Characteristics of Introvert or Extrovert Personalities

The theory this paper employs is that one’s introvert or extrovert personality characteristics and their national culture impacts one’s susceptibility to groupthink. If businesses understood the importance of how various personality types and cultures influence decision-making, groupthink could be better avoided leading to better solutions of problems. This theory is important because it can lessen the burdening effects of groupthink by understanding and acknowledging individual differences among members, resulting in better outcomes.
The first variable is personality type. We will define this by Gordon Allport’s definition that personality is “the dynamic organization within the individual of those psychophysical systems that determine his unique adjustments to his environment” (Lakshmi, 2008). For the purpose of this study we will use the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator because of its popularity and significance – two and a half million Americans a year take the test and 89 of the US Fortune 100 use it for selection, recruitment, and a way for employees to better understand themselves and each other (Psychometric Success, 2013). The dimensions of the variable include introversion versus extroversion, sensing versus intuition, thinking versus feeling, and judging versus perceiving (Myers & McCaulley, 1985). We will be focusing specifically on introversion and extroversion and will refer to psychatrist Carl Jung’s definitions of the terms - an introvert is someone who withdraws into himself and tends to be shy and an extrovert seeks the company of others and is likely to be very sociable (Lakshmi, 2008). The literature takes this independent variable into account in Vijaya Lakshmi’s study of extroverts and introverts. Understa...

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... that means they want to reduce their risks as minimal as possible and want to avoid uncertainty as much as possible. The literatures takes this independent variable into account in Zhang’s study of the ways one’s culture influences decisions made under majority influence. Since conformity is partially a product of culture, different cultural perspectives and experiences will impact decision-making. One’s national culture impacts the original relationship because it helps shape one’s personality, which helps shape their susceptibility to group think. Therefore one’s national culture acts as a partial mediating variable, because it influences both personality type and one’s susceptibility to groupthink. My hypothesis is that those with high UAI scores are more likely to succumb to groupthink and those with low UAI scores are less likely to succumb to groupthink.