History of Type Development Theory

by Gary Hartzler                                                  © 2001, Gary Hartzler

Carl Jung, early 1900s

 

Carl Jung, while describing the four mental processes and the two attitudes, described a process he called “Individuation” where a person would “develop” each of his functions. A function is a mental process used in one of the attitudes, now frequently referred to as a function-in-attitude or function/attitude.

 

He stated that there was an innate impulse in each of us to develop, meaning become aware of and use appropriately, our Dominant or Superior function first, our Auxiliary second, our Tertiary third, and our Inferior fourth. He was clear that few of us ever complete the individuation process, but that if we did, we would have a clear path to the part of God that is within each one of us.

 

Jung's model focused on the Dominant and suggested that all the other functions had to develop in the opposite attitude in order to “balance” the dominant. His descriptions of the eight types were based almost solely on the Dominant and feel unbalanced to those of us who have worked with type in the post-Myers period.

 

Based on his clinical European practice, Carl Jung wrote that many of us were/are NOT allowed to naturally develop our Dominant, but were/are encouraged instead to develop those functions that our society and/or our parents thought we should exhibit. This idea/experience has developed into the concept of “falsification” of type preferences and is reflected in the prevalent attitude among Jungian psychoanalysts that type can ONLY accurately be determined through extensive analysis of a “patient's” dreams. 

Katharine Briggs & Isabel Myers, mid 1900s

 

Based on her/their non-clinical experience of “healthy” American adults and near adults, the Briggs/Myers team developed a model that emphasized the balance that could be achieved between well-developed Dominant and Auxiliary functions. The instrument they developed (the MBTI®) focuses on individually identifying the two most preferred functions, the attitude of the Dominant, and an additional preference dichotomy that helps identify the function that is most frequently used in the outside (extraverted) world.

 

It is possible using an individual's four-letter MBTI code to identify the person's type development sequence. The J/P points to the extraverted function, the other function is the introverted function, the dominant attitude points to the Dominant function/attitude, the other function/attitude is the Auxiliary, the opposite of the Auxiliary is the Tertiary, and the opposite of the Dominant is the Inferior.

 

It is clear that Isabel Myers was very aware of the importance of the eight functions and the role they play in the personality. Much of the type literature from the period is based on the “functional pairs” and the type table is organized by functional pairs. Isabel Myers organized all her writings about the types, first according to their Dominant functions and then according to their Auxiliary function.

Harold Grant, Magdala Thompson, and Thomas E Clarke, late mid 1900s

Harold Grant, Magdala Thompson, and Thomas E. Clarke used Isabel Myers' Level 2 scoring to provide feedback to thousands of individuals in spiritual growth workshops and carefully tracked the life stories he was told to identify the patterns of development as he heard them. The data showed that each of the functions typically developed during specific age ranges. The Dominant typically seems to develop from age 6 through 12, the Auxiliary from 12 to 21, the Tertiary from 21 to 35, and the Inferior from 35 to 50.

 

They wrote up descriptions of the type development experience for each of the 16 types and published them in their book From Image to Likeness.

 

One of the things that became clear to them was that there was a clear and persistent pattern of type development where the Dominant was in the attitude measured by the MBTI® balanced by the Auxiliary in the opposite attitude. The Tertiary then develops in the same attitude as the Dominant and the Inferior in the opposite attitude.

 

John Beebe, Late 1900s

John Beebe, a Jungian analyst, has been developing an individuation model that adds two features to the Grant development model. First, he proposes that the four functions recognized by Grant, et al, develop as "Ego-Systonic" functions and the other four functions can develop as "Ego-Dystonic" functions. Second, he has identified, and in some cases, defined archetypes in which the function complexes develop. Thus, the Dominant develops in a way that can be recognized as supporting the Hero or Heroine, the Auxiliary as supporting the same gendered parent, etc.

 

A quick summary of his model follows:

 

Function        Attitude                           Gender               Archetype

Ego-Systonic Functions (typically developed in this order)

Dominant      Preferred attitude            Same gender        Hero

Auxiliary       Non-preferred attitude    Same gender        Parent

Tertiary         Preferred attitude            Same gender        Puer or Puella

Inferior          Non-preferred attitude   Opposite gender   Anima or Animus

Ego-Dystonic Functions (not developed in any particular order)

#5                  Non-preferred attitude     ?                       Opposing Personality

#6                  Preferred attitude           Same gender       Senex/Witch

#7                  Non-preferred attitude     ?                       Trickster

#8                  Preferred attitude             ?                       Demonic/Dionic

 

Graphic History of Type Development Theory

 

Theoritician	Carl Jung	Briggs/Myers	Grant, et al.	John Beebe
Years	1910±-1950±	1935±-1980±	1960±-2001	1985±-2001+
Contribution	Dominant in preferred attitude	Dominant in preferred attitude	Dominant developed ages 6-12	Dominant develops as Hero/Heroine
	Auxiliary in non-preferred attitude	Auxiliary in non-preferred attitude that “balances”	Auxiliary developed ages 12-21	Auxiliary develops as ideal parent
	Tertiary ??	Tertiary in non-preferred attitude	Tertiary in preferred attitude developed ages 21-35	Tertiary develops as Puer or Puella
	Inferior in non-preferred attitude seen as very difficult to develop	Inferior in non-preferred attitude seen as a mid-life challenge	Inferior developed ages 35-50	Inferior develops as Anima or Animus
			All functions-in-attitude are “assimulated” after 50 years of age.	#5 develops as Opposing Personality
				#6 develops as Senex or Witch
				#7 develops as Trickster
				#8 develops as Demonic

 

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