E, I, and Energy

E vs. I - it's about where you get your energy: either from the people around you, or from your internal world. The preferences and behaviors which are characteristic of Es and Is reflect their flow of energy gain and drain.

If you find these are true about you, then you are probably Extroverted:

You often feel the need to get out of the house and/or see someone at least once during the day, even if there's no where you actually need to go. This is because you need the outside stimulation.

When you spend time by yourself for a few hours, or maybe a whole day, you start to feel bored, antsy, or depressed and find yourself automatically seeking the company of others to get out of that state.

When you spend a long time with other people who you enjoy, you feel really revved up and full of energy, ready to keep going. (with some people you can almost see their energy level rise with the number of people present, but that's not all Es)

Doing something by yourself can be kind of draining, you're more likely to get frustrated or poop out too soon. However, you feel recharged if you take a break and talk to someone or if you get someone else to come work on it with you. Sometimes it almost feels like you have to have others to work with in order to keep up your motivation.

You generally feel that something is always more fun if you do it with a friend. 'The More the Merrier' is usually true for you and you often invite (or at least desire) others to join in when there's something you want to do. Cooperating with others, or simply having them nearby makes an activity more fun, more exciting, more satisfying.

You tend to need some kind of audience in order to really get into something and do a good job. If no one is going to see it, then you have less diving energy to really put your all into something. This is because the presence of others feeds a little more energy into you. It doesn’t have to be a big audience, or one filled with strangers, but you do tend to thrive on the feeback of others and can loose your steam if it seems like no one is noticing what you’re doing.

You feel dissatisfied with the day if you haven't really had any good interaction with people.

Being extroveted doesn't necessarily mean you're really confident, charismatic, or the life of the party, but social interactions are what recharges your battery, gives you energy, and keeps you going. Extroverts aren’t necessarily loud, and don’t have to have a ton of friends, it’s the ammount of interaction that puts them at their ‘peak performance’ which is the best indicator of this trait.


If you find these true about you, then you are probably Introverted:

You are usually content to remain in your own personal space, that’s where you feel most comfortable, focused, and energized. Going out is usually draining. When you do go out, you are more likely to have a specific purpose, and are less likely to spontaneously stay out longer, particularly on account of other people. While out, you’re more likely to stick to less populated places, and avoid unessessary conversation with strangers in order to minimize the energy drain.

Spending a lot of time with others leaves you feeling antsy, unsatisfied, or bored, and you automatically seek time alone with your personal persuits (hobbies, reading, contemplating, even chores) in order to regain a sense of satisfaction with the day.

When you’ve been out spending time with people for a while (a couple of hours, or even a whole day) you come home feeling tired, but your energy returns after some time alone in your own space. Even when it’s people you really enjoy, the interaction never-the-less begins to feel draining after a while and you feel like you require ‘winde-down’ time by yourself afterwards to help you process, recconect with yourself, and recharge your mental and physical energy.

You often find it hard to focus or get things done when other people are around. Groupwork may feel like a lot of ‘wasted’ social time to you. The task often feels more fun, and time passes more quickly when you are free to get into your own thoughts and just work without consulting with others - that’s when you feel like you’re really ‘on a roll’.

You tend to feel more happy and content doing things on your own. You don’t often think about inviting others to join you, or asking to join them. You feel perfectly comfortable doing things that others consider group activities by yourself (like going to the movies, eating at a cafe alone). You often look forward to doing something alone, or with one other person, and tend to be disappointed if others get involved because your rejuvinating session has just been turned into something draining. You may also feel less able to engage or enjoy the activity when there are other people involved.

It’s not exactly stage-fright, but the awareness of other people watching you can disrupt your ‘Flow’ and prevent you from doing as good a job as you are capable of. This is because the presence of others channels some of your energy away from what you’re doing, draining it. Also, your own personal evaluation of your work is what matters most to you, and you don’t necessarily need the feeback of others to feel satisfied with what you’ve done.

You feel frustrated or dissatisfied with a day that hasn’t allowed you any quality alone time, and you may feel slightly lost, uncentered, or out of tune with yourself and life.

Being introverted doesn’t necessarily mean you lack confidence and don’t like people, but interaction with others, particularly strangers, drains your energy reserves making you more conservative with how you spend your energy socially. Introverts can be great speakers and leaders, but they don’t thrive off social interaction. The ammount of alone time they require to be at their ‘peak performance’ is the best indicator of this trait.

Attention Span

You hear a lot about the Attention Span of children, but I think there are two other considerations in regards to someone's ability to pay attention: Depth and Breadth.

A couple of personal experiences have sparked this idea, the first being learning to drive. Personally, I know all the things I'm supposed to be paying attention to simultaneously while driving, but when it comes down to it I really cannot spread my attention across all of them.......or even very many of them. In a similar vein, one of my friends has trouble cooking an entire meal all at once. Instead she will cook the chicken, eat it, then cook the corn, eat that, then come back and fix the next item, and so on. Both of us seem to have difficulty with "multi-tasking" or paying sufficient attention to more than one thing at a time. This is what brought the idea of Attention Breadth to my mind. How much a person can pay attention to and notice at once can be an advantage or disadvantage in a busy fast-paced culture, but I don't think I would go so far as to assume that having broad attention is the ideal state of being for everyone.

In regards to breadth of attention, I have noticed that some people seem to notice more in their surroundings, and be able to interact competantly with more than one activity or conversation at once. They don't ever seem to be too engrossed in something to not notice other things going on around them, or to not remember something they know is coming up in the near future. Because of the wide area their attention takes in, I would immagine that some people may assume these people are easily distracted or 'have a short attention span.' But that's not really the case, they just seem to take in and process more things all at once, which can cause what they do or mention to others (who aren't taking in the same ammount) to seem scattered and hard to follow. On the other hand people with great breadth of attention may percieve others who don't notice as much as they do as being too 'out of it.' I think for some people who have this breadth of attention, it can even be necessary for them to have several things to do or think about at once so that they don't get bored or antsy, thus causing them to be at their peak when they have a lot going on.

Another observation I've had about people for quite a long time is that frequently when someone is chided for 'not paying attention' or for 'spacing out' it is not because their brains are vacant (as the assumption seems to be), but rather because they are so intensely absorbed in one thought or paying so much attention to one thing they are doing, that they simply don't have any attention to spare to notice that someone else is talking to them or something else is happening. This is Depth of Attention, and something which I believe is very valuable to people as a whole, in spite of the 'absent minded proffessor' style misshaps it may cause. I'm not sure that Depth and Breadth of attention are necessarily mutually exclusive, but that may be the case. It certainly seems that the ability to focus in depth on one thing brings with it the ability to 'tune out' the myriad of other things which might vie for attention. This intense 'deep' attention can cause everything else, not only in one's surroundings, but also in one's mind, to disappear for the time being from one's consciousness. This is merely assumption, but it would seem that with just one thing to process, the mental sharpness to analyse it with and the level of understanding gained would be much greater than when taking in a lot of things at once. Whether or not that is true, it does seem like some people have a natural inclination to be more thorough, detailed, or deep in their investigation or consideration of something that they have turned their attention to, while others tend to engage less fully with anything, regardless of how long they are paying attention to it.

It would seem logical if there was some connection between either E and I or S and N and having breadth or depth of attention, but I'm not sure if this actually plays out in real life or not.