Decoding Your Myers-Briggs Personality (Part 1): Extroversion & Introversion

Introduction: Carl Jung and the Myers-Briggs.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) has become one of the most popular personality tests around.  Thousands, if not millions, of people have taken some version of the psychological assessment based on the findings of Carl Jung.  Some of these sites offer credible descriptions of the overall personality types, they rarely provide any information about the individual personality traits and their interactions with one another.  So, here I skip descriptions of the sixteen Myers-Briggs types and instead focus on the eight individual traits that make up each the Myers-Briggs types. 

(If you are looking for a resource that offers good descriptions of each of the personality types, this one is my favorite: https://www.personalitypage.com/html/portraits.html  )

Before going on, I should make clear that for the purposes of this article I will refer to the full MBTI results (e.g. ENTJ, ISFP, etc) as TYPE; I will refer the individual letters that make up a type (i.e. E or I, N or S, F or T, J or P) as TRAITS; and I will refer to the interaction between traits (e.g. extraverted-intuition or Ne) as FUNCTIONS.

The traits and functions associated with the MBTI were described in 1921, in Jung’s work Psychological Types.  In it he suggests that differences in personality are biologically innate and represent fundamental (rather than superficial) ways that human character varies from individual to individual. He goes on to describe the evolutionary benefits of this type of variability within any given population, making the case that our diverse characters have been vital to the advancement of humanity.

Extroversion & Introversion

The first two traits Jung discusses are the EXTROVERT and the INTROVERT.  The original distinction between the two goes deeper than whether or not a person enjoys a lively party.  Jung described extroversion and introversion as the “general attitude” of a person.  It describes how an individual is generally oriented in the world – towards the objective (in the case of the extrovert) or towards the subjective (in the case of the introvert).  This general attitude will also affect how the other personality traits are felt and expressed.

The extrovert is defined by a dominant orientation toward the outside, objective world.  The extrovert’s direct and immediate attention is drawn toward things external him, and in extreme cases may altogether disregard his own subjective experience.  In this way, he can be blind to his own well being and the effect that he has on others.  For the extrovert the world consists primarily of the things directly in front of him.  Jung writes, "[the extrovert's] consciousness looks outwards to the world, because important and decisive determination always comes to him from without.  But it comes to him from without only because that is where he expects it."

By contrast, the introvert is defined by a dominant orientation toward the internal, subjective world.  The introverts direct and immediate attention is drawn first toward their subjective experiences, and in extreme cases may altogether disregard the objective reality of what is happening.  As Jung put it, “the introvert interposes a subjective view between the perception of the object and [her] own action, which [may prevent] the action from assuming a character that corresponds with the objective situation.” If the extrovert’s blind-spot is his disregard for his effect on the world around him, the introvert’s blind-spot is her disregard for objective reality in favor of their subjective experience of it. 

This difference in external or internal orientation tends to have a noticeable impact on the behavior of extroverts as compared to introverts.  Extroverts tend to find it relatively easy to tune into their immediate situation and adapt to it; however, introverts tend to find these same settings taxing, as it requires them to engage the external world with little time to “interpose a subjective view.”  Conversely, extroverts may become easily bored or uneasy when their external world offers them little to interact with – for instance when they are alone.  This is because for the extrovert, turning his attention inward may be as taxing to him as a lively party would be to an introvert. 

Another way of saying this is that extroverts engage in the outside world with relatively little direction or effort; while introverts engage in their internal world in this same way.  The result is that extroverts may appear to be more social, reckless, connected, and impulsive; whereas, introverts may appear to be more reserved, thoughtful, aloof, and measured.   

As I tell my students: “Introverts prefer to look before they leap; Extroverts just leap.” 

In the next part, I'll explain the differences between the differences between Sensation and iNtuition.  In the mean time, let me know how your experiences of Introversion or Extroversion.