Essay on Personality Traits: Extroversion's Impact on Life Choices

This essay delves into the trait theory of personality, specifically examining the extroversion trait within the Five-Factor Model. It explores the strengths and weaknesses associated with extroverted individuals, such as their sociability, confidence, and ease of forming relationships, while also acknowledging potential drawbacks like a need for constant stimulation and difficulty with solitude. The essay further investigates how extroversion influences various aspects of a person's life, including their choices in relationships, career paths (particularly leadership roles), and overall life satisfaction. Drawing on peer-reviewed research, the analysis highlights the potential benefits of extroversion, such as a positive outlook and success in social and professional contexts, while also acknowledging the potential challenges. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of understanding one's position on the extroversion-introversion continuum to leverage strengths and address weaknesses effectively.

Essay Topic: Personality
Describe the trait theory of personality. Select one ‘factor’ or ‘trait’ from a prominent trait
theory and using peer reviewed research to support your argument discuss the relative
strengths and weaknesses of someone who strongly exhibits this trait.
Humans have long attempted to explain human behaviour by sorting personalities into
traits. “Evidence of this theory has been growing for many years, beginning with the
research of D. W. Fiske (1949) and later expanded upon by other researchers including
Norman (1967), Smith (1967), Goldberg (1981), and McCrae & Costa (1987)”. (Power &
Pluess, 2015). “The Five Factor Model developed by Robert McRae and Paul Costa is the
most commonly accepted personality theory by psychologists today”. The Five Factors are
Conscientiousness, Agreeableness, Neuroticism, Openness to Experience and Extroversion.
Individuals are scored on each trait on a scale or continuum to quantify individual
differences in personality. (Lim, A. 2020)
A strength of the trait perspective is its ability to characterize measurable actions.
Researchers have discovered that looking at a group of people’s actions reveals a clear
connection to personality traits. Trait theories have conversely been criticised for failing to
predict actions in all situations. Some psychologists claim that environmental factors have a
greater impact on personality than traits while others argue that is both traits and
environmental variables that influence personality. (Assessing Personality | Boundless
Psychology, 2017)
Personality refers to the emotions, feelings and behaviour that make us who we are. We are
all born with basic genetic personality traits which are shaped throughout the course of our
lives by both genetics and experience. It has long been believed that our personality is
something that remains remarkably consistent during adulthood however.
This essay will discuss the strengths and weaknesses of a dominant personality trait,
extroversion and how it may influence a person’s choices in their relationships, career and
life happiness.
Extroversion is a personality trait that is described by outgoing, self-assured social activity.
In social contexts, extroverts are sociable, talkative and outgoing. They love being the centre
of attention and will actively seek this out. Extroverts thrive in the company of others and
enjoy meeting new people. They are eager to introduce themselves to strangers.
Extroversion reflects intensity and tendency to which any individual can seek interaction
with their environment and particularly socially. This is the one which encompasses the
assertiveness and comfort level of people this is there in social situation. Moreover, this is
the one which is able to reflect the sources through which someone can draw energy.
Extroversion refers to the state of primary obtaining gratification within oneself from
outside. This is the one which have the tendency to enjoy human interaction along with to
be assertive talkative gregarious and enthusiastic. Extroverts are energized and get thrive off
when being around the people.

There are strengths and weaknesses of the extrovert personality trait. Extroverts’ can easily
converse with others (They have a lot to say), are confident in most situations, like to
interact with new people in different settings and enjoy being busy. People with a high level
of extroversion “seek out social stimulation and interactions with others. These people are
characterized as vibrant, energetic and upbeat”. They are more likely to speak up and show
themselves in group situations. (Cherry, 2011). Extroverts’ conversely can struggle to be
alone, crave stimulation so bore easily and struggle to understand people less outgoing than
themselves.
There is fluctuation in personality spectrum are normal. Some people like to get introvert
sometime and sometime they like to get into extrovert which is due to change in personality
spectrum. An extrovert large part of the personality is determined by making new friend
which lead to play a role of personality and able to control over their brain which
corresponding to dopamine. This lead to create predicting personality characteristics.
Extroverts are assertive, domineering and tend to prefer to be with others than alone.
“Extroverts think out loud, rarely run out of things to say, prefer talking to listening and
often speak before they think”. (“Personality Diversity: Extrovert and Introvert
Temperaments,” 2016)
According to study, extroversion has been related to a variety of potentially beneficial life
outcomes including happiness and success this is largely due to a more positive life outlook.

