Introversion and Extraversion
A personality dimension that runs from reserve to sociability, scored on a scale with introversion and extraversion at its ends.
What it is
It is one of the five broad dimensions in trait research. Lucas and colleagues tested in four studies, including a sample from 39 nations, whether the parts of extraversion hang together through sociability or through sensitivity to reward, and found that the reward-related parts loaded on the higher-order factor. Lieberman and Rosenthal reported that introverts read nonverbal cues less accurately than extraverts only when decoding was a secondary task.
In effect
In the article on the Big Five personality traits, it is one of the five dimensions; the article on the difference between introverts and extroverts takes it as its subject.
What it does not say
It is a continuum, so many people sit between the ends. It does not describe ability, worth or mental health.
Sources
- Goldberg, L. R. (1990). An alternative description of personality: The Big-Five factor structure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(6), 1216-1229.
- Lucas, R. E., Diener, E., Grob, A., Suh, E. M., & Shao, L. (2000). Cross-cultural evidence for the fundamental features of extraversion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(3), 452-468.
- Lieberman, M. D., & Rosenthal, R. (2001). Why introverts can't always tell who likes them: Multitasking and nonverbal decoding. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80(2), 294-310.