Information elements

Introduction

The information elements (also IM elements, elements of information metabolism, or, confusingly, "functions") are eight mental categories that play a key role in interpersonal interaction. They are denoted using the same symbols and names as the information aspects. The difference between them is that information elements are subjective properties of the psyche, whereas information aspects are objective properties of reality independent from psyche.

Information Element Notations

Information elements
Name	Symbol	2-letter	1-letter
Introverted sensing		Si	S
Extraverted intuition		Ne	I
Introverted logic		Ti	L
Extraverted ethics		Fe	E
Introverted intuition		Ni	T
Extraverted sensing		Se	F
Introverted ethics		Fi	R
Extraverted logic		Te	P

Information Element Themes

Si Introverted Sensing: homeostasis, continuity, smoothness, flow, satisfaction, aesthetics, quality of life, pleasure, relaxation, convenience, quality

Ne Extraverted Intuition: potential, permutation, isomorphism, semblance, essence, uncertainty, the unknown, opening up new "windows" and bringing up new possibilities in conversation, seeing opportunities, chance, being the first, refreshing informational suddenness, diversity of interests and involvements

Ti Introverted Logic: structure, analysis, coherence, consistency, cogency, accordance, match, commensurability, understanding, order, or the lack of thereof

Fe Extraverted Ethics: emotional atmosphere, romanticism, cooperation, treatment, qualitative judgement of behavior, sympathy, ethical estimations of observable actions, "ethics of actions"

Ni Introverted Intuition: development over time, historicity, cause and effect, consequences, repetition, archetypal themes and examples, looking for causes in history or the past, past-future forecasting of event dynamics, rhythm, delay or act-now, past-turned imagination

Se Extraverted Sensing: sensing of immediate static qualities of objects, sensing of immediate reality, external appearance, texture, form, static objects, impact, direct physical effect, span, extent, scope

Fi Introverted Ethics: internal harmony, resonance or dissonance of personal sentiments, sympathy, pity, compassion, support, condemnation, judgement, positive and negative emotional space

Te Extraverted Logic: efficiency, method, mechanism, knowledge, work, reason in motion, direction of activity into its most logical course of action, "logic of actions", utilitarianism, expediency, benefit

States of Mind

When a person is "using" an element he naturally goes into a corresponding state of mind, which is reflected in his body language and vocabulary, and tends to have a similar effect on the people around him, who will react based on which function that element occupies in their Model A, with interest (Ego), amusement (Super-Id), boredom (Id), or irritation (Super-Ego), etc.

• Si  : a physically relaxed state of mind, turned to the continuity and flow of the moment

• Ne  : seeing the potential on the current situation, bringing up various possibilities up to discussion, recombinative play, permutations, variations, alternatives, solutions, including options that seem improbable or even absurd at times, informationally renovative and refreshing conversation

• Ti  : analytical state of mind, clarity and exactitude of thought, a sense of coherence, order, and regularity at different levels of structure, "debugging": seeing the whole system and then spotting nonsensical flaws or mistakes, or alternatively building one's own systems from simple and well-understood parts

• Fe  : assessing the moods and attitudes from dynamics of surroundings and the actions and choices of others, being perceptive of the "emotional atmosphere", analyzing and evaluating emotions and attitudes of others based on their currently observable reactions and actions, with to express one's feelings and experiences openly and directly, to impact the emotional and social space, which can be done through expressive combination of words and gestures

• Ni  : a protracted and reflective state of mind, "falling out of time" and later trying to make up for lost activity, generalizing and abstracting past events from memory, using these generalizations to see what's going to happen, reflecting upon the past in order to be able to evaluate what is possible to do in the present moment and to predict the most likely course of events, patience that borders with inactivity

• Se  : awareness of the space and concrete environment around oneself, externally observatory state of mind, "sensing of reality", "factual perception of reality", everything around you gets registered no matter if you can touch it or it's way off in the distant distance, a mobilized state, exerting force on objects and people with the goal of moving them around in space, in Se perception a person or object can be influenced only in space

• Fi  : an analytical state of mind, analysis of personal feeling and stances, harmony or disharmony of personal values and sentiments, endearment, closeness, moral satisfaction, emotional sensitivity, deep personal conviction that may produce moral firmness and resolve

• Te  : an evaluatory state of mind that directly assesses events and actions of other people from logical POV and openly voices those assessments, assessing and estimating productivity, efficiency, usefulness, rational sense of any given involvement venture or activity, steady and purposeful state of mind that leads to making rational actions despite the present sentiments

Information Element Dichotomies

This page or section is incomplete. Additional contributions are needed.

There are 3 basic dichotomies of information aspects, and thus 4 derived dichotomies (see the mathematics of the Reinin dichotomies.)

The dichotomies Static / Dynamic and Extroverted / Introverted (a.k.a. Body / Field) came from Aushra Augusta, and External / Internal was suggested by another early author. However, this last dichotomy is criticized by some socionists for its lack of meaningful content. The Rational / Irrational dichotomy comes from Jung's typology.

Static	Ne Ti Se Fi	Static "snapshots", unconnected episodes
Dynamic	Si Fe Ni Te	Objects and fields in constant continuous motion

Extroverted	Ne Fe Se Te	Apparent qualities and causal relationships
Introverted	Si Ti Ni Fi	Internal qualities, internal relationships between things

External	Si Ti Se Te	Explicit, directly sensible content of reality
Internal	Ne Fe Ni Fi	Implicit, indirectly perceivable content of reality

Irrational	Si Ne Ni Se	Perception first, unfiltered "as is" information
Rational	Ti Fe Fi Te	Judgement first, ordered evaluated information

Abstract	Ti Te Ni Ne
Involved	Fi Fe Si Se

Alpha values	Ti Fe Si Ne
Gamma values	Fi Te Ni Se

Beta values	Ti Fe Ni Se
Delta values	Fi Te Si Ne

Static / Dynamic Information Elements

Static information is discrete and about things that change abruptly:

Ne  : discrete temporal phases and sets of discrete alternatives

Ti  : discrete logical and structural dependencies between states of affairs.

Se  : discrete spatial boundaries that delineate territory and control.

Fi  : discrete types of interpersonal relationships, such as "friend" or "enemy".

Dynamic information is continuous and about things that are in constant fluctuation:

Si  : one's continuous physical exchanges with one's environment.

Fe  : the continuous excitations in people's psychological states.

Ni  : the continuous evolution of things over time.

Te  : the continuous incoming stream of objective facts about the world.

Extroverted / Introverted Information Elements

Extroverted information is information about things as they are, independent of relations to other things:

Ne  : something has potential or does not

Fe  : one is happy or sad

Se  : one is aware of external properties of reality or not

Te  : something is useful or not

Introverted information is information about how things relate to one another, independent of their innate properties:

Si  : Person X is comfortable with Condition Y or is not

Ti  : Statement X follows logically from Statement Y or does not

Ni  : Course of events X will lead to Consequence Y or not

Fi  : Person X relates well to Person Y or does not

See also

• Semantic Content of Symbols Used in Socionics by Aushra Augusta

External links

• Information Elements by Rick DeLong