The Sensing Personality (+3 tips)

In this article, we will look at the sensing personality type. This article also explores how the sensing cognitive function is used by sensing personality types or sensors.

What is the Sensing Personality? 

Sensing Personality Types are tactile individuals who tend to process knowledge about the environment through their senses of sight, sound, touch, and taste.

Sensing refers to a person’s tendency to accept knowledge received directly from the outside world.

Sensing and Intuition is one of the four dichotomies or preference pairs in the MBTI inventory, which define how an individual prefers to process information.

There are much more Sensing people than Intuitives within the population. Sensors account for almost three-quarters of the population, while Intuitives account for only over a quarter.

Sensing (S) and Intuition (N) are two functions that are used to gather and analyze new information, either through your five human senses or in more abstract ways. The preferences of sensing and intuition are diametrically opposed. The natural inclination of an individual will be greater toward one than the other.

Signs You Have a Sensing Personality

It is known that Sensing types are “facts based,” as Jung put it, in that they take in information in a sensory realistic, linear fashion. 

If you’re a Sensing personality, you’ll be more balanced in your strategy, requiring you to consider facts and concentrate on action. 

You’ll have a wealth of knowledge, be a pro at recalling faces and names, and be able to put information to good use.

Sensing Personality Type Inclination

If the following statements appeal to you or are relatable then you may be a Sensor:

  • I recall incidents in the form of images of what actually transpired
  • I fix problems by looking through details until I grasp what’s going on
  • I am a practical person who considers the end result
  • I start with details and work my way up to a greater picture
  • I put my faith in experience first and language and symbols second 
  • I can get caught up in reality, both current and past, and lose out on new opportunities

Extraverted Sensing

Extroverted Sensing represents nearly 35% of the population. So one of the three people with whom you are associated is focusing this preference outwardly. 

This function is favored by the ESFP and ESTP as their dominant function, while the ISFP and ISTP use it to assist their dominant functions of Feeling and Thinking, accordingly.

This entire process is normally completed in a matter of seconds. Since they follow sensory stimuli to the maximum of the situation for optimum effect, they are capable of following their bodily impulse or instincts to attain the ideal result precisely when it is required. 

When an individual is predominantly sensitive to the external environment with all its information, this is known as extroverted sensing. These people tend to focus on the ‘here and now’.

They act on current knowledge and solid evidence to achieve the desired outcomes, ignoring all else—past experience and potential consequences. All that can be seen is in the present moment.

Extroverted Sensing is popular amongst top athletes, performers, music stars, and leading business tycoons, which might come as no shock.

Advantages: Capacity to take things at face value and immediately grasp what someone needs from a particular situation.

Downside: There isn’t enough time to discover a profound or meaningful message. As a result, things become oversimplified.

Introverted Sensing 

Sixty-five percent of the population directs their Sensing function inward. This means that approximately two out of every three people you come across can use this function in some way. 

Introverted Sensing is the dominant function of the ISFJ and ISTJ, while the ESFJ and ESTJ use it to assist their Feeling and Thinking functions, accordingly.

Introverted Sensing causes a person to correlate current facts to their previous experiences, and they put their confidence in the past. They must continuously store sensory information for future use in order for it to be efficient. 

Sensors who are also introverts have the ability to absorb a lot of information like a sponge. Current experiences are automatically related to previous knowledge, allowing for systematic assessments and correlations.

Introverted Sensing people are also focused on details, and have a strong need to explain desired aims and objectives in effort to accomplish them. These are the people who uphold the timeless traditions that keep the world going. 

It is really no wonder that they’re popular among military officials, government officials, wealthy businessmen, and other cultural ambassadors.

Advantage: Ability to quickly remember and apply previous experiences or processes.

Downside: They dislike systemic changes and different forms of work.

The Bright Side of The Sensing Personality

People who have the Sensing personality trait are also an anchoring force who get stuff accomplished. They have a hands on approach in the manner that they operate on real-time projects.

“These practical individuals are the ‘doers’ of society.”

Though Sensing personality types are mostly intellectual, spending lots of time sitting around and contemplating possibilities isn’t enough for them. They want their ideas and discussions to result in progress. They believe in getting things done and not just sitting around discussing ideas and lofty plans.

