What Isabel Myers was building toward
Isabel Myers did not set out to create a categorization tool. Her goal was to make Jung’s theory of psychological types understandable and usable in everyday life. She believed that people grow, that preferences are real, and that the type code was a starting point for development, and individual growth.
The four-letter type code was her foundational structure for making the theory accessible, but it was never meant to be the endpoint. Myers created the 16 type codes so that each letter plays a specific role in revealing underlying cognitive process pattern. J or P tells you which of the two middle functions – S, N, T, or F is extraverted. E or I tells you whether the extraverted or introverted process leads. The code is a map to the cognitive processes that shape how people gather information, make decisions, communicate, and manage energy.
Myers also understood that development unfolds over time: Individuals typically gain early confidence in their dominant process, gradually strengthen their auxiliary, and later build capacity in less-preferred processes. This dynamic system is a developmental arc central to healthy functioning, which makes type a growth framework rather than a fixed label.
As type became more widespread, this dynamic structure was often simplified by practitioners and online sites. In the mainstream literature and among the general population, the 4-letter type code has become a static model that obscures Myers’ intention. Many interpretations now treat type preferences as static letters and whole types as fixed profiles, rather than dynamic systems of energy. For practitioners, the question is whether their delivery reflects the depth of the underlying theory or simply mirrors the superficial interpretations that have evolved over time.
The eight Jungian cognitive processes
Jung identified four functions (Sensing, Intuiting, Thinking, Feeling), each operating in two attitudes (extraverted and introverted), producing eight cognitive processes that form the architecture beneath each of the 16 types.
Perception processes – How We Perceive and Take in the World
Extraverted Sensing (Engaging with What’s Real Now):
This process is rooted in the present moment, focusing on immediate sensory details and physical surroundings. Individuals who prefer this process tend to react swiftly to changes and are highly attuned to what is happening around them in real time.
Introverted Sensing (Drawing on What’s Proven):
This process draws on personal history and stored experiences to guide decisions. Those who prefer this process often rely on tried-and-true methods, applying knowledge from the past to current situations for practical and consistent outcomes.
Extraverted Intuiting (Exploring Possibilities and Connections):
This process looks outward for emerging patterns and new possibilities. Those who prefer this process tend to explore multiple ideas at once, make unexpected connections between concepts, and see potential beyond the present moment.
Introverted Intuiting (Synthesizing Meaning and Future Vision):
This process looks inward to recognize deeper patterns and long-term implications. Those who prefer this process tend to rely on internal insights, perceive the underlying meaning in things, and develop a focused vision for the future.
Judgment processes – How We Evaluate and Make Decisions
Extraverted Thinking (Organizing for Results):
This process applies logic to external systems, focusing on efficiency and organization. Those who prefer this process tend to structure their decisions using clear steps, measurable criteria, and practical solutions to achieve objective results.
Introverted Thinking (Refining Ideas for Precision):
This process focuses on internal analysis and logical consistency. Those who prefer this process tend to refine ideas for accuracy, break down concepts to uncover underlying principles, and ensure their reasoning aligns with an internally structured framework.
Extraverted Feeling (Building Relationships and Group Harmony):
This process evaluates decisions based on external values and social expectations. Those who prefer this process consider how their choices affect others, aligning with shared norms and prioritizing group cohesion in relationships and environments.
Introverted Feeling (Staying True to Personal Values):
This process evaluates decisions based on deeply held internal values and personal integrity. Those who prefer this process prioritize what feels authentic to them, aligning choices with these values rather than external expectations.
The impact of the cognitive processes
Consider what this looks like in coaching: A leader receives their four-letter type code and recognizes themselves in the description. But when the coaching conversation turns to a specific challenge, the code alone does not explain why this particular leader struggles in this particular way. Understanding their Type as a dynamic system changes that.
For example, a leader whose dominant process is Extraverted Thinking and whose auxiliary is Introverted Intuiting tends to organize their environment for efficiency while simultaneously reading long-range patterns. When their team cannot keep pace with their vision, the friction is not a personality clash. It is a structural difference in how each person is perceiving the situation. This leader perceives two or three steps ahead of where the team is perceiving it through their own processes. Naming that difference gives both the leader and coach a concrete development target: not “slow down” as a behavioral prescription, but rather, understanding that the gap between their perception and the team’s perception needs to be bridged deliberately.
Or consider a leader whose dominant process is Introverted Sensing and whose auxiliary is Extraverted Feeling. Through their dominant, they draw on proven experience to guide decisions, favoring what has worked reliably before. Through their auxiliary, they attend to the needs and emotions of the people around them. When the organization demands rapid change with no precedent to draw on, this leader’s perception has limited data to work with. Introverted Sensing is grounded in stored experience, and when the situation is entirely new, there is no stored experience to reference. Rather than dismissing their response as resistance to change, the practitioner can recognize that this person’s perception is grounded in precedent, and the current situation offers none.
The development conversation is not “be more open to change.” It is “your perception is grounded in what has worked before, and this situation has no precedent. How do you draw on your tertiary and inferior processes to navigate unfamiliar territory?”
These are specific enough conversations to build development plans around. They persist after the session ends because the leader understands why the challenge exists, not just what behavior to change.
From inferred order to measured accessibility
Traditional type assessments simply point to the 4-letter type code that participants prefer, without pointing to the order of cognitive processes within the code.. The code tells you the theoretical arrangement of them: which process is dominant, auxiliary, tertiary, and inferior. This theoretical hierarchy of cognitive processes within each type is impactful and practical for clients in both coaching and training sessions, and more closely mirrors Myers’ intention when creating the 16 type codes.
However, life experience, professional demands, and adaptation influence which processes are most accessible at any given point. A leader who has spent twenty years in a role that demands constant engagement with their tertiary process may have developed that process well beyond what the theoretical hierarchy predicts. Another leader with the same type code may show a very different accessibility pattern based on entirely different career and life experiences.
The Core Factors Type Dynamics assessment addresses this through 8-Process Scores. These scores indicate the strength by which the individual has access to and finds utility in each cognitive process; not simply inferring it from the 4-letter code. For practitioners, this provides a powerful starting point for the conversation on type development. Instead of beginning with where the theoretical model predicts the client should be, the conversation starts from where the client actually is.
When a client’s scores diverge from the expected pattern, they should be recognized as a developmental variation rather than an error. That recognition is often where the most productive coaching conversations begin; the divergence itself tells a story about how the person’s life experience has shaped their access to different processes.
This is what Myers was building toward: type as a developmental framework that meets people where they are. The code provides the map, the cognitive processes provide the terrain, and the 8-Process Scores provide the location.
Why this matters for coaches and practitioners
The four-letter type code remains a powerful entry point into one’s psychological type by giving people language for differences they have always felt but could not name. What cognitive dynamics and the type hierarchy of functions add is the depth that keeps the framework useful after the initial session ends.
When practitioners deliver type by teaching the cognitive processes, they enhance the depth of the client experience.. The code was designed to point to this dynamic framework, and when that framework is present in the delivery, participants leave with an understanding not only of what their preferences are through their 4-letter code, but also how those preferences organize their perception, judgment, and development over time.
Practitioners who are willing to introduce type at this depth stand out. Their clients gain a more practical understanding of how they take in information and evaluate it, which means they can apply the framework to real situations long after the session ends.
Type Dynamics is the only psychological type assessment designed to introduce psychological type through the lens of the cognitive processes. The 13-page participant report assists the practitioner in teaching the framework before delivering results. Apply for a free Pro Account to see how it works, or request a demo to walk through the practitioner experience.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
