Carl Jung’s Theory on Introverts, Extraverts, and Ambiverts

Introversion and extraversion are terms first coined by psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung in Switzerland in the 1920s according to Jung an extravert seeks intensive contact with the outside world an introvert instead turns the psychic energy inwards. Jung believed that no one is a hundred percent extravert or a hundred percent introvert instead we carry both traits however most minds tend to lean either to one side or the other. If both characteristics are equally present we can speak of someone who has an ambivert personality. In the 1960s the psychologist Hans Eysenck added to Carl Jung's ideas.He argued that the main difference between introverts and extraverts lies in the way they gain and recharge their mental energy. By Nature, introverted people have a higher level of brain activity and therefore feel a greater need to shield themselves from external stimuli. By withdrawing themselves they gain mental energy. The neuronal activity of extraverts is lower. They overcome this lack by exposing themselves to external stimulation this charges their inner batteries. To illustrate the difference let's compare two imaginary children: Jay is extraverted. He loves to be surrounded by classmates. He enjoys being the center of attention and loves to talk to his buddies about all kinds of stuff. He organizes football games with strangers and right after is open to playing ping-pong with someone else. By seeking social stimuli he gains mental energy. Ann is introverted. As others play around in the park, she often enjoys sitting alone watching. At home, she plants herbs in the garden, all by herself. She slowly becomes a real expert in this field but that's her secret. To recharge her batteries Ann needs peace and quiet time. Introverts are not necessarily shy, even if it appears they like to walk away from small talk. Ann in fact is not shy at all. She is not afraid to talk to anyone, not even seniors. When too many people are around and the conversations become superficial or confusing she gets super tired. Her strategy is to fade out and go inside herself to recharge through silence. Jay loves to have many people around him, to jump from one conversation to the next stimulates him. Some experts claim that extraverts and introverts use different brain areas to form their thoughts. An extravert tends to use short term memory and therefore is able to come to fast associations Jay therefore talks fast and a lot. He appears smart because his brain always offers an answer quickly. However he often speaks before he thinks and later changes his mind. Someone like Ann works with her brain to carefully retrieve information from her long-term memory. Her thoughts are more complex and hence need more time to develop. She therefore thinks first and then speaks. If the two were asked for directions by a tourist Ann would spend time thinking about the best answer while Jay would have already come up with different kinds of options. Good teachers and clever business leaders know about the different nature of introverts and extraverts and try to develop their strengths. When raising questions they ask everyone to think for a minute in silence before answering. Extraverts then learn to formalize their thoughts before they speak and introverts get more talking time to practice public speaking. At brainstorming they use a formal process or a talking stick to make sure an Ann also gets to participate. Group projects can be formalized to support both temperaments. In one project extraverts and introverts work together. Jay then learns from Ann how to think ideas over to develop more complex thoughts. Ann in return benefits from Jay's fast association skills and learns to think and speak more flexibly. In the next project the same temperaments work together. Then they see their own traits in the opposite person. If confronted with problems in teams of the same character introverts need to speak up and extraverts are forced to think deep to proceed. The educator Rudolf Steiner was a proponent of this method for his Waldorf schools. Psychologist Jerome Kagan's research on temperament in Toddlers showed that many character traits we are born with make it into adulthood. He confronted 500 babies with different stimuli like loud sounds and bad smells. Around 20% of the babies cried or got nervous, 40% stayed relaxed and the other 40% were somewhere in between. A second test years later showed, that babies who didn't react strongly turned out to be more extraverted. What about yourself? Do you consider yourself more introverted or extraverted? Or do you think this classification is flawed and there is no such thing? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Millions of students from all around the globe have watched our Sprouts Videos for better learning. Thousands of teachers play them in their classrooms to start projects volunteers on YouTube have translated them to over 25 languages. Our mission is to promote learning by doing in classrooms around the world. If you are a great explainer and a passionate teacher and you want to help us develop outstanding content, contact us! To support our channel with a donation visit patreon.com/sprouts.

Channel: Sprouts

Views: 1,395,199

Rating: 4.9237781 out of 5

Keywords: education, learning, science, introversion, extroversion, psychology, Rudolf Steiner, Character traits, outward, inward, brain, extraversion

Id: acg6HivAu5E

Length: 6min 30sec (390 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 24 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/micahgideon]

Hmm, let me check... yea that's totally biased. I usually only derive my identity from cartoons so this is actually double biased.

[u/antiwator]

my personal opinion is that introverts need somethink to feel better about so they talk about being "more comlex or deep", im an extrovert and i think that my thinking is waaay more complex than most of introverts i know (i dont mean to brag about it) and that the complexity of thinking isnt based on being extro or introvert but on the way you as a person think and stimuly your learning and thinking skills

[u/[deleted]]

That was a little condescending tbh. In my opinion a lot of the “deep complex thoughts” are full of fake deep bs. Like it’s trying to make things deeper than they are and it’s unnecessary.

[u/SopaDoMacaco]

No introverts, being uncapable of expressing your thoughts clearly doesn't mean you're deep and complex. It means you're dumb and don't know how to synthesize.

If you ask me, I think Ne is the most complex function for other non-Ne users to understand. So probably the most "complex" minds are the ENXP's, followed by INXP's. But this is just based in assumption and could be completely wrong.

[u/selphiefairy]

Yeah, I understood what it was trying to say about introverts basically being easily overstimulated. But they def used biased language when explaining differences. They couldn’t have been more obvious by describing the introverts thoughts as “more complex” and “deep.” Really? 🤦🏻‍♀️

[u/shouldicallumista]

That video sucks.