What does introvert, extrovert, and ambivert mean?

Carl Jung, a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapy, is noted for his work regarding two major personality traits. Jung theorized and then decades later after studying his work, Katharine Briggs and Isabel Myers created the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI) questionnaire.

After a person answers the questions, their preference of four personality continuums are determined. The assessment gives a person a broad and full awareness of their preferences. The four preferences of the MBTI® are:

• Introversion and extroversion: A person gets their energy either from themselves or from outside themselves

• Intuitive and sensing: We process information either based on patterns of information or on sensory details in the present

• Thinking and feeling: We make decisions either in a logical, detached, objective manner, or our bias is toward an attached manner with values we hold

• Judging and perceiving: A person takes action either from a planned or a more spontaneous approach

The first preference, the introversion and extroversion continuum, reflects what the answers reveal regarding what energizes the assessment taker.

No one is solely more introverted or extroverted.

Someone more extroverted is more interested in attention toward the outer world, to include talking and interacting with others. Someone more introverted prefers the inner world of quiet reflection and ideas, thoughts, and imagination.

Even though each person moves up and down the continuum all day long and in various situations, we each tend to have a preference, one where we are most energized with the activities of the day.

Most current conversations in the research community suggest that more of us are actually ambiverts. This means our personality has a balance of introvert and extrovert preferences. For example, we can enjoy networking but recognize that how we prepare for it might need to be with some quieter activities before such events. Or, we can enjoy, even thrive, as a public speaker, but need to recharge after giving a presentation.