Entry Level Jobs For Introverts
When you’re looking for an entry-level job, you need to be careful. It’s important to find a position that fits your skills and your personality. As an introvert, it can be difficult to find the right work environment for you. Here are some of the best jobs for introverts:
- Social Media Manager
Social media managers are in charge of maintaining social media accounts, creating content, and engaging with customers on platforms like Instagram and Twitter. This is a great job for introverts because they can do most of their work from home or in an office by themselves. Social media managers need to have excellent communication skills, so if you’re an extrovert who loves talking to people all day long, this might not be the position for you.
- Copywriter
A copywriter is someone who writes text for websites or other advertisements. This job requires creativity, which is something that many introverts excel at! You’ll need strong writing skills and a good sense of style—and also some experience working on teams or with people outside of your immediate circle (since copywriters often work remotely).
Entry Level Jobs For Introverts
he traits of extraversion (also spelled extroversion) and introversion are a central dimension in some human personality theories. The terms introversion and extraversion were introduced into psychology by Carl Jung,[1] although both the popular understanding and current psychological usage vary. Extraversion tends to be manifested in outgoing, talkative, energetic behavior, whereas introversion is manifested in more reflective and reserved behavior.[2] Jung defined introversion as an “attitude-type characterised by orientation in life through subjective psychic contents”, and extraversion as “an attitude-type characterised by concentration of interest on the external object”.[3]
Extraversion and introversion are typically viewed as a single continuum, so to be high in one necessitates being low in the other. Jung provides a different perspective and suggests that everyone has both an extraverted side and an introverted side, with one being more dominant than the other. Virtually all comprehensive models of personality include these concepts in various forms. Examples include the Big Five model, Jung’s analytical psychology, Hans Eysenck’s three-factor model, Raymond Cattell’s 16 personality factors, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, and the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator.
Contents
1 Varieties
1.1 Extraversion
1.2 Introversion
1.3 Ambiversion
1.4 Relative prevalence
2 Measurement
2.1 Lexical self-reporting
2.2 Statement self-reporting
2.3 Eysenck’s theory
2.4 Biological factors
3 Behaviour
4 Implications
5 Regional variation
6 Relation to happiness
6.1 Instrumental view
6.1.1 Personality trait as a cause of higher sociability
6.1.2 Social activity hypothesis
6.1.3 Social attention theory
6.2 Temperamental view
6.2.1 Affective reactivity model
6.2.2 Social reactivity theory
6.2.3 Affective regulation
6.2.4 The set-point model aka affect-level model
6.2.5 Pleasure-arousal relation
6.3 Complications to the extraversion-happiness correlation
6.3.1 Neuroticism and extraversion
6.3.2 Other Big 5 factors and extraversion
6.3.3 Other contributing personality factors
6.3.4 Culture
7 See also
8 References
9 External links
Varieties
William McDougall discussed Jung’s conception, and reached this conclusion: “the introverts are those in whom reflective thought inhibits and postpones action and expression: the extroverts are those in whom the energies liberated upon the stirring of any propensity flow out freely in outward action and expression.”[4]
Extraversion
Extraversion (also spelled as extroversion[5]) is the state of primarily obtaining gratification from outside oneself.[6] Extraverts tend to enjoy human interactions and to be enthusiastic, talkative, assertive, and gregarious. Extraverts are energized and thrive off being around other people. They take pleasure in activities that involve large social gatherings, such as parties, community activities, public demonstrations, and business or political groups. They also tend to work well in groups.[7] An extraverted person is likely to enjoy time spent with people and find less reward in time spent alone. They tend to be energized when around other people, and they are more prone to boredom when they are by themselves.
