434 THE FACTORS OF THE MIND

the differences1 are too slight to make it worth while to
regroup the data according to locality.

In every group the distribution is unbroken : there is
no hint of any sharp demarcation between the two types. The
commonest cases are the intermediate cases; and the more
salient instances of extraversion or of introversion arise
simply as tail-ends of one continuous distribution. So far,
therefore, the results definitely confirm the view put for-
ward in my article as against those of its more recent critics.

Can we go on to claim that the general distribution is not only
continuous, but approximately normal ? Since the component
groups are small and the differences comparatively slight, we may
concentrate attention mainly on the totals (see Fig. 2). First, it is
evident that the distribution of the frequencies is by no means
perfectly symmetrical. For the whole group the average assess-
ment (i.e. the average of the persons' correlations with the theoretical
standard for the pure extraverted type) is + 0*048 ; the mode is at
about + °*3 5 zero, of course, would mark the ideal intermediate or
well-balanced person. Thus, as the figures at the foot of the table
plainly show, extraverts are more numerous than introverts. In
part this may be due to the inclusion of particular age-groups or
social groups among which extraversion is admittedly the more
prominent characteristic (e.g. very young children who have not
yet acquired full self-control, adolescent girls who have temporarily
lost it, boys and girls from poorer homes where discipline or the lack
of it conduces to impulsive rather than restrained behaviour). In
part the skewness may indicate that the healthy, normal human
being is naturally more inclined towards extraversion than the
reverse.2 But in part it may well imply that our standard of the

1 Possibly < racial' ([22], [129]). But the most marked of these differences
were noticed in samples containing Jews and non-Jews. According to the
assessments, the Jewish members would seem to form a decidedly abnormal
group: they have therefore been excluded throughout,

2 The use of the negative sign to mark the introvert does not mean that
I regard introversion as a purely negative characteristic—due simply to the
lack of a ' stKenic * or * aggressive J factor. Indeed, as noted above, it is
usually the * inhibitive' or * asthenic' factor that seems to indicate the
addition of some more positive influence. The c sthenic ' type seems often
a person whose high but natural emotionality develops freely and normally
in the absence of repressing or inhibiting tendencies. On the other Hand,
the extreme introvert shows, far more frequently than the extreme
extravert, the physical and mental signs of definite pathological disturb-
ance. This is largely borne out by the comparative frequency with which