On Different Types of Irritability

(ONE KIND OF IRRITABILITY IS NOT THE SAME AS ANOTHER)

There is no such personality property as “just irritability” (or rather, it is difficult to isolate and formulate). The point is that it always matters what exactly irritates a person. And for the same person, the result may differ diametrically in different cases - with high irritability in response, for example, to sensory stimuli (tickling, drafts, a television turned up loud, an uncomfortable chair, conversations nearby that interfere with falling asleep) and at the same time - with high, entirely non-irritable tolerance in response to other people’s behavior and words. Thus, the first type of irritability (sensory) is elevated in the fourth quadra compared with the other quadras, whereas the second (emotional), on the contrary, is markedly reduced. Emotional irritability, intolerant of other people’s opinions that differ from one’s own, is reduced in Delta because Delta representatives are Judicious and Fi-valuing, and moreover collectivists (therefore they put themselves in another person’s position, do not impose or flaunt their own opinion, and avoid and do not consider it right to set it against someone else’s). The first type of irritability (sensory), by contrast, is elevated - because Judicious types are easily frightened, because all kinds of sensory sensitivity are elevated on average in Delta (especially auditory sensitivity), and Si discomfort is unacceptable and cannot be ignored.

However, as we shall now see, all the different types of irritability also have a common component - elevated questimity, constructivism, and rationality.

Why questimity? Because it is responsible for reactions to harm. Constructivism is emotional persistence, manifested in the cumulation (accumulation) of negative emotions (and specifically negative ones; it is specifically with them that the constructivist pole is associated - simply because positive emotions are incapable of accumulating). Finally, rationality is the evaluation of stimuli for the purpose of determining the actions that the organism needs to undertake in response to the irritant.

In general, irritability (of any variety) is a strong reaction of dissatisfaction with a stimulus, requiring the organism to organize response actions.

Thus, here is a list of the four main types of irritability (there are, generally speaking, others besides these four, but these are the most important):

1. EMOTIONAL-ETHICAL IRRITABILITY, INTOLERANCE OF OTHER PEOPLE’S OPINIONS AND OTHER MODELS OF BEHAVIOR (decisiveness, constructivism, negativism, merriness, questimity, and extraversion are elevated)
2. SENSORY IRRITABILITY, associated with the sensation of sensory discomfort (questimity, dynamics, and constructivism are elevated)
3. IRRITABILITY TOWARD ANY SOURCES OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS (associated with high anxiety, a consequence of high sensitivity to negative emotions - constructivism, questimity, ethics, dynamics, rationality)
4. IRRITATION IN RESPONSE TO CHANGES IN PLANS AND TO EVERYTHING “WRONG” IN THE SITUATION AND IN PEOPLE (a consequence of the combination of rationality, questimity, judiciousness, and constructivism)

Different types of irritability

Different types of irritability

Different types of irritability

It is evident from the tables above that the constant sources of ANY TYPE of irritability are elevated questimity, constructivism, and rationality. To a lesser extent – ethics and negativism.

Such traits as judiciousness-decisiveness, extraversion-introversion, statics-dynamics, intuition-sensing, and logic-ethics vary greatly (even in sign) in their influence on the manifestation of the four different types of irritability.

Among the functions, Qe and Fe are constant companions of ANY irritability.

The psychotype that has equally «champion» scores for all four types of irritability is EIE. At the same time, a consistently reduced level of irritability in all four cases is demonstrated by the LIE and IEE types (note that they differ from EIE by only one basic Jungian dichotomy).

1. EMOTIONAL-ETHICAL IRRITABILITY, INTOLERANCE OF OTHER PEOPLE’S OPINIONS AND OTHER MODELS OF BEHAVIOR (decisiveness, constructivism, negativism, merriness, questimity, and extraversion are elevated)

Ethical irritability (association with Decisive and Fe-related traits - decisiveness, constructivism, negativism, merriness, questimity, extraversion)

(averaging the profiles of 70 scale questions, 168883 respondent answers in total, all profiles normalized to a type-profile sigma of one)

Contribution of traits to the variance of the property, in percent:

Unnormalized profile (deviations from the mean in units of the population standard deviation)

