post by Dan Chaney, Humanities and Social Sciences Division
Okay, let’s talk about what that all means.
The MBTI and PAP break personalities down along four
dimensions:
1.
Introvert/Extravert
2.
Sensing/Intuition
3.
Thinking/Feeling
4.
Judging/Perceiving
These personality dimensions are opposites of one another
– introvert is the opposite of extravert, sensing is the opposite of intuition,
and so on. The scores we see when we take it can best be represented within the
distribution model of the bell curve:
On the left side we would have one side of the dimension,
for example, Introversion, while on the other end we would have Extraversion.
In terms of scores or strength of our connection to that attribute, the bell curve
tells us that most of us are generally close to the center between the two.
What I mean by that is that personality types are tendencies or preferences,
not absolutes. They aren’t a matter of us ALWAYS behaving in an introverted
way, for example. No one does that. We all demonstrate preferences to one side
over the other, but by necessity we operate in both sides. It’s just that one
side comes more naturally to us.
Another difference between the MBTI and the PAP is the
strength of your scores in any given attribute. As I mentioned, with the PAP,
it’s not uncommon that some scores you have will be tied – that means you are
close to the middle in that dimension, so there will be pieces of both sides
which are going to reflect your personality, because you act in both ways. If
you take the MBTI, you will receive a preference as well as a strength. The
MBTI strength scores range from 0 to 40, so they will be much more accurate. In
general, most people, when they take the MBTI find their scores within about 10
of the center, meaning most people are close to the middle between both sides
of the dimension.
There have been many personality studies of various
population groups. This is what psychologists do – they study people. They
study people and attempt to determine characteristics or tendencies of that
group of people. Both librarians and library staff have been studied in terms
of their personalities. We also have personality studies of other groups of
people, and I will be incorporating some of these studies to give you a glimpse
of where your personality aligns along the studies of your peers, as well as
how it aligns along some of our constituent groups – faculty, students, men and
women.
Introvert vs.
Extravert
Introvert vs. Extravert as a dimension of personality is
a measure of how we are energized, or how we draw our energy. When people hear
the terms “introvert” and “extravert” they tend to equate the meaning of the
term with the behavior stereotype of each, with introverts being quiet and
extraverts being outgoing. In terms of Myers-Briggs, this is not how we use the
terms. This dichotomy is really about how people are energized. Introverts draw
their energy by being alone. Extraverts draw their energy by being surrounded
by people.
Introverts focus their attention and energy on the world
inside of themselves. They enjoy spending time alone and need alone time to
recharge their batteries, particularly when they have been operating in an
environment with lots of people. Introverts try to understand the world before
they experience it, which means a lot of their activity is mental. They prefer
social interaction on a small scale – one on one or in small groups. Introverts
avoid being the center of attention and are generally more reserved. Introverts
prefer to get to know people more slowly. Being surrounded by people drains an
introvert of energy, leaving them feeling tired and exhausted.
Extraverts, on the other hand, focus their attention and
energy on the world outside of themselves. They seek out other people and enjoy
a lot of interaction, whether one on one or in groups. They are constantly (and
naturally) pulled to the outer world of people and things because being by
themselves drains their energy. They seek people out to recharge their batteries.
If you don’t know what an extravert is thinking, you
haven’t been paying attention, because they will tell you. If you don’t know
what an introvert is thinking, it’s because you haven’t asked the right
question or haven’t waited long enough for an answer. If you ask a question of
an extravert, they will usually start talking, because extraverts need to talk
in order to think (remember, extraverts are drawn to the outside world). Extraverts
may not have an answer to the question at hand, but they start talking to work
out their thoughts. Introverts, on the other hand, will answer a question with
a long pause, because they are doing their thinking internally, and they don’t
like to draw attention to themselves by giving the wrong answer in public.
The gift of extraversion is breadth, and the gift of
introversion is depth. What I mean by that is extraverts can converse with
people on just about any topic, however, their knowledge of that discussion
topic generally isn’t very deep. Introverts, on the other hand, won’t be
willing to converse with people unless it is in a topic they know and love, and
certainly they won’t have the ability to carry on a conversation on a topic
they are not versed in (hence, the introverts are quiet stereotype). Sometimes
it’s easier to ask the introvert what they are interested in and start a
conversation that way, but many introverts are reticent to share their passions
with strangers.
I will tell you that I fall on the introvert side of the
dimension, I am most definitely introverted. In fact, personality studies tell
us that most librarians are introverts. I don’t think this is particularly
surprising – consider the librarian stereotype of running around “shhhhing”
people making noise in the library J
). There’s a reason why you generally don’t see me in the middle of the
activity in group events. These are very taxing environments for an introvert.
For about my first ten years at OSU as a librarian, I would go home at the end
of the day physically exhausted. I’d talk to my father when I visit and I’d
remark to him that my job made me exhausted at the end of the day. He’d ask me
why it made me tired. I didn’t understand my personality type at that time and
I’d tell him that I must expend vast amounts of mental energy at my job. I was
close, I was expending vast amounts of energy, but rather than mental energy, I
was an introvert working at a busy reference desk every day. That social
interaction costs an introvert energy. Once I understood that working with
people was going to cost me energy, I got a little more careful about
protecting my energy reserves. For example now, when I teach a class or work
the reference desk, I try to have an hour of alone time at my desk, often with
the headphones on), recharging my batteries so I can continue to function in an
extraverted way when needed. When I go home at the end of the day, I’m
generally not tired, because I’ve figured out how to manage my energy reserves.
Understanding personality characteristics as well as I
do, I can pretty accurately predict people’s personality type just from talking
to them and watching them interact with one another. For example, the people
raising their hand to talk in class or people talking before class begins –
extraverts trying to recharge their batteries after having to sit still and
listen for 30 minutes. The people sitting in the back of class who don’t raise
their hands – introverts, taking it all in and trying to understand what is
going on, recharging their batteries. When I teach, I always stop and ask
questions of the class, so that the extraverts have that chance to recharge
their energy briefly. Conversely, I never call upon the introverts, unless they
have raised their hand. Introverts will be the students who come up to talk to
me after class, and those are some of the best conversations I have.
If you are curious as to your score on the
Introvert/Extravert dimension and how you compare to others, here is a chart
with some popular population groups and how they align along the
introvert/extravert dimension.
Extraversion
|
Introversion
|
|
Librarians (N=1600)
|
37%
|
63%
|
Library Assistants (N=84)
|
50%
|
50%
|
University Faculty (N=2282)
|
45.79%
|
54.21%
|
University Students (N=4035)
|
59.16%
|
40.84%
|
Females (N=32731)
|
55.71%
|
44.29%
|
Males (N=23240)
|
51.39%
|
48.61%
|
In terms of the chart above, some observations:
·
It should surprise no one that librarians tend
to be introverts. We love being surrounded by knowledge and the quiet of the
library.
·
Library assistants? The best type table I could
come up with was one that resulted from research on the staff at one library.
84 respondents is hardly a significant sample size, but it can give us a rough idea
of where library staff align along personality types.
·
University faculty are given simply because
these are our customers, along with university students.
·
University students? They tend to be extraverts.
No surprise there.
·
Finally, I listed men and women as groups, so
you can see how you align by gender.
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