The Downside of The Sensing Personality

A rather perception is one problem that people with the Observant personality trait can face. Wide-ranging approaches could be rejected in favour of something more simple or convenient. 

They can reduce their hard work to busywork by pursuing stuff that appears realistic at a distance but does not match with the bigger picture.

If you’re facing this, it may be a good idea to seek the help of a therapist or other mental health professional. You can find a therapist at BetterHelp who can help you learn how to cope and address it.

How Does The Sensing Personality Type See The Intuitive Personality?

Negative Ideas Sensing Personality Types Have About Intuitive Personality Types

  • “Head in the sky” is really not realistic at all
  • Their ambitions or dreams are impractical
  • Too abstract and otherworldly
  • Too many images or theories but not enough factual information
  • Very hard to decipher
  • They are indifferent to their environment

Sensing Personality Types

  • ESTJ – Overseer
  • ESTP – Persuader
  • ESFJ – Supporter
  • ESFP – Entertainer
  • ISTJ – Examiner
  • ISTP – Craftsman
  • ISFJ – Defender
  • ISFP – Artist

Conclusion

In this article, we looked at the sensing personality type. This article also explored how the sensing cognitive function is used by sensing personality types or sensors.

Frequently Asked Questions: The Sensing Personality

How do you know if you’re intuitive or sensing?

Intuitive people are more concerned with the future than with the present or the past. Sensors tend to discuss what is occurring or has occurred. They are more concerned with the finer points of a discussion and may use more descriptive or direct language. Intuitives tend to discuss what things “signify” or “say.”

What are the 4 types of personality?

The major five personality characteristics of openness, agreeableness, extraversion, neuroticism, and contentiousness are used to categorise people into one of four groups.

What is prospecting personality?

Because of ambiguity or the promise of something else, people with the Prospecting personality trait can be hesitant to commit to anything. Indecision or a lack of confidence may be an issue if they don’t manage this characteristic. They may seem disorganised. What was significant to them one week could be ignored the following week.

What is the difference between sensing and feeling?

While they are synonyms, they sound almost the same. I read somewhere that sensing is “contact or a sensation in the body” (such as looking, listening) and feeling is all about emotions (sadness, pleasure, love) (such as seeing, hearing).

What is better intuition or sensing?

To different people, both sound amazing. How you process knowledge is determined by the second letter of the MBTI test, Sensing (S) and Intuition (N). Someone who is good at sensing loves facts and lives in the moment. Being intuitive entails attempting to deduce the deeper significance of events.

What is sensing in personality type?

Sensing refers to a person’s tendency to accept knowledge received directly from the outside world. The term “intuition” refers to a person’s belief in knowledge derived primarily from the internal or imaginative universe. Thinking – Feeling is the third criterion, and it describes how an individual processes knowledge.

What is the rarest personality type?

INFJ
Most of us have probably spent too much time taking personality tests in our deep eagerness to understand something about ourselves. INFJs are the most uncommon personality type in the United States, accounting for just about 1.5 percent of the population.

Are Intuitives smarter than sensors?

Certainly not. Some research indicates that Intuitives outperform Sensors on IQ tests, but since these tests only assess the ability to pass them, and the tests themselves tend to have been developed by Intuitives for Intuitives, this doesn’t show us very much.

What personality type thinks they are always right?

Flexibility and transparency may not be such a bad thing for the ESTJ who can bend a little. There’s no need to be obstinate just for the sake of being obstinate. Be more critical of yourself. ESTJs have a proclivity to believe that they are always correct and that their moral code is factual, ultimate, and universal.

What is turbulent in personality?

Turbulent people are goal-oriented, have perfectionist tendencies, and are willing to learn. They are always attempting to even out their self-doubts by accomplishing more. They’re just as likely to drive their projects or activities in the same course as they drive themselves to improve.

How does stress affect your personality?

In general, stressful conditions may cause people to become enraged or hostile, exhibit aggressive behaviour, and reduce productivity or performance. An examination of different personality styles and their responses to stressful circumstances does not imply that any personality or response to a given situation is incorrect.

References

Energy: Intuitive vs. Observant

Introverted Sensing vs Extroverted Sensing

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