Which basic trait is associated with a tendency to seek low levels of environmental stimulation?

Extraversion is a broad personality trait that encompasses a number of more specific characteristics such as sociability, assertiveness, high activity level, positive emotions, and impulsivity. The nature of the trait and its defining characteristics have changed considerably over time, and a number of different mechanisms have been proposed to underlie the trait. These mechanisms include individual differences in conditionability, arousal level, and sensitivity to rewarding stimuli. Modern extraversion research focuses on understanding the characteristic patterns of feelings and behaviors associated with extraversion, and linking these patterns to specific psychophysiological mechanisms.

Conclusion

Extraversion-introversion is firmly established as a major personality dimension that constitutes part of the popular Five Factor Model of personality traits. Various scales for assessment of extraversion meet standard psychometric criteria. Consistent with requirements for traits, extraversion is stable during the adult years and shows good cross-cultural generality. However, recent work has focused on the malleability of extraversion in response to changing events during the lifespan and to cultural factors. Evidence for validity of extraversion has shown its significance in relation to well-being, occupational and educational outcomes, and psychiatric conditions. Behavior genetic evidence demonstrates the importance of biological factors, complemented by psychophysiological studies showing that extraversion correlates with various indices of brain functioning. Current theory attributes extraversion to individual differences in sensitivity to reward, supported by dopaminergic brain pathways. Future advancements in methodology may support integration of neuropsychological and social-cognitive theories of extraversion-introversion.

Extraversion, Excitement Seeking, and Sensation Seeking

Extraversion refers to the tendency to focus on gratification obtained from outside the self. Extroverts are characterized by warmth, positivity, gregariousness, and excitement seeking. Among college students, extraversion has been consistently associated with drinking and with a host of drinking outcomes such as hangover symptoms, risky drinking, and alcohol-related problems. Extraversion is positively related to enhancement motives, and the association between extraversion and alcohol use can be mediated by enhancement motives. Additionally, social motives have also been found to mediate the relation between extraversion and alcohol use.

The FFM posits that extraversion subsumes distinct subfactors. Among them, excitement seeking has received research attention with respect to college drinking, as have other related constructs. Sensation seeking, a personality construct identified with both excitement seeking and impulsivity, has also received considerable attention. Sensation seeking has been defined by the need for “varied, novel, and complex sensations and experience and the willingness to take physical and social risks for the sake of such experience.” These more specific components of extraversion tend to be more strongly related to college drinking than the broader construct.

5.1.8 Extraversion

Extraversion (also sometimes spelled extroversion) refers to people’s varying tendencies to be spontaneous and outgoing, especially in novel social circumstances. This personality trait, considered one of the Big Five, is usually measured by asking research participants questions about their level of comfort in the midst of lively social gatherings as opposed to being alone or in quiet company (Francis & Pearson 1988:913).

So much research has been conducted on the possible correlation between extraversion and offending that findings will be summarized in two tables, the first of which deals with official data. As one can see by viewing Table 5.1.8a, research findings regarding extraversion and involvement in crime or delinquency are quite mixed.

Table 5.1.8a. Extraversion and Official Offending Behavior.

Table 5.1.8b summarizes findings regarding extraversion and unofficial measures of crime and antisocial behavior. One can see that the majority of these studies have concluded that extraversion is positively correlated with both self-reported offending and with most of the clinical and personality traits indicative of antisocial behavior.

Table 5.1.8b. Extraversion and Unofficial Offending Behavior.

Abstract

Extraversion has been recognized as a major personality variable in contemporary psychological writings. It may be viewed as a personality dimension that describes a number of more specific personality traits, ranging from sociability and liveliness to dominance and adventure seeking. Extraversion is thought to have a biological basis associated with both cortical arousal and the dopaminergic system. The lower level of cortical arousal and the lower dopaminergic responsiveness found in extraverts is used to explain their greater need for activity, excitement, and general stimulation. Extraversion has been linked with a wide range of human behaviors, from academic achievement and occupational performance to antisocial behaviors and risk taking.

Extraversion

Extraversion includes traits such as talkative, energetic, assertive, and outgoing. Social interaction is the key here. Extraverts often take on positions of leadership; first to offer their opinion and suggestions. They are often quick to approach others, especially on the dating scene. They often report greater levels of happiness. Many people consider extraversion a very positive trait but it can be problematic as they are often easily distracted from a task by their social interactions which can be hazardous under some circumstances (such as driving down the LA freeways!).

Birth order effects on extraversion have often been confusing because some of the specific components, like assertiveness and dominance, are ones that firstborns score highest on. On the other hand, components such as sociability are ones on which laterborns score higher than firstborns. As a result, many studies do not show clear birth order effects on extraversion unless they break it down into those aspects associated with dominance and those associated with sociability. It should not be surprising that firstborns score high in dominance-related aspects of extraversion considering their often pseudo parental (and sometimes physical) authority in the family and the expectations parents typically have for them and their future success. Laterborns follow a different strategy, one of being outgoing, willing to try new things, meet new people; they are extraverted in a highly sociable way, finding pleasure and excitement in the company of others.

1.4.2 Extraversion

Extraversion refers to a person's preferences for social settings and a tendency to be outgoing, which are underpinnings of a socially engaged lifestyle (Wilson et al., 2005). Extraversion is generally tied to a positive mood (e.g., Stafford, Ng, Moore, & Bard, 2010) and has been tied to physical health benefits (e.g, Broadbent, Broadbent, Phillpotts, & Wallace, 1984; Cohen et al., 1998; Cohen, Doyle, Turner, Alper, & Skoner, 2003a; Totman, Kiff, Reed, & Craig, 1980) and reduced risk of mortality in old age (Wilson et al., 2005).