1. I quite often experience anger, malice, or rage. 0,97
2. I am often excitable-angry and intolerant toward others. 0,94
3. I cannot manage to live without resentments, quarrels, and conflicts with anyone. 0,94
4. I often have outbursts of malice. 0,93
5. They say that I have a difficult character - indeed, I often fail to restrain myself. 0,93
6. Sometimes insignificant causes provoke an aggressively violent reaction in me. 0,92
7. At least a couple of times a week, I have emotional outbursts of rage and malice in my relationships with people close to me. 0,92
8. It is not uncommon for me to have a prolonged malicious-melancholic mood with steadily increasing irritation and a search for someone on whom I could take out my anger. 0,90
9. Quite often, on my own initiative, I “fight” and argue with relatives. 0,90
10. Over the past month, I have more than once experienced feelings of anger, rage, malice, or even fury. 0,89
11. It is difficult for me to restrain negative emotions in relationships with people. 0,89
12. Nervousness and irritability are characteristic of my personality. 0,88
13. I am capable of contempt and hatred. 0,88
14. I am easily angered. 0,88
15. I become irritated and flare up very easily if people do not understand me and do not immediately do things as they should be done. 0,88
16. I become agitated and angry while overcoming other people’s objections. 0,88
17. Sometimes, with a certain impulsiveness, I hasten to regard people around me as fools or scoundrels trying to profit at my expense or undermine my authority. 0,87
18. I become aggressive if I see and understand something for certain, while others do not see it. 0,87
19. I often feel irritable aggression “swelling up” inside me, seeking an outlet. 0,87
20. I often quarrel and take offense. 0,87
21. Something often drives me to anger. 0,86
22. On average, at least once a day I feel a wave of agitation rising in my soul from almost sweet hatred. 0,85
23. Once a week or more often, I kick something or someone in anger. 0,85
24. In communicating with other people, I often lack restraint, patience, and the willingness to compromise and forgive. 0,85
25. Outbursts of malice, anger, and rage are fairly characteristic of me. 0,85
26. There are always people around me onto whom I periodically “pour out” my negative emotions. 0,84
27. During conversations with people, my voice often contains perplexity or protest, objection. 0,84
28. I experience hot temper or periods of irritability. 0,84
29. I display irritability. 0,83
30. I often react disproportionately strongly to weak stimuli - as though everything in the world were ready to make me lose my temper. 0,83
31. I have persistent ill-wishers. 0,83
32. Quite often I point out to another person shortcomings in their character and behavior. 0,83
33. Irritation, rejection, disgust, protest - all these feelings are very familiar to me and occur often. 0,81
34. Over the past month, I have more than once experienced feelings of contempt, disdain, even revulsion toward people. 0,80
35. I become irritated easily. 0,80
36. There are things that irritate me greatly and toward which I am uncompromising. 0,80
37. If I am waiting for someone to finish a task and they are in no hurry, I can barely restrain myself from hurting them, at least verbally. 0,79
38. I am more impatient, irritable, and hot-tempered than others. 0,79
39. I enter into conflict if I am not shown respect and deference. 0,79
40. If someone reproaches me, appeals to my conscience, or lectures me on tact - I can easily and often become enraged in response. 0,78
41. I am often intolerant of other points of view. 0,77
42. Some people often feel negative, painful emotions emanating from me. 0,77
43. I express impatience when my logical arguments are slow to reach other people’s brains. 0,73 --------------------------------------—
44. It is not easy to make me lose my temper. -0,63
45. I am very patient with other people’s weaknesses and shortcomings. -0,73
46. My role in life is that of a peaceful and unobtrusive optimist with whom it is “always easy” to communicate. -0,73
47. As a rule, I forgive a person regardless of whether they deserve forgiveness or not. -0,74
48. I have a mild and patient character, so I give the impression of being a very compliant person. -0,75
49. It is true that I always respond calmly and without taking offense both to ridicule of my intelligence and to accusations that my views on life are childish. -0,75
50. Most of the time I experience a sense of peace, well-being, and satisfaction. -0,76
51. On average, my mood contains much more of a feeling of calm, confident comfort than of anger or anxiety. -0,77
52. I yield easily in conflicts, showing enormous patience even toward entirely unjustified resentments and reproaches. -0,78
53. I usually respond to offenses without anger, tending not to notice them or simply turn them into a joke. -0,78
54. I am a mild person who knows how to forgive. -0,80
55. I never outwardly show anger and hatred. On the contrary, I will be pointedly polite. -0,81
56. I am tolerant of other people’s misconceptions. -0,81
57. I am a good-natured person and am satisfied with everything most of the time. -0,81
58. I usually pay no attention and do not react to accidental minor violations of my personal rights. -0,82
59. I am more tolerant of other people’s views and ways of life than the ordinary average person. -0,82
60. Compared with other people, I am calm and tolerant toward other points of view and other lifestyles. -0,83
61. I consciously try to avoid any unpleasant and anxiety-provoking thoughts. -0,84
62. In communicating with people, I am closer to equanimity and acceptance of their shortcomings than to rejection and irritability (even if concealed by me). -0,84
63. I am a good mediator in relationships because I am affectionately and soothingly mild, never push myself into the front ranks, and never generate conflicts myself. -0,84
64. It is true that, in principle, I never have scandals with people close to me. -0,86
65. It is true that, practically since childhood, I have never had outbursts of anger. -0,86
66. It is difficult to drive me to irritation. -0,87
67. I maintain an unchanging peaceful mood and inner calm even when communicating with fools. -0,88
68. My frequent reaction to someone’s aggression — not to enter into confrontation but, on the contrary, to try to raise their spirits, smile, agree, and encourage them. -0,89
69. I have a compliant character. -0,90
70. In communication, I am a flexible and patient person. -0,92