The Extroversion trait can influence a range of relationships. Personality characteristics can
be used to predict a persons’ actions in a variety of contexts including marriage. Marital
satisfaction is influenced by attitude. Attitude is influenced by personality. People with
different personality traits have different attitudes towards marriage which can affect
marital satisfaction. In relationships extroverts are stimulated by social contact. They enjoy
fun and are constantly looking for the next challenge to keep life exciting. They are outgoing
and love company and conversation. They crave excitement and are known to be
spontaneous, they enjoy adventure, new experiences and are typically happier. Extroverts
are outgoing, persuasive, highly communicative and entertaining by design. They have a
preference for big social events and active lifestyles according to the Five Factor Model.
They have a friendly demeanour and positive outlook. (Ross, 2018)
Extrovert like to get friendship with many people. They are the one who makes new friends
easily and are able to get engage with people around them. They are having large social
network and many acquaintances.
Conversely extroverts’ bore easily, can become uninspired, need to be the centre of
attention and can have a tendency to engage in risk taking behaviour.
Given that people enter marriage with a variety of personality traits, a marital
relationship can be defined as a union between two unique people. “People have
a tendency to force their behavioural and performance traits on their partners”;
as a result, their personality can be a source of tension in their marriage.
(Sayehmiri et al., 2020)
The advantage of being an extrovert is that it is easier to form relationships. Extroverts find
it easier to converse with others making it easier to find a compatible partner.
Extrovert like to enjoy social setting. They are the people who have the tendency to get
more often to centre of attraction. They like to seek out a social stimulation by creating
social situation. They like to introduce themselves to different new people.
The extroversion trait will make the individual more suited to particular careers.
Leadership is one of these career paths. “Jobs that require less alone time and more time
interacting with others will highlight the extroverts’ strengths as a communicator and team
player. Working well with others, communicating with stakeholders, participating in and
leading meetings are all necessary skills for a leadership role”. (Farrell, 2017)
The extrovert has an ability to think quickly, excellent networking abilities, an ease of
emotional expression, an ability to meet new people and confidence in public speaking.
Extroverts don't afraid of risk. They like to get engage in risky behaviour and in a study, it
has been found that they are wired to reward when taking risk. They are the one when they
get succeed after taking risk. They are rewarded by dopamine which is a chemical that
triggers reward centre for the brain.

There is a widespread belief that extroverts communicate more effectively than introverts,
making them better leaders. “Extroverts are more likely to emerge as leaders and are more
likely to be seen as effective”, according to research studies conducted throughout history.
(ScienceDaily ,2019)
The extrovert in a leadership setting may conversely struggle to work in isolation, may not
know when to stop talking and can lack an ability to listen to others.
Brain chemistry is the one which is highly involved in creating the factor for determining
personality. This is the one which can lead to create any person introvert to extrovert. This
plays an important role in evolution and growth of individual. This make a person unique.
Grant et al. Found in a 2011 study that pro-active workers performed better under less
extroverted leadership. “Leaders who are less extroverted could be better listeners and
more participatory. Leaders who are more open to alternative views and opinions are more
likely to succeed”. (Clack, 2017)
According to Wilmot (2019) “Extroversion is linked with a greater motivation to achieve
positive goals” Which would make the extrovert a better leader.
According to study, extroversion has been related to a variety of potentially beneficial life
outcomes including happiness and success, this is largely due to a more positive life outlook.
Hans Eysenck found that “extroversion and happiness rely on each other”. According to him,
extroversion can be regarded as an index of happiness. Nader Kalali and his team in their
research paper “The Effect of Personality on Happiness states: “Evidence proves that there
is positive relationship between happiness and extraversion. (Hurd et al., 2017)
Extrovert don't like to get alone for longer time. Introvert want to get escape from their
home or office and sometimes after night out with friends. This can lead to create a
loneliness for them. Extrovert are the one who like to find that they are not able to stay
alone for longer period of time and his drain their natural energy. They like to stay being
around other people.
The extrovert is more social, pursues more exciting experiences, knows what they want and
has a proclivity to take action to get it.
On the contrary, the extrovert can find it difficult to find calm, quiet, serenity, tranquilly, and
mindfulness because they are highly excitable and depend on constant external stimuli to
thrive.
They will therefore struggle to be alone, become restless without stimulation and will miss
attention when they are not the centre of it.
To conclude it seems that the strengths and weaknesses of the extrovert personality trait
play a key role in influencing a persons’ life choices. According to study, extroversion has
been related to a variety of beneficial life outcomes. The extrovert is more likely to be
happy, form positive relationships easily and be more effective leaders than their
introverted counterparts.

The degree to which an individual is extroverted may have a significant impact on their day
to day lives in a variety of situations. It is important to remember that both ends of the
continuum have advantages and disadvantages and we can at different times of our lives be
at different points. Knowing where we sit on the scale can give us the opportunity to work
on areas where we may be lacking and further develop areas of strength.
Trait theories such as the Five Factor model are only one way of describing personality and
whilst a useful framework, they refer to stable characterisics we have from birth which do
not change. They do not consider the influence of experience and environment which can
make them a simplistic and generalised view of explaining a whole person. It is important
therefore we do not stereotype the individual based on a theory alone.

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