Introversion
Introversion is the state of being predominantly interested in one’s own mental self.[6] Introverts are typically perceived as more reserved or reflective.[7] Some popular psychologists have characterized introverts as people whose energy tends to expand through reflection and dwindle during interaction.[8] This is similar to Jung’s view, although he focused on mental energy rather than physical energy. Few modern conceptions make this distinction. Introverts often take pleasure in solitary activities such as reading, writing, or meditating. An introvert is likely to enjoy time spent alone and find less reward in time spent with large groups of people. Introverts are easily overwhelmed by too much stimulation from social gatherings and engagement, introversion having even been defined by some in terms of a preference for a quiet, more minimally stimulating external environment.[9] They prefer to concentrate on a single activity at a time and like to observe situations before they participate, especially observed in developing children and adolescents.[10] They are more analytical before speaking.[11]
Quiet: The Power of Introverts… author Susan Cain defines introversion and extraversion in terms of preferences for different levels of stimulation—distinguishing it from shyness (fear of social judgment and humiliation).[12]
Mistaking introversion for shyness is a common error. Introversion is a preference, while shyness stems from distress. Introverts prefer solitary to social activities, but do not necessarily fear social encounters like shy people do.[13] Susan Cain, author of the book Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, argues that modern Western culture misjudges the capabilities of introverted people, leading to a waste of talent, energy, and happiness.[14] Cain describes how society is biased against introverts, and that, with people being taught from childhood that to be sociable is to be happy, introversion is now considered “somewhere between a disappointment and pathology”.[15] In contrast, Cain says that introversion is not a “second-class” trait but that both introverts and extraverts enrich society, with examples including the introverts J. K. Rowling,[16] Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Seuss, W. B. Yeats, Steven Spielberg, and Larry Page.[15]
Ambiversion
Most contemporary trait theories measure levels of extraversion-introversion as part of a single, continuous dimension of personality, with some scores near one end, and others near the halfway mark.[17] Ambiversion is falling more or less in the middle.[6][18]
Relative prevalence
Cain further reports that studies indicate that 33 to 50% of the American population are introverts.[19] Particular subpopulations have higher prevalence, with a 6,000-subject MBTI-based survey indicating that 60% of attorneys, and 90% of intellectual property attorneys, are introverts.[20]
Measurement
The extent of extraversion and introversion is most commonly assessed through self-report measures, although peer-reports and third-party observation can also be used. Self-report measures are either lexical[2] or based on statements.[21] The type of measure is determined by an assessment of psychometric properties, and the time and space constraints of the research being undertaken.
Lexical self-reporting
Lexical measures use individual adjectives that reflect extravert and introvert traits, such as outgoing, talkative, reserved and quiet. Words representing introversion are reverse-coded to create composite measures of extraversion-introversion running on a continuum. Goldberg (1992)[22] developed a 20-word measure as part of his 100-word Big Five markers. Saucier (1994)[23] developed a briefer 8-word measure as part of his 40-word mini-markers. However, the psychometric properties of Saucier’s original mini-markers have been found to be suboptimal with samples outside of North America.[2] As a result, a systematically revised measure was developed to have better psychometric properties, the International English Mini-Markers.[2] The International English Mini-Markers has good internal consistency reliabilities, and other validity, for assessing extraversion-introversion and other five-factor personality dimensions, both within and, especially, without American populations. Internal consistency reliability of the extraversion measure for native English-speakers is reported as a Cronbach’s alpha (α) of 0.92, that for non-native English-speakers is α of 0.85.
Statement self-reporting
Statement measures tend to contain more words, and hence consume more research instrument space, than lexical measures. Respondents are asked the extent to which they, for example, “Talk to a lot of different people at parties or Often feel uncomfortable around others”.[21] While some statement-based measures of extraversion-introversion have similarly acceptable psychometric properties in North American populations to lexical measures, their generally emic development makes them less suited to use in other populations.[24] For example, statements asking about talkativeness in parties are hard to answer meaningfully by those who do not attend parties, as Americans are assumed to do. Moreover, the sometimes colloquial North American language of statements makes them less suited for use outside America. For instance, statements like “Keep in the background” and “Know how to captivate people” are sometimes hard for non-native English-speakers to understand, except in a literal sense.
Eysenck’s theory
Hans Eysenck described extraversion-introversion as the degree to which a person is outgoing and interactive with other people. These behavioral differences are presumed to be the result of underlying differences in brain physiology.[25] Eysenck associated cortical inhibition and excitation with the ascending reticular activation system (ARAS), a pathway located in the brainstem.[26] Extraverts seek excitement and social activity in an effort to raise their naturally low arousal level, whereas introverts tend to avoid social situations in an effort to avoid raising their naturally high arousal level too far. Eysenck designated extraversion as one of three major traits in his P-E-N model of personality, which also includes psychoticism and neuroticism.
Eysenck originally suggested that extraversion was a combination of two major tendencies, impulsiveness and sociability. He later added several other more specific traits, namely liveliness, activity level, and excitability. These traits are further linked in his personality hierarchy to even more specific habitual responses, such as partying on the weekend.