2. SENSORY IRRITABILITY (association with questimity, dynamics, and constructivism)

SENSORY IRRITABILITY (association with questimity, dynamics, and constructivism)

(averaging the profiles of 71 scale questions, 164255 respondent answers in total, all profiles normalized to a type-profile sigma of one)

Contribution of traits to the variance of the property, in percent:

Unnormalized profile (deviations from the mean in units of the population standard deviation)

1. I can be called a “princess on the pea” - I become irritated easily by any physical discomfort or inconvenience. 0,94
2. The smell and sight of scattered shit or an especially dirty garbage dump with worms crawling around can easily cause me almost nauseating disgust. 0,93
3. I cannot stand disgusting smells. I cannot do anything properly while they are present. 0,93
4. I am squeamish, and it often happens that after shaking hands with some people I try to go wash my hands as soon as possible. 0,91
5. When unpleasant people are nearby, I simply cannot distract myself from them; I cannot distract myself from their appearance and presence. 0,89
6. Various forms of physical discomfort (for example, tight clothing, smells, hangnails on my fingers, an unsuitable room temperature, uncomfortable lighting, a feeling of hunger, etc., etc.) usually distract me greatly and interfere with my work. 0,89
7. I easily develop a reaction of disgust toward something. 0,88
8. I avoid touching anything dusty or dirty - I am squeamish and afraid of becoming infected with something. 0,87
9. Many smells often irritate me. 0,87
10. I react very painfully to touches from others and unpleasant smells. 0,86
11. A radio or television turned on in the next room often prevents me from falling asleep. 0,86
12. I am picky about food. 0,85
13. Any discomfort irritates me greatly. 0,83
14. I often experience and feel a sense of almost physical disgust - toward certain foods, smells, animals, or the manner of behavior and speech of some people. 0,82
15. I feel disgust toward certain animals and insects. 0,82
16. My sense of squeamishness is highly developed - even touching some things or objects is disgusting to me, almost to the point of physical nausea. 0,82
17. In a cool room, I generally become cold quickly. 0,82
18. I am demanding about the quality of pleasures. 0,81
19. I have delicate skin that becomes irritated easily. 0,81
20. I wake up even from faint noise and quiet sounds. 0,81
21. I keep away from everything painful or disgusting - I know that such things affect and irritate me more strongly than other people. 0,81
22. At night I usually wake up from the slightest call or noise. 0,80
23. I have heightened squeamishness toward everything dirty. 0,79
24. I am afraid of tickling; I do not even like conversations about it. 0,79
25. Tight headwear, tightly tied bandanas, and hair ties and headbands that pull the hair often provoke a severe headache in me that does not disappear immediately even after its cause has been removed. 0,79
26. Some sounds irritate me greatly, such as the squeak of a finger on glass. 0,79
27. If I accidentally put a large caterpillar into my mouth together with berries and discover it, I immediately develop a nauseous reaction. 0,78
28. As a rule, I spend a long time in bed looking for a sleeping position so that I can feel comfortable and fall asleep. 0,78
29. While working, I often notice extraneous thin, high-pitched, whistling sounds - from mosquitoes, a gas burner, the street, etc. 0,78
30. I cannot suppress my revulsion at the sight of certain animals - I would never touch some representatives of the fauna, even if I were assured that it was safe. 0,78
