Jung identified eight psychological functions that factor into the differentiation of the psyche. Augusta then combined Jung's typology with Kępiński's idea of information metabolism to interpret these eight functions as faculties which process eight different categories of information. Since information comes from outside of us, they are no longer just behaviors and psychological processes but also aspects of objective reality. This realization leads directly to Model A: everyone must use all eight of the elements, since we all perceive the same reality.
She also recast the eight aspects according to different dichotomies than Jung: internal/external, static/dynamic, introverted/extroverted (object/field) instead of Jung's introverted/extroverted, rational/irrational (as far as I know, Jung didn't name a third dichotomy). Here we describe dichotomies that produce ethics, logic, sensing, and intuition—which are important ways of grouping the standard information elements. These four types of information are called domains or macroelements. While the two elements in each domain have distinct goals, they essentially deal with the same type of information, which is how they conflict with each other.
The rational/irrational dichotomy
Two domains (logic and ethics) consist of Rational information, while the rest (sensing and intuition) are Irrational.
Rational information is information that is evaluated, interpreted, symbolic, linguistic, meaningful, or representative of something other than itself. For example, a green traffic light means go. Information is evaluated either by concrete intellectual processing, which can be described exactly (logic) or by social, emotional, or situational interpretations (ethics). Logic is what things mean "on the face of it", in a way that can be universally communicated, while ethics is what things mean when you read between the lines, or look to the source which originated the thing. Logic is the interrelation of different observable, concrete data (language, symbols, behavior, actions, etc), as well as their truth values, while ethics is the relationship of hidden, internal, or nebulous qualities with observable data. Logical types perceive logical information easily and with detail, while they perceive ethical information dimly and with relative difficulty. The opposite goes for ethical types. There is essentially no difference in each type's ability to perceive the introverted and extroverted forms of each domain. They only differ in how they prioritize the two opposing goals within the domain, as well as the amount of energy they are able to direct towards each form.
For examples of rational information, see here.
Irrational information is, by contrast, that which is directly perceived and not given an additional interpretation by the mind. It is the thing in itself, or qualities of spacetime as opposed to information processing. For example, seeing that the traffic light is green. However, note that there are two basic realms of direct perception: one is the physical senses (the five senses plus balance, pain, hunger, thirst, etc) and the other is the internal realm of memory, thought, imagination, and visualization. The former is sensing, while the latter is intuition. On a more general level, sensing is anything that is directly tied to what you know and have personally experienced or have immediate access to (what is present), while intuition is anything that is removed from your experience and/or knowledge—what is absent. (It may be that in practice there is a gradation between the two, and same for logic and ethics.) Perception of these two domains also inhibits each other, and this results in the sensing/intuition dichotomy of types.
Some relate sensing to space and intuition to time but, while they are closely linked to sensing and intuition, these seem to be derivative concepts.
The abstract/involved dichotomy
The macroelements are also classified by the abstract/involved dichotomy: intuition and logic are Abstract (or Detached), and ethics and sensing are Involved. Typically this is defined roughly by saying that Abstract information is "in the mind" and Involved information is experiential. The following is a more precise definition:
Abstract (intuition and logic) = global information
Involved (sensing and ethics) = local information
Each superego pair of elements can be essentially seen as the "globalized" or "localized" version of the other one.
- Te is factual information, which means anything that you can express directly in language. So it can be stored and reproduced, and applies to what's happening here and now just as well as any other time or place.
Fe is information conveyed about the state of the parties communicating at the time and place of communication, which is inherently local and cannot be conveyed reliably.
Fi is information about something or someone's relationship ("closeness") to a particular person.
Ti is information about how things relate to each other in a distributed system that includes many entities.
Se = what is
Ne = what could be, i.e. the total space of possibilities, in which "what is" is just one point among many.
Si = how things directly affect each other, usually by direct contact and interaction, which is inherently local.
Ni = how things are significant in the grand scheme of things, or how things affect each other in various hidden ways.
If someone is focused on global information they will seem more detached, and if they are focused on local, here-and-now information they will be more involved.