Anatoly Ovcharov, 2026.
PERSONALITY DIAGNOSTICS PROBLEMS IN SOCIONICS
Correctly identifying a socionic personality type, especially considering its subtype characteristics, is a challenging task even for an experienced socionics specialist. This is because the physical outward characteristics of individuals within a given type typically vary. These characteristics depend on genetics and archetypes, which we will discuss later. However, individuals with different types can have similar archetypes, and in such cases, it's easy to make a mistake.
A more reliable diagnostic criterion when typing based on appearance is observing behavioral reactions. Therefore, specialists who regularly interact with people, observe them in various situations, and accumulate practical experience in collecting information about personality at various levels of expression—physical, psychological, social, and socio-psychological—have a greater advantage here.
Diagnostic methods can generally be divided into two groups: formal and informal. Formal methods include testing (oral, written, and computerized) using questionnaires, surveys, standardized projective techniques (e.g., S. Dellinger's psychogeometric test), and content analysis. Informal methods include visual observation, interviews, performance analysis—both routine and creative—free projective techniques (e.g., the "Non-Existent Animal" test), and in our case, the "Genre Pictures" test, as well as the biographical method (analysis of a person's life story, including its achievements and crises).
Let's list the pros and cons of each approach. The formal approach and its pros: speed of implementation, the ability to use automated information processing methods, and independence from the researcher's subjective opinion. Cons: low validity, risk of falsification (the subject may try to guess the "correct" answers), and a superficial analysis without taking into account individual personality characteristics. An informal approach has advantages: high validity, a deeply personalized approach, capturing live reactions, and difficulty deceiving the test subject. Disadvantages: highly subjective interpretation, time-consuming, and difficult to translate into numerical results.
Most practicing socionics use formal methods, primarily socionic dichotomous tests during direct communication with the client or the portrait similarity method for remote assessments. These approaches result in a high rate of misdiagnosis in socionics assessments and discrepancies among socionics regarding the personality types of public figures in politics, culture, and other public spheres.
Therefore, we prefer to use informal methods of personality assessment, particularly interviews and performance analysis. Visual observation is much more effective in dynamic situations, where we observe a person in various situations involving elements of activity, both routine and creative. In most cases, we are unable to observe clients dynamically, unless the client provides videos of practical activities or interactions. During online assessments, we strive to extract as much information as possible for a final conclusion about the client's personality type, using visual methods during interviews. Our primary goal is to determine the dominance of individual Jungian basic functions—logical, feeling, sensing, and intuition—as well as two attitude pairs: extroverted-introverted and rational-irrational. These personality traits manifest themselves specifically on the physical, psychological, social, and socio-psychological levels.
On the physical level, a predominance of facial expressions and gestures is noticeable in extroverted types compared to introverts. These elements are especially pronounced in feeling extroverts. These personalities also tend to have highly dynamic eyes. Introverts tend to have more static eyes, especially in logical types.
The physical level allows for a clearer distinction between sensory and intuitive types based on their attitudes toward physical labor. For the sensory type, physical labor is organically natural and provides muscular pleasure, especially if it's not forced. For the intuitive type, physical labor is more like fulfilling a necessary obligation, a duty to loved ones, or a utilitarian function—I don't like it, but I have to. True, atypical accents of the type may introduce some adjustments to this, but the general trend is this.
The difference between rational and irrational types can be noted by such manifestations as a certain fixedness of posture and a stiffness of figure, as if the person is constantly monitoring their posture. The figure of a rational type feels mobilized and collected. Such a person can remain in one position for a long time, even an uncomfortable one.
The body of an irrational person subconsciously tends to be relaxed. Therefore, they choose comfortable positions, often changing them during a conversation.
On a psychological level, an extrovert manifests as a more open personality compared to an introvert, from whom information must be literally squeezed, especially from logical types. In comparison, extroverted feeling types seem overly talkative. Given this openness, it's easier for an extrovert to characterize a friend than to characterize themselves.
In life, feeling types are better than logical types at detecting the emotional state of others through their looks, intonations, and involuntary reactions, and they sense the appropriate distance in a given situation. They feel more comfortable in informal settings, where they don't have to constantly restrain their emotions and demonstrate their attitude toward others. Logical types feel uncomfortable in environments where, in their view, time is wasted, pleasantries are exchanged, and gossip is discussed. The psychological needs of sensory types focus on extracting concrete benefits and physical comfort, unlike intuitive types, for whom interest in an object, process, or person often takes precedence over pragmatism and comfortable personal and work conditions.
