My Learning NotesPersonality
What is personality?
It is the collection of behaviour, thoughts and emotions patterns that a person is used to adopt in life.
Personality traits are relatively stable over time and influence behaviour.
What types of personality traits exist?
The most supported evidence based researches suggest that there are 5 big factors common to human beings:
- Openness to experience (curious vs cautious)
- Conscientiousness (organised vs careless)
- Extroversion (extrovert vs introvert)
- Agreeableness (friendly/compassionate vs critical/rational)
- Neuroticism or emotional stability (nervous vs resilient)
How personality is developed?
Researches suggest that personality is highly defined by genetics and therefore it is a characteristic one is born with. The personality’s characteristics defined by genetics are called temperament.
However also environmental factors like family and peer group contribute to modify and shape personality.
Personal projects also influence our personality.
Can personality be changed?
Personality traits are relatively stable during the life, however they can change in particular due to significant life experiences.
Some researches suggest that also beliefs play a role in the personality change process.
Is good to act in contrast to our main personality traits?
Some researches suggest that:
- people act in contrast to their main personality traits, for example an introvert may act like an extrovert in some situations, to adapt to the environment if this can help them to reach their goals.
- it depends on the situation. Introverts may feel happier when they acts like extroverts, while extroverts that acts like introverts seem to have little negative cognitive consequences.
- acting too much in contrast to our main personality traits may impact our integrity.
Are there personality traits better than others?
I think that each person is unique thanks to the various combinations of their personality traits. If one feels good with one’s own personality traits, good for him. Therefore one cannot say that personality traits are better than others.
However researches suggest that:
- High conscientiousness predicts academic achievement
- Neuroticism is negatively correlated with psychological health.
- Extroverts are generally happier than introverts.
What personality traits define?
Personality traits contribute to define our typical behaviours.
However they do not explain specific behaviours in specific contexts. Therefore personality traits contribute to define behaviour, but they are not the unique contributor.
My Considerations about Personality
- Personality traits are in part related to beliefs because we are used to behave following what we believe is good for us.
- Personality traits may be changed as a result of significant life experiences.
- Significant life experiences are the one related to:
- strong emotions
- novelty compared to what we believed to be true before
- usefulness that what we have learned can have in our lives
- Considering that personality traits may change related to the context, I think that personality has a relative importance and may help only to broadly understand how we behave.
References
- Would introverts be better off if they acted more like extraverts? Exploring emotional and cognitive consequences of counter-dispositional Extraversion and Emotional Reactivity | Zelenski, John M.; Santoro, Maya S.; Whelan, Deanna C. | 2012
- The five factor model of personality: Theoretical Perspective | Paul T Costa, Robert R McCrae | 1999
- Personality Trait Change in Adulthood | Brent W. Roberts and Daniel Mroczek | 2008
- Can Personality Be Changed? | Carol S. Dweck | 2008
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