00:00The way that you communicate and connect with people is kind of everything.
00:06That's what I think.
00:09When you search the internet for personality types,
00:12you find millions of results tempting you to classify yourself as one of a variety of things.
00:17Who are you, they ask.
00:19Are you an extrovert? Introvert?
00:21I'm an introverted extrovert.
00:23This is a story about my quest to know more about myself.
00:31I'm Jackie.
00:32I love expressing myself through my work, but I don't like to be the center of attention.
00:38I spend a lot of my time alone, and I kind of like it that way.
00:44I can be charismatic and friendly, but it tends to wear me out.
00:48Which is to say, I guess I'm an introvert.
00:54But is that it?
00:57What does that really mean?
01:00And is it holding me back?
01:03Generally speaking, introverts lose energy after long periods of social interaction.
01:09They're super sensitive to external stimuli.
01:11And extroverts are the opposite.
01:13They're naturally energetic and enthusiastic.
01:20But I wanted to know where this whole binary conception of introverts and extroverts came from in the first place.
01:26So I met up with Pepperdine University psychology professor, Dr. Steve Rouse.
01:31Who's down for a selfie?
01:32Could you sit up a little bit more?
01:34Just like adjust in your seat.
01:36A lot of times in everyday language, we talk about introverts and extroverts as though those are two entirely different
01:42groups of people.
01:43And that's really not the case.
01:45What we see from research is that it's a dimensional characteristic.
01:49The reason why people think of introverts and extroverts as two different groups of people may be because of the
01:55history of the concept.
01:56The person who really introduced that concept was Carl Jung.
02:00Meet Carl Jung.
02:01Well, that's Carl Sagan.
02:04Isn't he charming?
02:05This is Carl Jung.
02:07Carl Jung was a psychiatrist in the middle of the 20th century.
02:11Carl Jung had the idea that we all have kind of an introverted ability and an extroverted ability.
02:18But some people lean more toward the introverted side and other people lean more toward the extroverted side.
02:22Today, there aren't very many people outside of psychotherapy and psychiatry who really consider themselves to be ascribing to a
02:31Jungian theory.
02:32But his binary conception of personality does persist in one incredibly potent way.
02:37The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator.
02:39The Myers-Briggs test was developed in the 1940s based on Carl Jung's typological theory.
02:45The idea is that there are four main psychological functions.
02:49Sensation, thinking, intuition, and feeling.
02:54And that every individual is ruled by one of these functions.
02:57It was originally used to match women entering the workforce for the first time with jobs that would suit their
03:03personalities.
03:04The test has taken off and become wildly profitable, but it's based on a theory.
03:09Not data.
03:10In the 1980s, psychologists moved away from Jung's theories of personality and toward something more scientifically motivated, based on language.
03:18They developed a test known as the Big Five.
03:21It's called the Big Five because it revolves around five different dimensions of personality.
03:26The first is extroversion.
03:29Outgoing, assertive, energetic, neuroticism, angry, anxious, depressed, agreeableness, compassionate, cooperative, trusting, conscientiousness, organized, dependable, disciplined, and lastly, openness to experience,
03:48creative, curious, adventurous.
03:50A personality test does allow us to have some time to really sit back and think about who am I?
03:56What are the characteristics that my friends can perceive in me?
04:00Because there are some ways that the me that I see myself may be different than the me that my
04:05friends see.
04:06And I would argue if any test helps people understand themselves and helps people understand and empathize with other people
04:13better, that's fantastic.
04:15But to be honest, the Myers-Briggs doesn't appear to be as strong a test as some measures of the
04:22Big Five.
04:23Since the Big Five is supposedly the holy grail of personality tests, I took it.
04:30Of course I'm not always sad.
04:32Basically assessing how much of a relativist I am.
04:35I love a good fight.
04:38Am I the one fighting?
04:39Am I watching the fight?
04:41I don't want to be a douchebag.
04:43Question 171.
04:45Out of 300.
04:47Rarely overindulge.
04:49I'm on 256.
04:52I am not bothered by difficult social situations.
04:57Almost.
04:58Okay.
05:00And send.
05:01Oh, damn.
05:03My agreeableness score is really low.
05:07I'm highly neurotic.
05:09I'm easily upset.
05:11Even by what most people consider the normal demands of living.
05:16I'm tough, critical, and uncompromising.
05:19People consider me to be sensitive and emotional.
05:22Oh my God.
05:24What's normal, though?
05:27Okay.
05:28Right.
05:31Huh.
05:36I already feel so weird about all of this.
05:39I think I'm closer to being an extrovert than I thought I was.
05:46Whoa.
05:48What does it mean?
05:49I don't know.
05:50So, clearly, there's a lot that complicates personality.
05:55It's more dimensional than just a binary, introvert-extrovert spectrum.
06:00According to the test, I couldn't even claim to be an introvert anymore.
06:05I feel as though I tripped on my introversion and fell into a deep and complicated well of personality.
06:11Far from being a positive thing, the test made me feel bad.
06:16It was like I was looking into a mirror, and I couldn't accept the reflection.
06:21I'm about to go back to Brooklyn, and I have all this stuff.
