Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Personality vs Overexcitabilities

An interesting observation about personality traits and overexcitabilities, which are often present in Outliers:  Overexcitabilities can often, we think, mask as personality traits.

I always presumed I was an ambivert--gathering energy from people until I didn't, then gathering energy from solitude. 

However, as I discussed with a fellow Outlier, I realized that I always gain energy from solitude, and people and events can excite me, but often leave me drained, even if I gained energy in the short term.  Since that is not the definition of extrovert, there must be another explanation and we believe it might be that I am an introvert with overexcitabilities when it comes to the input of people and new things.

Something to consider when analyzing one's personality either for personal knowledge or professional choices.



1 comment:

  1. I totally understand this, and these are wise words. As a profound introvert myself, I am often misunderstood to be extroverted because I thrive on deep conversations with another person and because I have so many areas of interest, I tend to have a group of people that I go deep with (one at a time) - a different person for each different area of interest. Even though I have known myself to be an introvert for over 10 years, it is only recently that I came to understand this. :)

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