Rational individuals more effectively control their mental state than irrational people. The term "judicious types" quite clearly indicates the ability of rational types to develop their life position and attitude toward the surrounding world based on certain norms. For logicians, these are laws of the material world: physical, technical, and economic. Sensing rational types are more oriented toward norms governing human relationships and rights, ethics, morality, and aesthetics.
The psyche of irrational people is more labile and dependent on the current situation and various factors that are difficult to fit into the rigid framework of rules, norms, and laws. Therefore, they tend to go with the flow of life, sensing its unpredictable turns. On a social level, extroverts feel more comfortable and confident in leadership roles, relegating introverts to the role of performer or follower, which, in turn, is more appropriate for the latter. Extroverts tend to constantly expand their scope of activity, demonstrating competitive qualities, entrepreneurship, and the ability to adapt to new conditions. Logical extroverts are more oriented toward developing innovative products or manufacturing goods using proven technology. Sensing extroverts feel more comfortable in the spheres of human communication, politics, show business, and culture.
Sensory types most often occupy social niches related to the satisfaction of material needs and services. This primarily includes trade – wholesale and retail, recreation, and entertainment.
Intuitive types seek to find themselves in social spheres that offer opportunities for their spiritual and intellectual development. These include scientific research, marketing, teaching, consulting, and the arts. Rational personality types often seek to occupy social niches where there is a certain guarantee of stability and predictability, where norms and rules, order, and discipline prevail. In civilized democratic societies, these include structures such as government bodies—executive, legislative, and judicial—the military, the church, and companies with a reputation for respect and authority, both domestically and internationally.
Irrational types, by virtue of their propensity for change, seek opportunities to realize themselves in areas and organizations that offer dynamic development, elements of novelty, and the opportunity to develop startups, experiment, and take risks. Venture capital firms serve as an example.
The socio-psychological level is associated with the influence of social factors on personality, such as group norms and values, psychological climate, the distribution of social roles and statuses, and the potential for conflict in society.
Extroverted types are more inclined than introverted types to support and cultivate group norms and values. The nature of these norms depends on the type of organization itself. We have proposed our own typology of organizational structures, consisting of the following types: hierarchical, competitive, individualistic, and consolidating. Each of these organizations has its own distinctive values, climate, distribution of social roles and statuses, and characteristics of the emergence and development of conflicts. All of these factors are directly related to the system-organizing characteristics that form the basis of each of these organizational types and exist in a dichotomous relationship: normativity, creativity, integrativity, and differentiation.
Diagnostic methods can generally be divided into two groups: formal and informal. Formal methods include testing (oral, written, and computerized) using questionnaires, surveys, standardized projective techniques (e.g., S. Dellinger's psychogeometric test), and content analysis. Informal methods include visual observation, interviews, performance analysis—both routine and creative—free projective techniques (e.g., the "Non-Existent Animal" test), and in our case, the "Genre Pictures" test, as well as the biographical method (analysis of a person's life story, including its achievements and crises).
Let's list the pros and cons of each approach. The formal approach and its pros: speed of implementation, the ability to use automated information processing methods, and independence from the researcher's subjective opinion. Cons: low validity, risk of falsification (the subject may try to guess the "correct" answers), and a superficial analysis without taking into account individual personality characteristics. An informal approach has advantages: high validity, a deeply personalized approach, capturing live reactions, and difficulty deceiving the test subject. Disadvantages: highly subjective interpretation, time-consuming, and difficult to translate into numerical results.
Most practicing socionics use formal methods, primarily socionic dichotomous tests during direct communication with the client or the portrait similarity method for remote assessments. These approaches result in a high rate of misdiagnosis in socionics assessments and discrepancies among socionics regarding the personality types of public figures in politics, culture, and other public spheres.
Therefore, we prefer to use informal methods of personality assessment, particularly interviews and performance analysis. Visual observation is much more effective in dynamic situations, where we observe a person in various situations involving elements of activity, both routine and creative. In most cases, we are unable to observe clients dynamically, unless the client provides videos of practical activities or interactions. During online assessments, we strive to extract as much information as possible for a final conclusion about the client's personality type, using visual methods during interviews. Our primary goal is to determine the dominance of individual Jungian basic functions—logical, feeling, sensing, and intuition—as well as two attitude pairs: extroverted-introverted and rational-irrational. These personality traits manifest themselves specifically on the physical, psychological, social, and socio-psychological levels.
