# Introversion and Introspection



## Spades (Aug 31, 2011)

Even though I'm "retired", I can't help but post on this topic! It's probably the single-most frustrating misconception I see people making about Introversion/Extroversion!

Introspection has little to do with either, both from what I've seen anecdotally, and from logically thinking about it. The attraction to introspection goes far beyond typology, and into the individual's psyche. Factors such as mental health, past experience, interests, cognitive ability, etc, will shape how much one is drawn to, or repelled by introspection. The Big Five puts that trait on the _Openness to Experience_ scale, not on the _Extraversion_ scale, implying that those who are more Inquisitive are more prone to introspect, regardless of intro- or extroversion.

I mistyped as an introvert for two main reasons: I prefer to do things alone, and I *falsely* tied introversion with being more reflective, self-aware, and introspective. When one considers what I/E really represents - dominant reference to the "objective" or "subjective" worlds - it's easy to see how an introvert can avoid introspection and an extrovert can be heavily drawn to it.

I relate to the OP; for me self-reflection feels like "delving in", regardless of how often I do it, because I am consciously tearing away reference to the outer world, my normal mode of operation. Everyone does this, because everyone uses introverted functions.


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## Navi (Jul 8, 2012)

Owfin said:


> For an introvert, the inner world _is_ their natural place of residence. There is no need to delve into it.


This. I need to introspect. I need to be within my own mind. 
It's my "happy place".


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## Jewl (Feb 28, 2012)

Spades said:


> Even though I'm "retired", I can't help but post on this topic! It's probably the single-most frustrating misconception I see people making about Introversion/Extroversion!
> 
> Introspection has little to do with either, both from what I've seen anecdotally, and from logically thinking about it. The attraction to introspection goes far beyond typology, and into the individual's psyche. Factors such as mental health, past experience, interests, cognitive ability, etc, will shape how much one is drawn to, or repelled by introspection. The Big Five puts that trait on the _Openness to Experience_ scale, not on the _Extraversion_ scale, implying that those who are more Inquisitive are more prone to introspect, regardless of intro- or extroversion.
> 
> ...


Well, although "retired" you can still post when there is interesting conversation. ^_^ Haha. I like how you put it. I saw people saying things like Introverted = introspective, or Introverted Function = introspecting, but I couldn't seem to fully swallow that idea. It didn't sit well with me. I know I'm Extroverted, and it certainly doesn't feel to me like introspection is not as natural as it would be for an Introvert. Nor do I appear to do it any less than Introverts. Hearing these things made me doubt myself, and made me doubt the things that I knew about myself. 

I do appear to self reflect differently than Introverts. I come at it from a more Ne-led sort of point of view. But that doesn't mean I am less capable of introspecting.


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## Kabosu (Mar 31, 2012)

I imagine extraverts who have a lot of alone time and/or are independent would use a decent amount of time for introspection. By that point, it's _almost_ natural.


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## Spades (Aug 31, 2011)

Julia Bell said:


> I do appear to self reflect differently than Introverts. I come at it from a more Ne-led sort of point of view. But that doesn't mean I am less *capable* of introspecting.


Exactly. Out of everyone I know, myself and some other extroverts seem the most "excited" about introspecting because we extrovert our excitement about it XP. Furthermore, I was holding back this comment earlier, but I think it really depends on the intellectual capabilities of the person. Nothing says extroverts should be any less *capable*, as you said. Someone can introspect all day about "I'm sad because I'm hurt", while someone can introspect for 10 minutes about the details of _why_ they're upset and what they can _do_ about it, and it will be a more productive form of introspection.


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## LadyO.W.BernieBro (Sep 4, 2010)

Yep, l would agree with Owfin. My inner world is my "real" world. although sometimes l really have trouble gauging how much of my introversion is natural.

But l think you're introverted in the way that l'm extroverted, perhaps OP. Introversion feels pretty comfortable to you. l would say the same about extroversion for me but l actually do have to delve into it.

l'm also naturally introspective and like to (and need to) analyze all of my thoughts objectively like you describe, although sometimes when l'm deeply introverted lm really not being introspective at all.


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## JungyesMBTIno (Jul 22, 2011)

I would be careful pushing the "IQ and introspection" correlations (not that there aren't any, but it's not a black and white issue). There are probably a lot of very smart people out there (even geniuses) who unconsciously do/think things and are in denial to the point that introspection is almost an insurmountable task for them, due to early incidences in their lives that have made them rather unconscious (e.g. brainwashed Nazis, etc.). Classical conditioning is extremely powerful, especially when people are young. In general, I think everyone can introspect, unless you're far down the road of mental retardation.


