Your Cognitive Profile
(brought to you by Dario Nardi PhD at Radiance House and keys2cognition.com)
Understanding Your Results
Your cognitive profile is presented below. It is based on how you rated described
yourself. A 4-letter personality type code is also presented for your convenience
if you are familiar with that framework. Most people find their results match their
4-letter personality type code. That is, we tend to develop and utilize what we
prefer and vice versa. As you reflect on your cognitive profile, keep in mind that
sometimes we develop a cognitive process to meet the demands of our environment or
use a process well in one area of our lives but not others.
The Eight Processes
Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Carl Jung identified four mental functions. Today we know
them as cognitive processes. We focus our attention and gather information using
Sensing (S) and iNtuiting (N), and we organize our experiences and make decisions
using Thinking (T) and Feeling (F). Jung described how each of these four processes
plays out in a person's "internal world" (I) of thoughts, feelings, memories, and
imagination; and in the "external world" (E) of actions, people, tools, and
organizations. Thus, there are eight cognitive processes (Se, Si, Ne, Ni, Te, Ti,
Fe, Fi).
Basic and Developed Use
Each cognitive process can be engaged in a basic, unsophisticated way reflecting
our natural human capabilities. Almost everyone can engage each process in some
basic way. We often do so every day. Beyond this, you will engage some cognitive
processes in a more sophisticated, developed way. This is likely the result of
innate preference plus lifelong growth and practice, which equals development.
Perceiving — how we focus our attention and gather information
Judging — how we organize our experiences and make decisions
Development is more than basic or advanced use of processes in isolation. We can
talk about a spectrum. Wise use of a cognitive process involves both basic and
advanced use, as appropriate, plus an ability to express other processes with it.
Thus, visualizing a spectrum, "average" to "good" use usually means we can use the
process in limited situations or use it well but only with the aid of other
processes. In contrast, "poor" use means merely basic use or maybe inappropriate
use. We may get into trouble when we neglect a process in our lives, if even with
someone else's help.
Your Cognitive Development Profile
The forty-eight questions you rated earlier tap into the eight cognitive processes.
Some questions tapped into basic or developed use of a process used by itself,
while other questions tapped into use of multiple processes at once. The profile
below is based on your responses. Length of the bars indicate strength of response.
The equivalent numeric is shown along with likely level of development.
limited Se
16.2
excellent Si
37
excellent Ne
37.4
good Ni
33.1
average Te
24.9
average Ti
27.1
average Fe
27.2
excellent Fi
41.5
Function Pairs
We can look at pairs of functions, which tells us a lot about how a person operates
overall in terms of information gathering (aka perception) and decision-making (aka
judgment).
Sensing-Thinking = 141.2 iNtuiting-Thinking = 158.5
Sensing-Feeling = 157.9 iNtuiting-Feeling = 175.2
Your top function pair = NF
Correlation to Personality Type
By focusing on the strongest configuration of cognitive processes, your pattern of
responses most closely matches individuals of the following 3 Myers-Briggs type
codes (of 16 possible), in order of match:
INFP
ENFP
INTP
These suggested types are calculated several ways. One way focuses on the first-
ranked function and then considers a complementary second-ranked function. A second
way focuses on function-pairings plus an overall bias toward extraverting or
introverting. This allows for situations such as the dominant function not scoring
first. A third way considers a runner-up result.
Ultimately, it is your responsibility to locate which type fits best. If these
results here are different from what you know of yourself, you might consider why
your developmental profile does not align with your expectation. You might also
consider exploring the results here as a possible better fit.
Aligning to Sixteen Patterns
Jung observed that everyone has potential access to all eight cognitive processes
but that we each prefer one as dominant — playing a lead role — with a second
process playing a support role. Your two preferred cognitive processes allow you to
do information gathering and decision making, introverting and extraverting. Maybe
you prefer introverted Intuiting (Ni) in a lead role with extraverted Feeling (Fe)
in a support role, which matches with INFJ preferences. Or maybe you prefer
extraverted Sensing (Se) in a lead role with introverted Thinking (Ti) in a support
role, which matches with ESTP preferences. Or maybe you prefer some other pairing.
These pairings tap into sixteen possible balanced patterns which are often
represented using a 4-letter code. Here are the sixteen type patterns and the
preferred cognitive processes associated with each:
Validity and Reliability of Results
This assessment underwent rigorous development with over 3000 people, and recent
further validation with almost 130,000 respondents confirms validity. We used
various validation methods, namely latent class analysis (with Cronbach alpha >=
0.70). Over 95% of the time, the function pairing (ST, SF, NF, NT) is correct.
Moreover, data analysis strongly supports key concepts including: basics vs
advanced use, pairing of judging with perceiving for functional balance, and the
polarities of Sensing vs iNtuiting and Thinking vs Feeling. You can consider your
results here as valid as those from any professionally-developed assessment. You
can read more here:
the 2006 white paper, and
the 2021 white paper
In the original study, people who took this assessment, and reported their 4-letter
type code, received results that matched their type code 75% to 80% of the time.
This is excellent performance since the reported type may be inaccurate even when
"validated" or from a professional assessment. And even when the type code does not
exactly match, the central functional pair (e.g. SF, ST, NF, NT) matches 95% of the
time.
Clarifying Your Result
What if the 4-letter code reported here is different from what you expected? Let's
say that your type code result here is ESTP and the type you are familiar with for
yourself is INTJ. Even though the type codes look quite different, you may have
rated the cognitive processes for these two types rather closely. Also, keep in
mind the cognitive profile is based on your responses. Continuing with the example,
if you didn't think of yourself as an ESTP, then you would reflect on why you rated
highly a phrase such as "freely follow your gut instincts and exciting physical
impulses as they come up." This phrase clearly does not fit with the INTJ type
pattern. Please visit www.bestfittype.com for more information and exploration.
Further Exploration
Here are some thorough books to further understand your profile and the framework
in general:
8 Keys to Self-Leadership: From Awareness to Action by Dario Nardi
Neuroscience of Personality: Brain-Savvy Insights for All Types of People by Dario
Nardi
The Magic Diamond: Jung's 8 Paths for Self-Coaching by Dario Nardi
Decode Your Personality: Go Beyond Myers-Briggs With 64 Brain-Based Subtypes by
Dario Nardi
Teaching Tales for the 16 Personality Types by Dario Nardi
And here are some quick reference booklets and apps:
16 Personality Types: Descriptions for Self-Discovery by Linda Berens and Dario
Nardi
Understanding Yourself and Others: An Introduction to the Personality Type Code by
Linda Berens and Dario Nardi
Quick Guide to the 16 Types in Organizations by Linda Berens, Dario Nardi, et al.
Personality Types app for Apple iPhone
Copyright Dario Nardi, 2007, 2021, 2024. www.keys2cognition.com.
Contact service [@] radiancehouse.com to use or translate material on this site.
