Introverts, Extroverts, Ambiverts?

For the past week, I have been reading a book by Susan Cain called Quiet. The book was assigned by our professor in one of my psychology classes. The author’s main objective is to convince the audience that introverts are not inferior in any way in comparison to extroverts. Nevertheless, she acknowledges that in this world being extroverted can be more appealing than being introverted, because work and school environments are designed for extroverts. The book included a questionnaire about extraversion and introversion. When I answered the questions I realized that I was more introverted than extroverted. This result contradicted with my score from the Big 5 Personality test, provided by my professor, where I scored 70th percentile on extraversion (which means that I am relatively high on the extraversion scale). According to Cain, some people are introverts, some are extroverts, and others are ambiverts. I was very surprised to see the term “ambivert”, since I had never come across it; I guess I did not expect that such a term would exist to describe people who have traits of both extroverts and introverts. However, what surprised me the most was that I was starting to realize that I might be an ambivert. Moreover, I started to realize that in some situations I act more like an extrovert and in other situations I act more like an introvert. Before taking the tests I never considered my self to be 100% introvert or 100% extrovert, so does that mean I am indeed an ambivert?

Cain explains that humans are so complex that even if someone is more introverted than extroverted, this trait might not hold true for all situations. But, are those situations the exception? Am I an introvert who behaves like an extrovert in some situations? Or is it the other way around? Professor Koestner discussed why some people behave differently (on a given trait) across different situations. According to research by Daryl Bem if a given trait is very relevant and meaningful to someone then it is more likely that the person will behave more consistently across situations, than if the trait is not that relevant or meaningful. In addition, Mark Snyder proposed that people who are high self-monitors can act differently across situations (they experience high variability), as opposed to low-self monitors, who behave more consistently across situations.

Taking into account this research, maybe we need more than just one test to have a better understanding of our own traits and behaviors across situations. For example, in addition to the Big Five personality test, I can assess which traits are personally relevant to me, and assess if I am a high or a low self-monitor. In this case, the different tests can act as pieces of a puzzle, each contributing to a better understanding of who we are. After all, maybe I am a high self-monitor, and that is why I act like an extrovert in some situations and like an introvert in others.