August 2008 Archives

Some of our new visitors (welcome all) flinched a bit at the spelling of "Extraversion" on our site, which is perhaps less familiar than "Extroversion" as it is spelled in common usage. We checked our Latin books (er, Latin websites) and both spellings are valid variants. We have no good reason for the "a" rather than the "o" except a cultural one: YouJustGetMe is based on the Big-Five personality model and our names were inspired by Costa & McCrae's 1992 take on it. (But this little citation on Wikipedia argues that psychologists tend to use "Extraversion" whereas common usage tends toward "Extroversion.") We're fans of the Big-Five because it was derived statistically, rather than theoretically like other personality models by Eysenck, Cattell, Jung, Freud and others. But the greater point, which would no doubt be emphasized by Lewis Goldberg who is the real grandfather of the Big-Five, is this: When the dust settles on the statistical analysis, naming the traits is pure art, and psychologists are welcome to wordsmith as they see fit (thus the theoretical squabbles are hardly eliminated by using statistics). That's why Goldberg named the traits I, II, III, IV, and V. So it shouldn't surprise you that we named our bubbles brand new from scratch, or that Extraversion has also gone by Extroversion, Agency, Surgency, Activity, Exvia, and Sociability. If you want to compare all the Big-Five traits to other models, check out this killer chart.

But while we're at it, let's talk about Extraversion. The Big-Five model surprised everyone by showing that Extraversion included more than just sociability like other models and the popular definition would have it. Excitement seeking, risk taking, and general cheerfulness are other traits of the Extravert. The Latin was right, Extraversion is about "turning outward" (and Introversion is about "turning inward") but it's not just turning outward to people, it's about turning outward to the whole world of which people are just one part. The best way to think of Extraversion is to think of your skin - that psychologically profound barrier between all that is you and all that is not you. Extraverts live outside their skin. Introverts live inside. And most of us do a little of both.

Final point - When you answer the 40 questions about yourself (and visit each day to answer a new question until you max out at 120), we score the results on this and other traits. But the personality summaries written by Dr. Peggy don't just spit back what you answered...they make some assumptions based on all the traits we know go together. So if you say you are a people person, we assume you also like roller coasters and smile a lot. There's a pretty big body of literature backing that up, and it lets our summaries include a few things you didn't see coming.

I've been looking at an awful lot of bubblegraphs in the last few months, and I want to blog about what I call "the flattery graph." This is when the Disciplined, Alternative, Unemotional, Cooperative, and Extraverted bubbles are very BIG, and the Casual, Traditional, Neurotic, Competitive, and Introverted bubbles are very SMALL. The flattery graph can show up in either your self-rating or your guesses about someone else.

What does it mean? Well personologists back to Cronbach have realized that although all personality profiles are possible, they are not all equally likely. Not surprisingly, the personality profiles that are are sanctioned or condoned in our culture are more common than those that are not. Now this project is not about judging others (it's about understanding others), but we can't deny the fact that it may be a positive norm in our culture to be hard-working, open-minded, stable, nice, and sociable. That is, Disciplined, Alternative, Unemotional, Cooperative, and Extraverted - the flattery graph. It's a fact of our culture that we both strive to be this way and assume this about others whom we like. So we don't fault anyone with the flattery graph in their self-ratings (my own in fact follow this pattern) or in their guesses of someone else. Instead, this norm of "goodness" may be key to helping total strangers understand each other. If I try to be "good" and you assume I am "good" - bingo, you just get me.

That said, we want to tip our hat to anyone who departs from the flattery graph. Cheers to all the Casual, Traditional, Neurotic, Competitive, and Introverted members of YouJustGetMe. If nothing else, you have recognized a personality trait in yourself that is...different...and shown the pluck to admit it when you rated yourself. We're not saying you're telling the truth and everyone with a flattery graph is a liar, but they are going with a norm rather than against it. Make of that what you will. However, the cost of not having a flattery graph is that strangers might not get you as easily. I'd be willing to bet that the people on the "Hardest to Guess" list down further on this page have at least one big non-flattery bubble. Guess them and see if I'm right. But maybe their Competitiveness allows them to say - "So what?"

And there's a final point: The non-flattery graph is NOT maladaptive, dysfunctional, or in any way wrong or bad. (The personality questions on YJGM do NOT diagnose any condition. Any answer you give is within the normal, healthy range of personality.) Certainly, we can all think of reasons why it's good (both in your mind and in our culture) to be Casual, Traditional, Neurotic, Competitive, and Introverted. (But to be sure, your departure from the norm may be a central drama of your life.) There are saints and sinners at all 10 poles of the Five Factor Model of personality. But we'll save that for another blog.