What is the central feature of extraversion? Social attention versus reward sensitivity
Abstract
R. E. Lucas, E. Diener, A. Grob, E. M. Suh, and L. Shao (2000) recently argued that the core of the personality dimension of Extraversion is not sociability but a construct called reward sensitivity. This article accepts their argument that the mere preference for social interaction is not the central element of Extraversion. However, it claims that the real core of the Extraversion factor is the tendency to behave in ways that attract social attention. Data from a sample of 200 respondents were used to test the 2 hypotheses with comparisons of measures of reward sensitivity and social attention in terms of their saturation with the common variance of Extraversion measures. The results clearly showed that social attention, not reward sensitivity, represents the central feature of Extraversion.
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Extraversion may be correlated with gratitude and forgiveness.
“More recent work redefining extraversion suggests that it too, may be correlated with gratitude and forgiveness (Ashton, Lee, & Paunonen, 2002; Lucas et al., 2000).”
From Gratitude and forgiveness: convergence and divergence on self-report and informant ratings. (2010) · cites this paper as Ashton, Lee, & Paunonen, 2002
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- Authors
- Ashton, M. C., Lee, K., & Paunonen, S. V.
- Affiliations
- Brock University (CA)
- The University of Western Australia (AU)
- Western University (CA)
- Venue
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
- Published
- 2002-07
- Volume
- 83
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 245-252
- ISSN
- 0022-3514 (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1315
- OpenAlex
- W1994806416
- Cited by
- 481
- References
- 27
- Citations by year
- 2026: 22 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 26 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 26 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 32 · 2019: 29 · 2018: 28 · 2017: 30 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 33 · 2014: 17 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 22
- FWCI
- 6.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Traits and Psychology
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Psychological Testing and Assessment
- Keywords
- extraversion, reward sensitivity, social attention, sociability, personality factors, common variance
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Attention, Extraversion, Psychological, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Reward, Sensitivity and Specificity, Social Perception
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