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## Jewl (Feb 28, 2012)

MortimerVonKraus said:


> Yep, l would agree with Owfin. My inner world is my "real" world. although sometimes l really have trouble gauging how much of my introversion is natural.
> 
> But l think you're introverted in the way that l'm extroverted, perhaps OP. Introversion feels pretty comfortable to you. l would say the same about extroversion for me but l actually do have to delve into it.
> 
> l'm also naturally introspective and like to (and need to) analyze all of my thoughts objectively like you describe, although sometimes when l'm deeply introverted lm really not being introspective at all.


Hmm... I do not think it is Introversion that is comfortable to me. In fact, I think Introversion would be uncomfortable for me. My thoughts are wired in an entirely different way. But what do you mean when you say "Introversion"?


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## Naama (Dec 5, 2010)

from jung lexicon:



http://www.nyaap.org/jung-lexicon/i said:


> I*ntrospection *
> A process of reflection that focuses on personal reactions, behavior patterns and attitudes. (See also meditation.)
> 
> 
> The difference between introspection and introversion is that the latter refers to the direction in which energy naturally moves, while the former refers to self-examination. Neither introverts nor those with a well-developed thinking function have a monopoly on introspection.


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## gambit (Jun 24, 2010)

JungyesMBTIno said:


> Because it's 100% true. Introversion interacts with one's subjective content, while extraversion takes the outer world at face-value to operate objectively. My philosophy professor said that subjective is about the self (what the individual can understand), while objective is about the outer world (what everyone can understand). Pretty simple. Sure you can introvert about the objective, but the process of processing this will be subjective (oriented toward one's own way of understanding).


Well...introverts repress extroversion and use that as contents for their introversion. Saying then that introversion is strictly about what an individual can understand is not exactly right because the products of introversion can lead to objective standards and measures should people adopt them.



JungyesMBTIno said:


> Introspection and introversion don't necessarily go together. Just because one spends a lot of time in their head doesn't mean that their thoughts/feelings are being closely examined for any investigative purpose. Plenty of introverts probably just "live" their thoughts and feelings without analyzing them from the outsider's perspective of them. Instead, a lot probably just think and feel and compare their introverted functions against inner ideals in uncritical, not highly conscientious ways. Introspection is definitely capable of being an oppositional concept to introversion - they don't go together by default, nor are their any conditions that make this more likely, depending on what aspect of the nature of introspection we are talking about, from basic self-identification to a detached inner analysis outside of one's processing, but with regards to it.


I greatly disagree. Extroversion isn't necessarily about objective standards and measures. What makes Te, Fe, Se, and Ne extroverted is that they depend on an external object/person for meaning. Te might see how a process occurs and develop a methodology for achieving a goal with (or within) that process; Fe might recognize how they feel about certain people and act a certain way in response; etc. They depend on the external, not necessarily objective measures that everyone will or can understand.

That said, extroversion is opposed to introspection, which does not depend on the external, but instead depends on going inward and evaluating the self in some way or degree. Introspection relates heavily to introversion, if not being the same thing; and here's why:

One could review their experiences without reviewing themself in them and then form a subjective conclusion/belief about those experiences (what we could call introversion), but without introspection it would have no *persona*_*l*_ *meaning*_* or attachment*_ because it wouldn't involve any personal connection to such a person. What would be the point then of using the word introversion as separate from introspection, if it ignores the personalized connection between the ego and the unconscious? Why would an introvert care to introvert? Rather then, introversion requires introspection (to some degree) in order to produce personal significance, not only for extroversion (linking the unconscious with the conscious), but to assert our natures as real and meaningful to reality/existence.

I don't believe it's very insightful then to dislodge introversion from introspection, except to obfuscate any insights from Jung's types.


