Wendy,

I was just at a party Sunday where I spent a lot f time hovering near the fridge and/or the food table, so I know what you mean. When I'm in the mood I can be much more outgoing, especially if I know the crowd. I'm definately an INFP; however, I'm also a sensation seeking HSP., so I oscilate between needing to mix it up with others and hiding in the bathroom...

Kris

I usually test as an I on Myers-Briggs, but I'm only slightly I; I seem to be close to the boundary on this one.

It comes and goes...sometimes that extroversion surprises me! Boom, there I am center of attention making people laugh or just making them comfortable in an uncomfortable situation.

Then it's GONE!

Back to quiet and inward thinking. Yup, even friends are surprised or even shocked, they say that I'm a mystery.

Whereas I test very solidly as an INFJ on the M-B, and there's no doubt I'm an introvert, there are certain settings in which I become quite extraverted.

I suppose some it it has to do with my past "training" (I spent many years in sales/marketing/advertising work) so I "know how" to be outgoing. However, in the context of spiritual retreats and the like, I tend to be extraverted.

Namaste, Peter

It's important to keep in mind that from the Jungian perspective, which the M-B is based on, "introversion" and "extroversion" aren't so much about ougoingness or wallflowerism as they are about how you regenerate your energy.

While it's not common, there are times when I can sit in a roomful of people without saying anything--though usually I'm the first one talking.

But what makes me an E isn't that I talk a lot; it's that being in a roomful of people usually energizes me.

An example I like to give is that for some people, an hour-long phone conversation depletes them so much that they have to go off by themselves and journal to replenish their inner stores. Me, an hour-long phone conversation restores me so that I can go sit still long enough to write in my journal...

I dunno; maybe that's not a good example. But the point is that Jung was referring to where you get your power from: by going outside yourself or inside yourself?

A better example was given to me by an extroverted male friend who had an introverted wife. He said she would ruminate on an issue and then announce to him her conclusion. He would then begin to deconstruct the reasoning, and she would feel like he was disrespecting her decision. He simply didn't understand, though, that she had done all her processing already--she was just an internal processor, whereas he would announce something at the beginning of his process so as to go through it all externally, and *then* come to a conclusion.

Extroverts are more likely to be "show your work" types. Introverts are more likely to keep from writing in the margins and just write down the answer.