ENC2135: An Introvert's Perspective

 

 

    So many people judge those that are quiet as the “weird ones,” they are the ones who are too shy and the ones people avoid. These quiet people are called Introverts, while Extraverts are the ones who are always sociable and outgoing. As a society, we are biased towards those who are outgoing and talkative, we see those people as the ones who are going to be successful in their careers and personal life because of what? They have an easier time talking to strangers? We can see this trend occurring is many different situations across our culture, its shown as early on as High school. There is the quiet nerd or artsy kid, who doesn’t talk as much as the jock or the cheerleader, who are much more popular and are seen as socially more adequate and better off. This trend also follows us to our careers where for example; the outgoing and charming sales person is seen as a leader and more successful than the one who just enjoys accounting for the company’s finances quietly at his desk. Our society praises those who enjoy talking and are outgoing, discriminating against those who aren’t like that. This ends up being the cause for the introverts’ tendencies to hate how quiet they are, despite the fact that they have different strengths.  For my research paper, I want to investigate how our society underestimates introverts by discussing how introverts really do benefit our society and are either just as successful or even more so, despite their differences from the extraverts. I will also investigate why this bias occurs within our society, and why extraverts are seen as the “prized” individuals. I plan to write this paper for introverts, so that they can understand that although our society may never change, they do have their strengths and it can be a great thing being an introvert, despite that they aren’t what our society holds up on in praise.

     My initial research includes the definitions and differences between introverts and extraverts and comparing each to what characteristics our society is looking for in a “model citizen.” For my research, I will search many Psychology Databases and any databases regarding individual differences in people. Some keywords will include: Introverts in society, introverts vs. extraverts, and benefits of introversion.

     This research topic is very personal to me because not only is it about Psychology, which is the career that I plan to work for, but my family and I are all introverts. Everyone in my family has received the short end of the stick many times because we are more quiet and shy. We are all very self-conscious about our introversion, and I want to investigate what it is in our society that makes introverts like my family and myself, so hard on ourselves for not being as outgoing or making friends quite as easily. I know from personal experience that extraverts are not perfect, and there are many things that introverts can do better than extraverts, because we are different and have different strengths. I wanted to do my research paper on this topic so I can share with any introverts who are feeling down on themselves because they are extremely shy, that it is okay because we have so many strengths to make up for it that we most likely wouldn’t have if we weren’t introverted.

     The challenges that I believe may occur is a lack of information regarding why introverts are seen so negatively compared to extraverts, because perhaps it may be a topic that is avoided due to social norms.