extraverted logic. She also introduced the practice of referring to types by the name of a famous person of the type (although types of these persons are not universally agreed upon, with the old name Napoleon for the SEE being replaced by Caesar after being deemed an inaccurate type assignment). For example, she called the SLI Gabin and the SEI Dumas. Also sometimes names such as Craftsman or Mediator are used to express the social role of the typea convention introduced by socionist Viktor Gulenko in 1995.[157] Given the formal similarities present between Socionics and the MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI) abbreviations frequently used in English, some prefer to distinguish socionic type names from MyersBriggs' names by writing the last letter (J or P) in lower case (for example, ENTp, ESFj)a practice introduced by Sergei Ganin.[158] This is because the relationship between socionics and MyersBriggs and Keirseyan types is controversial.

Dmitri Lytov and Marianna Lytova state that "main spheres of application of socionics are almost the same as for the MyersBriggs Type Theory", and that observed differences in correlation "represent characteristic stereotypes of the socionics and the Keirsey typology.[159] Others state that MBTI and socionics "correlate in roughly 30% of cases," and that "there are many subtle differences".[160][clarification needed] J and P in Socionics and MyersBriggs are completely different:[161] in MyersBriggs, J and P stands for the first extraverted function (Jextraverted thinking or feeling, Pextraverted sensing or intuition); in Socionics, J and P stands for the first function (Jrational (thinking and feeling), Pirrational (sensing and intuition)). This formal conversion is carried out in accordance with the MyersBriggs Type Indicator.

In dividing the socion according to the four Jungian dichotomies, from this is formed 16 socionic types. The following tables provide a list of types with the names most commonly used in socionics:

Among socionists[who?], the prevailing view is that sociotypes are inborn and genetically determined,[163] although the content of different functions and dimensions may vary. Some socionists[who?] believe that sociotypes may temporarily change while in altered states of consciousness or under great stress.[citation needed]

Vladimir Ermak first introduced two important concepts of modern socionics further confirmed by Elena Udalova research.[citation needed] The first one is the growth dynamics which means that every horizontal block of two functions (see below) is filling in the certain age, from bottom to top, with the roughly 7-year interval, so that the lowest block is done before 7, the next is complete before 14, the weak part of the mental track is done before 21, and the top block finally leads after that. Due to this process, a child, or a teenager, may demonstrate faces of other sociotypes according to the active horizontal block. Besides, being introduced to the unknown people, or in stressful situations, people again may demonstrate adaptive or protective behaviour directed by the appropriate blocks (see below).[citation needed]

The second concept is so called functional dimensions. It was introduced by Aleksandr Bukalov.[164] He defined the first dimension as the personal experience (Ex), the second dimension as social norms (Nr), the third dimension as the current situation (St), and the fourth dimension as the globality, or time perspective (Tm). This concept is useful because it best illustrates the difference in cognitive power (imagine measuring capability of 2D v. 3D measuring tool) and roughly describes abilities of each function to process and generate information. Still, definitions of dimensions require further research and clarification. For example, the vulnerable function tends to lose knowledge which haven't been used.

Since socionics is mathematically Base-16 and also a psychology of personality in the same way as the typology of Carl Jung and MyersBriggs, it shares a similar degree of mathematical consistency, while enduring the same serious shortcomings in the experimental justification of these theories.[citation needed]

Taking this, socionics also differs from other typologies in that it also includes a complementary Base-16 relationship set, with the intent of penning to paper the key social dynamic traits between grouped combinations of socionic types. Therefore, socionics could be considered to be within the realm of the science of social dynamics, intended to describe social behavior according to mathematical applications of Base-16, group theory, set logic, and reduction of the Gulenko-Jungian notation for socionics types to hexadecimal and Base-2 bitwise operation. While this mathematical approach is strictly theoretical and has been criticized for lack of empirical testing,[165] systems theory has been the tool of socionics theorist, such as Gregory Reinin to derive theorical dichotomies within socionics theory. In 1985 Aura Augustinaviit acknowledged the mathematical theories of Reinin and wrote a book titled The Theory of Reinin's Traits to describe the mathematical processes of socionics theory. Mathematical methods have been a standard part of socionics theory since this time.

Studies of Elena Udalova show that at least three of Reinin's Traits are distinguishable and can be used for detection of a sociotype.[citation needed] Those include: statics/dynamics (having appropriate functions in their mental track), questims/declatims (tending to raise questions or declare opinions), and aristocrats/democrats (understanding inequality or equality of people). Not all names of Reinin's Traits reflect their actual meaning very well, but they were defined historically and now seem to be fixed.[citation needed]

In 2006, Viktor Talanov sought to identify cognitive correlates for functions.[166] Recent advances in cognitive psychology have facilitated understanding of information processing at the cognitive level.[citation needed] Introversion has been correlated to high brain-blood levels; extroversion to lower levels. Viktor Talanov has proposed[citation needed] to identify the processing centers of the four Jungian functionslogic, ethics, intuition, and sensingas a first step towards demonstrating the existence of the function types. (called simply "functions" in socionics).[167]

Socionics has been brought up at conferences on psychology, where its practical applications were discussed. For instance, in 2005, socionics was discussed at the British and East European Psychology Meeting in Krakw, Poland, which was attended by British, American and Eastern European psychologists.[168][169]

