Introversion - A Theory

Disclaimer: I am not an well versed on this matter, it is merely a matter of opinion and speculation. - If you disagree, which you very well may because this is just a rough idea, please leave your idea(s) below in a comment; I am interested in what you have to say!

With that being said I am going to be blogging about introversion today!

The main source I will be drawing this information from is myself, thus the disclaimer.

Starting with this point: my Myers-Briggs test boldly proclaims that I am 78% introverted (INFJ, by the way).

My Idea: introverts are made, not born.

They are a product of their environment. 

There are naturally exceptions to every rule, but this is the generalization I am making. Pardon me if it's a bit hasty. *Ba-dum-ch* I can't believe I just made a fallacy joke... you don't have to laugh.

Anyways, I only believe this because of my personal experience, and I am welcome to being wrong.

My Theory: I think we can see that everyone has an innate sense of wanting to be accepted and loved. They want to be approved of, and in my experience children, more often than not, go about getting that by vying for your attention. They crave your compliments at crappy macaroni art, and constantly want you to play games with them or be sitting in your lap during a movie... or dinner (which is complicated). They value your opinion, and they want you to know that.

So how does that attention/approval seeking mindset morph into introversion where there is a preference for solitude to regain one's energy?

My Data: when I was a kid I loved to be the center of attention. I wanted the affection of my parents and basically anyone who was around... yes, I was THAT kid. I wanted to be noticed, and I wanted to be with people. But more often than not I found myself alone. Eventually I adapted to this state of being. It wasn't an easy process, but I became creative and found ways to cope with being alone.

I became a pirate in my backyard (I had a metal detector... that's what I wanted for Christmas when I was 8...), or a gymnast, or an archer, or a blacksmith. When my parents took me on a house cleaning job I would become an explorer and find buttons in the carpet and change (which I got to keep and buy myself candy, or s slushi if I had enough). The woods became a carnivorous jungle, and my room became my sanctuary.

I fell in love with books, and eventually writing.

Naturally as an adult I am thankful for those lonely days, because they shaped me into the person that I am.

But looking back, my personality as a young child was very extroverted, and somewhere along the way that was refocused. Instead of gaining my energy from others I preferred to be alone with my books, and people eventually became exhausting. (Don't get me wrong, I love people, and I enjoy spending time with them, but just in smaller groups and for certain amounts of time [pending on the who/how many].)

That's why I started thinking about this. That was a big shift, at least in my life. How did it come about?

My Conclusion: The only honest-to-blog answer I could deduce was that I became a product of my environment. I know that people are not only products of their environments, but also of their actions. However, my actions lead to adapting to my environment of being alone which eventually set the precedence of solitude over social.

Had my environment been different growing up maybe I would have been too, but I don't know nor will I ever.

What do you think?

Are your social precepts and means of regaining vitality set by your environment?

~Amanda Rose