The research behind the ICA

Analytical psychology

Carl Jung's Psychological Types (1921) described four functions: two ways of perceiving, intuition and sensation, and two ways of judging, thinking and feeling (overview). The ICA's four dimensions line up with them: Integrative Synthesis with intuition, Systematic Analysis with thinking, Social Attunement with feeling and Environmental Engagement with sensation.

Where Jung sorted people into types, the ICA ranks all four dimensions for each person, so every result shows a full order of preferences rather than a single label.

Neuroscience

Brain imaging has mapped large-scale networks that are active even at rest (Raichle et al., 2001; Biswal et al., 1995). Four of them parallel the ICA's dimensions: the default mode network (self-referential thought and imagining the future), the executive control network (working memory and reasoning), the mentalizing network (understanding others' minds) and the sensorimotor network (perception and action).

Research is also linking personality to brain organization: one large study found resting-state connectivity predicted openness to experience better than any other Big Five trait (Dubois et al., 2018).

The research program

The program runs in three stages:

Participation is voluntary and consented separately from anything else on this site. Findings are published at each stage, and the ICA is refined as the evidence comes in.

Ten principles for reading your results

1. This assessment measures behavioral preference, not ability or worth. A low score on a dimension means you use that capacity less naturally, not that you lack it.
2. Your profile may shift over time through deliberate practice and life experience. Reassess annually or after significant life changes.
3. No faculty or profile is superior to any other. Every orientation has produced extraordinary human beings.
4. This is a development instrument, not a diagnostic tool. It should not be used for clinical diagnosis, employment screening, educational placement, or any consequential decision.
5. The tripartite faculty model (Thinking, Feeling, Willing) draws on a long convergence of philosophical and psychological traditions, with parallels in analytical psychology, behavioral science and neuroscience. Its empirical structure is currently being studied.
6. The 40 items measure self-reported behavioral preference. Actual behavior may differ from self-perception. Social desirability may influence responses, particularly on items related to social connection.
7. This instrument uses a forced-choice format that produces ipsative scores. The four dimension scores are constrained to sum to exactly 40. This means the scores are interdependent: a high score on one dimension necessarily produces lower scores on at least one other. Ipsative scores describe the relative balance of your preferences within yourself. They cannot be compared across individuals the way that independent scores can. Your score of 22 on a dimension does not mean the same thing as another person's score of 22, because the remaining scores are distributed differently.
8. The Thinking faculty is measured through two dimensions (Integrative Synthesis and Systematic Analysis) while Feeling and Willing are each measured through one. This reflects the distinction behavioral science draws between intuitive and deliberate thinking. Whether the two modes behave as distinct dimensions in ICA data is part of the current study, and the design means Thinking has two routes to a high faculty score.
9. All items are positively keyed. There are no reverse-scored items. This means an acquiescent response style (tending to select options that sound agreeable) may produce a pseudo-balanced profile that does not reflect genuine cognitive balance. If you found yourself selecting options because they sounded right rather than because they described what you actually do, your results may be less accurate.
10. The ICA's reliability, validity and norms are currently being studied in a staged research program, and findings are published as each stage completes. Its accuracy is currently being studied.