Zilite Ligita, Dr. of TOURISM AND EDUCATION MANAGEMENT STUDENTS’ Administration, Lecturer CHARACTERISTICS FROM POINT OF SOCIONICS VIEW Turiba University, Set out in the article, the aim of the study is to describe the student groups in tourism and Latvia education management study directions, on the basis of the sociotypes research to improve educators knowledge of the nature of students. So tourism students and education management students have Conference participant, National championship in statistically signifi cant differing sociotype features. Therefore the research of the author proves that scientifi c analytics, the sociotype structure of tourism educators corresponds to the sociotype structure of tourism stu- Open European and dents and it has a social orientation but sociotype of tertiary educators as a whole has a more Asian research analytics humanitarian nature. championship Keywords: Socionics; sociotype; student; educator Introduction Socionics as well as Type theory char- half hundred (61) type theory research- acterises individuals using 4 dichoto- ers, carrying out a comparative analysis The pedagogical profi ciency of mies (Extroversion – internationally of the dichotomy characteristics in the teaching staff is not only refl ected by recognised designation with the letter type theory and socionics as well as di- the individual’s pedagogical competence E /Introversion (I), Intuition (N)/Sens- chotomy features and other aspects that but also the understanding of interper- ing (S), Logic (T; Thinking in MBTI)/ determine the work motivation factors, sonal relationships [6]. But it can be seen Ethics (F; feeling in MBTI), Rational (J; learning styles and the optimal fi elds of from the results of the survey conducted judging in MBTI/Irrational (P; perceiv- an individual’s activity came to con- among Latvian school directors and ing in MBTI), and combining the poles clusion that both specialists of type teachers on the preparedness of gradu- results in 16 variants or 16 combinations theory as well as socionics have the ates for the job of teachers – one of the of letter codes that refer to a defi nite so- same opinions regarding these issues. frequently mentioned conclusions is that ciotype. Certain intertype relationships Therefore the author in her research the new teachers are well educated in the are formed between defi nite types of in- has used the discoveries of both type subjects but lack knowledge and skills in dividuals. theory as well as socionic researchers. other areas, including understanding the The aim of the study is to research The MBTI test is copyrighted and it personality of the learners [5]. The pri- students groups in tourism and educa- is expensive. The author upon empiri- mary task of all education employees is tion management directions, to test the cally testing the Jung typology on-line to gather precise information about their assumption that certain professions are Humanmetrics test in English found it learners [4]. attractive for individuals of certain so- well formulated and easily accessible. One of the aids that could provide in- ciotypes. It provides respondents the opportunity formation about students for successful to see their results – the sociotype letter decision-making in the education pro- Research metodology combination and a description. There- cess is Socionics - the theory on individ- fore the author organised the transla- ual sociotypes, their interrelationships Several methods of determination of tion of the test in Latvian requesting and management of human potential de- sociotypes can be applied depending on the translator to focus on the transfer velopment. Sociotype is the natural set of the goals. The visual-verbal method can of the essence of the questions into individual physic features that determine be used for the precise determination of the Latvian language as emphasised how the individual gets energy, perceives sociotype. The sociotype tendencies of by the specialist M. Raščevska [9] on information, make decisions and struc- social groups can be determined using psychological tests and questionnaires. tures his/her own life. tests as the incorrect reply of a respond- The test consists of 72 statements with At the end of the sixties and the be- ent regarding dichotomy features is com- just a “YES” or “NO” answer for each ginning of seventies the 20th century, the pensated with the same probability of in- of the statements. The author added Lithuanian scholar A. Augustinavichute correct reply of another respondent in the instructions to the test wherein she (04.04.1927. – 19.08.2005.) developed opposite direction and therefore the over- underlined that there are no incorrect, the theory on 16 psychological types all picture will refl ect the real situation better or worse answers and that the based on the typology of C.G. Jung, as [12]. If the researcher is only interested evaluation of each respondent for the well as using the A. Kempinski