On the Correct Understanding of Dichotomy Extroversion-Introversion by Trehov and Tsypin¶

Written by A. Trehov and P. Tsypin from School of Structural Socionics.

Review of Definitions and Confusions¶

“Introversion is a passive, but energy-saving and defensive orientation of the psyche, leading to familiarization and deepening of what already exists. Due to their reserve, introverts, compared to extroverts, are rarely found in leadership roles, especially when it comes to large groups” [4, p.186 ].

“Extraversion is an active, but energy-expending orientation of the psyche, leading to extension, expansion. In most cases, the communicative as well as the intellectual leader in a society turns out to be an extrovert” [4, p.188].

We have no fundamental objections to the formulation of this dichotomy through the energy-exchange processes. Yes, introversion is related to preservation of energy, and extroversion - to high energy expenditures. However, the tight connection of this dichotomy to leadership in a society evokes perplexity. Whether a person will become a leader or not is depends, firstly, on his personal qualities (for example, having a desire to become a leader, having ambition), secondly, on the social conditions (in some circumstances leaders of extroverted type are in demand, in others, on the contrary, introverted leaders), and thirdly, on the specifics of transpiring events (someone “got lucky”, someone withdrew due to health issues, etc.).

In many cases, when social conditions worked in favor of introverted orientation, the leaders (even of large groups) were people with introverted TIMs, in particular: Robespierre (Ti,Ne), Nicholas I (Ti,Se), Alexander III (Fi,Se), Stalin (Ti,Se), Khrushchev (Si,Fe), Mao Zedong (Fi,Se), Brezhnev (Fi,Se), Andropov (Ni,Te), Putin (Ti,Se), Lukashenko (Ti,Se).

Concerning intellectual leadership, this trait cannot be a priority, as there is no harsh struggle for power: if a person has far-reaching ideas - then he or she becomes the intellectual leader. For example, one of the most authoritative figures (and in fact leaders) of Russian culture of the past decades has been the intellectual D. S. Lihachev, “classic” representative of TIM Fi-Ne. In the modern Russian cinema one of the brightest leaders is N. Mikhalkov, TIM Ti-Se.

“Extrovert:

oriented at what is happening outside of himself;

open to everything that happens around him;

correlates his opinions to the opinions of people around him;

loves to act, to take initiative;

prefers to change the situation if it doesn’t suit him;

easily makes new contacts, quickly settles into a new group;

tends to immediately express what is on his mind;

with interest relates to new people, easily becomes acquainted with them;

if relations didn’t work out, leaves just as easily, not trying to change anyone to his own way;

often inclined to take risks.

Introvert:

oriented at his own sensations, thoughts, impressions of what is around him;

tries to shut out (to protect himself) from an abundance of new information;

prefers to adapt to the situation rather than changing it, even if it’s not acceptable to him;

seems pensive, silent, outwardly calm;

has a narrow circle of friends;

rarely makes any new contacts;

gravitates to mental focus and silence;

dislikes unexpected visits and doesn’t make them himself;

works well alone” [5, pp. 33-34].

The excessive categorization of most elements in the above description is of note. This definition becomes invalid due to its tight and invariant form. In particular, even the most “extroverted” extrovert “correlates his opinions” not with everyone around him, but only with those people whose opinions are of importance to him. Any extrovert is also quite able to brush off someone’s opinion or not take into account the views of a number of people, if these are non-authoritative. Further, the phrase “loves to act” is unclear: it turns out that introverts always appear idle? To act (in one or another directions) means to live: this means that introverts don’t like to live?! It is ridiculous to even talk about the proposition “expresses all he’s thinking about”: every adult person conceals a wealth of information without this, any relationships with others become extremely problematic. It is hard to find a person who wouldn’t filter their thoughts at least a little before voicing them.

The proposition that the extravert “easily leaves if relations didn’t work out” is also implausible. The collapse of relations are painful for any person (but not everyone knows how to show it); any separation is a psychological trauma, to a greater or lesser degree, and even ethical extroverts, who are inclined to self-sufficient management and direction of their relations, worry and feel upset if someone has dropped all contact with them.

