The benefits of having an ambivert personality
For years, psychologists have divided people into two basic personality types: introverts and extroverts. But experts say there's middle ground on the spectrum, and people they refer to as "ambiverts" fall somewhere in between.
"An extrovert is somebody who gets energy by being out among people," Elizabeth Bernstein, a Wall Street Journal reporter who recently wrote about ambiverts, told "CBS This Morning." "An introvert is somebody who is energized by being alone and is drained by being out with people. An ambivert is in the middle and depending on the situation, they like to be with people, they're friendly, but they need time alone, as well."
Bernstein says being an ambivert has a number of benefits, including being able to deal with many types of people and the ability to adapt to different social settings. "You can go out with people. If you're married, you can follow your spouse if they're extroverted, but you can go with people who need to be alone, too," she said.
Experts also say ambiverts may be better at certain jobs that require adjusting your personality depending on the situation and the different types of people involved. Some of these professions include teaching, reporting and sales. Bernstein also pointed out that ambiverts tend to communicate well in relationships and are good at parenting.
Daniel Pink, a book author and host of CrowdControl, a TV series on human behavior, developed a quiz to determine personality type. The assessment asks users to answer 18 short statements on a scale from "strongly disagree" to "strongly agree" to judge whether people are essentially introverts, extroverts or ambiverts.
Examples include: "I start conversations with people I don't know;" "I tend not to assert myself;" "I am the life of the party;" and "I get bored when I'm by myself."
Bernstein emphasized that personality occurs on a spectrum and results aren't necessarily black and white. "If you think about extroverts and introverts," she said, "you can be a little bit more to one side or the other and still be an ambivert."