The Science of Introverts: Explore the Personality Spectrum for Self-Discovery, Self-Awareness, & Self-Care. Design a Life That Fits

If you’re an introvert, you know that you are walking around with an increased sensitivity to social situations courtesy of your dopamine tolerance. Just don’t try to perform a pale imitation of an extrovert, because it’s not in your biology to derive happiness from those behaviors. While blindfolds and earplugs may help, they’re not always the most practical choice.

Hans Eysenck was the first to coin the term ambivert to define a person as one who manifests the characteristics of both an introvert and an extrovert.

There are numerous biological factors that differentiate personality types, but the vast majority of people are permeable enough to move from being more or less introverted to being more or less extroverted, depending upon the situation, our motivations, and the people we are surrounded by.

With a charged social battery, an introvert is indistinguishable from an extrovert—it’s what they do afterward, when they are tired, that differentiates them. If you see someone who appears to be shy or unapproachable, chances are they are simply socially tapped out.

This means introverts tend to be more inward-focused, and they often retreat from the outside world to be able to focus their energy inwards. Extroversion, on the other hand, pushes people to be more outgoing and to rely on external sources (people, circumstances, and environment) for stimulation. The differences between the two personality types boil down to how these individuals allocate their energy. While extroverts find social interactions energizing, introverts find this activity draining, so they avoid it as much as they can. This simple difference creates a domino effect of differing lifestyles and preferences.

According to Jung, introversion is a psychological mode wherein an individual considers his or her inner reality of utmost importance.

The word introvert was used for the very first time, along with the word extrovert, during the 1920s when renowned psychologist Carl Jung published Psychologische Typen (or Psychological Types, as it’s known in English). It was further developed and refined by Hans Eysenck, and it entered mainstream lexicon with Isabel Meyers and Katharine Briggs in 1943 when it became a part of the MBTI

Introverts and extroverts are who they are because of these chemical differences. It goes beyond preferences and personality; it is literally programmed into our brains.

For introverts to be happy and thrive, they need to reduce the dopamine and increase the acetylcholine in their brains. This leads introverts to be selective about what they do and who they interact with, and eventually they retreat into solace.

Introverts, on the other hand, are much more sensitive to dopamine. They do not require as much attention or stimulation to receive the amount of dopamine needed to feel pleasure. Because introverts are highly sensitive to dopamine, they may crave more alone and quiet time. Their main task is to avoid being overwhelmed by an excess of dopamine, and thus they sequester themselves to do so.