Introverted people: 4 characteristics that define them

These are the most common and common traits of introverted people, whether they are shy or not.

The introverted personality is one of the most interesting in the fields of differential and applied psychology as well as in popular culture. Many people feel identified with the category of "introverts" based on their assessment of the way in which they relate to their environment and to others.

But... what exactly does it mean to be an introvert?what exactly does it mean to be an introvert? beyond the notion that it has something to do with shyness? Let's look at it starting, first, with the most basic question of all.

What is introversion?

Introversion is a concept originally coined by Carl Jung, known among other things for being one of Sigmund Freud's disciples who ended up distancing himself from his master. Jung created the categories of introversion and extraversion to refer to a duality of mutually exclusive psychological traits (although every introvert has some extraversion and vice versa) based on one main idea.

This idea was that introverts tend to focus their psychological activity on private mental processes and only indirectly related to the environment, while introverts tend to seek external stimuli in the present, constantly.

Over time, the psychodynamic paradigm, from which both Jung and Freud started, lost strength, but in the second half of the twentieth century, based on a psychometric approach, the researchers of differential psychology, kept the introversion-extraversion dialectic in force because they saw that it describes well the way in which a part of the human personality distinguishes us and explains our behavioral tendencies. explains our behavioral tendencies..

In particular, both Raymond Cattell and Hans Eysenck, two of the main referents in the field of differential psychology, have used this category in their personality models. And they are not the only ones.

Its relationship with shyness

Although it is very easy to confuse introversion with shyness, and that in practice it is very easy for these two characteristics to occur at the same time in people, technically they are not the same, and it is not uncommon to find introverted people who are not shy, although the reverse case is rarer.

The main difference between introverted people and shy people is that the first ones they don't have to be concerned about giving a bad image.Nor do they need to have a certain respect for the situation of interacting with people they do not know. Their link to the "private" realm of their own mind is not the result of fear, but rather of the way they process information in real time.

Characteristics of introverted people

When it comes to describing the typical traits of introverted people, the most common are the following.

1. They avoid being constantly in changing and complex environments.

Introverted people feel a significant psychological drain if they have to be constantly involved in events that are going on around them and which present a relatively high degree of uncertainty. For example, if they have to carry out full-time public-facing work.

That is why they need to "recharge their batteries" away from such contexts.

2. They need to have time alone

Another characteristic of introverted people is that they actively seek to reserve time and a place to be alone. This not only has to do with the need to rest, but, because of their way of being, a good part of the activities they consider most motivating and stimulating are based on introversion and therefore they try to have environments that are free of distractions..

This is something that especially affects couple relationships, and something that can cause problems if it clashes with the expectations of the other person, who may interpret this as a distancing or as a sign that the love bond is weak.

3. Tendency to relate to few people

This is another consequence of the way these people's minds work. As they are especially looking for stable environments and do not appreciate situations in which there is uncertainty.As a result, introverted people prefer to relate to a rather small circle of friends, and not rely on many other face-to-face interactions with those outside that circle.

As a result, they tend not to be very talkative or assertive people, preferring to keep a low profile in their social relationships so as not to make them too long and keep them simple, uncomplicated.

4. They prefer the practical to the flashy

For introverts, social capital does not have much value beyond those with whom they have a strong emotional bond. That is why, the idea of wanting to attract attention doesn't make much sense to them, and this even tends to reflectThis even tends to be reflected in the way they dress, chosen not so much for their eye-catching aesthetics as for practicality, such as comfort.