Socionic library
articles, books and educational materials

of the International institute of Socionics

Reinhard Blutner, Elena Hochnadel
Two qubits for C.G. Jung’s theory of personality

We propose a formalization of C.G. Jung’s theory of personality using a four-dimensional Hilbert-space for the representation of two qubits. The first qubit relates to Jung’s four psychological functions: Thinking, Feeling, Sensing and iNtuition, which are represented by two groups of projection operators, T, F and S, N. The operators in each group are commuting but operators of different groups are not. The second qubit represents Jung’s two perspectives of extraversion and introversion. It is shown that this system gives a natural explanation of the 16 psychological types that are defined in the Jungian tradition. Further, the system accounts for the restriction posed by Jung concerning the possible combination of psychological functions and perspectives. The empirical consequences of the present theory are discussed, and the results of a pilot study are reported with the aim to check some basic predictions of the theory. In addition, it is shown why the present praxis of personality diagnostics based on classical statistics is insufficient

Personality theory; Quantum cognition; Qubit; Entanglement; Type indicator; Big five

Despite of several similarities there are also important differences. For instance, the MBTI is based on questionnaires with so-called forced-choice questions. Forcedchoice means that the individual has to choose only one of two possible answers to each question. Obviously, such tests are self-referential. That means they are based on judgments of persons about themselves. Socionics rejects the use of such questionnaires and is based on interviews and direct observation of certain aspects of human behavior instead. However, if personality tests are well constructed and their questions are answered properly, we expect results that often make sense. For that reason, we do not reject test questions principally, but we have to take into account their self-referential character. Another difference relates to the fact that socionics tries to understand Jung’s intuitive system and to provide a deeper explanation for it, mainly in terms of informational metabolism (Kepinski & PZWL, 1972).

Further, socionics is not so much a theory of personalities per se, but much more a theory of type relations providing an analysis of the relationships that arise as a consequence of the interaction of people with different personalities.

...there are three different systems that make use of the 16 types. The first system is the Myers-Briggs type indicator (MBTI). The second system is the scheme of socionics. The third and possibly the most developed system is the Singer–Loomis inventory of personality (SLIP).


Documents
jung.pdf 372.8 KiB / PDF