06:26Halfway through making this video in Los Angeles, I had to return to New York City.
06:30I was only in LA temporarily.
06:33Weeks passed, and I was super bothered by my personality test results.
06:37Because the thing is, I am disagreeable.
06:41I am neurotic.
06:42I am angry and sad and anxious.
06:46I don't like myself a lot of the time.
06:49I wish I was different.
06:51Making this video would be a hell of a lot easier if I could just fake my way through it.
06:57I wasn't going to feel good about any of this until I unpacked it with someone totally outside of this
07:02whole project.
07:03Someone with perspective.
07:05And compassion.
07:06Because I needed that.
07:09This is Connie Wang.
07:10She's one of my favorite co-workers, and she always has good advice.
07:15Neuroticism 74!
07:19Anger 84!
07:21It just really, it really upset me in a lot of ways to get this test and to have to
07:27take it seriously in the realm of like doing this video.
07:31And it just, it made me angry and it made me...
07:36Neurotic and anxious.
07:42And I just...
07:44Okay, you're very open.
07:45I'm very open.
07:46Yeah, you are very open.
07:47I'm very open.
07:48But I would say that like, you're neurotic but in like a delightful way.
07:52I can see when you do get angry about certain things, but I think you deal with it well.
07:57Oh my god, do I?
07:59Do you?
07:59I don't know.
08:00Do you?
08:00I don't know.
08:01I don't want to disappoint her by revealing all of the angry ugliness inside of me.
08:05Do you have like a drawer full of like torn up papers or something?
08:10I don't have a drawer full of torn up paper.
08:13Hmm.
08:13Maybe I should do that.
08:14The thing that was your score the most intensely on was openness, right?
08:19You were like 90 something percent open.
08:21And then you weren't close to that number for any other trait.
08:25It's true.
08:25Right.
08:26And I feel like if your guiding personality trait is openness, it's sort of like, it muffles all the ones
08:31that you consider to be bad.
08:33If you're angry but also open, like, that also, that means that like, your anger won't last very long, you
08:39know?
08:40That's a good point.
08:41I don't know.
08:42I think it's better to be open than any of these other things.
08:44Hmm.
08:45I hope so.
08:46And I think that openness means curiosity, means a willingness to participate and cooperate and, you know, work together with
08:53other people.
08:54This is helping me put this in perspective that the nirvana I want to reach is just rare.
09:01There's so many ways to live, Connie.
09:04I know.
09:07I needed help expressing myself in what I thought was an extroverted way.
09:11But is it maybe just an agreeable way?
09:14Ugh.
09:15I guess I'm open to that.
09:17I reached out to Lizzie Wallace, who teaches improv to folks who want to communicate better in the workplace.
09:24I think improv's a great tool to help people because it's all about being in the moment.
09:31Not so much being in your own head and overanalyzing things.
09:35Oh my gosh.
09:36That's totally me.
09:38Everyone's supporting one another.
09:40And so it's not so much about who's the smartest, who's the most confident, who's the most popular.
09:47It's about using everyone's strength collectively.
09:51I'm going to have us start our first game.
09:54Everyone stand up.
09:59Yeah.
10:00I'm an introvert, I guess.
10:02I'm either an introverted extrovert or an extroverted introvert.
10:05I can't figure out exactly which one.
10:07I would call myself just a person and it depends on whatever day.
10:11I'd definitely say I'm talkative and outgoing, but I do like my quiet time.
10:16You have to trust yourself.
10:18You have to trust the people around you.
10:20You kind of have to let go of any neuroses you have, any anxiety.
10:25Put that to the side and just be present in the moment.
10:29How do you feel about classifying people as introverts or extroverts?
10:33Do you agree with it?
10:34I don't think it's actually fair.
10:36I know for me, I'm definitely a combination of the two.
10:39Whoop, whoop, ambivert.
10:40Give that to your partner.
10:42Whoop, whoop.
10:43Good.
10:45Whoop, whoop.
10:47Good.
10:47Okay.
10:48It changed again.
10:49Whoop, whoop.
10:50Good.
10:50When I went into the improv workshop, I was pretty sure that I was an antisocial monster.
10:56But the boop booping was fun.
10:58It was a safe space to be silly and weird with my coworkers.
11:02Far from wearing me out, it made me feel a little lighter.
11:06It makes me want to open myself up to this kind of joy and connection more often.
11:11That's so funny, right?
11:13We'll see.
11:14We'll see.
11:14Poop, poop.
11:16So here I am in all of my halfway extroverted, neurotic, disagreeable, open, and averagely conscientious glory.
11:24This whole process led me to cast off my self-assigned introvert label, and it forced me to face down
11:30complicated parts of my personality.
11:32It's not all good, but it's not all bad either.
11:37I'm happy to be open enough to work through my anger and anxiety when those feelings come up.
11:42Do I really want to base my understanding of myself completely on a personality test?
11:48No, of course not.
11:51But it's helpful to have tools for reflection and self-awareness.
11:56What do you think?
11:58Have you taken the big five?
12:00The Myers-Briggs?
12:01Has improv transformed you as a person?
12:04Who are you?
12:05Tell us below in the comments.
12:07And thanks for watching.
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