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Does Extraversion Leads to Low Anxiety
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| Paper Id :
19795 Submission Date :
2025-01-11 Acceptance Date :
2025-01-21 Publication Date :
2025-01-25
This is an open-access research paper/article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.14909200 For verification of this paper, please visit on
http://www.socialresearchfoundation.com/resonance.php#8
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| Abstract |
Personality is an integral part of individual. It is a unique combination of characteristics, which exhibits not only his physical characteristics but also psychological characteristics. It determines the way of reaction of an individual in any situation, which plays a major role in Aadjustment that directly affects the Psychological status. Studies confirmed that type of personality has an effect on Psychological disorders. Previously division of personality is based upon different criteria by Psychologists. Kretschmer and Sheldon’s division was based upon morphology. Jung and Eyesenck’s division was based upon Psychological characteristics. Numerous studies have been conducted so far to explore the relationship between personality and anxiety. Physical correlates such as EEG, neurotransmitters have also been studied. This study aims to examine that if extraversion does have any correlation with anxiety. To find out the correlation 100 extrovert subject’s anxiety level is examined. Result is analyzed with descriptive statistics, Spearman correlation and regression analysis. |
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| Keywords | Psychological characteristics, Morphology, Extraversion, Anxiety. | |||||||||
| Introduction | Personality refers to the combined characteristics of an individual which includes their interest, attitude, traits, adjustment ability, aptitude etc. It also includes physical appearance, like weight, height, complexion and health. “Personality refers to the enduring characteristics and behavior that comprise a person’s unique adjustment to life, including major traits, interests, drives, values, self-concept, abilities, and emotional patterns”(APA). Munn called it the most characteristic integration of an individual’s physique and Psychological attributes. Whereas R.B.Cattele believes that personality helps in prediction of an individual’s behaviour in a specific situation. Personality is dynamic that keeps changing. That is why Allport called it a dynamic organization that includes both physical and psychological attributes of an individual. Personality is an unique integration of characteristics of individual. Psychologists suggested many theories explaining the characteristics and its effect on behaviour. There is various view point of explanation, some has trait approach and some has type approach. Allport is a pioneer in establishing the personality theories of trait approach. He defined personality as an dynamic organisation within individual’s psycho-physical systems, which determines his unique adjustment with his environment (1938). He talked about common and personal traits (dispositional factors). Common traits are considered as the reflection of social values, norms, which is practiced by most of the individuals in society. People’s reactions, perception, actions, beliefs are equivalent in function in a certain way, no matter whether the situation is physically equivalent or not, is personal disposition (Allport 1938). Psychologist those believed in type approach, explained normal behavior and associated psychological problems people may develop due to their personality type. German Psychologist Kretschmer’s theory of personality based upon morphology, it described the characteristics associated with somatotype. He categorized personality type in four categories 1) Pyknik 2) Asthenic 3) Athletic and 4) dysplastic Pyknik- This type of people is short heighted, thick neck and have heavy body built. They have cool temperament; usually remain cheerful, social in nature. They like eating and sleeping. Kretschmer called them “Cycloid” also. There is high probability of developing Manic Depressive disorder for them. Asthenic type:- This type of people have thin structure, tall, underdeveloped muscles and underweight. Temperament wise they are irritable, day dreamer and like to live alone. They are categorized as ‘Schizoid”. They have high probability of developing “Schizophrenia”. Athletic:- They have muscular body, height wise neither too short nor too tall. Their behavior is very balanced. They have the ability to adjust themselves in any situation. Dysplastic Type:- These people have mixed characteristics of all the type explained above. Sheldon also described the personality type categorized by morphology. He also believes in the relation between somatotype and behavior. There are three types of somatotype personality he divided 1)Endomorphy, 2) Messomorphy, and 3) Ectomorphy Endomorphy:- Endomorphy exhibits the characteristics of Pyknik type personality explained by Kretschmer. They are social animal and their attitude toward life is lethargic Sheldon termed them as “Viscerotonia”. Meomorphy:- They have well shaped body, toned muscles , neither over weighed nor under weighed. They are ready to face challenges in life, they are very assertive, tough minded and aggressive. Their behavior is very dominating. Sheldon called them “Somatotonia”. Ectomorphy:- This type of People are thin and tall like Asthenic type of Kretschmer. Extrovert:- These people are gregarious, they have many friends, they like to attend social gathering, they have leadership qualities, their attitude toward life is optimistic. They love to get involve in fun activities.Introvert:- Introvert people are self-centered, They don’t have many friends, they like to live in solitude. They are very conservative in practicing customs and traditions of their society.Ambivert:- Jung was criticized that it is very difficult to find people, who fall strictly under any of these two categories. That is why he added this category of mixed type “Ambivert”. They possess characteristics of both extrovert and introvert. Psychological characteristic tend people to behave in an equivalent way, it is their own unique way of reacting to situation, which may led them to certain Psychological disorder. This study aim to find the problem associated with extrovert people. Following are the objectives of this study |
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| Objective of study | 1. To measure the level of anxiety of students. |
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| Review of Literature | Many studies was done on relationship between personality characteristic and anxiety. It is found in general that extrovert people are social, they enjoy social gathering. It works as protective shield by letting the stress out. Therefore they are less prone to anxiety. Numerous studies have been done on effect of personality traits on anxiety and neuroticism. Not only extraversion but developing anxiety is also associated with other emotional traits of personality (Weger M., Sandi C. 2018). A study was conducted by Sharma SC (2003) on 28 cases of Generalised anxiety disorder, he concluded that neuroticism is significantly correlated with GAD and found the inherent traits more prevalent than other EPQ parameters. In a study conducted by Sushmita Singh (2023) she found a low positive correlation between extraversion and personality, a significant positive correlation between anxiety and neuroticism, she also studied the effect of openness and agreeableness which is not found significant and there was a very low negligible relationship between anxiety and these variables. Uliaszek, Amanda & Zinbarg, Richard et al. (2010) found no supporting evidence for explaining the relationship between stress related social phobia and extraversion though they found evidences in support of stress and depression. A recent study found the correlation between EEG and personality type, a slow and weak EEG is related to extraversion while people, who had fast and strong EEG recording, tend to form an introvert personality. Jie Dong 1, Tingwei Xiao suggested a correlational model i.e. personality trait-emotion-neurotransmitter. They found that extrovert people are more joyful, their emotions are pleasurable and positive due to the dopaminergic system. Introvert people are less happy than extrovert people. He finds hydroxytryptamine neurotransmitter in introvert people. Those introvert people who are emotionally unstable are govern by noradrenaline and this induces negative emotions within them such as fear or anger. Emotional stable introvert persons are calm minded they feel relaxed. |
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| Methodology |
A quantitative methodology is adopted to fulfill the objectives.