Eysenck compared this trait to the four temperaments of ancient medicine, with choleric and sanguine temperaments equating to extraversion, and melancholic and phlegmatic temperaments equating to introversion.[27]
Twin studies indicate that extraversion-introversion has a genetic component
Biological factors
The relative importance of nature versus environment in determining the level of extraversion is controversial and the focus of many studies. Twin studies have found a genetic component of 39% to 58%. In terms of the environmental component, the shared family environment appears to be far less important than individual environmental factors that are not shared between siblings.[28]
Eysenck proposed that extraversion was caused by variability in cortical arousal. He hypothesized that introverts are characterized by higher levels of activity than extraverts and so are chronically more cortically aroused than extraverts. That extraverts require more external stimulation than introverts has been interpreted as evidence for this hypothesis. Other evidence of the “stimulation” hypothesis is that introverts salivate more than extraverts in response to a drop of lemon juice. This is due to increased activity in their ARAS, which responds to stimuli like food or social contact.[29][30]
Extraversion has been linked to higher sensitivity of the mesolimbic dopamine system to potentially rewarding stimuli.[31] This in part explains the high levels of positive affect found in extraverts, since they will more intensely feel the excitement of a potential reward. One consequence of this is that extraverts can more easily learn the contingencies for positive reinforcement, since the reward itself is experienced as greater.
One study found that introverts have more blood flow in the frontal lobes of their brain and the anterior or frontal thalamus, which are areas dealing with internal processing, such as planning and problem solving. Extraverts have more blood flow in the anterior cingulate gyrus, temporal lobes, and posterior thalamus, which are involved in sensory and emotional experience.[32] This study and other research indicate that introversion-extraversion is related to individual differences in brain function. A study on regional brain volume found a positive correlation between introversion and grey matter volume in the right prefrontal cortex and right temporoparietal junction, as well as a positive correlation between introversion and total white matter volume.[33] Task-related functional neuroimaging has shown that extraversion is associated with increased activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus, prefrontal cortex, middle temporal gyrus, and the amygdala.[34]
Extraversion has also been linked to physiological factors such as respiration, through its association with surgency.[35]
Behaviour
Various differences in behavioural characteristics are attributed to extraverts and introverts. According to one study, extraverts tend to wear more decorative clothing, whereas introverts prefer practical, comfortable clothes.[36] Extraverts are more likely to prefer more upbeat, conventional, and energetic music than introverts.[37] Personality also influences how people arrange their work areas. In general, extraverts decorate their offices more, keep their doors open, keep extra chairs nearby, and are more likely to put dishes of candy on their desks. These are attempts to invite co-workers and encourage interaction. Introverts, in contrast, decorate less and tend to arrange their workspace to discourage social interaction.[38]
Despite these differences, a meta-analysis of 15 experience sampling studies has suggested that there is a great deal of overlap in the way that extraverts and introverts behave.[39] In these studies, participants used mobile devices to report how extraverted (e.g., bold, talkative, assertive, outgoing) they were acting at multiple times during their daily lives. Fleeson and Gallagher (2009) found that extraverts regularly behave in an introverted way, and introverts regularly behave in an extraverted way. Indeed, there was more within-person variability than between-person variability in extraverted behaviours. The key feature that distinguishes extraverts and introverts was that extraverts tend to act moderately extraverted about 5–10% more often than introverts. From this perspective, extraverts and introverts are not “fundamentally different”. Rather, an “extravert” is just someone who acts more extraverted more often, suggesting that extraversion is more about what one “does” than what one “has”.
Additionally, a study by Lippa (1978) found evidence for the extent to which individuals present themselves in a different way. This is called expressive behaviour, and it is dependent upon the individuals’ motivation and ability to control that behaviour. Lippa (1978) examined 68 students who were asked to role-play by pretending to teach a math class. The students’ level of extraversion and introversion were rated based on their external/expressive behaviours such as stride length, graphic expansiveness, the percentage of time they spent talking, the amount of time they spent making eye contact, and the total time of each teaching session. This study found that actual introverts were perceived and judged as having more extraverted-looking expressive behaviours because they were higher in terms of their self-monitoring.[40] This means that the introverts consciously put more effort into presenting a more extraverted, and rather socially desirable, version of themselves. Thus, individuals are able to regulate and modify behaviour based on their environmental situations.
Humans are complex and unique, and because introversion-extraversion varies along a continuum, individuals may have a mixture of both orientations. A person who acts introverted in one situation may act extraverted in another, and people can learn to act in “counter dispositional” ways in certain situations. For example, Brian Little’s free trait theory[41][42] suggests that people can take on “free traits”, behaving in ways that may not be their “first nature”, but can strategically advance projects that are important to them. Together, this presents an optimistic view of what extraversion is. Rather than being fixed and stable, individuals vary in their extraverted behaviours across different moments, and can choose to act extraverted to advance important personal projects or even increase their happiness, as mentioned above.
Implications
Acknowledging that introversion and extraversion are normal variants of behavior can help in self-acceptance and understanding of others. For example, an extravert can accept their introverted partner’s need for solitude, while an introvert can acknowledge their extraverted partner’s need for social interaction.