31. There are people who evoke in me an almost physiological feeling of disgust. 0,78
32. My skin has heightened sensitivity to touch. 0,78
33. By ear I instantly notice dissonances and “drifting out of key” in someone else’s singing. 0,78
34. I quickly notice even very faint unpleasant smells, sharply acidic or putrid ones. 0,77
35. I have light, sensitive sleep. 0,77
36. I think I experience feelings of disgust or squeamishness more often than others. 0,77
37. I often catch myself experiencing some unpleasant sensations. 0,77
38. At least over the past few days, I have often felt uncomfortable sensations in my body - something itches, or I cannot lie still comfortably, or something somewhere in my body simply feels “wrong.” 0,76
39. I avoid looking at human injuries - it is a very unpleasant sight for me. 0,76
40. It is exceptionally disgusting to me to listen to jokes about the ass and passing gas from it. 0,75
41. I am sometimes bothered by a large amount of gas in my intestines (I am often “bloated”). 0,75
42. The slightest noise interferes with my reading and work. 0,75
43. If a person who is present is unpleasant to me, I cannot ignore them; they constantly irritate me and make me lose my temper. 0,75
44. I will not eat meat with sinews, or tomatoes with spots, etc. 0,75
45. I am fairly squeamish and keep away from sick people. 0,75
46. Among my acquaintances there are people whom I clearly dislike. 0,75
47. My skin is very sensitive to touch (sometimes - even painfully sensitive). 0,74
48. If television shows footage of a person’s limbs being cut off, I immediately switch to another channel. 0,74
49. I am very sensitive to the unpleasant smell of some people. 0,74
50. I am squeamish: no poop, other people’s sick children, other people’s saliva, sweaty handshakes, or other people’s dishes for me. I will hide from all of this in a panic and wash, wash, wash. 0,74
51. I cannot concentrate when people around me are talking loudly and walking about. 0,73
52. I often experience an emotion of nauseating disgust. 0,73
53. I am sensitive to any weak external stimuli and often notice them. 0,72
54. I am very sensitive to smells. 0,72
55. If I see a wriggling worm crawling out of leftover food on the plate from which I have just eaten, I could easily vomit from disgust. 0,71
56. Internal signals from the body and some weak physical sensations sometimes become intrusive for me. 0,71
57. Flickering light has sometimes made me feel ill. 0,70
58. I have a somewhat obsessive habit of searching for and squeezing out small blackheads and pimples on myself. 0,70
59. Various little things often make me lose my temper. 0,69
60. Even very weak external stimuli can deprive me of peace of mind. 0,69
61. Extraneous smells often distract and irritate me. 0,69
62. I often notice even the faintest smell of another person’s body and sweat in the air. 0,68
63. My sensations can be intrusive and often interfere with me. 0,66
64. It is very difficult for me to concentrate on reading if people are talking nearby. 0,58 --------------------------------—
65. Once I become absorbed in work, I no longer notice anything around me. -0,76
66. I can endure all sorts of unpleasant or painful sensations better and for longer than others - perhaps I am simply more indifferent to them. -0,76
67. My ability to work depends very little on whichever people happen to be present in the room. -0,78
68. I can easily ignore both cold and pain. -0,82
69. I can live with no comfort at all, and even if things become very difficult for me, I will never whine. -0,86
70. I am indifferent to the comfort of a bed - I fall asleep easily anywhere. -0,88
71. The feeling of physical disgust is practically unfamiliar to me. -0,95

