EIE

The EIE, Ethical Intuitive Extrovert, is a socionics type corresponding to the beta quadra and EJ temperament.

Some typical manifestations of EIE information processing are described on this page.

   

EIEs are characterized most by their focus on external emotional self-expression. EIEs are primarily oriented towards an exterior emotional space, and not an interior one. As such, they primarily pay attention to how their emotional expression is being perceived by others and on how others are likewise expressing themselves. They are closely tuned into the emotional ambience of the situations they find themselves in, and on whether other people are listening to them or responding to their impact on the emotional environment. EIEs typically have a wide emotional range and are often driven to express their passions, their desires, internal states of being, and to be noticed for their messages.

EIEs often enjoy being controversial, enigmatic figures. Many times, they tend to reject the boundaries and expectations that other people might place on their self-expression; in order to further their external self-expression, they may situationally become provocateurs or shock-jocks. They may enjoy "changing their masks" to rivet others' attention toward them and foil those that would put expectations on them that limit their freedom of expression. However, sometimes EIEs become so caught up in being enigmatic and uncategorizable that they lose touch with their true identities, and feel as though they have no real selves behind their masks.

Some EIEs can be driven to present an image of their identity to the world; for instance, trying to make others see them as a magnanimous do-gooder, though not all EIEs need project themselves as magnanimous. Like all performers, when they put forward an image, they seek an audience; EIEs' connections to others' reactions to their performance is quite important, and if they are not able to arouse positive responses such as admiration or appreciation, they would often rather arouse disgust and disdain than have people treat them with indifference.

EIEs, with     and their attunement to the outward emotional displays of others, can have a tendency to read between the lines, and to speculate about and assume the unspoken motivations and of others. As EIEs are naturally aware of the driving effects of their emotional states and the need to express these states outwardly, they may tend to assume that others' actions are a reflection of their internal states. Consequently, EIEs can easily infer these internal states in others (which can lead to miscommunications with some    -valuing types who do not always feel the need to communicate their emotional states).

   

EIEs are driven by their visions, goals, and their dream of how the world or their role in it might be. EIEs may tend to have a "larger than life" persona -- though not all of them do -- and can consequently tend to be focused on "larger than life" causes and abstract ideals. They are also often inclined to present their visions to others, motivating others to take up their causes and ideals; which can often take the form of primarily pathetical rather than ratiocinative persuasion, though in practice EIEs often integrate the two.

Some EIEs gravitate towards the social role of a figure who is utterly dedicated to a cause. Many prominent EIEs literally become their cause, having an uncommonly powerful self-identification with the purposes they choose to serve. Such EIEs become the embodiment of selfless devotion to the arts, their academic field, their line of business, or any other area they work is in. Although causes come to embody some EIEs' external self-expression and vision, EIEs are not necessarily drawn towards causes. Indeed, they might adopt the vision that causes are a waste of time, and portray a more cynical, twisted, and flamboyant vision instead -- for example, the expressive visions of Salvador Dali.

However, in addition to being selfless and magnanimous, EIEs can also be narcissistic, vengeful, materialistic, and highly self-centered. Probably moreso than any other type, EIEs can be prone to feel as though they have no true sense of self; that the self is always changing and unstable (as their self-perceptions are highly dependent on fleeting and highly variable emotions). In some cases, EIEs' visions and perceptions of the future are so obsessively self-focused that they become consumed with the images they wish to present to the world, and their identifications become the forefront of their personalities (this can also be an issue for IEIs). It is not uncommon for EIEs to have a somewhat bipolar affectivity.

   

EIEs are typically only minimally concerned with factual accuracy, or with living their lives to be pragmatic, industrious, productive, rational, and useful -- though occasionally the image of a responsible, conscientious person can be a part of the image that EIEs present to the outside world. More fundamentally, however, EIEs are not concerned with being assiduous, hardworking, and rational, but rather tend to organize their pursuits as their passions dictate. They are sometimes drawn to making considerations of efficiency, comparisons of available products and services, and practical dynamics of how to do things -- often, if they do make such observations, they are a gateway for their emotional energy.

Like other     ego types, EIEs can have a tendency to read in between the lines and decipher hidden meanings of others' words or writing. As a consequence of being focused on what is in between the lines, or of the motivations and hidden intentions of others, they may be less focused on the content that is there. They are typically not very psychologically concerned with the possibility of distributing misinformation, considering it more important to read into others' motivational states and expecting that others also do not place their livelihood on the quality of the information.

   

EIEs tend to be out of touch with their experiences of the environment surrounding them. EIEs reject the principle that life might be lived simply and by focusing on simple problems. To this extent,     in EIEs can be nicely understood from the perspective of their conflictors, SLIs. SLIs focus much of their attention on the pragmatic problems related to their surrounding environment; for example, a leaky faucet. To EIEs, such problems are simple. Attention paid to the surrounding environment is banal and meaningless as compared to EIEs' visions and aspirations.

