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How can an Introvert show Personality?

Introverts will notice the interactions and interpret them as being a function of themself, and they need to learn to parse out what is them, and what is other. Extroverts will automatically tend to assume the interactions themselves have a life of their own, and "forget" that individuals, often with conflicting agenda, are driving those interactions forward.

Holdfast, can you please give some examples of these?

As I mentioned above, I am an introvert by nature (batteries get recharged by being alone, etc) but do fine in social situations in a crowd, etc. - I am often considered to have a wicked sense of humor, etc, IRL and am not normally a wallflower or lacking in 'personality'.

But I would like to know what you mean about interpreting interactions as being a function of myself. And I'm sure extroverts reading this are curious as to your comment about their half of the equation. Likely, these are blind spots for us...and I'm curious to understand more clearly what you mean here.

Thanks for any assistance! :)
 
See, I've always thought introvert was akin to being the quiet one at the party, and extroverts being the center of the party. If that's not the case than I've learned something in this thread and I appreciate all the advise you guys have given.

I do think I have a good personality, but maybe she had a point saying that I need to work on "not being dull" and "being more alert". Still, I'm not quite sure I understand that in a "classroom" type setting where you're asking questions to the speaker and opening up that dialog.
 
But I would like to know what you mean about interpreting interactions as being a function of myself.

It's just a perspective. Introverts approach social situations like a sculptor approaches a block of stone. It's something they control and shape and own. Their sculpture is a function of themself. It's whatever they make it.

Extraverts see social situations like they do a party. The party is something in its own right, and the extravert feels like they can either be there to experience it or not be there and miss it; they're less inclined to see it as something to shape and own. It's not a function of themself.
 
You need to have the wiring; some of us just don't.

This isn't true. Minds are not wired to work one way or another. With diligent practice you can become excellent at whatever you choose.

I'm torn on that. If you take someone who is terrible at math and give them the best tutors in the world could they ever hope to get a PhD in Mathematics? I'm thinking no, but that would be an interesting experiment.

People are naturally good at some things, and naturally bad at others. With practice you can improve, but innate talent, or lack thereof, does give people different skill ceilings.
 
Introverts will notice the interactions and interpret them as being a function of themself, and they need to learn to parse out what is them, and what is other. Extroverts will automatically tend to assume the interactions themselves have a life of their own, and "forget" that individuals, often with conflicting agenda, are driving those interactions forward.

Holdfast, can you please give some examples of these?

As I mentioned above, I am an introvert by nature (batteries get recharged by being alone, etc) but do fine in social situations in a crowd, etc. - I am often considered to have a wicked sense of humor, etc, IRL and am not normally a wallflower or lacking in 'personality'.

But I would like to know what you mean about interpreting interactions as being a function of myself. And I'm sure extroverts reading this are curious as to your comment about their half of the equation. Likely, these are blind spots for us...and I'm curious to understand more clearly what you mean here.

Thanks for any assistance! :)

Jadzia gives a good brief summary of the difference in her post a little upthread. It's worth pointing out that the usage of the terms introversion and extraversion varies depending on whether you're talking to the average man on the street, or whether you're talking to someone with some familiarity with its stricter Jungian sense. That explains tomalak's surprise at the different definitions.

If you can invest 10 minutes or so of time, I've written a few little snippets on my blog describing some of the concepts involved. Read them in the order posted below. They're not full descriptions of the concepts, by any means, because that wasn't the aim of each article, but together should give you enough background info to grasp what I was talking about, and extrapolate some of the missing parts. If you only have a few minutes, just read the 3rd article, but it may be somewhat heavy going without the context of at least the first link. The first article also has links to a couple of (slightly cut-down) online versions of common personality tests/sorters.

1

2

3

4

http://beyondanomie.wordpress.com/2011/01/20/the-aesthetic-life-or-why-clothes-matter/
 
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You need to have the wiring; some of us just don't.

This isn't true. Minds are not wired to work one way or another. With diligent practice you can become excellent at whatever you choose.

I'm torn on that. If you take someone who is terrible at math and give them the best tutors in the world could they ever hope to get a PhD in Mathematics? I'm thinking no, but that would be an interesting experiment.

People are naturally good at some things, and naturally bad at others. With practice you can improve, but innate talent, or lack thereof, does give people different skill ceilings.

If you believe that your capacity is limited, your mind will be happy to oblige you.

You need to get this 'terrible at math' student to understand that they are not 'terrible' at all, that making a couple of mistakes early on does not mean you 'can't' do something, and that with practice and effort they can accomplish whatever level of mathematics they wish to.

Whether they are motivated to do it or not is another question. I 'want' to learn general relativity but I don't have the patience or inclination to get my head around tensor calculus.
 
I am an extreme introvert, but with age and practice I have actually learned to be pretty good in certain social situations like job interviews. In situations like interviews where I feel I am just responding, almost like working from a script, it's like I shut my mind down and work on auto-pilot. I am still very anxious, but I can get through it enough to make people think I am normal. If the roles were reversed and I was the interviewer having to direct the conversation I'd probably sound like someone who had two weeks of English lessons.

Try and have stock things to say about yourself, stories about yourself, standard responses to questions that kind of thing. Especially in job interviews where the first question is always "tell me about yourself" it is important to know what to say beforehand. Be conscious of your non-verbal communication too try and be expressive in your facial expressions.
 
Sit up straight, maintain eye contact without staring, and smile.

'Tell us about yourself' - they mean career wise, they don't want to know that you were a piano prodigy at ten or that you have the city's largest batman comic collection.

It is vital that you anticipate the questions that you will be asked and you have answers sort of prepared - not scripted, but knowing at least the general direction that you will take your answer in. Apparently they can tell when you haven't prepared. It shows. Explains why it took me so long to get work a year ago.
 
I am an introvert and I also have a problem with stuttering. A double whammy in social situations.

I can't raise my voice or speak complete sentences quickly without stuttering. Talking slowly (what you would expect be normal dictation speed) and softly and I am fine.
 
'Tell us about yourself' - they mean career wise, they don't want to know that you were a piano prodigy at ten or that you have the city's largest batman comic collection.

Fuck!
Well, I had a 50-50 shot.
 
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