con- in the overall result then the responses of respective statement is the most impor- cept of informative metabolism [11], each respondent are not refl ected [7]. tant. Answering the test questions the and termed it as Socionics. Socionics is Although several tests have been respondents must be able to objectively widely renowned in Russia and Ukraine. formulated in socionics none of them analyse themselves. Some personality Socionics research was approved and ap- as acknowledged by socionic research- features should not be considered more pended by the other contemporary vari- ers themselves are qualitative enough valuable than others. Respondents have ant of C.G. Jung’s theory, an instrument as it is a relatively new fi eld. There- to also try to understand their subcon- widely known in the USA and Western fore the author, having investigated the scious behaviour and motivation for Europe as Type theory – the application works of more than one hundred (117) choices in different circumstances. of MBTI (Myers Briggs Type Indicator). socionics researchers and more than a The author provided tourism stu- 24 dents the opportunity to complete the and an in depth study of their type de- Results analysis test in Latvian during the personnel scriptions there is justifi able grounds to management class while discussing the consider the results reliable. Comparing the results of the 1st and topic “Personnel interaction” and the Research has been carried out world- 2nd stage (Fig. 1) it could be concluded respondents could later fi lling the same wide in several study fi elds and it is con- that there is similarity in the sociotype answers for the English version on the cluded that a defi nite type of individual is structure. Internet site www.humanmetrics.com/ more or less connected with the fi eld. No In order to ascertain the average re- cgi-win/JTypes2.asp [8] get the results - such research has been published in Latvia. sult of statistical signifi cance the author the four letter sociotype combination and As the author in her day to day activities proposed a statistical hypothesis for the could get a description of their sociotype has more contact with tourism manage- dichotomy features SF, ST, NF and NT features developed by socionic research- ment students, students of these study of each professional discipline group ers. If the students themselves deemed disciplines were basically involved in fur- and tested it with the Mann-Whitney that the sociotype character 85%-100% ther research. There were four stages of test. The critical limits of test values are corresponds to their own thinking they the practical research. The fi rst two stages not exceeded at probability of 95%, and submitted the 4 letter combination to were carried out to ascertain whether in- level of signifi cance 0.936>0.05, which the author. If the students deemed that dividuals with a certain sociotype were indicates that the distribution for SF for the sociotype character corresponds to attracted to a certain study discipline. 448 tourism students of one HEI who deter- their own thinking less than 85%, they students of tourism study programme of mined their sociotype complementing changed the sociotype code by changing a Latvian Higher Educational Institution their sociotype description acquired as a letter and getting acquainted with the (herein after referred to as the HEI) were result of the test with their own evalua- relevant sociotype features. The letter of respondents in the 1st research stage and tion and tourism students of seven other the sociotype code that they were least 264 tourism students and 46 students of HEIs who just determined their socio- sure of while answering the test ques- education management study programme type in accordance to C.G. Jung’s test tions was the one that they changed. For of 7 other Latvian HEIs were respondents are similar. The NF (signifi cance level example if the student while answering during the 2nd research stage. At the same 0.065>0.05) and NT (signifi cance level the test in English got the result - „ISTJ” time the author evaluated the conform- 0.969>0.05) features have the same dis- with a percentage 78:1:50:33, and read- ity of theoretical concepts of socionics in tribution in both groups. ing the description admits that it did not practice and their application possibilities Only the distribution of ST features fi t his personality then probably his code in academic management. (signifi cance level 0.027<0.05) for both was „INTJ”, and only the answers de- The 3rd research stage goal is to ascer- respondent groups differ. The ST feature scribing the sensory sociotype sounded tain the dominant sociotype of educational is not characteristic for tourism students attractive to him. If the student still could management students and the 4th research and therefore does not signifi cantly af- not recognise himself in the sociotype stage goal is to ascertain the dominant so- fect the distribution.