Someone’s most common traits, no matter what they are, tend to define them. Although that may seem like a bad thing, finding your strengths and weaknesses can help you grow and become a better person.

There has been a great deal of research done about people’s personality traits. The main ways those traits are compared is through introverts and extroverts, the extreme comparisons of human personality. There has also been proof of another personality type, ambivert, which is a mixture of introversion and extroversion.

According to Business Insider, Psychiatrist Carl Jung brought the concepts of extroversion and introversion into the mainstream in the 1920s. He also had a theory that there was a middle group, but psychologists didn’t start using the term ambivert until the 1940s.

Being an introverted person means you thrive on spending time with your own thoughts and ideas. You like solitude and prefer to be far from the center of attention. Many introverted people tend to have close one-on-one relationships, but they need time to be alone to “recharge.”

According to Robin Edelstein, the chair of the Personality and Social Contexts Psychology Program at the University of Michigan, people easily get confused between introversion and shyness. Edelstein says that “Shyness has a negative component, to it,” while introversion does not.

There is nothing bad about being an introvert. Introverts may prefer to be around fewer people, but that doesn’t make their relationships less valuable to them. If you happen to be one it might make you feel better to know that introverts can be extremely successful in their careers and tend to be more fair as leaders than extroverts.

Being more of an extroverted person means you thrive on the energy of the people and things around you. You have large social networks, enjoy attention and team-oriented situations. Extroverts think out loud and get energy from being around other people.

Ryne Sherman, an associate professor of psychology at Texas Tech University, says that extroverts are “…more likely to be the person who knows lots of people.”

Extroverts make great connections with people, especially in situations like job interviews and dates. They can be often found in leadership roles, or in people-centric careers and strive in those settings.

Many people believe that extroversion is a bad thing because many extroverts are seen as loud and unagreeable, but they make great friendships and have relationships with many people which gives them a circle of supportive people in their lives.

Extroversion and introversion lie on a spectrum. People called “ambiverts,” are in the middle of that spectrum.

One study predicted that up to two-thirds of people could be considered ambiverts. The study, published in the journal Psychological Science in 2013, targeted some of the main traits of ambiverts by looking at how they worked in sales. The results showed that ambiverts are the best salespeople.

According to the author Adam Grant, a psychologist from the University of Pennsylvania, this could be because ambiverts are significantly better at understanding people’s emotions. Grant says that ambiverts “…naturally engage in a flexible pattern of talking and listening, [and] ambiverts are likely to express sufficient assertiveness and enthusiasm to persuade and close a sale but are more inclined to listen to customers’ interests…”

Although many people find themselves to be either extroverts or introverts, there is a chance that you could be a mixture of both. In order to reach your full potential in life, do not to limit yourself to what your personality type says and learn to accept the differences you have with others.

Check out this graphic by the Huffington Post to get an idea of what your personality type could be categorized as: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/difference-between-introverts-extroverts-chart_n_57f794c2e4b0b6a430316b3a

Sources:

https://hbr.org/2015/03/introverts-extroverts-and-the-complexities-of-team-dynamics  https://www.businessinsider.com/what-it-means-if-you-are-an-ambivert-2018-3

https://www.16personalities.com/articles/mind-introverted-vs-extraverted

https://www.prevention.com/health/mental-health/a24068521/introvert-vs-extrovert/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/199907/the-difference-between-introverts-and-extroverts?collection=101164