Mode State Stage

Realize your Potential through Self- and Other-knowledge

Check in, Exteriorize, Check out: A Guide to Knowing (or Cognizing)

An often-heard question in today’s complex world is “But how do I know what to believe?”, often in response to online (for example: video, audio, text) – including the social media – and hard copy (for example: newspapers, journals, among others) media pieces. This short blog post proposes an easy-to-follow method for knowing with the greatest possibility of correct understanding and hence decision making.

The Mode State Stage (MSS) cognizing model comprises two main steps and an intermediate step, as follows: Check in (subjectivize) – Exteriorize (Externalize) – Check out (objectivize)

Step 1: Check in (with yourself)

This step involves two sub-steps, as follows:

Ask yourself (subjectivize):

  1. What do I feel about this (whatever I have read, seen, heard, experienced, or other stimuli)?
  2. What do I intuit (imagine or hypothesize) about this (whatever I have read, seen, heard, experienced, or other stimuli)?

Step 2: Intermediate step (by myself or with others)

  • Get it out. Get some distance in order to gain perspective (exteriorize, externalize): express my feelings and thoughts in a safe place and non-judgemental space; also write it out (or down), act it out, draw it out (use art) – use whatever means suits you best to externalize (and process) your emotions and your intuitions.

Step 3: Check out (by myself or with others)

This step also involves two sub-steps, as follows:

  1. What accurate or plausible information and knowledge (sensory data) is available on this issue, topic or matter? After you have searched for a variety of relevant data (knowledge and information) showing different views, review them. When doing this, note the different reasons given, and assess their provability or plausibility.
  2. What is the thinking of reliable others (known for their coherence*) on this issue, topic or matter; more importantly, what is their reasoning, or rationale? Is this reasoning provable; if not, is it plausible (coherent*), at minimum? Now, having gone through this cognizing process, ask yourself, Is my own reasoning on this issue, topic or matter coherent? If so, I am now in a position to act on it or to publicize it; for example, by posting it, or by otherwise publishing it.

In summary, the cognizing process entails four stages (identifying, envisaging, establishing, confirming), which correspond with the four functional modes (feeling, intuiting, sensing, and thinking) – see previous posts: ‘Mode State Stage, an Overview’ and ‘Discover your Mode of Knowing and Being (your Functional Stack or Personality Type)’. Essential in this process is being complemented by others (directly or indirectly through their knowledge and opinions). Additionally, supplementary skills (especially in the areas relating to our underdeveloped modes) would add to our holistic cognitive competence. Also, essential is to ensure that each of the four cognitive elements (feeling, intuiting, sensing, thinking) have been brought into consideration, because this will ensure a holistic view, which will enable sustainable decisions and actions.

*coherence - 1. logical or natural connection or consistency; 2. another word for cohesion (https://www.thefreedictionary.com/coherence)

“The stage is set, but the actors have yet to play”

Personality type contributes to the way we see the world – so do various other factors, for example, our upbringing – but it does not completely determine it. The extent of the influence of our personality type is determined by our awareness of its role in influencing our thinking and experience. Thus, it is consciousness of our predisposition and its role that will ultimately determine our ability to constructively work with its influence.

Hence, in the MSS methodology, free will is endorsed and determinism is mediated by our freedom to choose based on our self-awareness. The words “The stage is set, but the actors have yet to play” (Source unknown: to be attributed) to varying degrees describes this notion.

Related topics (tags): unconscious, unconsciousness, Shadow, self-awareness, predisposition cognition, inferior function/mode

Personality type projections – an avoidable cause of conflict

Many of us, if not most of us, tend – under the influence of our predispositions – to assume that others see the world the way we do. Otherwise put, we are predisposed to assuming that others see and experience the world the way we do.

When we are unconscious of the influence of our predispositions, our judgments can be said to be subjective, if not prejudiced. These uninformed assumptions and judgments are the basis of misperceptions and consequent misunderstandings, which can occur in individual and group relationships. These conflicts can lead to disastrous consequences, which often could be avoided.

On the other hand, our differences (in our psychological modes, or functions) can facilitate harmony, when we understand that they can be the basis of complementarity.

We all have a primary (optimally functioning) psychological mode, or function, as well as a quarternary (suboptimally functioning) psychological mode, or function. For the characteristics of each psychological mode, or function, refer to the 'Knowledgebite' and 'Insight' blogs on this topic.

When we expect others to perform as well as we do or to see and experience the world the way we do based on the predominance of our primary, or conscious and well-functioning psychological mode (or function), we are projecting our personality type unto others. When we do this collectively, as a group, the effects – misunderstandings and conflict – are amplified.

Similarly, when we see others as being deficient or 'bad' based on the projection of our own deficiently, or poorly, functioning quarternary psychological mode, or function, conflict will be the result. Again, when we do this collectively, as a group, the effects – misunderstandings and conflict – are amplified.

The good news is that with an awareness, or consciousness, of our predispositions and conscious management of ourselves and our relationships using this knowledge, conflict can be reduced and harmony increased.

All rights reserved ©2023

linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram