Pairing the Methods

The stability and development of any group is based on its flow of communications whose impact depends on the use of language.

Sustenance of the psychosocial reality depends on the approach duality defined by the diagonals i.e. consensus around key ideas, values and issues, and conviction as to the validity and relevance of those ideas and values.

Consensus must be generated in a responsive and imaginative way to meet general concerns and perceived realities.

Convictions are naturally defended intensely as a way of coping with social forces and shaping the consensus.

Potential clashes between asserting our personal convictions and deferring to the social consensus need to be managed. It appears that a combination of two approaches, one from each diagonal, is required.

Pairing the methods reveals different roles in society.

As shown in the diagram at right, combinations typically either:

■ keep constant the «expressive sensitivity» zone—which produces a horizontal alignment in the TET.

or

■ keep constant the «veridical explication» zone—which produces a vertical alignment in the TET.

This means that, as well as a pairing from different diagonals, there is also a pairing from adjacent quadrants in the same half of the TET.

Moving from feeling to thinking along the explication X-axis:

  • In the Pervasive zone: combining associative and mythic is a feature of demagogues and charismatic leaders.
  • In the Persuasive zone: combining logical and universal is a feature of statesmanlike advice.
  • In the Specifying zone: combining concrete language and speculative propositions is typical of technical advice and informal analyses.
  • In the Unifying zone: combining gestalt with established propositions is typical of popular theoreticians like historians.

Moving from confidence to awareness along the sensitivity Y-axis:

  • In the Conformist zone: combining associative and established propositions is used to organize others.
  • In the Analytic zone: combining logical and speculative propositions enables critical analyses.
  • In the Descriptive zone: combining concrete and universal enables bureaucratic regulations and practical advice.
  • In the Revelatory zone: combining gestalt and mythic is a feature of supreme artists—playwrights, film-makers, novelists.

In these combinations, the more powerful influence appears to lie with the conviction approach, irrespective of zone i.e. whether the link is to a method that is thinking-dominated, feeling-dominated, awareness-dependent or confidence-dependent.

Posted without text: 4-Sep-2016. Last updated: 28 Feb-2023.