PSYchology
Film «The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes»

Sherlock Holmes is a smart extrovert. A person who is simultaneously outward-facing, extremely attentive and observant to what is around him, and at the same time a deep thinker, able to calculate patterns behind external accidents.

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An extrovert is often confused with a superficial person and a talker. Indeed, extroversion helps sociability, and the ease of communication often provokes an extrovert’s passion for this particular side of life. However, among introverts there are superficial talkers, and among extroverts there are deep and thoughtful people.

Apparently, attributing to extraverts the features of superficiality and talkativeness is the influence of the views of Hans Eysenck, who interpreted extraversion-introversion based on the ratio of excitation and inhibition processes. According to the views of G. Eysenck, extroverts are characterized by the slow formation of excitation, its weakness and the rapid formation of reactive inhibition, its strength and stability, while for introverts it is the rapid formation of excitation, its strength (this is due to the better formation of conditioned reflexes in them and their training) and slow formation of reactive braking, weakness and low stability. Despite the fact that Eysenck’s views on introversion and extraversion have received a certain distribution, it would be more correct to clarify the terminology and not to associate the types of temperaments described by Eysenck with the concepts of extraversion and introversion in practical psychology. See Extrovert and Introvert by Eysenck

On the other hand, superficial people, if they still like to chat, usually look for those who would listen to them, and then they prefer to be not alone, but in the company. Accordingly, talkers (most likely, and it would be good to test this experimentally) are more often extroverts. However, if we have before us a deep and thoughtful person who is not prone to chatter, then, we repeat, it does not follow from this that he is an introvert, nor that he is an extrovert.

Summary

  • A superficial talker is more often an extrovert.
  • A superficial experiencer (experiential personality) is more often an introvert.
  • Deep people, people of a high level of personal development, are equally likely to be both introverts and extroverts.

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