Do introverts tend to experience more psychological problems?

Question

Are there any evidence suggesting that the more introvert people could be more subject to psychological problems?

Is possible to hypothesize that one of the causes is the lack of ideas in comparison with other people from the community?

Answer 1

Several other disorders relate to introversion, including:

• Avoidant personality disorder ^{(Morey et al., 2002)}
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder ^{(Samuels et al., 2000)}
• Schizotypal personality disorder ^{(Funder, 1997? Don't have it on-hand, but will try to verify this later when I do.)}
• Schizoid personality disorder ^{(Morey et al., 2002)}
• Generalized anxiety disorder in young adults (ages 25–39; ^{Kessler et al., 2008)}

I would not expect lack of ideas to mediate these relationships. Introversion is sometimes thought to relate to "richer inner worlds" (can't recall where I read that, and I don't put a lot of stock in the claim). Introversion relates negatively to openness to experience, but seems to have a complex relationship with creativity. A common theory about introversion is that it relates to interest in reading (found some such evidence in Chinese adolescents so far; ^{Lau & Cheung, 1988);} this would certainly help with any lack of ideas.

<sup>References
- Funder, D. C. (1997). The personality puzzle. W. W. Norton & Co.
- Kessler, R. C., Gruber, M., Hettema, J. M., Hwang, I., Sampson, N., & Yonkers, K. A. (2008). Comorbid major depression and generalized anxiety disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey follow-up. Psychological Medicine, 38(3), 365–374.
- Lau, S., & Cheung, S. M. (1988). Reading interests of Chinese adolescents: Effects of personal and social factors. International Journal of Psychology, 23(1-6), 695–705.
- Morey, L. C., Gunderson, J. G., Quigley, B. D., Shea, M. T., Skodol, A. E., McGlashan, T. H., ... & Zanarini, M. C. (2002). The representation of borderline, avoidant, obsessive-compulsive, and schizotypal personality disorders by the five-factor model. Journal of Personality Disorders, 16(3), 215–234.
- Samuels, J., Nestadt, G., Bienvenu, O. J., Costa, P. T., Riddle, M. A., Liang, K. Y., ... & Cullen, B. (2000). Personality disorders and normal personality dimensions in obsessive—compulsive disorder. The British Journal of Psychiatry, 177(5), 457–462. Retrieved from http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/177/5/457.long.</sup>