Extraversion

Extraversion subsumes two aspects of personality, namely, Enthusiasm and Assertiveness. Enthusiasm may indicate that self-perceptions of personal creativity necessitate a role for collaboration, networking, and interaction. These socially oriented behaviors are vital when an individual wishes to engage their creative output in the real world (Gelade, 1997). Furthermore, Enthusiasm may help individuals choose to engage in particular creative activities (i.e., group-based drama) as opposed to primarily individual activities that are often perceived as less creative (e.g., Math). Assertiveness may allow individuals to go against convention and promote their creative ideas (Helson, 1967), and, in turn, receive feedback (without feedback can one know if their ideas are truly novel?). An additional explanation may be that extraverts have a tendency to provide more positive self-ratings, regardless of the domain (Hughes et al., 2013).

E Reward Systems

Extraversion has been associated with brain reward systems (Depue and Collins, 1999; Deyoung et al., 2010). The hypothetical personality dimension Behavioral Activation (BAS; Carver and White, 1994) is associated with reward circuitry in the ventral striatum, amygdala, and ACC, regions that are also associated with trait aggression (Beaver et al., 2008). Similarly, a component of this construct, Reward Sensitivity, has been associated with neural reward system responses to an appetitive (food) stimulus (Beaver et al., 2006) The insula, a limbic cortical region involved in perception of somatovisceral states (Craig, 2009) and reward (Naqvi and Bechara, 2009), shows baseline hypo-activity in persons ranking highly in the personality construct Sensation Seeking, for whom intense sensation may then provide compensatory activation (Straube et al., 2010). In contrast to reward and approach behavior, the trait measure Behavioral Inhibition (BIS; Carver and White, 1994) has been associated with activity of dorsal ACC regions (Beaver et al., 2008) associated with expression of fear (Milad et al., 2007) and aggressive personality traits (Denson et al., 2009). It should be noted that brain reward networks broadly overlap anatomically with limbic regions involved in negative emotion and its regulation (Peters et al., 2009).

Trait approaches

Trait approaches to personality assume that there is an underlying set of “traits” that give meaning to an individual's behavior in most situations. This underlying constancy is said to account for stability in personality over time. A fundamental assumption of this approach is that personality does not, on the whole, change over time nor in relation to life events. At the same time, almost all scholars of personality characterize personality as an interaction between genetic factors and environment.

A number of psychometric instruments in the form of different questionnaires have been developed over the years since Woodworth's pioneering test (Woodworth, 1920) Personal Data Sheet. When factor analyzed, these different questionnaire-based measurements, which initially involved a wide range of personality related items, have yielded a varying but reasonably small number of traits. The principal questionnaire measures today are listed below with a summary of the findings related trait changes with age:

Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)—A cross-sectional study of 50,000 patients using the MMPI (Swenson et al., 1973) found that introversion increased with participant age. Younger people tended to score higher on scales measuring schizophrenic tendencies and mania while depression tended to increase with age. However, the absolute differences were small.

Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF)—Schaie (1996) carried out a cross-sequential study of personality development using the 16 PF. The test was administered five times in 1963, 1970, 1977, 1984, and 1991 to samples aged 25 to 88. There were marked cohort effects but, longitudinally, only small effects were found. These were decreases with age in the global factors of superego strength (self-control) and threat reactivity (anxiety); Extraversion tended to decrease from young adulthood to middle age and then increase again into old age. The factor of “Untroubled Adequacy” (independence) declined a little until midlife and then increased only to fall sharply after age 84. Siegler et al. (1979) also ran a longitudinal study on 331 participants aged 54–70 years, using the 16 PF, with testing and retesting after an 8-year interval. Over that period, no changes were found. In a similar study, McCrae and Costa (1984) compared 139 participants on the 16 PF over an 8–10-year gap and found no change on 14 of the scales but with positive changes on the scales of intelligence and social independence. Overall these various longitudinal 16 PF studies have indicated very little change with age in personality characteristics.

Guilford–Zimmerman Temperament Survey (GZTS)—Using the GZTS, Douglas and Arenberg (1978) carried out a cross-sequential study of 915 male participants over 30 years. Two age-related changes were found over the 10 GZTS scales. The changes were a decreasing “Masculinity” score (i.e., reduced “macho” attitudes) and a curvilinear trend for “general activity” (tendency to hurry and work quickly) increasing in early adulthood and then declining.

Neuroticism-Extraversion-Openness Inventory (NEO)—The NEO inventory (Costa and McCrae, 1985) measures the well-known Big Five Factors (BFFs) of openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. Early cross-sectional studies found that these factors were found to have remarkable stability over age, particularly after 30 years of age. For example, Costa and McCrae (1980) found that these five personality factors remain basically the same across age. These early studies led McRae and Costa to endorse William James’s (1890) view that

in most of us, by the age of thirty, the character has set like plaster and will never soften again (pp. 125–126).

The BFF Model has, however, over the past 40 years, generated a large body of research findings and reviews, leading to the view that the traits measured by the NEO inventory do show age-related changes, though the changes are small. For example, Debast et al. (2014) reviewed the evidence regarding the extent to which personality traits remain stable into later middle and old age and reported that, of the 22 relevant articles reviewed, 17 longitudinal or cross-sectional studies of the Five Factor Model mainly supported the hypothesis that personality characteristics are susceptible to change over a person's entire lifetime.