Four types of introversion

[BarIII]

You're mostly a Social Introvert

As a social introvert, you genuinely prefer to spend time on your own, or in smaller groups of close friends. Social introverts don’t sit at home wishing they had the confidence to go out, they really would prefer to hang out with their book on a Saturday night than be in a crowded bar.

You tend to prefer chilled out holidays where you can live by your own schedule and get in some quality quiet time. If you do go out to a party, you’ll need to recharge your energy levels by spending time alone afterwards, even if you enjoyed yourself.


But you're also a Restrained Introvert

As a restrained introvert, you take things at your own pace, and tend to be a bit slower to get going than other people – you’re not the kind of person who jumps out of bed in the morning and is immediately raring to go.

You prefer to think before you speak and to plan things, rather than spontaneously deciding to do something “crazy”.

I guess so

[last_caress]

You're mostly a Social Introvert

But you're also a Restrained Introvert

[Madrigal]

I guess I do think about myself a lot but often in relation to how other people will act or something. Or at least I think it's a big goal of mine to understand myself as a way to understand others or something. Or maybe I'm just self-centred.

Haha, nah, I think that makes sense. I think part of the reason I don't think that way is because it's a lot of responsibility.

On the surface, I think you come across as more introverted in real life than on the forum to the extent that I thougt that that aspect was the most different between rl-you and Madrigal when I first met you. Some of your body language reads quite introverted, like you don't make eye contact too much. And you express a lot more uncertainty in real life than on the forum. I think that's just more an indicator of how you select what you post.

That's true, I deliberately avoid too much eye contact and it's probably due to my own quirks, but this does bring to mind something about Argentina. When I arrived here, I got a couple of friends telling me I held their gaze for too long, either in the form of a statement or as a question to understand why. That had never ocurred to me before, but after a few years I found out that it's considered rude to fix your gaze on someone's eyes for very long intervals. The verb is "ojear" (to eye) and it's considered to cause headaches, or worse. It is also called "mal de ojo" and is believed to be done either voluntarily (with evil intent) or involuntarily by oblivious people who simply have a harsh gaze.

One day (after 5 years in Argentina) I had just had a long conversation and complained to another friend that the conversation had given me a headache. She asked if my interlocutor was looking into my eyes the whole time and I said yes, as a matter of fact, he was. And she said that was why (maybe she was also giving me a hint). In any case, I eventually got quite self-conscious about accidentally stabbing my gaze into people's eyes, but I'm not sure whether my infrequent eye contact is due only to this or a combination of factors that influenced me later in life.


Edit: Btw, as a teacher here I got a couple of students commenting to me that while in Canada (I taught a lot of people doing exploratory trips there), Canadians had a weird way of staring at them in a way that made them feel self-conscious. They would sometimes even imitate the Canadian stare, like a blank stare they'd make while you're talking and after you've stopped talking, too. I remembered the comments I had gotten some years back and it cracked me up.

[kitsune]

Result: You're mostly a Social Introvert

As a social introvert, you genuinely prefer to spend time on your own, or in smaller groups of close friends. Social introverts don’t sit at home wishing they had the confidence to go out, they really would prefer to hang out with their book on a Saturday night than be in a crowded bar.

You tend to prefer chilled out holidays where you can live by your own schedule and get in some quality quiet time. If you do go out to a party, you’ll need to recharge your energy levels by spending time alone afterwards, even if you enjoyed yourself.

But you're also a Thinking Introvert

As a thinking introvert, you’re introspective and spend a lot of time in your own head. You have a rich inner life, pay attention to your feelings, and often think about what kind of person you are.

Some tests that measure introversion and extraversion might have trouble placing you, or even tell you you’re an extravert instead of an introvert. But you’re just a different kind of introvert to the one most people are used to. For one thing, thinking introverts don’t necessarily have the same aversion to social events that other kinds of introverts do (though some of them do).

[Ptah]

Thinking, Restrained

This, however, is shit:

Some tests that measure introversion and extraversion might have trouble placing you, or even tell you you’re an extravert instead of an introvert. But you’re just a different kind of introvert to the one most people are used to. For one thing, thinking introverts don’t necessarily have the same aversion to social events that other kinds of introverts do (though some of them do).

I've always come out clearly introvert on other tests. And I do have "aversion" as in disinterest in social events.

[nerby]

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[nerby]

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[jigglypuff]

Per @Madrigal, I don't really spend that much time thinking about myself, but I spend lots of time in my heading thinking about how things are and trying to understand why they might be the way they are. I'll call that the "Thinking" introvert style, but it doesn't quite agree with the definition in the article which seems to have over emphasized self reflection vs reflection on the wider world IMO.

yeah this.

i also don't completely understand the significance of "thinking" introversion... i mean, if you're not talking but your mind is active, you're thinking about something. what the article describes just sounds self-absorbed and somewhat neurotic to me, if your introversion is defined by constant self-reflection, not as a particular response to anything. admittedly though, as a teenager, i was very much like that (& i'd consider it now anxiety, a coping/defense mechanism).

i could only understand it (as separate from "anxious" introversion) if it came with a strong drive to express oneself creatively or within relationships but within such a simplistic framework that might not be considered introversion anymore once the thoughts are expressed.

for the most part i don't agree with this particular attempt to "break it down"-- it seems too simplistic.

[gator]

I'm not sure that this categorization works for me. In reading through the definitions I'm not sure if they're sufficiently different from each other to be useful as categories. I can see myself as falling into each one in certain situations or in at least one particular period in my life, shifting between them.

But you're also an Anxious Introvert

As an anxious introvert, you often prefer to be alone not just because you get tired out in large groups of people, but because you feel uneasy around new people and aren’t hugely confident in your social skills.

You’re probably used to memories of embarrassing events from your past coming back to haunt you. Psychologists call this inability to stop thinking about your past interactions “rumination”, and the annoying thing about it is that it doesn’t stop when you’re on your own.

Some anxious introverts have a high need for social contact that conflicts with their anxieties, and this can be tough to deal with. Others prefer to have less social contact anyway, so their anxiety will get in the way less.

If you think you’re suffering from an anxiety disorder, you should speak to your doctor to get the help you need.

I take issue with the anxious introvert category and definition because it describes someone who avoids social contact because they are shy. Introversion =/= shyness though it is commonly understood that way. Allowing that as a categoriy only reinforces the stereotype that we're all insecure and need to break out of our shell.

I think shyness and anxiety are more a symptom than an underlying cause of introversion, and they are not necessarily diagnostic. If you are introverted and therefore prefer less social contact, it stands to reason that social situations may cause you anxiety. But that anxiety stems from being in a situation where you're pushed out of your comfort zone. The shyness doesn't cause the introversion. It's the other way around. And being anxious and shy around people doesn't necesssarily mean you're introverted. Extroverts can feel that way too for a variety of reasons.

[notdavidlynch]

The test said I'm mostly restrained, but also thinking.

I definitely don't agree with the test. I don't like the article either.

"You're capable of getting lost in an internal fantasy world," Cheek said. "But it's not in a neurotic way, it's in an imaginative and creative way."

You can't be "lost in an internal fantasy world" without being seen as, and thus becoming, neurotic to many people. I feel as if the author threw this in there to dismiss the negativity commonly associated with introverted traits. They likely know very well that neuroticism, imagination, and creativity are well-documented bed fellows.