Socionics, like the Myers-Briggs typology, is based on the typology of C. Jung, but offers a consistent structure of the psyche, which makes it possible not only to describe in detail the personality type and a number of individual characteristics, but also reveals the nature of communication and interaction between people, which allows predicting relationships between people, the degree of their psychological, business and information compatibility. In these matters, socionics has advanced significantly further, compared to the Myers-Briggs typology and the Keirsey theory. Therefore, for more than 20 years, socionic technologies have been used in effective management for recruiting personnel, forming or reorganizing teams or work groups. Let’s compare these typologies.
| socionics | MBTI | Keirsey | ||
| Basis | Jung’s typology + informatics (systems theory, cybernetics | Jung’s typology | Jung’s typology | |
| Time of creation | It’s the 1980s | 1940’s | 1960’s (?) | |
| Conformity with the original concepts (Jung’s theory) | complete | incomplete | incomplete | |
| Number of types | 16 | 16 | 16 | |
| Description of the structure of the psyche | 8 mental functions, performing 8 roles at 4 levels of functioning: 1 – program; 2 – creative; 3 – roleplaying; 4 – mobilization (pain); 5 – suggestive; 6 – activation; 7 – supervising (control); 8 – demonstration. There are differentiated distinction and description of functions by dimension and power. | 4 mental functions (as in Jung) on 2 levels of functioning. Only the first and partly the second function are differentiated, the rest are weak. In introverted types, the order of functions does not correspond to that introduced by Jung (this is what prevented the creation of a theory of intertype relations). There is no single concept, different authors have different interpretations of auxiliary functions and their number. | 2 (4) mental functions | |
| Description and prediction of compatibility of people | Developed theory and technology of creating teams. Intertype relationship ranking system. 256 intertype relationships have been identified, grouped into 16 types – from the most constructive to potentially conflicting. Evaluation of interactions not only by the “similarity” of types or by the “opposition” of their qualities, but also by complementarity. Effective prognostic capabilities | The theory is not developed, but observational experience has been accumulated. Weak understanding of the causes of interactions and relationships. In some cases, there is a lack of understanding of how types interact in a team, especially if these types do not match in N–S and T–F. | Compatibility is determined either by similarity (by belonging to the same type or group of types) or by opposition. The relationships that were proposed for 30 years as the best ones turned out to be the most difficult and conflictual in practice. Keirsey later abandoned this idea. | |
| Description and dynamics of real teams | Several thousand different groups, effective and ineffective | A small number of groups | A small number of groups. Keirsey’s theory of temperaments is a special case from the many identified by socionics. | |
| Integration with other theories and methods | Supplement to the expansion of M.Belbin’s role theory. | absent | absent | |
| Creating Teams – Solving the Inverse Problem of Sociometry | Effective, well designed and used | General declarations. Weak understanding of intertype relations | ||
| Predicting interpersonal compatibility | A clear theory supported by statistics | Different opinions, sometimes opposite, among different authors | ||
| The concept of perception of various aspects of information and the exchange of information between people | yes | No | ||
| Team building | Numerical assessment of the degree of compatibility, individual and overall success of interaction. Assessment of the effectiveness of interaction between the manager and the team, the degree of controllability of the team, the degree of “resonance” with the manager | there are no attempts to describe the existing command as a type | only by similarity of temperaments | |
| Integral type of team | Type of corporate culture. Strengths and weaknesses of the professional focus of the team. Degree of team alignment with the task being performed (prediction of success) | there is a concept of a command type as a sum of types | Team type as a set of temperaments | |
| Dynamics of concept development | Intensive development of theory and applied technologies. Socionics is used as a conceptual model in all humanities, used in more than 850 dissertations. Studied at universities either as a separate discipline, or in courses in sociology, management, pedagogy or other humanities. Actively used in management for staffing teams, including: production, sports, aviation, space. | The basic theory was formed in the 50s and has not changed since. Mass application due to growth in popularity, “in breadth” – extensive growth without further conceptual development. | The basic theory was developed in the 70s and has changed little. | |
| Social technologies | Advertising methods taking into account information perception; selective technologies; types of mentality of social groups and ethnic groups. | No | No | |
Conclusions
Socionics as a concept stands above on the Myers-Briggs and Keirsey typologies and includes them as special cases of consideration. At the same time, it has significantly greater potential for practical application, since it examines the structure of the human psyche, and also offers a proven concept of intertype relationships, which is successfully used to build teams.
