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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]

#71

Post by buttcoinslol »

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…

Try watching some videos of engaging speakers and focus on their body language and arm movements. Body language has a tremendous influence on people, sometimes moreso than words.

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

#72

Post by notheguyouthink »

twobyfour wrote: post #60
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,…

Depends on how it would be perceived. I did something similar to the described increased-extroversion. I believe my work proved successful - of sorts.

I still have the personality trait of being an introvert, but when I was specifically working to push myself, my tolerance for "things" was increased. So while my personality hasn't changed, specifically my preferences haven't changed, my tolerances and ability to enjoy things outside of my preferences has been flexible.

I wonder if that's what a lot of these self-reported people reported. "Before I couldn't go to a party and enjoy myself, now I can!" isn't exactly indication that their personality changed. Even if they enjoy the parties and want more, I'd argue that their personality could still be the same - it has been for me.

I also think ultimately my self-identified trait of introvert might not be correct - and likewise many subjects here I wonder if they might be incorrectly self-identified. For myself, what I think I really dislike is not the outside/etc - it's new encounters. I hate them. Really, I loathe them. Even things as simple as driving new places. The unknown area, the frenzied feeling of finding the correct street, parking in cities, etc. I don't like driving because of that, honestly. So am I really an introvert? I actually like going places, it's just that life brings a lot of unknowns, and those are ultimately what I dislike and I have to fight to keep a reasonable hold on.

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

#73

Post by psergeant »

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…

I have coached 600+ people on how to be more engaging in their speech, for money, over several years and in several countries, as part of a previous job. This is skill, not behaviour, and it can be acquired.

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

#74

Post by wincy »

personlurking wrote: post #58
akvadrako wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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."

I don’t think you should be afraid to mention Jordan Peterson here.

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

#75

Post by kristofferR »

Spearchucker wrote: post #70
kristofferR wrote: post #56

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.

That guy, how he dresses, the wristbands, the pictures on the wall, steam-punk lamp... Most contrived thing I've seen in a VERY long time. Which is a pity in that I needed to forcibly focus myself on what he was saying, in spite of my bias. Because maybe he might have had something useful to say.

That is frankly one of the weirdest things I've ever heard.

You can't listen to someone because his style and choice of decorations is different? At least you recognize that you're biased, but you should really try to fix that part of your personality.

You'll miss out on a lot in life if you immediately disregard things and people just because they're slightly different than what you're used to.

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

#76

Post by [deleted] »

khazhoux wrote: post #42
chriswait wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you find that the generalisation of this model of software development was supported/not-supported in some way by the results being discussed here?

What a backhanded way of telling him to shut up! 1) This is a tech-focused forum. 2) It was perfectly obvious that he was being clever. 3) The analogy was quite amusing. 4) The analogy does ring true... and even this research paper concedes the point that personal change is difficult and has proven elusive. 5) I imagine that if a wealth of actionable research results existed on this matter, that personal change and g…

[deleted]

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

#77

Post by MadSudaca »

J-dawg wrote: post #54
racer-v wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I suggest an experiment. Find someone with a trait you admire and lack, try as hard as you can to be like them. Check your results.

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

#78

Post by MadSudaca »

watwut wrote: post #32
racer-v wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Being pleasant is not in opposition to ability to think or creativity. You can be both and world is not fair.

I agree. Being pleasant is probably a mix of having a good dose of the agreeableness and extroversion personality traits. Both of which are uncorrelated to creativity and IQ, other two traits.

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

#79

Post by jcadam »

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…

I interviewed at a place (looking for Scala devs) that had me take a MBTI test after several rounds of (I believe) successful interviews and a take-home coding assignment. I tested INTJ, as usual. I never heard from them again.

Given what I could glean about the culture of the place, I presume the 'Introverted' part of my personality was the issue. Though, you would think a company full of extroverts wouldn't have a problem telling a candidate why he was rejected :D

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

#80

Post by tonyedgecombe »

jcadam wrote: post #79
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…

I interviewed at a place (looking for Scala devs) that had me take a MBTI test after several rounds of (I believe) successful interviews and a take-home coding assignment. I tested INTJ, as usual. I never heard from them again. Given what I could glean about the culture of the place, I presume the 'Introverted' part of my personality was the issue. Though, you would think a company full of extroverts wouldn't have a…

I doubt you can read that much into it, any org that excludes INTJ's is going to find hiring programmers quite hard.
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