Description of “thoughtful, silent, outwardly calm” does not apply to all introverts: in particular, Si-Fe is usually socially active and likes to “talk” (as do other ethical introverts).

Liking “surprise visits”, in our opinion, cannot be considered a socionic factor. This is related to a person’s upbringing and education: people who were brought up well, typically don’t make surprise visits - they were taught to warn about their intentions to visit someone beforehand. In practice, most extroverts prefer to know in advance about a visit of someone else, and feel apprehensive if they hear an unexpected doorbell.

“One fundamental difference that divides people into two broad categories is expressed in terms “extroversion” and “introversion”. These contain succinct characteristic of individual psychological differences between people, expressed in terms of predominating orientation of the person either at the world of external objects and events or at his own subjective the world “[2, p. 20].

This formulation is quite correct. Particularly relevant is the mention of predominance: because in the world there’s nothing absolute, and in the human psyche - even more so; the introvert can react to external events there is no “abnormal” inability for him to observe what is happening around. Another thing is that such observations for the introvert are tedious, thus he engages in them when it is necessary, mainly in complex, critical situations (when the ID block of model starts to work intensively A) [6].

“The extrovert is always in the midst of people, sociable, open to others, has many friends. In activities he is active and enterprising, uninhibited in his statements, capable of undertaking risky actions. For the extravert the most important thing is the objective outside world, the actual objects. Their properties are secondary for him, and thus changeable as required. …

He doesn’t pay attention to poor working conditions, if he feels that he is needed, that without him it would be difficult, however, does not accept coercion even for high goals. He tries to fulfill routine work as soon as possible to switch to doing something creative. His element is travel, movement. He easily takes off, sometimes unexpectedly even to himself.

The consciousness of introvert is turned to his inner world; he is well aware of the aspirations of his soul, his feelings, thoughts, and experiences. With difficulty absorbs large amounts of new information. Outwardly he seems calm and smooth. Quiet atmosphere is more fitting to him; he works best alone. The relationships between the objects for him are more important than the objects themselves, which can be changed to achieve the desired results. Surprises, new acquaintances, sudden visits can knock him off balance. He cherishes existing relationships, with difficulty breaks them, preferring to change himself and others to save the relationship. Friends with few, but for a very long time. Does the work well when he considers it to be his duty, but does not like responsibility, which he perceives as a punishment “[1, pp. 18-19].

First of all, even the most expressed extroverts need more or less long periods of solitude, so that “always being in the midst of the people” - is a completely incorrect proposition. Further, the extroverted (as the introvert), of course, pays attention to his working conditions regardless of whether he is “needed” or not. Nobody wants to work for low wages in an antediluvian building with nasty co-workers. “Having a lot of friends” doesn’t happen to anyone: true friends are always very few; another thing is that the extravert usually has more contacts and acquaintances on the average than the introvert. But this, of course, is not a reliable diagnostic feature for this given dichotomy.

Our understanding¶

This dichotomy, apparently, is a motivating one: it determines what “triggers” information metabolism. For the extrovert the “trigger” occurs when a signal is received about events in the outside world, while for the introvert with a change in his inner condition.

Definition:

Extraversion the predominant motivation of thinking by developments in the outside world.

Introversion the predominant motivation of thinking by intrapersonal (or individual) factors.

Objectivity and realism¶

C. G. Jung considered a person’s tendency towards objective or subjective judgments and estimates in relation to this dichotomy. He wrote:

“… introverted type is different from the extroverted type in that he is focused primarily not on the object and not on at what is objectively present, as is the extroverted type, but on the subjective factors. … for introverted type between the perception of the object and his own action comes a subjective opinion, which interferes with the action of taking on a character corresponding to the objectively given” [8, p. 415].

“If a person thinks, feels, and acts … and it directly relates to the objective conditions and requirements … then he is extraverted” [8, p. 371].

In actuality, in the mental ring of an extroverted TIM all introverted aspects are functionally dependent of the extraverted aspects, for example, Se > Fi. For the extroverted type, the reality is primary (denoted by extrovert aspects), but a subjective reflection of reality is secondary. The introvert, on the contrary, is guided by his own sensations, and only in the presence of the corresponding signal does he come in contact with reality.

