http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/opinion/sunday/26shyness.htmlShyness: Evolutionary Tactic?
By SUSAN CAIN
New York Times
June 25, 2011
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[S]hyness and introversion share an undervalued status in a world that prizes extroversion. Children�s classroom desks are now often arranged in pods, because group participation supposedly leads to better learning; in one school I visited, a sign announcing �Rules for Group Work� included, �You can�t ask a teacher for help unless everyone in your group has the same question.� Many adults work for organizations that now assign work in teams, in offices without walls, for supervisors who value �people skills� above all. As a society, we prefer action to contemplation, risk-taking to heed-taking, certainty to doubt. Studies show that we rank fast and frequent talkers as more competent, likable and even smarter than slow ones. As the psychologists William Hart and Dolores Albarracin point out, phrases like �get active,� �get moving,� �do something� and similar calls to action surface repeatedly in recent books.
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Introverts, who tend to digest information thoroughly, stay on task, and work accurately, earn disproportionate numbers of National Merit Scholarship finalist positions and Phi Beta Kappa keys, according to the Center for Applications of Psychological Type, a research arm for the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator � even though their I.Q. scores are no higher than those of extroverts. Another study, by the psychologists Eric Rolfhus and Philip Ackerman, tested 141 college students� knowledge of 20 different subjects, from art to astronomy to statistics, and found that the introverts knew more than the extroverts about 19 subjects � presumably, the researchers concluded, because the more time people spend socializing, the less time they have for learning.
THE psychologist Gregory Feist found that many of the most creative people in a range of fields are introverts who are comfortable working in solitary conditions in which they can focus attention inward. Steve Wozniak, the engineer who founded Apple with Steve Jobs, is a prime example: Mr. Wozniak describes his creative process as an exercise in solitude. �Most inventors and engineers I�ve met are like me,� he writes in �iWoz,� his autobiography. �They�re shy and they live in their heads. They�re almost like artists. In fact, the very best of them are artists. And artists work best alone ... Not on a committee. Not on a team.�
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The world needs both introverts and extroverts. The article says introverts do not have IQ's higher than those of extroverts, but the Gifted Development Center
http://www.gifteddevelopment.com/What_is_Gifted/learned.htm says
"About 60% of gifted children are introverted compared with 30% of the general population. Approximately 75% of highly gifted children are introverted. Introversion correlates with introspection, reflection, the ability to inhibit aggression, deep sensitivity, moral development, high academic achievement, scholarly contributions, leadership in academic and aesthetic fields in adult life, and smoother passage through midlife; however, it is very likely to be misunderstood and �corrected� in children by well-meaning adults."
How extroverted someone appears may depend on his or her environment. A gifted math student may appear more animated at an Epsilon math camp than in a school where no one shares his passion for math.
