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Understanding the Introversion Spectrum
Introverts have been particularly cool since Susan Cain’s book Quiet came out in 2012. Everyone thinks they’re an introvert. But I can guarantee you that half of you are wrong!
There are people out there who attack the world mercilessly and talk 100 miles an hour with a bulging vein on their neck and they still think they’re an introvert. It’s simply the popular and oh-so-unique thing to be.
But thinking that you’re an introvert when you’re not, doesn’t help anyone.
In this article, we’ll talk about introversion and extroversion from the lens of the Objective Personality System.
We’ll dispel common myths and present a definition of introversion and extroversion that captures what goes on in reality and is useful for personal growth.
We’ll explain how the binary coin of introversion/extroversion can be unfolded into a spectrum that has far more nuance than “Do you feel drained by social interaction?”
Understanding where you are on this spectrum can give you a road map for personal growth.
All in all, introversion/extroversion is a central concept of the OP system and one of the most important things to know and understand about yourself.
Reading Quiet
I read Susan Cain's book many many years ago and it helped me a great deal. It helped me better understand who I am and what that means. And even more importantly, it helped me to accept myself more.
One of the most common complaints my mother got from teachers was: “He doesn’t want to speak up in class. We see in his eyes that he’s paying attention. When we ask him, he usually knows the answer. But he doesn’t engage on his own.”
When I got older, the consequences got worse. It’s difficult to have the connections you want when you’re afraid to socialise and meet new people. I often felt lonely, alienated, and generally disconnected.
Susan Cain defines an introvert as someone who has a preference for a quiet, more minimally stimulating environment. Introverts think more, are less reckless and focus on what really matters—relationships and meaningful work.
Who wouldn’t want to be an introvert? It sounds pretty nice and special, doesn’t it?—Well, there’s more to the story.
As it turns out, I actually am an introvert, according to Susan Cain’s definition and in the OP system too.
One important thing that I learned from Quiet is that introversion and extroversion are inherent. There is a genetic factor involved. You’re simply born that way. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you in either case.
Reading Quiet led me to more acceptance and it motivated me to develop my extroverted side through things like teaching. I’d still call it one of the most impactful books I ever read.
However, Susan Cain did not give me the full picture of what was actually going on.
The Objective Personality Approach
The OP approach follows a different angle. It doesn’t make introverts sound like special unicorns.
In Objective Typing, we track Saviors and Demons, the patterns of your emotional states. What creates excitement and what conjures up fear? What do you feel responsible for and what do you avoid?
The truth is this: much of your behaviour is based on fear and avoidance.
So what is an introvert really?—Someone who fears the external world and therefore retracts to their internal safe space. It comes with a blindness to external responsibilities.
What is an extrovert?—Someone who fears their internal world and therefore engages the external world. This goes hand in hand with a blindness to internal responsibilities.
Susan Cain describes an introvert as someone who’s drained by external stimuli. However, interacting with the external world is draining for everybody, while it has many positive effects as well.
Extroverts simply do it more because they’re trying to avoid their internal world.
For example, I experience a day at the office as less draining than Holly because I don’t pay as much attention to other people as she does. She feels naturally more responsible for engaging the external world and that drains her. It would drain me too, but I’m able to get away with doing it less.
These fear-driven imbalances are completely normal. The problem is that they lead to tidal waves.
When I ignore the extroverted world for too long—and believe me I would love to do that—when I don’t communicate, when I’m not flexible to other people’s needs, it will bite me in the ass eventually.
My boss will be pissed, Holly will get annoyed, this article won’t be finished on time. It’s gonna be a mess. I would like to avoid that.
The Objective Personality approach trades short-term pain for sustainable long-term growth.
I am an introvert but I’m not a special snowflake. I am simply afraid to engage the external world. If I start with the understanding that this fear originates from within me, I can slowly get better at dealing with the external world despite this fear.
Practising this means short-term discomfort, but it also leads to long-term peace of mind.
OPS not only presents a clearer picture of the root cause, it also paints a more nuanced picture of introversion and extroversion.
While we can zoom out and cut the spectrum of types in half, we can also zoom in and discover a wide spectrum of different kinds of introversion and extroversion.
In reality, we’re all a mix of introverted and extroverted parts. Knowing how they stack allows us to pinpoint where the tidal waves come from and what to do about it.
The Spectrum
The Human Needs are the foundation of the OP model. However, it is an old MBTI myth that your lead Human Need decides if you’re introverted or extroverted.
There are IxxJs who are crazy extroverted and actually cause a lot of chaos. There are also ExxJs who are rather introverted.
To understand the introversion/extroversion spectrum, we will focus on the Animals because they subsume the Human Needs.
