Extraversion: what does it consist of?

The term “extraversion” is used to talk about a personality trait or type. Extroverts are usually considered to be sociable, happy, confident, talkative people, etc.. Furthermore, we tend to believe that being extroverted is associated with greater success socially, at work, and academically. But what does science tell us about it?

In psychology we find different ways of understanding personality, including extraversion/introversion traits. This is a complex and deep topic, where not only black or white fits. In fact, this perspective on behavior can create false beliefs about how we should behave and cause us to make the wrong choices.

Carl Jung and the psychological types

Extraversion refers to a quality of a set of behavioral patterns. People who score high on this trait are compared to their counterparts, introverts. Thus, in many cases these two traits are represented in a single dimension.

Both terms became popular after the work was published Psychological Types by psychologist Carl Gustav Jung. Over there, Jung exposes a theory about the existence of two basic attitudes: extraversion and introversion. Likewise, it describes four main psychological functions: thinking, feeling, sensation and intuition.

According to his theory, the two main attitudes influence the aforementioned functions differently. Thus, there would be eight psychological types or personality patterns that a person could lean toward. For example, someone who leans toward the introvert/feeling pair might talk less frequently about her emotions.

From this theory, Other authors developed different models and instruments to understand and evaluate personality. Nowadays, the existence of extroverted and introverted traits is considered mainly for their usefulness. Furthermore, not all models work with exactly the same definition.

How is extraversion manifested?

We tend to place labels to classify people according to certain traits. Just as we say someone is nice or bitter, we also often classify others as introverts or extroverts. Generally, the traits that are associated with extraversion are the following:

Sociability. Extroverts are often seen as “the life of the party” within social groups. They are people who have a greater inclination for contacts with others. Jung said that his interest turned to external objects.Leadership. Given their social skills, extroverts tend to be leaders within their groups. This is due to their ability to instill motivation and emotions in others.Search for sensations. For an extrovert there is nothing better than new experiences. These types of people may decide to try extreme sports or other similar activities.Preference for group situations. For example, extroverts prefer to play team sports. One study evaluated the trait of extraversion in college students who played sports and students who did not. The results revealed that athletes showed a greater tendency toward extraversion (Malik and Malik, 2018).

Extraversion and introversion: can these two variables coexist?

The popular belief is that people are only extroverted or introverted. Nevertheless, The reality is that there is no such dichotomy, In fact, there are several models that consider the two categories as different dimensions. For example, a person could be an extrovert and an introvert at the same time.

However, the most common thing is to consider that they give rise to a single dimension, admitting that a person could have introverted behaviors in certain situations and extroverted in others.

For example, someone may be talkative, happy, and sociable when they are with their group of friends. However, when surrounded by strangers, he can adopt a more cautious position and cede the spotlight to others. This also breaks the myth that shyness is a characteristic that is exclusively linked to introversion.

Extraversion and introversion can coexist to different degrees in the same person.. Another situation that could occur is that an introvert takes the role of leader since no one else does. As you can see, it is common for people to fall somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Therefore, you could say that most of us are “ambiverts.” That is, we have characteristics of both that emerge depending on the context.

Of course, there are tendencies towards one or another pole of personality. Some people are introverted most of the time and others tend more towards extraversion, but it is common for us to have traits of both types.

Does being extrovert guarantee a better quality of life?

Another widely held belief is that extraversion is associated with a better quality of life. There is some evidence that relates extraversion to certain positive circumstances. Research by Dumitrache, Rubio and Rubio-Herrera (2018) studied the relationship between being extroverted, social support and satisfaction in old age.

The authors pointed out that extraversion is associated with social support and life satisfaction, which would not mean that extraversion is a guarantee of mental and physical health. Each trait has its own advantages and disadvantages and is highly context dependent..

There are situations where an extrovert could benefit from being a little more reserved. We could imagine a person attending a particular event where it is frowned upon to be loud or talk a lot. In these circumstances, being an introvert would represent an advantage.

Finally, we can say that all people have a combination of introverted and extroverted traits. Thus, extraversion is not a category that can summarize the personality of an individual. However, separating it and giving it entity is useful to better understand the extraversion/introversion spectrum.

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