46 pages • 1 hour read
Susan CainA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Cain explains in a note at the end of the book why she uses the terms that she does for personality types. Although psychological researchers have different definitions of introversion and extroversion, as well as the alternative spelling of “extraversion” for the latter, her book uses the cultural notion of the terms rather than a clinical definition. Cain’s framework relies on a long-standing trope of Western culture: the “dichotomy between the ‘man of action’ and the ‘man of contemplation’” (269). Examples of these types in philosophy and literature go as far back as the Bible. The Old Testament presents the story of brothers Jacob and Esau, whose qualities fall neatly into the two personality types. Likewise, thinkers like Aristotle, Hippocrates, Milton, and Schopenhauer describe people in terms of the cultural definitions we still have of introversion and extroversion.
Although Cain originally planned to create her own terms, she stuck with “introversion” and “extroversion” because these terms are so deeply ingrained in society—lay people know just what is being referred to. The field of psychology, however, determines personality traits in various ways, and concrete definitions are not set.
Books About Leadership
View Collection
Business & Economics
View Collection
Community
View Collection
Community Reads
View Collection
Education
View Collection
New York Times Best Sellers
View Collection
Pride & Shame
View Collection
Psychology
View Collection
Self-Help Books
View Collection
Sociology
View Collection
SuperSummary Staff Picks
View Collection
Teams & Gangs
View Collection
The Best of "Best Book" Lists
View Collection