Parameters of information processing by model functions (dimensions of the functions)
Paraphrasing the popular thesis of Marxist philosophy «the electron is as inexhaustible as the atom», it is possible to assert that the psyche function is as inexhaustible as the psyche.
from a discussion
Information processing in up-to-date informatics is usually characterized by these or other parameters [1]. Quantitative parameters traditionally for the theory of information characterize the quantity of information. In real applications barely quantitative characteristics of information are insufficient, so up-to-date theory also uses qualitative parameters of information – both generalized (value, complexity, authenticity, etc.) and concrete (situational, normative, temporary, etc.). The number of parameters required and sufficient for information processing, which depends on the purposes of the processing and, consequently, on functional orientation (purpose) of the processor is called «dimension»[1] and is usually characterized by a number of co-ordinates forming a sort of conditional «space» in which this processor functions [2].
Systemic research of the interaction between psyche and surrounding world (which is actually the aim pursued by socionics when modeling human psyche) shows that to ensure the functioning of the psyche as an element of the «man – surrounding world» system it is necessary and sufficient that the processors modeling psyche functions should process the flow of arriving information according to four parameters:
- Ex (experience) – parameters of experience – characteristics of individual (Ex) or personal (social) experience (Ex*), obtained from the birth and acquired by a person during life in the process of taking decisions and executing stimuli[2];
- Nr (norm) – parameters of norms – characteristics of norms, rules, customs, accepted methods and standards (individual – Nr or social – Nr*) that should be observed in the process of taking decisions or executing control stimuli[3];
- St (situation) – parameters of situation – characteristics of conditions, situation (individual – St or social – St*) when taking decisions or executing control stimuli;
- Tm (time) – parametric time – the moment of individual (Tm) or social (Tm*) time in the past, present or future, in relation to which corresponding individual or social decisions are taken or executed; in other words, time as a point on the scale of time, i.e. as a parameter of referring the information processing to a certain moment in the past, present or future.
Systems analysis and the apparatus of informatics give a quite precise substantiation of parametric dimension of the model functions. The dimensions of all eight psyche functions are shown below in the structure of model of the psyche (fig. 6)
The understanding of parametric dimensions of psyche functions actually ensures the determination of the function place in the model in case of identification and, consequently, the verification of the TIM model of the psyche, i.e. authentic determination of the psyche type of a concrete person. These parameters are revealed in the process of TIM identification by analyzing the information which presents the reaction of the person being identified to real or virtual stimuli (questions, tasks, circumstances, etc). The above-mentioned parameters are unconditionally complex, i.e. having, in their turn, certain semantic and parametric structure which has not yet been studied well in socionics.
References
- Gorskij J.M. System and information analysis of control processes. Novosibirsk: Nauka. Siberian branch, 1989 (in Russian)
- Bukalov A.V. The structure and dimension of functions of information metabolism. //Socionics, mentology and personality psychology, International Institute of Socionics, No.2, 1995
- Jung C.G. The structure and dynamic of the psyche. Hull, R. F. C. (Trans). Bollingen Series XX. The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, 8. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1969. First published in 1960.
[1] The notion of the dimension of TIM model functions was introduced to socionics by A.V. Bukalov in 1989. The terminology and semantics of the dimension of functions as given here (V.D. Yermak, G.B. Senyk, 1993) are somewhat different from those offered by A.V. Bukalov.
[2] Thus, the investigations of the parameters of experience (Ex) make it possible to suppose the connection of these parameters with the archetypes of unconscious. С.G. Jung wrote: «The unconscious, as the totality of all archetypes, is the deposit of all human experience right back to its remotest beginnings. Not, indeed, a dead deposit, a sort of abandoned rubbish-heap, but a living system of reactions and aptitudes that determine the individual's life in invisible ways - all the more effective because invisible»[3].
[3] The correlation of informational parameters of experience and norms is illustrated by a well-known thought of an ancient man of wisdom: «Education is the study of rules; experience is the study of exclusions».