Introversion

Extraversion has significantly contributed the field of personality psychology over the course of the years, as it is associated with health, lifestyle, and other psychological outcomes (Van den Berg et al., 2014). Extroversion refers to the tendency to experience positive emotions and seek out social interactions. Extroverted people are talkative and often feel an energy rise after interacting with others. On the other hand, introverts find these interactions exhausting and often feel the need to be alone to feel calm. Introverts think of solitude as a relaxing environment. Kirkland, Gruber, Cunningham (2015) described extraversion as the general inclination to approach, explore, and engage with the environment and stimuli in it.
The
trait extraversion is often misused, as it can be confused with openness and agreeableness. Openness refers to intellect, imagination, curiosity, and creativeness (Luo & Dai, 2015). People who are high in openness enjoy adventure, they are curious and imaginative. These people also have an appreciation for art, they seek out new experiences and often engage in risky behaviors (Peterson, Smith & Carson, 2002). Agreeableness measures a person’s warmth and kindness and the tendency to be compassionate and caring with others. People who are high in agreeableness are seen as trustworthy, cooperative, and modest (Bresin & Robinson, 2015). It is easy to confuse extraversion with these two other traits, as they are similar. However, extraversion exclusively refers to the act of obtaining energy through social interactions. Extroverts could also score high in openness and agreeableness, although sometimes this is not the case. A person who is high in extraversion might not show empathy and warmness towards others or could also enjoy routines and not care for experiencing new experiences.
Additionally, some might believe that introversion, located on the opposite side of the extraversion scale, refers to shyness or seclusion.
Introverts obtain most of their energy from being alone with their own thoughts, whereas extroverts do it through social interactions with those around them. Introverts tend to be more sensitive to social stimuli, therefore they find social interactions exhausting (Briggs, 1988). Shyness is fear-based, shy people are often afraid of what others might say about them and therefore avoid social interactions. They also experience social anxiety and feel pressured when interacting with others (Briggs,
1988).
Wang et al. (2013) conducted a study using a humanistic approach to determine the level of fatigue cancer patients experienced after receiving chemotherapy. They used self-report measures in order to see if there was any relationship between personality traits and the amount of fatigue experienced by each patient. The results revealed that those patients who scored high on extraversion in the Eysenck personality questionnaire experienced, on average, less fatigue than those who scored low on extraversion. They believe these results were observed because those patients who were extroverts tended to reach out to others, using social support as a coping mechanism (Wang et al., 2013). This study demonstrates how extraversion affects health outcomes in a person’s life, since patients who were extroverts experienced less fatigue making their treatment process more tolerable than those who were introverts.
An experiment conducted by Kayaoglu (2013) studied the effects of extraversion and introversion and the strategies employed to learn a new language. Self-report measures were used in order to select participants based on their scores after completing the Eysenck personality questionnaire. Participants were assigned to the extroverted or introverted group and were later enrolled in an intensive foreign language program. After analyzing the data with a cognitive approach, the results demonstrated that introverted people used more cognitive strategies, such as repeating and using formulas, than extroverted people did. However, extroverted participants relied on social interactions to practice the language they were attempting to learn. They engaged in more conversations and created more opportunities for themselves to practice the new language. This experiment shows how extraversion has an effect on the type of approach chosen by an individual to learn new material, ranging from cognitive strategies to engaging with those around in order to solidify memories.
The field of personality psychology keeps growing as time goes by, with new research being added to the literature every day. However, there are still some areas that need to be explored in order to provide insight to some questions that are still unanswered. For instance, it is still unclear if extraversion is entirely influenced by genetics or by the environment an individual grows up in. Some say it is a mixture of both, but there is limited longitudinal studies done in order to determine to what extend nature and nurture have an effect on personality, especially on the extraversion trait.
The study done by Kayaoglu (2013) described the type of learning strategies used by introverts and extroverts, but it did not precisely explained which techniques were more efficient.
This is an important factor to consider, as it can be influential in the educational system. Additionally, more research is needed in order to determine the biological factors of extraversion. For instance, brain differences between introverts and extroverts. New studies need to explore which areas are precisely active in the brains of extroverts and introverts and the effects these have on their behavior. It is still unclear what causes introverts and extroverts to behave the way they do, brain studies could possibly reveal what biological factors are the cause of these
differences.