Researchers have found a correlation between extraversion and self-reported happiness. That is, more extraverted people tend to report higher levels of happiness than introverts.[43][44] Other research has shown that being instructed to act in an extraverted manner leads to increases in positive affect, even for people who are trait-level introverts.[45]
This does not mean that introverts are unhappy. Extraverts simply report experiencing more positive emotions, whereas introverts tend to be closer to neutral. This may be because extraversion is socially preferable in contemporary Western culture and thus introversion feels less desirable. In addition to the research on happiness, other studies have found that extraverts tend to report higher levels of self-esteem than introverts.[46][47] Others suggest that such results reflect socio-cultural bias in the survey itself.[11] Dr. David Meyers has claimed that happiness is a matter of possessing three traits: self-esteem, optimism, and extraversion. Meyers bases his conclusions on studies that report extraverts to be happier; these findings have been questioned in light of the fact that the “happiness” prompts given to the studies’ subjects, such as “I like to be with others” and “I’m fun to be with,” only measure happiness among extraverts.[11] Also, according to Carl Jung, introverts acknowledge more readily their psychological needs and problems, whereas extraverts tend to be oblivious to them because they focus more on the outer world.[1]
Although extraversion is perceived as socially desirable in Western culture, it is not always an advantage. For example, extraverted youths are more likely to engage in antisocial or delinquent behavior.[48][49] In line with this, certain evidence suggest that the trait of extraversion may also be related to that of psychopathy.[50][51] Conversely, while introversion is perceived as less socially desirable, it is strongly associated with positive traits such as intelligence[52] and “giftedness.”[53][54] For many years, researchers have found that introverts tend to be more successful in academic environments, which extraverts may find boring.[55]
Research shows that behavioral immune system, the psychological processes that infer infection risk from perceptual cues and respond to these perceptual cues through the activation of aversive emotions, may influence gregariousness. Although extraversion is associated with many positive outcomes like higher levels of happiness, those extraverted people are also more likely to be exposed to communicable diseases, such as airborne infections, as they tend to have more contact with people. When individuals are more vulnerable to infection, the cost of being social will be relatively greater. Therefore, people tend to be less extraversive when they feel vulnerable and vice versa.[56]
Although neither introversion nor extraversion is pathological, psychotherapists can take temperament into account when treating clients. Clients may respond better to different types of treatment depending on where they fall on the introversion-extraversion spectrum. Teachers can also consider temperament when dealing with their pupils, for example acknowledging that introverted children need more encouragement to speak in class while extraverted children may grow restless during long periods of quiet study.[citation needed]
Regional variation
Some claim that Americans live in an “extraverted society”[57] that rewards extravert behavior and rejects introversion.[58] This is because the U.S. is a culture of external personality, whereas in some other cultures people are valued for their “inner selves and their moral rectitude”.[59] Other cultures, such as those in Japan, China and regions where Orthodox Christianity, Buddhism, Sufism etc. prevail, prize introversion.[11] These cultural differences predict individuals’ happiness in that people who score higher in extraversion are happier, on average, in particularly extraverted cultures and vice versa.[60]
Researchers have found that people who live on islands tend to be less extraverted (more introverted) than those living on the mainland, and that people whose ancestors had inhabited the island for twenty generations tend to be less extraverted than more recent arrivals. Furthermore, people who emigrate from islands to the mainland tend to be more extraverted than people that stay on islands, and those that immigrate to islands.[60]
In the United States, researchers have found that people living in the midwestern states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Illinois score higher than the U.S. average on extraversion. Utah and the southeastern states of Florida and Georgia also score high on this personality trait. The most introverted states in the U.S. are Maryland, New Hampshire, Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Vermont. People who live in the northwestern states of Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming are also relatively introverted.[61]
Relation to happiness
As earlier stated, extraverts are often found to have higher levels of positive affect than introverts.[44][62][63] However, this relationship has only been found between extraversion and activated forms of positive affect.[64][65] There is no relationship between extraversion and deactivated (calm) forms of positive affect such as contentment or serenity, although one study found a negative relationship between extraversion and deactivated positive affect (i.e. a positive relationship between introversion and calm positive affect).[64] Moreover, the relationship between extraversion and activated positive affect is only significant for agentic extraversion, i.e. there is no significant relationship between affiliative extraversion and activated positive affect, especially when controlling for neuroticism.[64][66]
