1. There’s no definition of “introvert” that psychologists agree on.
Carl Jung was one of the first to define introversion in psychology, saying that each person is either an âintrovertâ or an âextravertâ. Extraverts (now also known popularly as extroverts) focus their energy outwards, he said, whereas introverts are thoughtful and focus inwards. In other words, Jungâs introvert was introspective.
But in the â90s, the âBig 5â model of personality emerged. It rates people based on five traits, one of which is âextraversionâ. Because Jung had already said introversion and extraversion were opposites, people started to define introversion as a low score on the Big 5âs extraversion scale.
The trouble is, the Big 5 focuses on observable traits. âOf course, introverts donât emit a lot of observable behaviour sometimes, but they have a very rich inner life,â Professor Jonathan Cheek, a psychologist at Wellesley College whoâs spent years researching personality, tells BuzzFeed Science.
When the Big 5 model became popular, he says, âit was a good day for organising personality research, but it was a bad day for introversionâ.
Rodion Kutsaev / unsplash.com / BuzzFeed