Extraversion

Extraversion is one of the five personality traits of the Big Five personality theory; it looks at how outgoing or social a person may be. A person who scores high in this scale will be very outgoing, enjoy social gatherings and probably be the life of the party. On the other hand, someone who scores low is less likely to be outgoing and will be more comfortable in their own company, this is what we call an introvert.

Many of us will already feel like we identify as either an introvert or an extravert, but what are the characteristics that help to define that? And what impact can that have on our job suitability?

What is Extraversion?

To put it simply, extraversion depicts a person’s stance on their social position. It helps to define a person’s need for sociability and surround him or herself with other people and like all Big Five personality traits it is broken down in to five further sub scales;

Social Need

The Social Need sub-scale measures one’s sociability, therefore their desire and interest in being around others. This sub-scale also helps to measure the need to be close to other people, such as colleagues, family, friends or even strangers.

Social Image

This sub-scale builds upon the previously mentioned Social Need sub-scale. Social Image defines how one interprets their social space, i.e. whether they are more dominant or submissive in social interactions, and how they are perceived in their social interactions. It defines the picture they paint of themselves when in groups of other people.

Pace of Life

Pace of Life shows the energy someone puts into their life in regard to vitality, liveliness and eagerness. Essentially, this shows whether someone is happier living their life at a high tempo, filled with many activities and different types of people, or a calmer life with plenty of relaxation and time to themselves.

Excitement Seeking

As the name of this sub-scale suggests, excitement seeking showcases the need for excitement in one’s life, usually through new experiences and stimulation. Scoring low in this scale does not mean that excitement isn’t necessary, it showcases that calm and familiar environments are preferred.

Cheerfulness

The cheerfulness sub-scale is used to score how expressive a person is of their positive feelings, such as joy, glee, happiness, love and general affection. People who are good humoured and high-spirited will score highly on this sub-scale. However, scoring low does not necessarily mean they are not a happy person, it instead signifies that perhaps they are more reserved with their emotions.

Why is Extraversion Important?

People who score high in extraversion will have a tendency to seek out the company of others and enjoy human interaction. They are more likely to be engaging with the external world and thrive off being around others. They are enthusiastic, assertive and talkative taking pleasure from group activities and working within a team.

Extraversion can be useful in jobs that require a high level of social interaction. Whether that be working in a team, or in roles that require public interaction such as sales, teaching, marketing, public relations or politics.

People who score low in extraversion, as mentioned earlier are what we call introverts. These people tend to be more reserved and are not as concerned at engaging with the external world. They are more likely to be satisfied working alone and can sometimes be overwhelmed by too much social interaction. They prefer to concentrate on one task at a time and often will observe before participating.

A low level of extraversion can be useful in jobs that require you work alone with a minimal level of social interaction. Many roles have a high level of independent working such as auditors, accountants, scientists and business analysts all of which would be best suited to an introvert.

Assessment

Extraversion can be hard to gauge through traditional recruitment methods, even in an interview it will be difficult to get a true picture of this trait among candidates.

At Inpsyght Consultancy we believe that the best way to test for extraversion is through psychometric testing. When combined with a structured interview we are able to target and observe the various sub-scales among candidates and existing employees.