So this fine Labor Day morning I have been doing some research on introverts and introversion. It's a positive of having graduated... I can research topics that actually interest me. I find this interesting because I am 1. An introvert myself. 2A psychology major so these types of things interest me. and 3. A nerd. Yes, I admit I like reading about what other people have been studying and researching. (I also just like reading in general. I'm turning into my grandpa and have a list of books I want to read).
This morning I was reading Owl City's blog and stumbled across a blog on introverts. It is not "professional research" that I found intriguing, but the people they quoted. Dr. Marti Laney, who wrote, "The Introvert Advantage," (and yes I almost bought the book off Amazon this morning), writes about brain chemistry in introverts and extroverts. Basically, neurotransmitters follow different paths in the nervous system of introverts and extroverts. Introverts and overly sensitive to Dopamine. According to Psychology Today, "Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers. Dopamine also helps regulate movement and emotional responses, and it enables us not only to see rewards, but to take action to move toward them." Because of an introverts sensitivity to dopamine, when they become overloaded by external stimulation they feel emotionally overwhelmed and drained.(Man, I wish I had my biological psychology book right now.)
Extroverts can't get enough Dopamine so they require adrenaline so their brains can create enough dopamine for them to feel "filled up." That's why extroverts want to go out for the evening. They need some kind of adrenaline to create the dopamine they need. Whereas, introverts would rather stay at home to rest and process everything they were overloaded with during the day.
I remember the first time I learned all of this it blew my mind. It was good to read it again as a refresher. This led to some more reading and I found "The Introverts Corner" on Psychology Today's website.
I read this article, "Are extroverts better looking?" Scientists have suggested that good looking babies and children are rewarded with lots of attention, they respond, and become very sociable, thus becoming extroverts. This created many thoughts and questions for me. First, what about first born children? I was the first, meaning I got all the attention from my parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles. I was also a very good looking and healthy baby. I responded well to all the attention from what my parents have told me. Yet, I did not become an extrovert. This theory also seems to imply that extroversion is learned, so how does this relate to Dr. Laney's theory of how the neurotransmitters follow different paths for introverts and extroverts> Is that learned too? Also how does this apply to introversion? Is that learned as well? I grew up in a household where we all read. We would go on trips and when I was really little, before I could even read, my mom would put a bag of books in the back seat with me and I would spend hours looking at pictures, and pretending to read. My father is also introverted. So did I learn to be an introvert? Growing up I wanted to be just like my dad. Did I take this to the extreme, and became introverted like him?
The article went on to say, "a case can be made for physical attractiveness increasing extroversion. But is the inverse true? Does unattractiveness increase introversion?" To this I said of course not, because I know lots of beautiful introverts.
I have been reading a lot more interesting things on introversion, but I will save it for another time because this post has gotten much longer than I originally intended it to be.
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