Being a cognitive Introvert has nothing to do with how
social you may or may not be. It simply means that you naturally turn inward in order to process thoughts, decide on actions, and make judgments about the world and people. You tend to consider possibilities and ideas
in the quiet laboratory of your own head before testing them out on the world around you. While cognitive Extraverts naturally observe, considering the opinions and actions of others and forming thoughts from the behaviors of their surroundings, Introverts usually form their own ideas and plans first before seeing how they line up with the real world outside.
Social introversion, by contrast, is a behavioral habit that can change depending on a person’s situation or mood. Cognition is the natural framework of thought beneath all one’s changing habits and behaviors, the inner self that motivates all actions and attitudes of every kind. So don’t worry if you don’t consider yourself a social introvert; that’s an entirely different matter from cognitive Introversion. Most sources in books and online deal with behavioral habits like social introversion or extraversion, but those behaviors are not cognition. Behaviors are about what you do, which can change dramatically in varying situations, but cognition is about how you think, beneath any and all behaviors.
There are times to be socially introverted and times to be socially extraverted, and any healthy person of any type will learn to develop both. Being overly socially introverted can in fact be a coping mechanism, a way to keep others at arm’s length in order to avoid having one’s weaknesses or insecurities brought into the light. Likewise, being overly socially extraverted can also be a coping technique, a way to try to escape or distract oneself from personal doubts or pain. Either behavior can be enjoyed healthily or clung to unhealthily, and all people, of all types, can be equally healthy or unhealthy in their social habits.
Yet cognitive Introverts, regardless of their social habits, approach all situations by looking inside themselves first in order to form thoughts. Everyone processes information in-side their own heads, and everyone also observes outward, but cognitive Introverts consider thoughts first before anything else.
They review their own understanding and experiences before going forward, preferring to have their thoughts and actions fully formed before releasing them into the world. Introverts constantly turn inward to process in-formation and prepare output, so that their outward actions and words can be the best they can make them. They may be very social, or not, but in either case they are always mentally looking inward.
Being so focused inward, Introverts have a natural ability to decisively make choices without input from other people. This gives them a self-motivated drive, largely independent of the beliefs or actions of others. They must be careful, however, to take into account the views and desires of other people, which can often be quite surprising! The ideas or beliefs that worked so well in the laboratory of an Introvert’s head might be totally thrown out the window in practice, due to the unexpected actions of others.
This means that Introverts must guard against moral absolutism, an attitude that views differing opinions as simply wrong or foolish. All types can be morally absolutist or relativist, but Introverts can find it harder to fully understand the motives and views of others. The same objective facts can be viewed very differently by people coming from differing backgrounds or attitudes, and Introverts need to remember that their own internal laboratories always represent only one point of view. They can of course learn to better observe and consider the views of others, but their introspection means that it comes a little less naturally to them.
All this introspection can sometimes cause Introverts to appear aloof or detached, even if they’re very social. When this introspective aloofness is not appreciated by others, Introverts can be induced to adopt social introversion as a result. Yet cognitive Introverts possess a unique ability to be powerfully socially extraverted as well, since their inward focus allows them to adapt deliberately to their present compan-ions or situation. Paying in-the-moment attention to their own words and actions, they can be cheerful or subdued, spontaneous or careful, putting others at ease and drawing energy from all around them, in whatever way the situation requires. Real charisma, that joy in life and in others which cannot be faked, is a quality available to all healthy people, of every type.
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