Four Meanings of Introversion: Social, Thinking, Anxious, and Inhibited Introversion (2024)

This document contains the two papers referenced below:Grimes, J.O., Cheek, J.M., & Norem, J.K. (2011, January). Four meanings of introversion: Social, thinking, anxious, and inhibited* introversion. Presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, San Antonio, TX.[*Note: After the 2011 paper, we renamed the Inhibited factor as Restrained Introversion, with reference to the work of J.P. Guilford.]Cheek, J.M., Brown, C.A., & Grimes, J.O. (2014, Sept.). Personality Scales for Four Domains of Introversion: Social, Thinking, Anxious, and Restrained Introversion. Preliminary Research Manual (2nd ed)., Department of Psychology, Wellesley College, Wellesley MA. 02481-8203 with addendum -- Cheek, J.M., Brown, C.A., & Grimes, J.O. (2020, Sept.). STAR Scales Update -- Revised Restrained Introversion Scale. Unpublished, Wellesley College Psychology Department jcheek@wellesley.edu with .

Extraversion-introversion, affiliation, and anxiety1

Journal of Personality, 1969

The Experience of Introversion: An Integration of Phenomenological, Empirical, and Jungian Approaches

Introversion and Happiness A cross-disciplinary guide for understanding introverted personalities, redefining happiness for them and how to achieve it

1-The true meaning of introversion and its influence on happiness We frequently think of introversion as a social problem. The introvert is, in the eyes of many, a shy person who finds it difficult to make friends. Consequently, introversion could be experienced as a disadvantage in the race for happiness or as a difficulty that must be overcome in order to improve our chances of being happy. However, this view on introversion is not only false but also extremely harmful. This idea stems from a noticeable prevalence of extraverts worldwide (extraverts account for approximately 85% of the general population according to some studies) and from a difficulty by extraverts to understand what is different. The defining characteristic of introversion is not the social relationshipbuilding aspect, but a different way of seeing and thinking about the world: a way which assigns more importance to our own thoughts and feelings about the surrounding world than to external stimulation in and of itself. The term " introverted " says it all: " turned inward " , while the extravert is " turned outward. " This entails more reflection about what goes on around us, less impulsiveness and greater control over our responses to stimuli than most people. Ultimately, this results in a life led on a different wavelength from most people and has countless consequences: some negative and some positive. Physiologically, introverts have naturally high cortical arousal compared to extraverts, by general stimulation, and, particularly, by stimulation from conversation or interaction with other people. This means that a smaller influx of information from the external environment causes, in introverts, significant mental and emotional activity. A detail observed in the external environment gives rise to a myriad of thoughts, reasoning, speculation, fantasies, fears and emotions, and can remain with us for a long time. Extraverts, on the other hand, are only minimally aroused. They do not dwell on external phenomena for a long time and they therefore need to quickly seek out more stimulating environments to feel selfactualized. This difference in cortical arousal is what differentiates us most and can be seen throughout our daily lives. Understanding our differences and knowing how to leverage them is essential to find the happiness that we long for. For that purpose it is first necessary to understand that shyness and introversion are not the same. Although sometimes they go hand in hand, being introverted, as we have discussed, means having an introspective attitude. This does not necessarily entail shyness, lack of social skills or social problems. In fact, there are many people who are introverts and lead a perfectly satisfactory social life (according to their own standards) and are not at all shy; in the same way, there are extraverts who are shy and have terrible social lives. Shyness is a problem that can be quite serious and affects both introverts and extraverts. People who are naturally extraverts but are shy suffer much more as a result of their shyness than the introverts who are also shy. This is so because shy extraverts feel the intense desire to interact with other people but they do not dare do it or their attempts to do it are clumsy. This causes frustration, which is significantly diminished in introverted people since their need and desire for

Personality Differences in Thinking and Feeling between Introverts and Extroverts

International Journal of Neurolinguistics & Gestalt Psychology

It has been widely claimed that introverts are cool-headed beings who tend to be thinkers while extroverts tend to follow their heart and are thus, more of feelers. However, this claim is not backed by research since it has never been tested. This research paper sets out to test this hypothesis through establishing a correlational link between the two meta-programs of introversion-extroversion and thinking-feeling. In order to measure this, an online questionnaire was administered to 102 participants between the age group of 18-25 years, which consisted of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Scale that computed scores for both the meta-programs. Correlational analysis using SPSS showed a moderate positive correlation between introversion and thinking and a moderate positive correlation between extroversion and feeling. Thus, the findings supported the hypothesis since introversion shared a direct relationship with thinking while extroversion directly related with feeling, however...

Introvert -Extrovert Personality Types and Self-confidence-A Case Study from Philippines

Auditory startle response predicts introversion: an individual analysis

2015

Neuroticism as a moderator of direct and mediated relationships between introversion-extraversion and well-being

Europe’s Journal of Psychology, 2016

Among personality traits, extraversion has received major theoretical and empirical attention as predictor of subjective well-being (SWB), whereas the role of emotional stability-neuroticism has been partially neglected. The present study aims to study the role of neuroticism in the relationship between introversion-extraversion and SWB. In particular, we explored if the trait of neuroticism moderates the relationships between introversion-extraversion and SWB dimensions (Satisfaction with life, Mastery, Vigour, Social Cheerfulness), directly and by mediation of self-esteem. Indeed, previous studies have suggested that self-esteem is positively associated with high extraversion and low neuroticism and that it positively mediates the relationship between SWB and personality traits in adolescents. For this purpose, a sample of high school students (N = 1173) completed the Oxford Happiness Inventory, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and the Big Five Questionnaire. In a latent variable m...

Shyness, Self-Construal, Extraversion–Introversion, Neuroticism, and Psychoticism

SAGE Open, 2015

Shyness is considered as a universal phenomenon and its prevalence rates vary across cultures. This study aimed at comparing the level of shyness, self-construal, and personality traits of extraversion, introversion, neuroticism, and psychoticism among the college students from India, the host country, Africa; Iran; and Maldives, and Tibetan refugees in India (TRI), studying in different colleges at Mysore, India. Two hundred students (100 men and 100 women), age ranging from 17 to 30 years, were recruited based on stratified random sampling and were administered the Henderson/Zimbardo Shyness Questionnaire, Fernandez Scale of Independent–Interdependent Self-Construal, and Eysenck Personality Questionnaire–Revised. The results showed that shyness was significantly correlated with high introversion and high neuroticism scores. The results also showed that level of shyness varies significantly across different cultural groups and students from Maldives showed highest level of shyness ...

Peer Review #2 of "Under which conditions can introverts achieve happiness? Mediation and moderation effects of the quality of social relationships and emotion regulation ability on happiness (v0.1)

2015

Assessing Introversion and Extroversion in a Second Language Setting

2017

This study aims to create a useful tool for assessing personality in the language classroom by testing a newly created personality test and comparing it’s results to a previously used and well-known tool. Participants in this study were 51 international students enrolled in the English for Academic Purposes program at a Midwestern university. They came from various L2 backgrounds including Chinese and Nepali. The new personality testing too was created by simplifying the existing tool’s language and adding context to each question on the test, so that students are tapping into their personality as a language learner instead of their general personality traits. Students took this newly created test, named the Extroversion/Introversion in Language Learning Test (EILLT), and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) along with an oral language assessment. The researcher compared the results of the three tests looking for correlations. The study showed that the new tool was more effective ...