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Introversion/extroversion is a false dichotomy. There is no such thing, and no evidence fundamental personality types exist. Carl Jung's theories are unfalsifia

Introversion/extroversion is a false dichotomy. There is no such thing, and no evidence fundamental personality types exist. Carl Jung's theories are unfalsifiable, untestable, and pseudoscientific. Promulgating this quackery is damaging to people who are labeled as such and go on to identify with it.

vvpan 11y ago
I fully agree. I've seen people (including myself) go through varying degrees of introversion based on external experiences. Identification can be a strongly limiting and a destructive power. When it comes to "introvert" reservations about fully identifying with a term seem to vanish for most people - those who identify and those who do not.
- Jtsummers 11y ago
  > Identification can be a strongly limiting and a destructive power. This cannot be emphasized enough. Sometimes identifying mental characteristics/behaviors can be very important (for instance, depression) in that it allows you to start examining it and trying to correct it, or build a career or social life that takes account of it. But many people latch onto non-disorder labels (like introversion) and use it to justify all their behavior ("I don't want to go out on Friday night because I'm an introvert." - spoken by many of my friends, even when going out just meant a night in playing board games that they originally suggested). This isn't true of all introverts, but many self-identified introverts that I've met the last several years exhibit behavior more in common with burnout and depression. They hold the dual views of wanting to do things with people (their friends at least) but refusing to go out because it means dealing with people (often those same friends). At some point, like I did, you have to figure out a healthy way to deal with your desire to have quiet time/alone time/whatever time in a way that doesn't frustrate the people you want in your life to the point that they end up leaving you behind. Or you need to find friends that you actually find yourself desiring more time with.
SpaceCadetJones 11y ago
What? Introversion/Extroversion certainly has evidence, and it's not just some quackery only Jung had things to say about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits I believe the strong+absolute dichotomy people try and present on the trait is false, but that's a misunderstanding of how personality traits interact in complex ways to produce behaviors. Some of my acquaintances might think I'm an extrovert, but that's because they've only seen me in particular environments and I'm mildly to strongly introverted but not absolutely. I know I personally found it relieving to learn some of the facets of introversion and know that I wasn't weird or broken and many people felt the same things that I did although I didn't realize it.
evanpw 11y ago
I'm no fan of Jung, and it's wrong to call it a dichotomy, but introversion / extroversion is definitely a real, measurable trait. If you ask a bunch of people a lot of questions about how they feel or act in certain situations, and perform a factor analysis, then you'll find (or at least several independent researchers have found) that a small number of factors (3 - 5) can explain a large fraction of the variation among personalities. One of those factors corresponds well to what most people think of as extroversion / introversion. It's also relatively stable through time for the same individual, strongly heritable, present across many cultures, correlated with certain physical brain differences, etc.
- dreamdu5t 11y ago
  Yeah, right. It's a "continuum". Conveniently meaningless. Nobody, nowhere treats it like that anyway. People are labeled introverts or extroverts. Apparently kids who want a quiet place to read are now introverts.
  - gerbilly 11y ago
    It's not the fault of the researchers if the terms extroversion/introversion have been incorrectly popularized. What exactly is your point? That this personality factor does not exist, or that there are no such things as personality factors? What is you evidence for your scepticism? Just because a concept provokes a negative emotional response in you doesn't meant it's meaningless to everyone.

vvpan 11y ago

I fully agree. I've seen people (including myself) go through varying degrees of introversion based on external experiences. Identification can be a strongly limiting and a destructive power. When it comes to "introvert" reservations about fully identifying with a term seem to vanish for most people - those who identify and those who do not.

Jtsummers 11y ago
> Identification can be a strongly limiting and a destructive power. This cannot be emphasized enough. Sometimes identifying mental characteristics/behaviors can be very important (for instance, depression) in that it allows you to start examining it and trying to correct it, or build a career or social life that takes account of it. But many people latch onto non-disorder labels (like introversion) and use it to justify all their behavior ("I don't want to go out on Friday night because I'm an introvert." - spoken by many of my friends, even when going out just meant a night in playing board games that they originally suggested). This isn't true of all introverts, but many self-identified introverts that I've met the last several years exhibit behavior more in common with burnout and depression. They hold the dual views of wanting to do things with people (their friends at least) but refusing to go out because it means dealing with people (often those same friends). At some point, like I did, you have to figure out a healthy way to deal with your desire to have quiet time/alone time/whatever time in a way that doesn't frustrate the people you want in your life to the point that they end up leaving you behind. Or you need to find friends that you actually find yourself desiring more time with.

SpaceCadetJones 11y ago

What? Introversion/Extroversion certainly has evidence, and it's not just some quackery only Jung had things to say about. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits I believe the strong+absolute dichotomy people try and present on the trait is false, but that's a misunderstanding of how personality traits interact in complex ways to produce behaviors. Some of my acquaintances might think I'm an extrovert, but that's because they've only seen me in particular environments and I'm mildly to strongly introverted but not absolutely. I know I personally found it relieving to learn some of the facets of introversion and know that I wasn't weird or broken and many people felt the same things that I did although I didn't realize it.

evanpw 11y ago

I'm no fan of Jung, and it's wrong to call it a dichotomy, but introversion / extroversion is definitely a real, measurable trait. If you ask a bunch of people a lot of questions about how they feel or act in certain situations, and perform a factor analysis, then you'll find (or at least several independent researchers have found) that a small number of factors (3 - 5) can explain a large fraction of the variation among personalities. One of those factors corresponds well to what most people think of as extroversion / introversion. It's also relatively stable through time for the same individual, strongly heritable, present across many cultures, correlated with certain physical brain differences, etc.

dreamdu5t 11y ago
Yeah, right. It's a "continuum". Conveniently meaningless. Nobody, nowhere treats it like that anyway. People are labeled introverts or extroverts. Apparently kids who want a quiet place to read are now introverts.
- gerbilly 11y ago
  It's not the fault of the researchers if the terms extroversion/introversion have been incorrectly popularized. What exactly is your point? That this personality factor does not exist, or that there are no such things as personality factors? What is you evidence for your scepticism? Just because a concept provokes a negative emotional response in you doesn't meant it's meaningless to everyone.