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Extraversion

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences

Synonyms

Extroversion; Gregariousness; Introversion; Sociability; Social attention; Social boldness; Surgency

Definition

Extraversion is a higher-order dimension of personality variation encompassing individual differences in sociability, assertiveness, positive emotionality, approach tendencies, and status motivation.

Introduction

The extraversion continuum is one of several basic higher-order dimensions of personality variation (Wilt and Revelle 2008). In what follows, the main research findings regarding extraversion will be overviewed.

Phenotypic Description

The extraversion continuum is defined by correlated variation in multiple psychological and behavioral facets (Lucas et al. 2000; Wilt and Revelle 2008). At the high end of the continuum, extraverted behavior is defined by gregariousness, boldness, assertiveness, approach tendencies, positive emotionality, and status motivation. Symmetrically, at the low end of the continuum, introverted behavior is defined by shyness,...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. California State University, Fullerton, CA, USA

    Aaron W. Lukaszewski

Authors
  1. Aaron W. Lukaszewski
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Correspondence to Aaron W. Lukaszewski .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Virgil Zeigler-Hill

  2. Oakland University, Rochester, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Lakehead University, Orillia, ON, Canada

    Beth A. Visser

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Lukaszewski, A.W. (2016). Extraversion. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1071-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_1071-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-28099-8

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