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Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf]

internal.psychology.illinois.edu

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Re: Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf]

#51

Post by jacquesm »

johnchristopher wrote: post #37
EGreg wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given your description of your job, I have a quick question: I have found that when I speak, I rarely command attention and captivate as some others do. Probably something in my speech patterns. Perhaps they are slightly more apologetic / geeky / nice than others. People may interrupt me or turn away, even people who respect me. When I do get rapt attention, such as teaching a class, I get an impostor syndrome becaus…

Are you a woman ? I read they tend to be interrupted more by their male colleagues. The imposter syndrome is also common in tech circles.

'Gregory'.

Re: Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf]

#52

Post by hliyan »

aj7 wrote: post #28

You can execute patches but they don’t run as fast or as reliably as your underlying personality. Over a long period of time, the patches can become habituated and a kind of hybrid personality results. The underlying code remains.

I'm often fond of saying that idealism is not lost in adulthood, but rather gets patched for real world vulnerabilities. So I generally like the idea of a series of patches making a whole. After all, isn't that what evolution is?

Re: Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf]

#53

Post by spyckie2 »

akvadrako wrote: post #46
spyckie2 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my personal observation a lot of discourse over personality stems from the fact that there are two differing ideas that both use the same word - personality - to define themselves. One idea defines personality as an innate wiring of your cognitive processes given to you based on your genetics. The other defines personality as the sum of all factors leading up to your current personality state (including your innat…

> One idea defines personality as an innate wiring of your cognitive processes given to you at birth. AFAIK, there isn't anything special about birth which would freeze brain development at that point. Baby brains are quite undeveloped - they don't experience the world like we do. Your genetics do fix something at the time of conception, but otherwise it's a continual process based on experience.

For the sake of stronger definitions I have clarified the sentiment to express this point.

Re: Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf]

#54

Post by J-dawg »

racer-v wrote: post #13
dschuetz wrote: post #3

This paper is dangerous. It lets an ignorant mind assume that personality is a choice in some way, so a person with unpopular (e.g. more personal) personality traits will need to change those to more popular and sociable ones. People refusing to do so will be considered selfish and will be punished/excluded from society. Welcome to Orwellia!

What you're describing is actually the way the world is. People who find it easy to be pleasant get further in life, while those with antisocial tendencies experience rejection - even when they're make more of an effort to be pleasant than those for whom it comes naturally. On the other hand, the unpleasant person may discover a billion dollar idea thinking alone in his basement. So it goes.

> even when they're make more of an effort to be pleasant than those for whom it comes naturally

Have you got a source for this? It sounds plausible but also difficult to prove.

Re: Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf]

#55

Post by justanotherjoe »

You probably can, but the key word here is "change". I believe you can somehow "change" personality. You can't however "add" new personality. Changing personality requires sacrifice, abandoning the old self and many things that you currently love. And that is truly hard. At least that's what i believe.

Re: Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf]

#56

Post by kristofferR »

This super-inspiring video from Simple Programmer (awesome self improvement aimed at programmers) is really relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EOym9N6SZR4

People can clearly change their personality, it's just so difficult that most people don't try or give up when they fail.

Re: Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf]

#57

Post by gaius »

akvadrako wrote: post #46
spyckie2 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my personal observation a lot of discourse over personality stems from the fact that there are two differing ideas that both use the same word - personality - to define themselves. One idea defines personality as an innate wiring of your cognitive processes given to you based on your genetics. The other defines personality as the sum of all factors leading up to your current personality state (including your innat…

> One idea defines personality as an innate wiring of your cognitive processes given to you at birth. AFAIK, there isn't anything special about birth which would freeze brain development at that point. Baby brains are quite undeveloped - they don't experience the world like we do. Your genetics do fix something at the time of conception, but otherwise it's a continual process based on experience.

What do you think of the Jesuit saying that a character is fixed in the first 7 years? Is there any truth in it?

Re: Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf]

#58

Post by personlurking »

akvadrako wrote: post #46
spyckie2 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my personal observation a lot of discourse over personality stems from the fact that there are two differing ideas that both use the same word - personality - to define themselves. One idea defines personality as an innate wiring of your cognitive processes given to you based on your genetics. The other defines personality as the sum of all factors leading up to your current personality state (including your innat…

> One idea defines personality as an innate wiring of your cognitive processes given to you at birth. AFAIK, there isn't anything special about birth which would freeze brain development at that point. Baby brains are quite undeveloped - they don't experience the world like we do. Your genetics do fix something at the time of conception, but otherwise it's a continual process based on experience.

Recently, I heard an interesting concept from a long-time clinical psychologist:

"Society constrains and kills you even. You die into your neural configuration. When you're first born you have more neural connections than you will ever in your life, and most of them die. And so, you die into your four-year old self, and between ages 16 and 20, you die into your adult self."

Re: Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf]

#59

Post by goldenkey »

EGreg wrote: post #25
themodelplumber wrote: post #9

I'm a personality type coach and I help people implement the kinds of changes described in the paper. There are many different models that deal with this kind of change. But taking one step back, I think it should be made more clear up front that "having a desire to change one's personality traits" itself is a trait. There is no need to pressure (most) people to change, and many good people feel a strong pressure to…

Given your description of your job, I have a quick question: I have found that when I speak, I rarely command attention and captivate as some others do. Probably something in my speech patterns. Perhaps they are slightly more apologetic / geeky / nice than others. People may interrupt me or turn away, even people who respect me. When I do get rapt attention, such as teaching a class, I get an impostor syndrome becaus…

You are probably just anxious or you aren't thinking about what other people are listening for. A good speaker asks themselves what the objective is, and follows it directly. Other reasons might be: sounding whiney, squeeky, overly descriptive/ornate, or off-topic rambling. Those things are easily remedied by not talking to people about things they would find boring. ie. finding more aligned friends. Anyhow, good luck.

Re: Can People Choose to Change Their Personality Traits? (2015) [pdf]

#60

Post by twobyfour »

volgo wrote: post #2

Read through the paper. It doesn't reveal anything really surprising, but it's a start. Conclusion was: - Most people want to change their personality - People with personalities that are considered "negative" by society (ex: introversion) wanted to become more extroverted - People that wanted to change their personality, did change their personality slightly, and self reported daily behaviors that worked toward the…

Are they changing their personality or are they changing their behaviors? I would think of the personality as the predisposition to certain behaviors.

You can change your behaviors to differ from those you're predisposed to; but it takes more conscious effort to maintain those behaviors than it does to maintain the ones you are predisposed to.

And changing those behaviors doesn't count as changing your personality, though it may change some people's perception of your personality. Changing behaviors is something we all do at least situationally (even the most cheerful, boisterous person will generally manage to be reasonably subdued at a funeral). That doesn't mean we're changing our personalities every time we walk into a funeral home.

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