Jumping the Stack with Objective Personality

So. You’ve taken the tests. The descriptions fit. You’ve moved into your little four letter box of special and you’re starting to get real comfy. Right? 

No? 

Well, for the most part, you say, but there is something... there’s definitely something that just doesn't feel quite right.

But what? The functions are all there. You know it. No other type describes you better, but still... 

...still there are things that just won’t fit and it’s starting to eat away at the comforting walls of your little box and - even worse! - that warm, fuzzy feeling of having figured yourself out is slowly slipping out the cracks! 

I get it, though. I do. I can see it. You’ve joined the forum. Looking for kinship. Like-mindedness. Understanding. But everyone seem so different. There are similarities of course, but some of the discussions, some of the thoughts... the feelings... perhaps you don’t even understand the memes! 

Time to panic. 

Or, better yet... read up on the concept of “Jumpers”!

The Cognitive Stack

As you probably know by now, every type has a stack of four cognitive functions, as seen below, ordered by preference:

The standard INFJ stack, for example, looks like this: 

1. Introverted Intuition (Ni)
2. Extraverted Feeling (Fe)
3. Introverted Thinking (Ti)
4. Extraverted Sensing (Se)

From strongest to weakest this principal order of preference dictates type behaviour and isn't (with the exception of looping) negotiable. At least not in the standard MBTI-model.

Saviours and Demons

According to Objective Personality, though, we all split our four function stack into something called “saviour” and “demon" functions. Supposedly, it’s a matter of respect. We respect our saviour functions and disrespect our demons. We rely upon our saviour functions to solve all our problems, while disrespecting and neglecting our demons to the point where whatever’s being disrespected and neglected finally piles up, transforms into a "tidal wave" and comes crashing down upon us.

Sticking to the standard MBTI-model, these saviour functions would always be represented by the two topmost functions of the stack:

Jumpers

But, according to OP, this is not always the case. Instead, what they have seen, is a common tendency of skipping the second function in favour of the third - a pattern consistent through all types - allowing for saviour (and demon) functions of the same orientation. 

Supposedly, roughly half(!) of everyone tested demonstrated this behaviour, which Objective Personality have chosen to call “jumping” and which is what this article is all about: 

What does it mean?

So. What does it all mean? Does it even matter? It’s the same functions, right? Why should we care? Well, the order in which we use - or, perhaps more importantly, respect - our cognitive functions has a considerable impact on the expression of our type.

We won’t go into too much detail here, but we’ll at least try and touch upon each of the different areas affected by jumping the stack.  

Apart from the obvious (reading up on our third function), what we need to do to really start unraveling the full implications of the jump is to look into the following four topics:

• The Introversion/Extraversion Spectrum
• The Human Needs
• The Animals
• The Dichotomies 

The Introversion/Extraversion Spectrum

When it comes to orientation, the standard expressions of each type are rather balanced. Without the concept of jumping everyone would have saviour functions of opposite orientation - one extraverted and one introverted. 

Jumping our second function means respecting two functions of the same orientation, making us either double introverts (as in the case of the INFJ Jumper) or double extraverts, which, consequently, pushes us out towards the far ends of the introverted/extraverted spectrum.

The Human Needs

The Human Needs are all about our role in the Tribe. 

Are we primarily Gatherers, out and about exploring, or are we Organisers, staying in the safety of the camp, trying to get a grip on that which is already known? 

Are we primarily interested in ourselves, our inner world and our identity or are we more focused on the values or reasons of others? Are we Self above Tribe or Tribe above Self?

Jumping doesn’t change our primary Human Need. Our dominant function stays the same. The Ni-dominant INFJ Jumper, for example, will still, first and foremost, be an Organiser. But depending on the dichotomy of our mid-axis functions (Thinking/Feeling or Sensing/iNtuition), our secondary Human Need will change either from Self to Tribe, Tribe to Self, Gather to Organise or Organise to Gather, which, of course, constitutes a major change to the expression of our type.

The Animals

The Objective Personality concept of “Animals” basically describes two functions working together to create a behaviour (Ni + Fe creates the animal “Blast” in the case of the standard INFJ). And if one is replaced, as is the case when jumping, so is the animal (Ni + Ti creates the animal “Sleep” in the case of the INFJ Jumper). 

Replacing the very outgoing animal known as "Blast" (communicating known information) with the very reserved animal of "Sleep" (going over known information), of course, results in a major change to the expression of the type.

The Dichotomies 

Each of the four letters of the familiar MBTI acronym describing our type represent a preference with one of the four corresponding dichotomies. 

Our dominant function is either Extraverted (E) or Introverted (I). We primarily perceive our world either through Sensing (S) or Intuition (I). Our first instinct when making a decision is either to consult reasons - making us Thinkers (T), or values - making us Feelers (F). And our greatest personal imbalance is either in the realm of Perception - making us Judgers (J) or decision making - making us Perceivers (P).

Jumping the stack, at least in certain respects, changes one of these preferences, and should therefore, arguably, change one of the four letters of the acronym (which, admittedly, would be somewhat impractical since it would leave us with two very different types represented by the same acronym - at least given that you don’t add the function orientations as such: INiTiJ vs INiTeJ). Depending on whether the more balanced of our two function axes (sporting our second and third function) deals in perception or decision making one of the letters in our acronym might be asserted to change, either from N to S, S to N, T to F or F to T.

I will say, though, that I’m not sure that jumping the stack necessarily merits such a change of letters. Personally I believe that the actual order of your functions remains the same (it’s called jumping, not switching), a fact that probably sets the jumpers quite far apart from the standard expressions of type, where the order in which you respect your functions coincides with the general order of the stack. 

I believe that functions higher up in the stack, even while disrespected, might still take precedence in certain situations and might, in some respects, still be "stronger" than lower functions simply because they've been allotted greater mental resources from the get go.

Conclusion 

We’re all individuals and won’t, not surprisingly, always fit neatly into one of the 16 MBTI boxes. We can’t scale the model up to 1:1, but we can make the boxes smaller. If you know you’ve got your type right, but still feel that something is wrong, don’t despair! At least not before considering the possibility that you might be a different “flavour” of that type. A type within a type. A jumper.