An influential review article concluded that personality, specifically extraversion and emotional stability, was the best predictor of subjective well-being.[67] As examples, Argyle and Lu (1990)[68] found that the trait of extraversion, as measured by Extraversion Scale of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), was positively and significantly correlated with positive affect, as measured by the Oxford Happiness Inventory. Using the same positive affect and extraversion scales, Hills and Argyle (2001)[69] found that positive affect was again significantly correlated with extraversion. Also, the study by Emmons and Diener (1986)[70] showed that extraversion correlates positively and significantly with positive affect but not with negative affect. Similar results were found in a large longitudinal study by Diener, Sandvik, Pavot, and Fujita (1992),[71] which assessed 14,407 participants from 100 areas of continental United States. Using the abbreviated General Well-Being Schedule, which tapped positive and negative affects, and Costa and McCrae’s (1986).[72] short version of the NEO’s Extraversion scale, the authors reported that extraverts experienced greater well-being at two points in time, during which data were collected: first between 1971 and 1975, and later between 1981 and 1984. However, the latter study did not control for neuroticism, an important covariate when investigating relationships between extraversion and positive affect or wellbeing.[73] Studies that controlled for neuroticism have found no significant relationship between extraversion and subjective well-being.[73] Larsen and Ketelaar (1991)[74] showed that extraverts respond more to positive affect than to negative affect, since they exhibit more positive-affect reactivity to the positive-affect induction, yet they do not react more negatively to the negative-affect induction.[75]
Instrumental view
The instrumental view proposes that personality traits give rise to conditions and actions, which have affective consequences, and thus generate individual differences in emotionality.[75][76]
Personality trait as a cause of higher sociability
According to the instrumental view, one explanation for greater subjective well-being among extraverts could be that extraversion helps in the creation of life circumstances, which promote high levels of positive affect. Specifically, the personality trait of extraversion is seen as a facilitator of more social interactions,[62][75][77] since the low cortical arousal among extraverts results in them seeking more social situations in order to increase their arousal.[78]
Social activity hypothesis
According to the social activity hypothesis, more frequent participation in social situations creates more frequent, and higher levels, of positive affect. Therefore, it is believed that since extraverts are characterized as more sociable than introverts, they also possess higher levels of positive affect brought on by social interactions.[79][80][81] Specifically, the results of Furnham and Brewin’s study (1990)[63] suggest that extraverts enjoy and participate more in social activities than introverts, and as a result extraverts report a higher level of happiness. Also, in the study of Argyle and Lu (1990)[68] extraverts were found to be less likely to avoid participation in noisy social activities, and to be more likely to participate in social activities such as party games, jokes, or going to the cinema. Similar results were reported by Diener, Larsen, and Emmons (1984)[82] who found that extraverts seek social situations more often than introverts, especially when engaging in recreational activities.
However, a variety of findings contradict the claims of the social activity hypothesis. Firstly, it was found that extraverts were happier than introverts even when alone. Specifically, extraverts tend to be happier regardless of whether they live alone or with others, or whether they live in a vibrant city or quiet rural environment.[44] Similarly, a study by Diener, Sandvik, Pavot, and Fujita (1992)[71] showed that although extraverts chose social jobs relatively more frequently (51%) than nonsocial jobs compared to introverts (38%), they were happier than introverts regardless of whether their occupations had social or nonsocial character. Secondly, it was found that extraverts only sometimes reported greater amounts of social activity than introverts,[82] but in general extraverts and introverts do not differ in the quantity of their socialization.[44] Similar finding was reported by Srivastava, Angelo, and Vallereux (2008),[83] who found that extraverts and introverts both enjoy participating in social interactions, but extraverts participate socially more. Thirdly, studies have shown that both extraverts and introverts participate in social relations, but that the quality of this participation differs. The more frequent social participation among extraverts could be explained by the fact that extraverts know more people, but those people are not necessarily their close friends, whereas introverts, when participating in social interactions, are more selective and have only few close friends with whom they have special relationships.[69]
Social attention theory
Yet another explanation of the high correlation between extraversion and happiness comes from the study by Ashton, Lee, and Paunonen (2002).[84] They suggested that the core element of extraversion is a tendency to behave in ways that attract, hold, and enjoy social attention, and not reward sensitivity. They claimed that one of the fundamental qualities of social attention is its potential of being rewarding. Therefore, if a person shows positive emotions of enthusiasm, energy, and excitement, that person is seen favorably by others and he or she gains others’ attention. This favorable reaction from others likely encourages extraverts to engage in further extraverted behavior.[84] Ashton, Lee, and Paunonen’s (2002)[84] study showed that their measure of social attention, the Social Attention Scale, was much more highly correlated with extraversion than were measures of reward sensitivity.
