7 Signs You May Be An Ambivert & How To Thrive, From Personality Experts

Many people self-identify as either an introvert or an extrovert, swearing by these labels. But in reality, these personality traits fall on a spectrum, rather than introversion and extroversion being mutually exclusive. The people who tend to consistently fall toward the middle of the spectrum are called ambiverts. Here's what we know about ambivert psychology and what are considered ambivert traits.

"Almost all of us are ambiverts to some degree," psychotherapist Ken Page, LCSW, tells mbg. All of us are located somewhere along the spectrum between introversion and extroversion, meaning we do have access to both sets of personality traits in varying degrees and forms. Even though you'll be assigned an "E" or "I" in your Myers-Briggs personality type, for example, everyone is actually somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

If you've always struggled to pick between these two labels, that's a good sign you might be an ambivert. Ambiverts have introvert qualities like enjoying alone time, being a good listener, and being enthralled by human's internal worlds—but they also love spending time with others, have a lot of confidence, and have great social skills like extroverts.

You get energized both by being around others (like extroverts) and by spending recharging time alone (like introverts). Perhaps you enjoy them both equally, or the one you enjoy the most fluctuates depending on what's going on in your life. Personalities change all the time. Perhaps you've had phases in your life when you needed a lot of alone time and periods of time when you were all about the social gatherings and social situations. It's all good stuff to you!

Ambiverts are all about balance. They tend to see the value of both doing things on their own and doing things as a collective, and they prefer a mix of both.

Importantly, ambiversion is not the same as "anything goes." While ambiverts are flexible, they're not without needs. Often that means that lack of enough alone time or lack of enough quality time with others can feel exhausting. Again, the balance is the key.

Extroverts tend to be talkers. Introverts tend to be listeners. Ambiverts can play both roles easily. They love a roaring conversation and being the life of the party, but they're not bothered when the conversation dies down or attention goes elsewhere.

Introverts are notorious for hating small talk, aka more surface-level conversations about the weather and what you did today. They tend to prefer getting way deeper, having long and introspective conversations. Extroverts, on the other hand, tend to be chatty and love talking about everything under the sun without discrimination. Ambiverts love it all: the small talk, the big talk, the deep stuff, and the silly stuff.

Extroverts tend to have a whole lot of friends, whereas introverts tend to have just a handful of close friends they spend time with. Ambiverts have both: a huge extended network of friends and folks they spend time with, as well as a smaller set of close friends they're really intimate with.

Socially, ambiverts can thrive both in social settings and by themselves. It will vary greatly depending on any given day and what you're in the mood for. As such, "finding people who give space to who you are, in our friendships and intimate relationships," is very important, according to Page. "We need to be with people who are not rubbed the wrong way by our personality and offer deep nourishment to these roots of our being."

Ambiversion requires a lot of self-awareness to honor your own feelings, whether that means reaching out to others or finding solace in our thoughts. As Page explains, it's worth our while to tune into ourselves and find out what nourishes us most, regardless of where we are on the spectrum.