On Thu, Feb 03, 2005 at 04:56:03PM -0500, MedCat7 at aol.com wrote: > 2/3/2005 1:37:49 PM EST, Johne Cook <johne.cook at gmail.com> writes: > >On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 10:18:04 -0800 (PST), Chris Olson - SunPS > ><Chrisf.Olson at sun.com> wrote: > >> Yep, sounds like me all right. ?I'm an anti-social social > >> person (or a social anti-social person, take your pick). > > > >I'm a gregarious loner. ?; ) > >-- > I am the same way. Perfectly fine on my own, but am willing to have company...and plenty of it! > -C So, do y'all (*waves to nearby thread*) consider yourselves introverts? Extraverts? A little of both, niether? Not only am I curious, I've been trying to do some light research on the subject (real research is out, not having access to an academic library), primarily to help deal with a recurrent conflict between me and my husband. He seems to fit into the 'gregarious loner' category to some extent, but calls himself an introvert, as do a few of our friends. The conflict stems >from the fact that, while I also call myself an introvert, I am way, way more introverted than any of them. So he compares my behavior to theirs and says, "but we're introverts too, and we *like* X," where X is usually a social situation, and the anvil-sized implication is that there is something wrong with me. So, a few questions for ya'll and everyone else on the list: 1) What percentage of your time do you enjoy interacting with others? Being around others but not interacting with them? Being alone? 2) If you're alone, how often do you feel the need to a) be around but not interacting with others, and b) be around and interacting with others? 3) If you're in a situation in which you have to interact with people (ie, for whatever reason it's not considered polite to read a book or whatever), how much do you like/dislike the situation? How much do you wish you could stay or leave? How much do you want to not have to interact with them, and how much would you just rather be alone? 4) If you're in a situation in which you're around people, but interacting with them is optional, how often do you find yourself interacting with them, and how often would you just rather be alone? For anyone who answered these four but not the one at the top of the email, I could use that bit too. These questions could probably be split in two, with one half concerning people you know, and the other half concerning people you don't know. Actually, it should be a spectrum, with 'total stranger' at one end and 'intimate partner' at the other, but that's beyond the scope of this medium. My experience with most people has been that they believe the I/E contrast to be black and white. Knowing that many other personality traits exist not as polar opposites but as spectrums, I've come to think that I/E is no different... but there seems to be a lack of pertinent information online. I guess the info has not had the time or the need to trickle from the field of psychology down to the lay-level. Yours in curiosity, Kat