Challenging the Introvert-Extrovert Dichotomy

May 2, 2023 7:26 AM

I'm wondering, is there any literature out there that challenges the (seemingly) well accepted introvert - extrovert dichotomy (or spectrum, or whatever)?

This is something I'm curious about, because personally I've never felt introverted or extroverted. I guess I'm some sort of freakish ambivert. Regardless, I guess in my experience the dichotomy has never rung true. It seems to be generally well accepted that people are either introverts and extroverted and they shall never get along. Is there literature out there that actually tries to challenge this? Or disagrees with it? This question is just for curiosity's sake.

posted by VirginiaPlain to Human Relations (13 answers total)

I think it's normally considered a spectrum, rather than a binary (other than in pop culture!), and so being in the middle is totally valid. A grad school counseling professor taught the Myers-Briggs tool as being most useful as a comparison among people (especially couples); even if two people are both introverted, for example, one will likely be more introverted than the other and so they may have similar conflicts, and benefit from similar interventions, as an introvert-extrovert couple.

My understanding of Jung's original framework on this was that he was suggesting we all would benefit from growing toward the center, developing skills and comfort throughout the spectrum of behaviors so that we could react less habitually, but I don't have a citation.
posted by lapis at 8:03 AM on May 2, 2023 [4 favorites]

Humans are too complex to neatly cleave into a personality binary, for just about anything. Ambivert is just a word to make people feel special for falling somewhere along the fat of the bell curve, where most people are. Having complexity of thought, feeling, and context about being around other people is normal.

It's the folks at either the "only introvert" or "only extrovert" ends who are the freakish ones.

Google "introvert extrovert bell curve" to get resources about this.
posted by phunniemee at 8:05 AM on May 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

Certainly they get along- I’m fairly extroverted but some of my closest friends in life have been introverts.
posted by nouvelle-personne at 8:15 AM on May 2, 2023

Google "introvert extrovert bell curve" to get resources about this.

See the upper-right figure here, which shows the distribution of extraversion. You're much more likely to be in the middle of the distribution than either of the tails.
posted by Mr.Know-it-some at 8:24 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

When I've done Myers-Briggs tests, I was told by the facilitators that people tend to change over time, usually softening their tendencies/moving toward the center as they get older. In my case, I went from pretty far on the extrovert scale to almost dead center over the course of maybe 5-8 years, which also coincides with aging from my 20s into my 30s. So how much of that was innate versus just lifestyle and age?
posted by misskaz at 8:48 AM on May 2, 2023 [1 favorite]

The idea is that extroverts get energized by being with people and introverts get energized by being away from people. Introversion:Extroversion is not related to shyness. In my experience, people misinterpret this trait and blow it wildly out of proportion. In Myers-Briggs, it's always a scale. Myers-Briggs is a way to look at ways people function, but it's not particularly valid or proven, it's just a popular framework. I find their archetypes useless.

I'm an extrovert, I do get energized by being with people, to a point. I spend a lot of time alone, am comfortable and happy doing so. Being introverted or extroverted does not make a person better, wiser, nicer. Some jobs seem more appealing to one or the other, like sales and extroverts, but I've met quite successful introverted sales people. Introverts and extroverts get along fine, marry each other, etc. My sense is that businesses think extroverts make better employees and that introverts have become defensive. It's BS. People are incredibly diverse and adaptable.
posted by theora55 at 9:06 AM on May 2, 2023 [3 favorites]

It's been a long time since I looked into it but I do remember that actual links between the introvert/extrovert personality spectrum and brain chemistry have been made, like people who rate as extroverted showed difference responses. So I'm not sure there's a lot of research debunking the sort. (Could be wrong though.)

I'm in a weak extrovert (me) - introvert (my husband) marriage and while there have been things I had to understand about his needs and stuff, he's amazing and we get along great. :)
posted by warriorqueen at 9:07 AM on May 2, 2023

In general, you'll get more evidence-based information if you look into the Big Five personality traits rather than the Myers-Briggs test or other pop psychology tests. Unlike Myers-Briggs etc, the Big Five model is backed up by a lot of research — these are traits that really do distinguish people from each other, that really are pretty consistent across a person's life, and that really have a lot of influence on people's behavior.

Extraversion is one of the Big Five traits. Interestingly, it's the only Myers-Briggs trait that shows up in the Big Five: the other four are openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and neuroticism.

All five traits are spectrums, not binaries. Most people are towards the middle of the spectrum. And the traits all interact. For example, a highly extraverted but neurotic person might struggle with social situations due to anxiety and second-guessing. Or an introverted person who is conscientious and agreeable might act outgoing to make others feel at home.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:13 AM on May 2, 2023 [9 favorites]

Keep in mind that pop psychology will distill any idea down to its most stupid form, generally the one that allows the most people to think that they are somehow special.
posted by praemunire at 9:27 AM on May 2, 2023 [9 favorites]

I hope it would be a challenge to find anything in reputable literature that supports a position that introverts and extroverts are a hard dichotomy and never get along. But if you're interested in something that challenges a pop culture misrepresentation along those lines, this is a general-audience piece that appears reasonably well-researched.
posted by EvaDestruction at 9:36 AM on May 2, 2023 [2 favorites]

You may want to read Quiet, the Power of the Introvert, by Susan Cain.
posted by Enid Lareg at 10:31 AM on May 2, 2023

Extraversion-introversion is firmly established as a major personality dimension that constitutes part of the popular Five Factor Model of personality traits. Various scales for assessment of extraversion meet standard psychometric criteria. Consistent with requirements for traits, extraversion is stable during the adult years and shows good cross-cultural generality. However, recent work has focused on the malleability of extraversion in response to changing events during the lifespan and to cultural factors.
posted by tangerine at 9:51 AM on May 3, 2023 [1 favorite]

The terms are often misunderstood . Really it has to do with whether you find people draining or energizing. Nothing about shyness or stage fright. A lot of discussions focus on the incorrect assumption that introverts are always shy or that extroverts are not.
posted by mermaidcafe at 10:08 AM on May 3, 2023