10 things you probably didn’t know about Introverts.
I think I’ve always known I was introvert – even before a personality questionnaire told me so.
From a very young age I was very good at observing a situation from a slightly removed perspective, good at the ‘thinking’ stuff, not always so good at the ‘doing’ side of things.
My career path, via first studying Psychology, and then by becoming a practicing Business Psychologist further gave me many opportunities to develop a greater understanding of this aspect of my character. For my own benefit, as well as for those I interact with on a daily basis as part of my work.
It’s an aspect of personality that I find clients and delegates are keen to understand more about. They often find it difficult to comprehend that a hardcore introvert such as myself could ever stand up in front of a group of strangers in a training room.
The introversion-extraversion spectrum is probably the most well known, frequently referenced and longest established aspects of human personality within the discipline of Psychology. Most models of personality, and nearly all personality questionnaires, include some measure of it.
However, on a daily basis we tend to rely on our own implicit models of what we think introversion and extraversion means; I often see social shyness or a lack of confidence being mistaken for introversion, or confidence and gregariousness, as extraversion.
The reality is that introversion and extraversion are more than these simple behavioural traits. An introvert can feel confident and gregarious, as much as an extravert can feel shy or lack confidence in certain situations
If you take Carl Jung’s perspective on this aspect of personality, we need to look on a more fundamental level about how people perceive and interact with the world.
All of these things combined led me to do a bit more reading into the area, getting back to basics, as well discovering some rather fascinating new stuff. So, in the spirit of caring and sharing here are 10 things I’ve learnt about being an introvert:
1. Jung first came up with the concept of introversion/extraversion in 1900’s, as a consequence of observing how his contemporaries, Freud and Adler would approach the same patient case histories in very different ways – developing almost opposite theories
2. Extraverts outnumber introverts 3:1. It is an extraverts world!
3. Introversion-extraversion is one of the few aspects of personality confirmed to have a physiological basis – which was first hypothesised by Eysenck – another mayor player in the field of personality theory and research
4. Introverts chemically process information differently to extroverts. Introverts are more sensitive to the neurotransmitter dopamine, which is tied to genetic differences in the D4DR, or ‘novelty-seeking gene’. Extraverts in comparison, are less sensitive so need greater stimuli to produce higher levels of dopamine (Hammer, 1999)
5. The way introverts and extroverts brains are wired up to process information a bit differently. Information, when it comes into the Introvert’s brain takes a different, more internally focused and circuitous route. Extraverts pathways are shorter, less complicated and blood flows towards the sensory processing areas of the brain, i.e. touch, taste, visual, auditory (Johnson, 1999)
6. Some fields of thought suggest there are differences between right-brain and left-brain introverts, furthermore ‘…left brain introverts may be more comfortable living life as an introvert. They may have fewer social needs so be less conflicted over spending time alone’ (Laney, 2002)
7. Those with a stronger orientation towards the right hemisphere tend to be playful in solving problems, interpret body language easily, improvise, use metaphors and analogies, notice patterns, process information subjectively, see solutions as approximate and evolving
8. Those with a stronger orientation towards the left hemisphere tend to analyse pros and cons before taking action, base decisions on facts, think in terms of right and wrong, be keenly aware of time, process one step at a time, like to categorise, be idea-orientated, seek exact solutions
9. Some research as suggested that extraverts are happier (Pavot, Diener, & Fujita, 1990), and that extraverts tend to report higher levels of self esteem (Swickert, et al, 2004 and Cheng & Furnham, 2003). However, as Laney (2002) points out it’s quite possible that the survey’s used will have been written and conducted by extraverts, and therefore (unintentionally) biased towards their more externally orientated view of the world
10. Being an introvert doesn’t mean that you cant engage in activities that require high levels of social interaction. However, strategies do need to be activated to manage this, such as quiet time beforehand to mentally prepare and quite possibly some alone time afterwards, to recoup energy levels – and that’s okay.
So there are a few things I’ve recently learnt about being an introvert.
I’ve focused here sharing on facts and information that was new to me, rather than covering the basics, a number of which came from reading the Introvert Advantage by Marti Olsen Laney. If you’d like to learn more then it’s a good book to start with, you might also enjoy the following online resources: