Extraversion vs Introversion

Extroversion and introversion are attitudes that describe the fundamental form of preference one tends toward. Additionally, they speak to the mind's preferred determining source of knowledge. Jung's typology, or the cognitive functions, is based on them.

Extraversion and Introversion are terms that are thrown around a lot these days. When asked for their definitions, people generally describe an ideal or archetypical extravert as energetic, confident, outgoing, charismatic, whereas they define an introvert as someone who is reserved, quiet, and shy. It is clear that people focus on the behavioral traits, particularly social ability, of these two archetypes. Not only are they highly unrealistic, they also fail to encapsulate the essence of these two attitudes. It is critical to note that Extraversion and Introversion are not two binary extremes, but rather two ends of a cognitive spectrum.

Extraversion

Extroversion is defined as a preference for mind-independent data and facts in the external world. The focus of extroversion is on its environment. It’s pretty straightforward. Introversion, however, isn’t as straightforward.

Introversion

Introversion is about recognizing similarities in impressions that have already been assimilated into consciousness. Whenever an introverted function encounters an object its concern is not really with examining the object but rather with accessing their storehouse of previously digested impressions. The aspirations and idealized notions of the subject's own mind, generated in isolation from its surroundings, are preferred by introverts. Abstraction is a technique that introversion uses to take in information, absorb its key components, and form or recognize a general archetype, prototype, or model.

For example, there are many diverse types of cats in the world, but they all appeal to the perfect idea of ‘cat-ness.’ Each cat is an imperfect imitation of the ideal cat; the form of cat; the one true quintessential cat, for which the subject’s mind has created.

Summary

Obviously, it is impossible to be fully Extraverted or Introverted. If a person was completely Introverted, they would be approaching objects fully based on already obtained past perceptions. But how would they be able to retain such memories if their approach was to always abstract from the object? Likewise, the complete Extravert would be approaching objects with absolutely no prior knowledge. They would never store the impressions of the object.

We can infer that Extroversion favors breadth whereas Introversion favors depth, similar to how Introversion thinks qualitatively and Extroversion thinks quantitatively. Additionally, Introversion wants greater depth than extroversion because it is less focused on only its own thinking but on all aspects of internal life. It is concerned with an object's inherent essence when it is separated from its surroundings.

Simply and concisely put, Extraverts are oriented towards objects, while Introverts focus on the subjective impression of an object. The Extroverted functions will use the instance of the object to understand its ideal form; the introverted functions will use the ideal form of the object to understand its actual instance.