On the physical level, a predominance of facial expressions and gestures is noticeable in extroverted types compared to introverts. These elements are especially pronounced in feeling extroverts. These personalities also tend to have highly dynamic eyes. Introverts tend to have more static eyes, especially in logical types.
The physical level allows for a clearer distinction between sensory and intuitive types based on their attitudes toward physical labor. For the sensory type, physical labor is organically natural and provides muscular pleasure, especially if it's not forced. For the intuitive type, physical labor is more like fulfilling a necessary obligation, a duty to loved ones, or a utilitarian function—I don't like it, but I have to. True, atypical accents of the type may introduce some adjustments to this, but the general trend is this.
The difference between rational and irrational types can be noted by such manifestations as a certain fixedness of posture and a stiffness of figure, as if the person is constantly monitoring their posture. The figure of a rational type feels mobilized and collected. Such a person can remain in one position for a long time, even an uncomfortable one.
The body of an irrational person subconsciously tends to be relaxed. Therefore, they choose comfortable positions, often changing them during a conversation.
On a psychological level, an extrovert manifests as a more open personality compared to an introvert, from whom information must be literally squeezed, especially from logical types. In comparison, extroverted feeling types seem overly talkative. Given this openness, it's easier for an extrovert to characterize a friend than to characterize themselves.
In life, feeling types are better than logical types at detecting the emotional state of others through their looks, intonations, and involuntary reactions, and they sense the appropriate distance in a given situation. They feel more comfortable in informal settings, where they don't have to constantly restrain their emotions and demonstrate their attitude toward others. Logical types feel uncomfortable in environments where, in their view, time is wasted, pleasantries are exchanged, and gossip is discussed. The psychological needs of sensory types focus on extracting concrete benefits and physical comfort, unlike intuitive types, for whom interest in an object, process, or person often takes precedence over pragmatism and comfortable personal and work conditions.
Rational individuals more effectively control their mental state than irrational people. The term "judicious types" quite clearly indicates the ability of rational types to develop their life position and attitude toward the surrounding world based on certain norms. For logicians, these are laws of the material world: physical, technical, and economic. Sensing rational types are more oriented toward norms governing human relationships and rights, ethics, morality, and aesthetics.
The psyche of irrational people is more labile and dependent on the current situation and various factors that are difficult to fit into the rigid framework of rules, norms, and laws. Therefore, they tend to go with the flow of life, sensing its unpredictable turns. On a social level, extroverts feel more comfortable and confident in leadership roles, relegating introverts to the role of performer or follower, which, in turn, is more appropriate for the latter. Extroverts tend to constantly expand their scope of activity, demonstrating competitive qualities, entrepreneurship, and the ability to adapt to new conditions. Logical extroverts are more oriented toward developing innovative products or manufacturing goods using proven technology. Sensing extroverts feel more comfortable in the spheres of human communication, politics, show business, and culture.
Sensory types most often occupy social niches related to the satisfaction of material needs and services. This primarily includes trade – wholesale and retail, recreation, and entertainment.
Intuitive types seek to find themselves in social spheres that offer opportunities for their spiritual and intellectual development. These include scientific research, marketing, teaching, consulting, and the arts. Rational personality types often seek to occupy social niches where there is a certain guarantee of stability and predictability, where norms and rules, order, and discipline prevail. In civilized democratic societies, these include structures such as government bodies—executive, legislative, and judicial—the military, the church, and companies with a reputation for respect and authority, both domestically and internationally.
Irrational types, by virtue of their propensity for change, seek opportunities to realize themselves in areas and organizations that offer dynamic development, elements of novelty, and the opportunity to develop startups, experiment, and take risks. Venture capital firms serve as an example.
The socio-psychological level is associated with the influence of social factors on personality, such as group norms and values, psychological climate, the distribution of social roles and statuses, and the potential for conflict in society.
Extroverted types are more inclined than introverted types to support and cultivate group norms and values. The nature of these norms depends on the type of organization itself. We have proposed our own typology of organizational structures, consisting of the following types: hierarchical, competitive, individualistic, and consolidating. Each of these organizations has its own distinctive values, climate, distribution of social roles and statuses, and characteristics of the emergence and development of conflicts. All of these factors are directly related to the system-organizing characteristics that form the basis of each of these organizational types and exist in a dichotomous relationship: normativity, creativity, integrativity, and differentiation.
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