“Are you an introvert or are you an extrovert?” Everyone has heard this question being asked. It is asked almost on a daily basis, and the commonplace answer to the question is something usually along the lines of, “Yeah, I am an introvert.” OR “I’m an extrovert.” OR “I think I am definitely introverted.” OR any other iteration of the already defined absolutism perspective. Is this accurate, however? Should we be absolute in our perspective of how our personality presents? I would argue that we shouldn’t.
The human psychology is all-together complex, and I wouldn’t even begin to pretend like I have it all figured out. What I would, however, insist on is that no one can exist completely on either end of the introversion/extraversion scale. In other words, we cannot be either absolutely introverted or absolutely extroverted. We [must] exist somewhere within the spectrum. This might be new to some people, but if you think about it, if everyone exists as either an absolute (100%) introvert or an absolute (100%) extrovert, wouldn’t that mean that every introvert would be exactly the same and present in the exact same way, and vice versa? This, I am sure we would on agree on, is never actually the case. To further buttress this point, there is also the classification, ‘Ambivert‘, which speaks concerning a balance between the extroverted and introverted nature – I would like to believe that means a 50% introverted and 50% extroverted personality expression ratio.
I remember when someone asked me the question. He, I am sure, was expecting a straightforward response – probably something along the lines of “Yes! I am an introvert.” The way I eventually responded, however, no doubt left him feeling a little dissatisfied. I told him that, heuristically, I should be around 55% introverted and 45% extroverted. In other words, I was somewhere on the spectrum and not entirely at any extreme.
To be honest, even this more ratioed way of defining how one’s personality presents might still be largely simplistic because there are other factors that still tend to influence how people present in their personality. As an example, I believe people’s personality presentation changes based on the time of day, their exposure to sunlight, chemical intoxication, the sort of relationship they have with whoever they are with, their subtle unconscious bias (believe it or not, some people present more in an extroverted way when they are around people that are physically similar to them and in a more introverted way when they are around more dissimilarly looking people), cultural appropriation, spiritual positioning, physiological conditions (like hunger, as an example), and the list goes on – there’d be more in-depth conversation on this, hopefully.
What do you think about this topic? What is you own ratioed opinion of your personality type? Do you think there is more that we could consider in relation to this topic?
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Experiences of journeying humans 