5 - Are You an Extravert or Introvert?

A Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Jung, was an associate of Sigmund Freud. They parted company because of certain disagreements over key theories. He popularized the terms extravert and introvert.

 

Extravert — social, outgoing, gregarious, “the life of the party”
When stress occurs, the extravert automatically turns to others for support. The extravert laughs frequently and finds it easy to make friends. Given the choice of presenting an oral report in front of the class or focusing on a detailed written report, the extravert has no hesitation in choosing the oral report.

teenage girl

Introvert — thoughtful, shy, withdrawn, caught up in self-discovery and personal growth
When stress occurs, the introvert finds a place away from others to think things through. The introvert tends to daydream, worries about the opinions of others, and is easily hurt by the rude actions of others. The introvert may enjoy reading a book or listening to music alone.

Many people say, “I’m a little bit of both.” This is usually true. On some occasions a person wants to be with others and have fun; at other times the person does not mind having some quiet time. However, Carl Jung maintained that when one of the choices becomes dominant and habitual for the person, he or she is either an extravert or an introvert. Nine times out of ten, would you rather read a book or be the life of the party? Which choices tend to be more dominant? Those people who are truly a balance of both choices are ambiverts.

Like Freud, Jung spent a great deal of time studying the unconscious mind. However these great psychologists had differing views on the factors that determine human behaviour. Freud narrowed the influences to early childhood experiences. Jung emphasized that goals play an important role in directing human behaviour.

Jung believed the unconscious mind could be divided into the personal unconscious and the collective unconscious. The personal unconscious comes from our own past experiences that we were once aware of but have now been forgotten. For example, any basic habit you learned in early childhood has now become automatic for you, and you do not have to remember it consciously step by step every time you do it. One example is brushing your hair.

The collective unconscious is the second category. This is a powerful region of the mind and contains all the memories from our earliest ancestors. The collective unconscious is the same for everyone throughout the world; it is universal. The collective unconscious refers to human understandings common to all mankind because of our similar experiences. For example, people from all corners of the world are afraid of a loud thundering noise and a sudden flash of intense light because that usually means personal danger.