G. A. Shulman considers that introverted aspects are responsible for a reflection of reality, and extroverted - for the reality itself.

“… in addition the Beta quadra “turned out” to be dominant on “white[introverted]” functions, functions of reflection of reality, the idealizing functions, which is how it has received the name: quadra-idea, while Delta quadra on “black” logic and intuition, the functions of reality, and thus it was called quadra-reality” [10, p.93].

“… Alpha quadra corresponds to the intuition of reality (Ne) … Beta corresponds to logic of reflection of reality - “white” logic (Ti); - Gamma - sensing of reality (Se) … while Delta corresponds to function of reflection of emotions - “white” ethics (Fi) “[10, p.93].

TIM LIE for example: his notion of time, its expenditure, the dynamics of events, directly depend on the presence or absence of prospective projects, business ventures, efficient technologies (Te). If such are found, there will be time for them, that is, for TIM LIE the logical (or technological) reality is primary. Not so for TIM ILI. He is guided by his own (subjective) sense of time and is ready to work only when he considers is timely (Te as a function of Ni). For NiTe the primary is not reality, but the subjective sense of time.

In general, the program aspects of introverts in a certain way differ from the identical (taking sign into consideration) creative aspects of extroverts. For the latter, the creative aspect is always closely associated with the program one, which brings information about the reality, so the creative (introverted) aspect also acquires realism. In introverts, the program aspect does not depend on anything and is the most subjective (or arbitrary) in any “introverted” model A.

In particular, for TIMs LII and LSI there is always some sort of own logical system, that is not (or is weakly) associated with the existing systems; for TIMs SEI and SLI there are their own (sufficiently far from common) representations of sensations: fashion, acceptable appearance, sexuality, etc.; for TIMs ESI and EII there are their own ethical systems are often far removed from the current social standards; TIMs IEI and ILI have their own perception of time, their own ideas about what is timely, speed, pace, time consumption norms, etc.

Philosophical part¶

If we diverge from the topic of socionics research and take a broader look at the subject of the article, then we can arrive at interesting philosophical conclusions. Extraversion, as by C. G. Jung was inclined to think of it (see quotes above) gives priority to the information about external environment before information born out of internal impressions and reasoning. This - from a philosophical point of view - is nothing else but the priority of existing reality over individual consciousness. This reflects the quote by Karl Marx: “being determines consciousness”. Only K. Marx (NeTi) has extrapolated this orientation at all people, and therefore, to all TIMs. However, for introverts it is the individual consciousness that determines being. For the extrovert, the current existence is the reality (extrovert aspects in his mental ring are accepting), and for introvert the reality is his own individual considerations concerning reality (accepting introverted aspects).

Thus, it is clear that this dichotomy has pronounced philosophical implications, which, in turn, illustrates the profound ideological differences among real people of extraverted and introverted TIMs.

Diagnostics¶

It is easier to diagnose this dichotomy with the help of energy-exchange orientations or temperaments [3], [9]. Extroverts have energy-expending orientation, introverts - energy-saving.

During diagnosis it is also necessary to consider the effect of subtypes on this trait [3]. There are fewer errors in typing extroverts with subtype accentuation of left (inert) block of model A most often these are typical extroverts, without any additional subtype temperaments. Equally typical are introverts with strengthened left (inert) block of their model: most often these people look introverts in everyday sense (or “ayzenkovsky” plan). It’s quite a different situation with type diagnosis of extroverts and introverts with strengthened right (contact) block of model A; they have a subtype temperament: for rational extroverts (e.g. Ni-EIE) - receptive-adaptive, for irrational extraverts (e.g. Ti-ILE) - balanced-stable, for rational introverts (e.g. Ne-LII) - flexible-maneuvering, for irrational introverts (e.g. Fe-IEI) - linear-assertive. These additional subtype temperaments often confuse typers during type diagnoses; to avoid errors, observe the dynamics of energy of individual in question preferably in different socio-psychological conditions.

A set of diagnostic methods for this (and other) dichotomies is given in [7].

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