Perceiving Function: Sensing and Intuition

What is your preference for perceiving the world? How do you take in information?

Two people are standing near the edge of a bunch of trees. One sees the trees, the other sees the forest. They are looking at the same thing, but for the person on the right it is quickly clear: There is a forest! The person on the left looks and sees trees, different trees, perhaps focusing on just one or two, noticing the specific shade of green needles, the rough bark, and the dry needles and sparse thin grass on the ground.

Both are exercising sensing and intuitive perception. But the one on the left (S) prefers sensing for years and focuses first on concrete details. Reality is what you can see, touch, taste, smell, and/or hear. The sensor prefers the concrete and the practical, wants facts, trusts facts, and remember facts. Hands-on experience is real. Present and past are the relevant time dimensions.

The one on the right - intuitive (N) - looks for the connectedness of the parts right away. The overview is the starting point - then you might talk about details, if at all. Scanning, glancing, and viewing complex ideas as complete wholes are most interesting. Hunches have proven true in the past. Those with a preference for intuition explore beyond the present. Future options are interesting and intriguing.

Are you attending to the things directly in your path? Or do you prefer to look ahead and expectedly discover new things in your future?

Let us discover some more (S) and (N) type situations:

Image and content credit: Understanding the Dynamics of Typical People: An Introduction to Jungian Type Theory by Richard Bents and Reiner Blank.