Function Exercises

[nolla]

Let's collect a bunch of exercises to strengthen the MBTI functions. I have two questions for you:

1) How do you know that you need to make a certain function stronger?

2) How do you do that?

[Jack Flak]

I hate to rain on your parade, but aside from relevance issues:
1. It's weak?
2. If it's possible, I sure don't know.

[ygolo]

I don't know if practice make them stronger, but this book (http://www.amazon.com/Dynamics-Personality-Type-Understanding-Cognitive/dp/0966462459) has a section that has activities to engage particular cognitive functions (all pertaining to apples).

[nolla]

1. It's weak?

Well, I guess the question changes to "how do you know it's weak?"

[Jack Flak]

*shrug* I don't like functional analysis. It results in questions like that.

[Flush]

Amazon.com: Functions of Type: Activities for Developing the Eight Jungian Functions: Gary Hartzler, Margaret Hartzler: Books (http://www.amazon.com/Functions-Type-Activities-Developing-Jungian/dp/0974375160/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I7WVJI6RHS46C&colid=QQYRH8DJGXZC)

Seems like a very interesting book. Has anyone read it?

[sophiedoph]

I hate to rain on your parade, but aside from relevance issues:
1. It's weak?
2. If it's possible, I sure don't know.

I think it is very relevant.

I have been wondering this very thing myself lately. I need to develop the ability to attend to specific details. (Like, ISTJ specific.) My brain does. not. work. this. way. It just doesn't. But I'm sure there are exercises I could utilize that would help me at least strengthen this weakness at least somewhat.

And the relevancy? Survival in the real world outside of school. It's easy to be yourself when you just have to take tests and pass classes, but when you work daily with a boss of a very different type, and you *need* that paycheck, it becomes very, very relevant to be able to strengthen such skills.

Any cognitive psychology majors here?? I remember my mom, who teaches special ed, had some arrow chart that kids had to work with to improve their attention. Or something.

[PinkPiranha]

Let's collect a bunch of exercises to strengthen the MBTI functions. I have two questions for you:

1) How do you know that you need to make a certain function stronger?

2) How do you do that?

Don't you listen to the bad Jack Flak person. He's on "medication" called "vodka" that causes him to "drunk post". It's a serious yet treatable condition.

1. I only realize that I need to shore up a function, like my notoriously weak Se, when something occurs to reveal the glaring weakness. Missed cues go right over my head, but my sister catches them and then looks at me like, "Surely you saw t... you didn't. That's so sad." S-cues are the hardest ones for me to process or even make myself aware of.

2. I watch my sister like a baby bear who's learning what's good to eat by the adult bears. Then I store it for later. Once I'm made aware, I stay aware. Otherwise, it's just a black hole of obliviousness that I will never be conscious of until something happens to make it "real". I try to apply my weak Se to practical helpful matters like cleaning the kitchen.

[Eric B]

Amazon.com: Functions of Type: Activities for Developing the Eight Jungian Functions: Gary Hartzler, Margaret Hartzler: Books (http://www.amazon.com/Functions-Type-Activities-Developing-Jungian/dp/0974375160/ref=wl_it_dp?ie=UTF8&coliid=I7WVJI6RHS46C&colid=QQYRH8DJGXZC)

Seems like a very interesting book. Has anyone read it?
Yeah; it helped me understand the functions a lot;especially the way he breaks them down into different parts (and he does the same in his book on Facets of Type, which my Step II graph is based on).
Dario Nardi's 8 Keys to Self-Leadership was a similar, but more detailed book on improving function use as well.

[dnivera]

You don't need to make any of your functions stronger. Just be yourself. Your cognitive functions develop naturally as you age.

The only reason I'm interested in playing around with different cognitive functions and strengthening my weaker ones is so I can get along with different kinds of people. (So I can get promoted at work, get stuff done, and have more fun doing it on the side.)

I guess learning the different cog functions is like learning a language or a new culture, but fluency is much, much, harder and subtler. You can read personality type theory until it's coming out of your ears, but actually doing it - putting the functions into practice, especially your shadow functions - takes lots of observation and experience. I don't think that we're hard-wired to be our MBTI types, and you can train yourself to be something else in a matter of time. (But based on our developmental psychology, there are limits to how much you can change yourself, of course.) I guess improv comedians/actors are probably really good at this.

Basically, I'm doing this so I can get people-fluency in the same way that I have fluency in the English language and American culture. The book is a great idea.

[The_Liquid_Laser]

If you want to develop a function then study an activity that uses that function a lot. This works particularly well if you like the activity. For example if you want to develop Ti then study Math or Philosophy. If you want to develop Se then play sports. If you want to practice Fe, then go out and try to make a bunch of friends. Etc....

[sleepless]

The only function you need to train is your 4th (Aspirational) - through your Leading function. Training your 4th (or any function) in a way that makes it temporarily take your Leading's place can be an interesting experiment with different ego-states and the like, but besides from that, if you're not actually about to switch type, it won't do anything good - it just turns everything upside down, your ordinary 1st becomes your 4th and so on, which makes everything very unstable. However, if you approach it indirectly, through your 1st, then you can maintain your basic approach to life and at the same time add way more depth to it - the 1st function must be directed to the 4th, it can't stay within itself (and it won't).

Something like that.