Yes, It’s Possible To Be Both An Introvert And An Extravert

The Huffington Post:

We love to proudly label ourselves as introverts or extraverts. If the Internet has anything to say about it, introverts particularly enjoy categorizing themselves as suchand connecting with fellow introverts (virtually, not in person of course) over their mutual distaste for parties and small talk.

But in reality, few of us fit neatly into either of these personality types. And for those of us who are truly in the middle of the introversion/extraversion spectrum, there’s a name, too. Psychologists refer to such people as ambiverts, meaning that we express qualities and behaviors of both introverts and extraverts, depending on the situation.

To be sure, some people do fall squarely into either the introvert or the extravert camp. But roughly 38 percent may be somewhere in between, personality psychologist Robert R. McCrae told The Huffington Post.

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“Ambiverts can take the best of both,” personality psychologist Brian Little, author of Me, Myself and Us: The Science of Personality and the Art of Well-Being, told The Huffington Post. “Those who are ambiverts have rather more degrees of freedom to shape their lives than those who are at extremes of other ends.”

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Psychologist Dan Pink coined the term “ambivert advantage” to describe the ambivert’s superior ability to draw on the strengths of both introverts and extraverts.

In the domain of sales specifically, ambiverts excel — contrary to the stereotype of the charismatic, ultra-extraverted salesperson. Research conducted by University of Pennsylvania psychologist Adam Grant, published in the journal Psychological Science, found that ambiverts are more effective than introverts and extraverts at closing sales. Grant studied the staff of a software company and assessed where each person stood on a 1-7 scale of introversion to extraversion. He found that neither the strong introverts (those who scored 1 or 2) nor the strong extraverts (scores of 6-7) were the most effective salespeople. Instead, the ambiverts were by far the most effective in selling the software.

Read the whole story: The Huffington Post