That said, despite its banality, EIEs often end up focusing on sensory details, and in many EIEs the real detachment from physical stimuli is not obvious. EIEs pay attention to sensory details, especially in the realm of aesthetics, because they have to. Some EIEs have a need to present a favorable image to the world, one of having a responsible, well-functioning household or family -- this can lead some EIEs to focus on aesthetic details and ensure that their residences are always tidy and in working order, in service of showing others how well-adjusted they are. In other cases, EIEs might aspire to being a king or have a driving need to fulfill their vision of holding power over others, a fantasy which might include luscious hedonistic pleasures.

What EIEs tend to reject about     is its lifestyle of simplicity. EIEs can have difficulties appreciating the simple comforts in life. They may possess a "larger than life" attitude about themselves, seeking to make meaningful impact on the outside world (as many EIE politicians do), or aspiring to perfection in their day to day affairs, or to any other higher ideals. Among all EIEs, however, their focus on goals and visions aimed towards the future can often prevent them from appreciating the simple pleasure of a hard day's work with one's hands.

   

EIEs are emotionally labile and prone to fits of passion, rage, and vigor. What may be lacking in their attentional focus is principally a lack of reservedness, without which they run the risk of tiring themselves out with their constant emotionality. However, other extroverts also suffer from this lack of reservedness, notably     creatives. EIEs are similar to these types in some superficial ways but, are quite a bit different in ways that are of more interest to socionists. For SEEs and IEEs, the fundamental attentive deficits are in a lack of tranquility and inner calm. The fundamental attentive deficits of EIEs are not in a lack of tranquility, indeed they become distrustful towards tranquil individuals that give them no information about their emotional state; instead, they lack attention towards consistency, structure, and detail. In some ways, SEEs seek for their emotionality to be softened and directed to the right audience at the right time, but refuse to have their internal message altered; EIEs resist redirection their emotional energy to a different place and time (they resist limitations on their ability to express themselves) but seek the right messages/causes.

EIEs tend to have difficulty detaching from their emotions in order to apply logic and reason to the circumstances around them. They can have a tendency to make inferences about the world that read into others' unseen motivations, but which are inconsistent with the observable facts. In much the same way that LIEs sometimes "request" to know what others people's inner guiding emotions are, EIEs can have a tendency to "request" reassurance about what is logically consistent within ideologies, formal systems, and others' behaviors. These requests may often not come as direct queries: EIEs' quadra values do not include straightforward communication about internally held states; instead, they are tuned to observing 'straightforward' expression of emotional states in other's actions. As such, these requests may come implicity, in the form of comments designed to test the waters or terminology soup (i.e., speech and thinking with vaguely defined terminology). Additionally, quite commonly requests are bypassed in favor of self-provided shifts in belief structures -- the type message of EIEs is that of a visionary messenger, and as such they may be isolated towards their own visions and dismissive of competing ideologies regardless of their own visions' soundness and consistency.

   

EIEs, in focusing on the emotional environment around them, can display conflicting drives -- they wish to invite others into their cultivated atmosphere and to have others feel good and enjoy the atmosphere, but they also are driven to control the atmosphere and subordinate it to their own tastes and what they wish at the moment. In contrast to the typically warm, accepting environment cultivated by ESEs and SEIs, EIEs' preferred moods can be principally accepting but contain an element that is much more brash and combative. Sometimes, EIEs are drawn to environments that are boisterous, wild, and uninhibited. Often the subject of EIEs' environments is the expression of negative affect (as opposed to the positive affect found in alpha environments), and the lampooning of disliked targets. They may aggressively disdain others who reject their visions, ideology, and disrespect the emotional environment they actively cultivate.

EIEs tend to embody a challenging, competitive style of expressing themselves and communicating with others. They often tend to push others' boundaries, say things that are shocking, unexpected, or unpleasant, and can have a somewhat insistent and demanding style about them. Typically, EIEs' challenging communicative style serves the purpose of eliciting emotional reactions, or enlisting others to the EIEs' vision or cause.

The influence of     and     in EIEs causes them to be oriented towards having everything "out in the open." In the same way that they typically challenge others, many EIEs enjoy being a part of an environment where others read between the lines (see through their many masks and controversies) as to their inner motivations and challenge them back. They prefer interacting in environments that afford no restrictions on their self-expression and facilitate issues being confronted in the open rather than smoothed over and avoided; environments where things are confronted allows them to "bare" themselves and truly prove their mettle.

   

EIEs do not usually pay much attention to their interior emotional space. This makes EIEs a somewhat paradoxical type on several levels. They have a wide emotional range, which they express often and flamboyantly, but are often unsure of what they are truly feeling inside. As with ESEs, they may feel more than other types as though they embody all qualities -- they are fun-loving and depressive, they are extroverted but also have a rich inner world, they are pacifistic and kindly yet cynical and irascible. These qualities are indirectly related to the inattention of EIEs towards interior emotional space -- emotions are not something to be dwelled on and felt deeply, they are something constantly changing to present to the outside world.

   

While EIEs can be driven by deep interests, novelty, boredom, and sudden unexpected ideas, they usually direct their energy towards expressing their emotional world. They can make decisions based on passing novelty, unexplored possibilities, and sudden interests, but many times they instead make decisions based on powerful moods and fleeting impressions.

This article draws heavily from Rick DeLong's writings, most particularly his EIE type description on socionics.us