Cognitive processes and their mechanisms

Cognitive Processes

God has created every person with different nature and interests that builds ones personality. The idea of studying different personalities was proposed in 1920s by some of the famous scholars and scientists. Carl Jung was the first scholar who described the Psychological Types. He categorized people as extroverted and introverted. People with extroverted personality are more oriented towards external world and goes through new experiences whereas the introvert personalities are more oriented towards internal worlds and memories. Later on, Jung identified other differences in the personalities and named them functions which are now called as Cognitive Processes.

Types of Cognitive Processes

The extroverts and introverts deal with the world in their own style. According to Jung there are four main styles that are sensing, intuition, thinking and feeling. Jung categorized these four types under two main headings perception and judgment.

Perception -- (Sensation and Intuition)

Judgment -- (Thinking and Feeling)

Every person whether with dominant extroversion or introversion has one of these functions so in total there are eight kinds of cognitive processes. They are named as:

Extraverted sensing

Introverted sensing

Extraverted intuiting

Introverted intuiting

Extraverted thinking

Introverted thinking

Extraverted feeling

Introverted feeling

Though, later Myers Brigg continued the Jung's study and added cognition opposites so making in total 16 types. Myers also developed a questionnaire to assess the personality type.

Here in this paper we will discuss the first three cognitive processes. However, before we go in detail of these cognitive processes, let's have an idea about sensing and intuition.

Some of the people have strong senses and they process information well by means of their senses. These people are good at observation and listening and thus lie in the category of good perceivers or irrational function

The other type of the irrational function that is perception is intuition. This means of dealing with the world focuses on large amount of complex information and then act upon them. According to Jung, it is the quality in a person to look in the corners of any picture.

Rest of the two functions relate to the category of judgment i.e. feeling and thinking. All these four functions vary in every person that can be assigned 4 letter code. (Boeree, 2006)

Extraverted Sensing

This personality function allows a person to process their life through their experiences. People with this dominant feature take keen interest in what they see, smell, touch, hear and taste. They don't have a futuristic approach rather live in only present. The personality types with dominant extraverted sensing function are ESTP and ESFP.

ESTP are usually known for being the "Persuader." They love action and follow "here and now" strategy. People with this type have excellent people skills, easily adapt changes in the environment, informal risk taking and often not agree with the rules and regulations. They want to get over with any task as soon as they can and so finishes their work quickly. Overall, they are friendly and social but they have a dominating personality and so like to direct and lead other people.

ESFP are known as the "Entertainer." People with this type are more cooperative and follow "here and now" strategy. Enjoy adventures and excitement but don't want to experience it alone rather love to show it to others. They like to be center of attention by putting themselves on the show.

Introverted Sensing

This function of sensing allows a person to memorize detailed information and then be able to compare it with the current scenarios or data. So, people with this function in dominance, search out for the connection between the past and the present. ISTJ and ISFJ are its main personality types.

ISTJ are known as the "Examiner." They are loyal, hardworking and responsible people. They stick to the norms and traditions and work with sincerity for preserving them. However, due to their dutiful nature they become dependable at times.

ISFJ are kind, loyal, quiet and traditional. They observe the environment closely and have deep thoughts and emotional. They want to follow only the set traditions and norms. They have an exceptional piece of memory; even they are usually able to memorize the facial expressions in any conversation.

Extraverted Intuition

Unlike sensation, intuition is the way of processing information by means of impressions, possibilities and interpretations. People with this function in dominance, look towards different possibilities in any picture and draw deep interpretations. ENTP and ENFP are the main personality types of this function.

ENTP are known for being the "Originator." They are inventive, logical and curious. They are capable of understanding difficult topics as they go into their depths by looking in the possibilities. People with this kind of trait usually get into the arguments so as to show up their skills.

ENFP are the "Advocate." They are thoughtful, social, values oriented and very expressive. They love to share views about their beliefs and thoughts so that to promote them what they feel is important. They turn out to be really passionate and enthusiastic about certain ideas at times.

(Berens & Nardi, 2004)

Discussion

Though the human acts cannot be completely predicted by assessing its personality type but still there is a much that can be judged. Today, there are number of organizations that use MBTI and Jung's study for the improvement in their working teams. Every job requires some particular set of skills and expertise but it is more important that the person at job either has the abilities to learn and perform as according to the job requirements or not.

Personality types vary among people and so the abilities too. Several scholars have studied and found that there is an impact of personality over the job. Some people are best fit for particular jobs and so it is important that an organization conduct a personality test before hiring an employee or plan a career according to the personality type. This helps in reducing the level of burn out at job among employees and so the turnover rate. Moreover, the productivity increases with the right person for the particular job. However, there are many other factors that need to be considered apart from personality test.

Personality testing not only favors organizations but also help the person choosing the right career path. Like if a person has ESTP type then the fast paced jobs and the team working best suits them. They can perform well at jobs of marketing, sales, entrepreneur etc. Similarly people with ISTJ type should choose the career that has an order and structure like military, lawyer, doctor etc. ENTP type people should choose the career that can support them in using their inventive abilities. Best career options for them are in being a scientist, lawyer, engineer, psychiatrist, and journalist and so on.