3. IRRITABILITY TOWARD ANY SOURCES OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS (association with high anxiety, a consequence of high sensitivity to negative emotions - constructivism, questimity, ethics, dynamics, rationality)

IRRITABILITY TOWARD SOURCES OF NEGATIVE EMOTIONS (association with high anxiety, a consequence of high sensitivity to negative emotions - constructivism, questimity, ethics, dynamics, rationality)

(averaging the profiles of 44 scale questions, 102103 respondent answers in total, all profiles normalized to a type-profile sigma of one)

Contribution of traits to the variance of the property, in percent:

Unnormalized profile (deviations from the mean in units of the population standard deviation)

1. I take offense easily and often feel hurt. 0,94
2. I often become very upset over trifles and complain about life. 0,93
3. Even very weak external stimuli can deprive me of peace of mind. 0,93
4. I always become very upset and lose my equilibrium because of any harm. 0,92
5. I often become nervous over absolute trifles. 0,92
6. I am very vulnerable to remarks from people around me. 0,91
7. I become upset easily because of troubles (probably more easily than others). 0,90
8. Any thought about troubles, if I let it into my head, can spoil my mood for a long time. 0,89
9. There is a tendency toward apprehensiveness in my character: at times I imagine something unpleasant or dangerous that does not actually exist. 0,87
10. I am a person who is highly vulnerable to how people treat me. 0,86
11. Troubles lower my mood considerably. 0,85
12. I am easily offended. 0,85
13. I usually find it difficult to distract myself from some disappointment or upset. 0,84
14. I am very sensitive to certain things, events, and phenomena. 0,83
15. I am a nervous person. 0,83
16. I sometimes react to minor slights as though they were severe insults. 0,83
17. I am easily offended by remarks. 0,81
18. I am easily hurt by a careless word. 0,81
19. I dwell on my mistakes for a long time. 0,80
20. Current, momentary failures strongly knock me “off track.” 0,78
21. I often worry about my health. 0,77
22. I am easily offended by jokes and criticism directed at me. 0,69 -----------------------------------—
23. I am tolerant of other people’s irritability. -0,48
24. I have no difficulty communicating with people who tend to frown or become angry. -0,50
25. I am very tolerant of other people’s negative emotions. -0,52
26. It is very difficult to offend or hurt me. -0,77
27. I know how not to notice everything that may be unpleasant. -0,78
28. I depend little on other people’s states and often remain calm even if everyone around me is worried. -0,79
29. I am a “thick-skinned” person with regard to all kinds of negative forecasts from others. -0,79
30. I can easily ignore any unpleasant loss or deprivation of something familiar, as though these deprivations did not exist at all. -0,81
31. I can listen completely calmly, even for a long time, to all kinds of other people’s lies without reacting to them internally in any way. -0,82
32. I extremely rarely have reasons to worry and become nervous. -0,83
33. Any circling of unpleasant thoughts in my mind subsides very quickly; past offenses quickly lose their relevance, being replaced by a feeling of satisfied calm and confidence. -0,83
34. I easily avoid unnecessary irritation and worry over trifles. -0,85
35. I recover emotionally quickly and do not remain distressed for long. -0,85
36. I part with losses fairly easily, without grief or resentment. -0,85
37. I easily detach myself from old emotions, from the experiences of former emotional shocks. -0,85
38. It is true that other people’s brazenness and boorishness neither affect nor shock me. -0,86
39. It is true that fear of unemployment and misfortunes is completely unlike me; I have never had and do not have such experiences. -0,86
40. I know how to adapt to any living conditions, even difficult and challenging ones – and even in them I know how to derive enjoyment from life. -0,89
41. Failures do not disconcert me, and I do not distress over mistakes; I always forget them easily and throw them out of my head. -0,90
42. I am always spontaneous in my behavior; it is difficult to offend or hurt me. -0,90
43. It is very difficult to spoil my mood with anything. -0,93
44. I easily push past worries out of my head and do not remember them even at night. -0,94

4. IRRITATION IN RESPONSE TO CHANGES IN PLANS AND TO EVERYTHING “WRONG” IN THE SITUATION AND IN PEOPLE (a consequence of the combination of rationality, questimity, judiciousness, and constructivism)

IRRITATION IN RESPONSE TO CHANGES IN PLANS AND TO EVERYTHING “WRONG” IN THE SITUATION AND IN PEOPLE (a consequence of the combination of rationality, questimity, judiciousness, and constructivism)

(averaging the profiles of 18 scale questions, 40446 respondent answers in total, all profiles normalized to a type-profile sigma of one)

Contribution of traits to the variance of the property, in percent:

Unnormalized profile (deviations from the mean in units of the population standard deviation)

1. Places in which I had not planned to find myself, or unexpected turns of events, cause me anxiety rather than curiosity. 0,94
2. It irritates me when I unexpectedly have to put aside my work and switch to something else. 0,91
3. I regard any dishonesty in people with disgust. 0,91
4. I do not like lending my things to other people. 0,89
5. It is very characteristic of me that I respect almost everything unusual and new, but I cannot stand chaos, as well as any kind of swindling or any instability. 0,89
6. Abrupt changes in a situation sometimes confuse me and induce a kind of inhibited state. 0,88
7. I react emotionally and painfully if my plans are disrupted. 0,88
8. I am squeamish and irritably uncompromising toward everything bad, stupid, or manifestly wrong. 0,88
9. I experience strong indignation when I encounter something manifestly wrong and harmful. 0,88
10. I do not like changes. 0,87
11. As a rule, I prepare for any trip for a long time and nervously. 0,86
12. I have a certain nervous irritability toward everything unpleasant or wrong. 0,84 ------------------------------------—
13. If necessary, I could without difficulty “portray” views and convictions completely alien to me for a long time. -0,78
14. I feel comfortable in unfamiliar situations. -0,83
15. I do not care about a strict and constant order of things in the home - the main thing is that each item can be found. -0,84
16. When the chain of events begins to change according to a scenario not envisaged by the initial plan, I take it completely calmly - I know how, as things unfold, to derive benefit from any development of events. -0,93
17. Unexpected changes of plans or instructions do not irritate me. -0,94
18. Work in which the requirements change frequently comes much more easily to me than to other people. -0,94