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## Little Cloud (Jan 12, 2013)

It's a very interesting question!
I think that they maybe they don't go together, because I know a lot of introverts thare are not self-aware and are not interested in introspection.
But at the same time I don't know because maybe, even if introversion doesn't always go together introspection, for an introvert person would be simpler than an extrovert person to start the way of introspection.
As a extrovert, even if not so markledy extrovert person (I scored 52% extrovert 48% introvert), in the past I was not self-aware of myself and I wasn't interested in introspection. I searched input from external world instead of searching these into my inside world.
But when I started reading psychology books, I began step by step a process of self-awareness that last still now. Now I'm so interested about it as I'm interested about external world.
I think that maybe introvert people tend more to introspection but that not implies that all introverts are good with it. 
Extrovert, on the contrary, at the beginning would find more difficulties but with time they would be good as introverts or still more than them.
Does for you that makes sense? :happy:


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## JungyesMBTIno (Jul 22, 2011)

Every type can be introspective. In fact, @LiquidLight had a great argument for why it takes extraversion to be self-aware and not introversion - introversion is more of a realization of inner content against abstract ideas (as in, ideas not directly referencing the outer world, but related to it nonetheless in an undeniable way, even though it may be loosely related or very abstract - philosophical ideas are definitely in the realm of introversion, as well as psychological ones that are derived purely from theory and not from biological foundations first-and-foremost). Introverts might struggle with feeling inadequate against the outside world, not knowing what their identities amount to because they might have too many ideas that could, in extreme cases (under not-so-great adaptive circumstances), get almost pathologically irrelevant to anything real and provable and they might start to convince themselves of utter bullshit about themselves, yet still hold as explanations in their own right toward their inner motives, ideas, ideals, imaginings, etc. Extraverts might be more self-aware in terms of how they feel confident in directing their motives toward a more stable sense of concrete identity, yet they may tend to lack insight of their inner motives, which might cause them to be impulsive and at worst, shallow and prone to neglecting their inner reactions, desires, defenses, maybe make a fool of themselves and not be good at defending themselves (which might catch up with them later in the form of addictions), have kind of a superiority complex that might get out-of-control, etc.


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## JungyesMBTIno (Jul 22, 2011)

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of extraverts are mistyped as introverts on this basis (they aren't really hard-and-fast categories anyway). Concerns with the outside world and other people are a reflection of extraversion if the individual actually expects to be able to directly influence another person with their ideas and whatnot. True introversion would be a person probably speaking from their own viewpoints or personal influences with very downplayed intent of actually expecting the outer world to relate to it on an objectively educated level (at least with this as the primary emphasis, whether or not this is remotely evident to the outside world). The person who might just raise views to draw a person into their subjective stances on something, rather than uphold the outer conditions surrounding a topic (like, frankly, less formal than the ideas expected from extraversion). The person might (almost) always relate their own knowledge to a topic, rather than merely work with what's there directly. Of course, I'm speaking of a highly introverted person though (you'll probably get a lot of people near the middle - that's what Jung thought - Jung, on this basis to me, is a great example of a heavy introvert - I mean, he was defending introversion from extraversion very passionately). I think I do know some people near the middle - one is a Ti dom, but she can easily pass off as an Fe dom from a distance - it took me a while to conclude introversion for her - she's barely an introvert imo.


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## Old Intern (Nov 20, 2012)

TaylorS said:


> This is not true. Introverted functions give a subjective, personalized "spin" to the perceived object them while Extraverted functions only care about the object in and of itself. "looking inward" or looking "outward" has nothing to do with it.


This is just wrong. I spend huge chunks of time inside my head, but when I am in extroverted mode, I am not self aware at the same time, or not in the same way. The personalized spin would be the only way that introspection exists! looking outward is looking outward. When I introspect I am using Ti.
Extroverted introspection might be like giving yourself a "report card" at the end of the day but I wouldn't call that introspection.

Or *@TaylorS * maybe it would help me understand what you are saying if you tell me what your own extroverted introspection looks like? Not that you owe any explanation, but I honestly would like to see what you are saying.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introspection


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## JungyesMBTIno (Jul 22, 2011)

I'm rather convinced that introverts are a lot rarer than extraverts (if we can actually substantially call someone one or the other, which is often pretty difficult when considering someone who really is not that distinct from their setting in terms of I or E), other than I noticed that extraverts usually flock around groups more as something of a way to avoid dealing with their more personal ideas in the presence of few - it's common to hear these confess that they aren't comfortable with too few people around - they might feel at a loss of what to say without enough indications of objective conditions in an outer setting - once again, people who aren't extremes either way can probably relate on some level).


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## Little Cloud (Jan 12, 2013)

But an extrovert person if connect himself with his introvert side could develop the introspection in a deeper way because he could reflect himself through his relationships. 
So I think that also the extrovert side could help the introspection even if probably one is more facilitate by his introvert side.


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