The Animals are Sleep, Play, Consume and Blast. Their order from most introverted to most extroverted Animal is:
Sleep < Consume < Blast < Play
Sleep and Consume are introverted Animals, Blast and Play are extroverted. We explained how they can stack in part 6 of our introductory series to OPS.
Your Animal stack describes the dynamic of how you express the four Human Needs. It is the most important piece in understanding where your type falls on the introversion/extroversion spectrum.
Keep in mind, that everyone uses every Animal. The questions are:
What is a Savior and what is a Demon?
Where is the Animal in your stack?
Let us order the 16 Animal stacks from most introverted to most extroverted in a way that shows how it plays out in reality. We’ll look at a series of questions that let us compare the Animal stacks on the introverted/extroverted spectrum.
Question 1: Is the last Animal introverted or extroverted?
This question cuts the spectrum of Animal stacks in half. If the last Animal is extroverted, you're an introvert. If the last Animal is introverted, you’re an extrovert.
We don’t look at the lead function and we don’t look at the first Animal. The last Animal determines overall introversion or extroversion because it represents the biggest void you leave.
But within those two categories, there is still a lot of variation. Some introverts are simply more introverted than others.
Question 2: Do you have one introverted and one extroverted Demon Animal or are your Demon mixed?
I apologise if this question sounds a bit confusing at first. Let me explain.
In general, your two Demon Animals can both be extroverted, both be introverted, or they can be mixed.
If they are both extroverted, it means that the void you’re leaving in the external world is especially big. This makes you even more introverted.
If they are both introverted, it’s the other way around. It makes you especially extroverted.
However, if one Demon is introverted and the other is extroverted, you have one foot in both worlds. In this case, you’re a so-called ambivert.
An appropriate name for the non-ambiverts, the stacks at the edges of the spectrum, might be univert because they only have one kind of Demon animal.
We ask Question 2 to introverts and extroverts separately and cut these categories in half again. This divides the spectrum into four parts:
The introverted univerts also known as Mopes
Introverted ambiverts
Extroverted ambiverts
Extroverted univerts also known as Crackheads
There are two versions of Question 3 that mirror each other.
Question 3a: For the introverts, is the last Animal Play or Blast?
We apply this question to each introverted category on the spectrum individually.
This means that all Mopes with Play last are more introverted than the ones with Blast last. The same goes for the introverted ambiverts.
Question 3b: For the extroverts, is the last Animal Sleep or Consume?
On the other side, all Crackheads with Sleep last are more extroverted than the Crackheads with Consume last. The same is true for the extroverted ambiverts.
We split Question 4 in four ways. As before, we look at the categories we already have and use Question 4 to order the stacks within these categories.
Question 4a: For the Mopes, is your first Animal Sleep or Consume?
The Mopes with Sleep first are more introverted than the ones with Consume first.
Question 4b: For the Crackheads, is your first Animal Play or Blast?
The Crackheads with Play first are more extroverted than the ones with Blast first.
It’s a bit different for the ambiverts. There we look at the middle two Animals.
Question 4c: For the introverted Ambiverts, are your two middle Animals Sleep and Consume?
If they’re introverted, having Sleep and Consume together in the middle (in no particular order) makes them more introverted than the types that have Sleep and Consume in the top 3 but not next to each other.
Question 4d: For the extroverted Ambiverts, are your two middle Animals Play and Blast?
If they’re extroverted, it works the same way with Play and Blast in the middle.
Question 4 splits all previous eight categories into two which means that all Animal stacks get their unique place on the spectrum.
As an example, let’s look at my Animal stack, CS/P(B):
I’m introverted because I have an introverted Animal last.
I’m a Mope—essentially a double introvert—because my other Demon Animal is also extroverted.
With Blast last, I’m not as introverted as the Mopes with Play last.
I’m also less introverted than the types with SC/P(B) because my first Animal is more extroverted than theirs.
In total, I’m the most extroverted Mope—which still makes me pretty damn introverted.
There are other aspects of the OP system that can make you more or less introverted for your Animal stack. MM extroverted functions make you generally more extroverted for your type. Your social type can have an effect too. As a #2, you’d be more extroverted and as a #3 more introverted.
In general, the most important part to look at is the greatest imbalance in your Animal stack. It’s the imbalance between your last Animal and it’s opposite on the same coin.
You leave a huge void in your last Animal and you don’t know you’re doing it. Your mind is not made to see it. Even knowing your type doesn’t mean that you understand the full extent of it.
Two things helped me the most to find more balance and create a stronger feeling of agency:
Tracking my tidal waves in a journal to bring more awareness to the voids I leave.
Having systems and routines in place that force me to produce and communicate more and more consistently—including some outside accountability.
In many ways, Susan Cain was right. Being introverted or extroverted is neither good nor bad. It’s an inherent part of your default wiring that comes with pros and cons.
Objective Personality simply gives a clearer picture of what goes on under the surface and how to go about creating balance.