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| Sampling |
- This study is conducted on a sample of 100 students of both gender . Sampling technique used is convenient Sampling. Characteristics of sample are given below. Characteristics of sample:-
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| Tools Used | Tools that are used in the study are “(SCAT) Sinha’s comprehensive anxiety test” by A.K.P. Sinha and N.K. Sinha. This test comprises total 90 items, which is associated with personality. Each item has two options , “Yes and No” Subject has to select any one of it. Reliability of this test is 0.85, internal consistency is 0.92. Validity of SCAT is determined by computing the coefficient with Taylor’s Manifest Anxiety Scale. Another tool that is used in this study is IEI constructed by Dr P.F. Aziz and Dr Rekha Gupta. The test contains 60 items pertaining to introvert and extrovert person. Test-retest method is used to find out the reliability, which is found .91. Cross validation is used to determine validity. It is found .95 with Neyman Kohltsedt introversion extroversion test. |
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| Statistics Used in the Study | Procedure: - Data collection is divided into 2 steps. First step of procedure is to find out the extrovert people from the population. For this purpose initially IEI was administered on a big sample. Scoring was done and 100 participants, who scored 15+, were in extrovert category have been selected for participating in second step. After sorting it out, they are being informed and called again to complete the remaining part of the study. This time Anxiety test is administered upon them. They were asked to answer each item. Questionnaire is distributed, after subjects completed the questionnaire, it was ensured that they have answered all the questions. Scoring is done for all the participants. Then data was analyzed statistically.
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| Analysis | Manual of IEI is used for scoring of extraversion introversion. For objective 1 i.e. “To measure the level of anxiety of students” manual that is provided with SCAT is used for scoring. Responses are given scores according to the scoring pattern of the test, then it is converted into percentiles a per the norm table. An overall distribution of scores in each category is shown in the table below.
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| Conclusion |
The study conducted on 100 extrovert young adults. The result found is quite astonishing, Out of 100 respondent 71 were extremely highly anxious, 7 is highly anxious and 22 in average, below average and extremely below category. Though the entire respondent was extrovert but most of them showed extremely high anxiety. Initially it gives an impression that extrovert characteristics have nothing to do with anxiety. As per the studies conducted in previous years, most of them found a significant correlation between these two variables(Gershuny, B. S., & Sher, K. J. (1998), Templer, A. J. (1971), (Kristin Naragon-Gainey, Lauren A. Rutter, Timothy A (2014), A Dritjon Gruda Adegboyegsa Ojo (2014 ). After applying correlational analysis, an inverse relation was found between anxiety and extraversion. We can say that it can be situational factors that were responsible for extremely high anxiety. Students have to go through many stressors, problem in studies, uncertainty of future, tension with peers, and adjustment with parents, it can work as catalyst for anxiety. This study examined one factor of neuroticism i.e. anxiety with extraversion. Two variables had been taken into consideration. Extraversion was taken as an independent variable, while anxiety was dependent variable in this study. The analysis of result shows a significant negative correlation between extraversion and anxiety. It means that if the scores increases towards extraversion scores of anxiety decreases. The result is in line with a prospective 3-year study on undergraduate students, authors concluded that a combination of low extraversion and high neuroticism is predisposing factor for anxiety etiology (Gershuny, B. S., & Sher, K. J. (1998). Another study that is conducted on extrovert and introvert does not reveal any consistent finding (Templer, A. J. (1971). There is a strong correlation between anxiety sensitivity and extraversion (Kristin Naragon-Gainey, Lauren A. Rutter, Timothy A ,2014) . A Dritjon Gruda Adegboyegsa Ojo (2014) also reported negative correlation between anxiety and extraversion. While a contradictory result is found in the study of Sushmita Singh(2023) she does not found any significant correlation between anxiety and extraversion. Statistical analysis of present study shows a good fit model and a strong negative correlation between extraversion and anxiety, in all the statistical methods applied. F-ratio is found significant at .003 level, which indicates a high level of significance. Spearman correlation and standardized coefficient beta both shows a negative and significant correlation. In current study the hypothesis “There is negative correlation between anxiety and extraversion” is found true, and most of the students were extremely highly anxious though they were extrovert. It says that extrovert people are in upper edge than others to fight against the problems arises by circumstances. So, we can conclude that extraversion can reduce the level of anxiety depending upon the severity of the situation individual is going through. |
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| Suggestions for the future Study | Following are the recommendations 1. A study on both extrovert and introvert should be conducted to find the difference. 2. A multifactor study in relation with other psychological problems like depression, phobia etc. with extraversion should also be investigated. 3. This study is limited to only young college students of 17-20 years. Other age range should also be studied. |
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| References |
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