People Exhaust Me, but They don't Exhaust My Wife

I'm an introvert.  People I say that to are often very surprised.  I talk a lot in classes.  I have friends.  I sing karaoke at family get-together's, but I am an introvert.

My wife is an extrovert.  People are surprised when we say that because she is very shy.  She never talks in classes except to read.  She has a few very close friends.  She never sings karaoke at any get-together, but she is an extrovert.

The issue that we have is that Introvert and Extrovert are terms that are improperly operationalized.  Introvert and Extrovert are Psychological constructs, meaning that they are made up words to describe something that can't actually be measured or seen, but exist none the less.  So, we are forced to operationalize, meaning that we set up a set of things that we can observe that together equal the two constructs, but this is where issues arise.

If a person takes a personality test, he/she will be asked a series of questions and will likely be told his/her level of extroversion, the problem with the test is that half of the questions are often invalid when asking about levels of extroversion.  To understand why, we need to lay out what introvert and extrovert mean.  Both of these words point to where someone gets his/her energy.  Extroverts get it from others, introverts get it from being alone.  So when the tests ask: "Are you considered the life of the party by friends or family?"  My wife is going to say no, and I am going to say yes, but guess where the scores will fall.  So, in taking the tests both of us often fall in the middle when really, she gets her energy from others, and I get it from being alone.  I just happen to talk and she doesn't.

How my wife functions is actually kind of funny, and her family can attest to this.  My wife can't do anything alone, somebody else must be there.  Like, when she cleans the house: I don't actually need to be helping her for it to get done, but I need to be next to her.  Whereas, if I need to clean the house, I'd rather be alone with some music; that's how I get the most done.  At parties with a lot of people, she will sit with me and say nothing while I talk to everyone who approaches us.  It looks like I am having a much better time, but at the end of the night, she is invigorated and feels great, while I feel absolutely exhausted.

So this is me, calling for better operationalization of the words introvert and extrovert, but I doubt they'll actually be changed.  That doesn't mean I have to like it though.

On a more personal note, I have a sore throat today.  We have been out of town so we haven't visited our home church lately and I was kind of looking forward to it.  Oh well, better luck next week.