Can intuition be trained?

[marybagain]

An acquaintence of mine, who specialises in risk assessment and safety systems, has recently submitted a paper about the role intuition has in the field of safety assurance and management.

He writes: "Intuition is a process that closely cooperates with the analytic mind, and derives its information from past experiences in the quasi-conscious or

Comments

[reasonjo]

I'm new to this personality typing thing, so I'm still forming my own understandings of all this stuff. Forgive me if I'm way off base here.

My understanding is that analysis (sensing, or sense making) is the opposite of intuition, and personalities fit somewhere along the continuum in between the two. That would mean that every person has some intuitive abilities/skills, but some people are better at using those skills than others. i.e someone that is way down the analytical end of the continuum would find it much more difficult to use their intuition than someone that was halfway along the scale.

I don't think people can become more intuitive, but they can make better use of the intuition they have, even if it is only a very small part of their skill set.

It's 3am here and I'm about 6 hours past my bedtime so I hope that makes sense :)

[nic102]

I believe in MBTI the function of thinking is responsible for analysis. Thinking in MBTI is opposite to feeling. Thinking and feeling are judging functions. People who are more inclined to make logical judgments while making decisions are called 'thinking' types. Those who prefer to make ethical judgments are called 'feeling' types. Intuition is opposed to sensation. These are perceiving functions. Intuition and sensation 'feed' information into the thinking and feeling functions. Intuition pays more attention to subtleties, imagination, patterns and other 'intangible' stuff. Sensation makes use of the five senses and values solid facts. So the analytical process, or thinking, can work with intuition or sensation. Obviously it uses both, but a person would normally prefer one over the other

[reasonjo]

Thanks for explaining that. People explaining things makes it much easier for me to understand things than when I read the same thing in a book or website on a particular topic and then try to make sense of it.

[nic102]

Actually, I wanted to apologise for being presumptuous in thinking that you needed the explanation. :)

[reasonjo]

Any explanation given in the spirit of generosity is welcome (and encouraged!)

[gyntsela]

Actually, I had a Communications professor, who I think was also trained in psychology, read my MBTI results back to me in-depth during my freshman year of college. She said that I am currently an NF, but that I might, during my middle-aged years, switch to being an NT. Also, my J might become an S, and my I and E were likely to continue to swing back and forth because that marker was so close to the middle. My mom is an NTS, so if I'm becoming more like her (which seems likelier every day!), then that sort of makes sense. I don't know, though, because I can't really see myself not being an F--that's the one score that's always been all the way on the one side. The others have tended to switch back and forth, depending on when and where I'm taking the test.

Peace.

[nic102]

I am not sure she was right, though. While it is true that we might (and hopefully will) learn to utilise the other functions more as we grow and develop, our 'default' preferred functions would most likely remain the same. Just because someone has learned to control their feelings and 'appear' more logical, doesn't mean they become a T. People often can act as if they belong to a different type, but only under favourable circumstances, i.e. lack of stress or excessive pressure. Then, in a stressful or unfamiliar situation, especially when their 'weak' functions (third and forth) are tested, they will quickly revert to their 'true' type. Jung said that the fourth function is like a 'horse that cannot be educated'. It can be managed though, more or less successfully. The third function is much more accessible to the conscious mind and therefore can be developed to a greater extent

[gyntsela]

I'm not sure what she was using, but she was referring to a large sheaf of papers when she went over all of that stuff with me. *shrug* It could be that you're right, and it's different schools of thought. The study of personality is fascinating, isn't it?

Peace.