Introduction

About me and my endeavor with this book.

About Me

Hi👋🏼, my name is Brandon Susini and I am largely interested in personality science as well as computer science. I am a graduate of Rowan University with a Bachelor of Arts in Computing and Informatics as well as an active hobbiest in studying psychology. I have been learning and developing theories in regards to personality since 2016 and have since taken many classes in the field. My favorites of which have been Psychology Of Personality and Cognitive Psychology.

I am assuming you got here from connectingpersonality.com seeing as thats the only place I plan on linking to this book but if that is not the case I am also working on a project called "Connecting Personality". My goal with CoPe is to take the leading theories in the field of psychology (specifically related to personality) and attempt to draw connections between them in the hopes we can form a grander, more robust understanding of the field and the psyche in general.

I will say that a lot of my attention has been focused on Jungian Functions because I have had success with predicting and understanding behavior with the system but by no means claim this is cold hard fact and everything taught by systems that use Jungian Functions is fact. In fact I have quite a few issues with popular function theory frameworks, namely Socionics and MBTI. They can be very useful and are not entirely incorrect or damaging but in my experience they put far too much emphasis on explaining complex individual differences and not enough on cautious scientific thinking.

The problem with function theory as it is used now.

One of the biggest issues with function theory is that when it is used and talked about in media there are very few times where individuals will be open and honest with just how theoretical and anecdotal the system is. Don't get me wrong, it can do great things and has immense utility and explanatory power. However, that is only true once you understand what function theory applies to and what it doesn't. Personality is a mixture of several different theories all working together in complex ways to form complex behaviors and differences. The more you lean into the idea that people are easily classified into 16 categories the more damage you can do. Irresponsibly making assumptions and conclusions about others or even yourself based on the teachings of function theory can lead to confusion and possibly self-fulfilling prophecies.

Using other systems with function theory

Function Theory really begins to shine when you look at it as a single component among all the others. Some of the best systems to research to get a fuller picture of Personality are: Personal Construct Psychology,

Cognitive Psychology,

and the Big 5 Personality Traits (also the HEXACO model).

When viewed as a single part to a larger whole you can gain much more insight about how all of the systems influence each other and create seemingly unpredictable behaviors as well as how to influence them yourself consciously and cognitively.