Extroverts vs.

Introverts

General Psychology

Jessica Herrera
Question:

I would like to know whether introverts or extroverts perform better academically because it

would be fascinating to find a correlation between personality and academic excellence. This

would also be a great way of determining how teaching methods should change to accommodate

students ways of learning.

Hypothesis:

If extroverts are more comfortable in classroom settings in which they could ask for help from

the teacher and peers, then they would probably outperform introverts academically. This isnt to

say that introverts are not as intelligent as extroverts, but an extrovert would be more

comfortable around people and therefore in classroom settings. This would allow them to ask for

clarification on subjects that they need help on or didnt understand as well. Meanwhile,

introverts would not be as comfortable speaking up during class and bringing attention to

themselves because it would be overwhelming. For example, it would seem likely that an

introvert would not do as well academically because introversion is based upon the principle that

introverts feel drained when around people for too long and they dont like to be the center of
attention. Furthermore, an introvert who detests attention from crowds would not seek help from

a teacher if there was people around. Extroverts would seem more likely to be comfortable with

asking for help during class so it seems probable that they would ultimately perform better

academically.

Variables:

My independent variable for this project would be introversion and extroversion. This would be

what determines the results of the experiment and what it is based upon. The controlled variable

in my experiment would be the amount of introverts and extroverts that I would be testing. The

confounding variable in my experiment would be how students perform academically based on

whether they are introverts or extroverts. The independent variable would be personality type/

introversion and/or extroversion. The dependent variable would be the level of ones academic

performance.

Participant Collection:

I would test fifty high school students from each grade and from at least five different schools

from drastically different parts of the city of Los Angeles. I would get students to participate in

my experiment by explaining how it would benefit them to figure out whether schools are

teaching in a way that would allow everyone to do perform well academically or whether certain

personality types prosper more in classroom settings than others. Theres nothing students love

more than complaining about the injustices they face or believe they are facing at the hands of
school administration. By collecting data from people of different ages and from different parts

of the city, I would be able to collect more accurate data because I would be testing students

from different backgrounds/ walks of life and would minimize the possibility of school zone or

academic record of the school from affecting my data. My next step would be to make sure that

half of the fifty kids from each grade I tested were introverts and half extroverts. This makes it

possible to collect the best data and accurate results.

Experimental Procedures:

To conduct my experiment I would get all of my test subjects to first take a personality test to

determine whether they are introverts, extroverts or other. I will have fifty students of 9th, 10th,

11th, and 12th grade from five different schools. Of the fifty from each group, half must be

introverts and half must be extroverts. Four of the schools would be my experimental group

while one school would be my control group. I would classify the students by their academic

record/ GPA of the past two years. I would then observe the students, one grade at a time for

each of the schools throughout an entire school day. It would be a total of twenty days of

collecting my data. I would later test the subjects to see how much they learned throughout an

average school day .In addition, I would take note of every time an introvert/ extrovert asked a

question during class or how many stayed silent after learning something. To continue, I would

see if test scores improved or worsened based on what the students learned. At the end of my

data collection, I would create charts from my data to clarify any confusing aspects of the

experiment. The charts/ graphs would be a simple way to analyze what may affect what. The

control group would not be allowed to ask any questions to the teacher or discuss the subjects

they learn with their peers to see if it affects how people retain or learn information.
Data Record and Analysis:

To record my data I would first give each of the test subjects a personality test to determine

whether they were introverts or extroverts. Once Ive done that I would proceed by looking at the

academic history of each of the participants for the past two years. I believe that this would give

me some valuable insight into how each of the subjects has participated, actively worked, and

contributed to their past classes. In order to determine how they currently behave and do

academically, I would observe the subjects in a classroom setting to see whether my hypothesis

could be true. I would observe the same age group/ grade of students for an entire day to see

whether academic performance was dependent upon what the student was learning,

environmental factors, and etc. I would do the same for each grade at each school, amounting to

a total of four days at each school for each grade and twenty days of data collecting in total.

Next, I would organize my data into charts to have a visual of my results and better visualize the

results of the experiment.

Estimated Outcome:

My estimated outcome is that extroverts will do an overall better job academically because being

around people is something that energizes them and that they are comfortable with. That means

that the traditional classroom setting would probably benefit them because it adheres to their way

of socializing and learning. However, the experiment does not account for learning styles of the

individual students; therefore it could affect the results of the experiment if I were to simply
ignore it. Therefore, I fully expect for extroverts to do better academically, but learning styles

could prove me wrong.