The opinion of scientific community about socionics is not uniform. Socionic analysts and theorists see it as "the fusion of science and technology that makes it possible to predict behavior and activity style of an individual, group of people, and society as a whole" and "the science that discovered the laws of human compatibility".[170] Psychophysiologist Sergey Bogomaz says there is no reason for considering socionics as a separate science. He considers socionic typology to be a Russian version of post-Jung typology, similar to the Myers-Briggs typology, but improved by a greater number of typological features and the formulation of prerequisites for the study of intertype relationships. Bogomaz considers the construction of the theory of intertype relationships to be an undoubted contribution of Augustinaviit to the development of Jung typology, but criticized it by stating that there is little experimental data in socionics, there is no empirical verification of many claims, and by having many unsystematic pseudoscientific publications.[171] In later publications Bogomaz used socionics and Jungian typology for psychological research.[172][173][174]

Philosopher L. M. Monastirsky[175] identified the use of speculative categories as the first shortcoming of socionics. Secondly, he stated that it lacks clearly defined typing method and each socionics school defines methods of their own. At the same time Monastirsky, recognizing the potential of socionics, proposed to turn to the concept of a socionic type for carrying out some research in the field of the methodology of science.[175]An important issue in the field of socionics is the problem of convergence between type diagnoses of different analysts. Vladimir Ermak showed that ignorance of model A of the type of information metabolism leads to numerous mistakes in the definition of a socionic type.[176] In the early 2000s, socionic analysts tried to develop more rigorous approaches to type diagnosis.[177]

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"Socionics was developed in the 1970s and 1980s mainly by the Lithuanian researcher Ausra Augustinaviciute. The name 'socionics' is derived from the word 'society, since Augustinaviciute believed that each personality type has a distinct purpose in society, which can be described and explained by socionics. The system of socionics is in several respects similar to the MBTI; however, whereas the latter is dominantly used in the USA and Western Europe, the former is mainly used in Russia and Eastern Europe. For more information, the reader is referred to the website of the International Institute of Socionics and to several scientific journals edited by this institution<http://socionic.info/en/esocjur.html#top>. Despite of several similarities there are also important differences. For instance, the MBTI is based on questionnaires with so-called forced-choice questions. Forced choice means that the individual has to choose only one of two possible answers to each question. Obviously, such tests are self-referential. That means they are based on judgments of persons about themselves. Socionics rejects the use of such questionnaires and is based on interviews and direct observation of certain aspects of human behavior instead. However, if personality tests are well constructed and their questions are answered properly, we expect results that often make sense. For that reason, we do not reject test questions principally, but we have to take into account their self-referential character. Another difference relates to the fact that socionics tries to understand Jung's intuitive system and to provide a deeper explanation for it, mainly in terms of informational metabolism (Kepinski & PZWL, 1972). Further, socionics is not so much a theory of personalities per se, but much more a theory of type relations providing an analysis of the relationships that arise as a consequence of the interaction of people with different personalities."

Let's notice that the relation of psychologists to socionics is ambiguous. As it is noted by A.V. Bukalov and O.B. Karpenko, wide circulation of socionics as scientific direction is confirmed by that for the last 15 years socionics ideas and methods are used approximately in 800 theses according to all sections of the humanities and in a number of technical sciences. Now socionics is taught in more than 150 universities of Russia, Ukraine, the CIS countries and countries of the European Union.

"In this case it is really important to recall for socionics and related fieldsit's accessible methodology that helps to determine a person's type through numerous binary features. For example, it helps to understand is he an extrovert or an introvert, is he better in working with details and facts or he has more intuitive mind, is he able to finish his work or he is easy involved in a new activity. By creating this profile we can evaluate does the specific person is able to handle the exact task and only after that we have a look on his certificates and working experience. That's how we are working in Deutsche Bank"

Recommendation: Recommended for students taking course of organizational behavior staff, teachers and specialists in field of staff management.Annotation, quote: Book dedicated to one of the most new and prospective areas in organizational psychology socionics. Book is designed to assess the base criterion for evaluation individual-psychological and personal qualities in order to prognosis professional success of the person, it reflects two-years experience of using socionics model in evaluating staff at enterprises of company "Russian Aluminum"

Socionics is devoted to the study of how people interact with each other, compatibility of their sustainable types of thinking and behavior (sociotype) and patterns of relationships (information metabolism) between different sociotypes. Socionics as a new science derives a great deal from psychology, sociology, philosophy within social management. Carl Gustav Jung considered to be a forerunner of socionics and Aura Augustinaviit developed it to a new science in the early 1970s Socionics helps to define person's type and to prognoses relationships with other sociotypes (16 sociotypes, that formed from different combinations of extroverts and introverts, rationalists and irrationalists, logical, ethical, sensory or intuitive types). Different tools are used to define sociotypes, this involves observing and testing based on well-known test methods as MBTI, Buns, semantic differential. In recent years socionics tools are widely applied by Russian companies to recruitment

About authors: Oleh Kondratiev specialist of refining NK "YUKOS", PhD. chem. Sciences. Author of more than 40 scientific papers and publications. He prepared for edition textbook "Socio-psychological management on the basis of socionics."

Quote: socionics is the science that treats people as bearers of certain types of information metabolism, that interacting with each other basing on social laws.

Quate: Socionics "art of communication and understanding"

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Socionics - Wikipedia