Si · Se
Si vs Se
same function, opposite attitude
Both attitudes of sensation stay with the actual, which is why they can both look “practical,” and the difference is whether the present is complete in itself or incomplete until it has been compared with the impression already lived in the body.
What each one takes as real
Introverted sensation notices first the impression an object leaves, not only its public properties. The present is vivid when it echoes something already lived, and a new situation is judged by that inner store of sensory memory. A thing can look ordinary to others and still carry a dense private texture.
Extraverted sensation trusts the concrete facts of this moment more than a theory about them. Texture, movement, timing, and impact say what is real, and attention locks onto the actual object or scene. Pleasure, pain, and aesthetic impact in the present guide the next move, and a hidden meaning can wait.
How they part in a new scene
When a new scene opens, Si asks whether this matches how such things have felt and gone. Se asks what can be seen, touched, and done now, even if there is no precedent. Si returns to what has already proved itself. Se returns to what is actually happening.
That is why a high Si score is not “being old-fashioned,” and a high Se score is not “being impulsive,” though those cartoons exist. Si can be exact about a craft. Se can be exact about a room. The cartoon begins when you use one word, sensing, for both.
What the quiz asks
The Si items ask whether familiar sequences and bodily baselines tell you whether something is as it should be, and the reverse item asks whether you take the sensory world as it appears now without referring it to past impressions. The Se items ask whether you would rather act on what is here than wait for a hidden meaning, and the reverse item asks whether the present scene feels less real than the inner impression it leaves.
If the two bars stay close, the follow-up asks what you notice first, how you judge whether a situation can be trusted, and which sentence is nearer: that the present is incomplete until the inner sensory texture has been consulted, or that the present is enough.
Take the items next
If you have been told you are “a sensing type” and still cannot tell whether you live in the archive or in the scene, rate the statements as they are written, not as a defense of a letter you already wear.