Almost everyone identifies as either an introvert or an extrovert, or at the very least you’ve probably heard these words before and have a basic understanding of what they mean. They’re included in both the Big 5 personality test and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator as well as just being an everyday trait that people identify with. But what happens when you seem to not fit into either of these categories. According to the Huffington Post, extroverts recharge by being social and introverts recharge by spending time alone. However, extroverts are also known to have more friends with less meaningful bonds, talk more, enjoy being in large groups, make quick decisions and love being the center of attention. Introverts on the other hand are known to have fewer friends with closer bonds, listen more than they speak, would prefer to be in a very small group or one on one, unable to make up their minds, and hate being the center of attention. What happens when you’re a mix of these things? On both the MBTI test and the Big 5 test you are scored on a scale, so what if you are 50% introverted and 50% extroverted?
If this is the case you might be considered an ambivert. I know what you’re thinking, “ambi-what?” Allow me to explain further.
Putting in the simplest way possible, an ambivert is defined as “a person having characteristics of both extrovert and introvert. The first known use was in the year 1927. Ambiverts are known to be the “loner” type, meaning that rarely anyone identifies as one or has even heard of the term; however it is believed that most of the population is actually an ambivert rather than an extrovert or introvert.
Introversion and extroversion were never intended to be scaled, tested, or fully identified by a single person. They were originally intended to tell whether your dominant and auxiliary functions are introverted (aimed at your inside thoughts and feelings) or extroverted (aimed at the people around you). However, Myers-Briggs told otherwise and included introversion and extroversion in the scales to be identified by. Ambiverts are those that don’t necessarily prefer one way of functioning to the other.
One website for taking the Myers-Briggs questionnaire and providing information on the topic, 16personalities.com addresses the ideas of the word ambivert in a counter argument. The website states, “we are not big fans of this term as we see it as an oversimplification of one of the personality traits.” They go on to argue that while an introvert may sometimes have some qualities of an extrovert (and vice versa this doesn’t necessarily make them an ambivert because if this were true it could be possible for all other personality traits to have an “ambi-” option as well.
But maybe that’s the point. Who’s to say that one person has to be either intuitive or sensing, feeling or thinking, judging or perceiving? Maybe no one is any one thing and a constant mixture of all of these things.
I personally have a love and infatuation with the Myers-Briggs test. I find my own type and those of my friends to be extremely accurate. However, I love a good debate and maybe, just maybe the existence of an ambivert also creates the existences of an “ambituitive”.
In conclusion, if you’ve taken a personality quiz to tell you if you’re more of an introvert or an extrovert and the scale never seems to sway one way more than the other, you actually do have a place to fall. That place is called ambiversion. If this describes you instead of preferring to read a good book over going to a party or going to a party over reading a book, maybe you prefer to read a good book on Friday night and attend a big party on Saturday. Ambiversion has been refuted by Myers-Briggs and it still seems to be almost unheard of otherwise. However, I would definitely argue that it does in fact exist and most of us are probably more of an ambivert than we ever even thought.
If you enjoyed this article by Felicia, check out her other piece with us: Challenge, Know Yourself.
Still not enough? We also have a podcast on personality tests, as well as an interview with Helene Klein, Honors Program Director at Arcadia University, in which introversion and extroversion are a primary topic.
Personality Piety 