Can we change our personalities?

[ygolo]

http://l-pawlik-kienlen.suite101.com/making-personality-changes-a38196

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/23/can-you-change-your-perso_n_691097.html

What do you think?

 

[lunalum]

Personality as in the behaviorist stuff of Big 5 and the like, yes those change and can be worked on.

More fundamental personality that is attempted to get at by MBTI and the like, is something that is developed upon according to how your core personality unfolds it. The development is drastic, but it's not a full shift into someone completely different, short of maybe some serious neurological event.

 

[Saslou]

I believe so.

 

[Tiger Owl]

Absolutely. Though some folks will have to work a lot harder at it than others.

 

[TenebrousReflection]

I think we can adapt out personality to deal with our present situation and environment, and to work toward achieving our aims, but at our core we have a personality that we are "meant to be" and when we have an environment that is conducive to that personality, then we feel our best and can make progress toward reaching our true potential.

I believe that if we reach a point where we feel like we do not like who we have become, it is usually an indication that society and environment have warped us into being something we were not meant to be. If the reason we do not like who we are and feel the need to change is because a goal is harder to reach because of aspects of our personality, then that falls into the catagory of voluntarily adapting our personality to make life easier (being an introvert looking for a job, I see the need to try to adapt into being more outgoing, but I know this is an attempt to develop a skill that I can turn on or off as needed and I see it as attempting to fix a weakness rather than changing who I am)

 

[Riva]

That's a lot of rubbish advice given though in the links and the video. Urgh!!!

They were focusing more in changing habits than changing personalities.

 

[Rasofy]

Short answer would be yes, but I don't know how easily.

 

[Redbone]

No. Behaviors can be changed, though.

 

[highlander]

That's a lot of rubbish advice given though in the links and the video. Urgh!!!

They were focusing more in changing habits than changing personalities.

This is the thing. We can change habits. We can develop and better utilize our natural talents. As we age, our preferences moderate. People do change in some ways which can be positive or negative. They can become more moderate. They can eliminate negative things. They can pick up and adopt the beliefs of a particular ideology. On the other hand, they can become discouraged, skeptical of life and turn into grumpy old men. People are remarkably consistent in many many ways however. Maybe it depends on how you define personality. I consider it to fall along the typological lines and that does not change. You can lean towards a being a healthy 5 vs. an unhealthy one or be a more balanced INFP vs. an unbalanced one, but you don't change to a 7 or an ENTP.

 

[Riva]

This is the thing. We can change habits. We can develop and better utilize our natural talents. As we age, our preferences moderate. People do change in some ways which can be positive or negative. They can become more moderate. They can eliminate negative things. They can pick up and adopt the beliefs of a particular ideology. On the other hand, they can become discouraged, skeptical of life and turn into grumpy old men. People are remarkably consistent in many many ways however. Maybe it depends on how you define personality. I consider it to fall along the typological lines and that does not change. You can lean towards a being a healthy 5 vs. an unhealthy one or be a more balanced INFP vs. an unbalanced one, but you don't change to a 7 or an ENTP.

Changing healthiness levels cannot be considered as changing personalities could they? It's just feeling more secure about self. That's not changing your personality. The links suggest changing personality but gives advice on how to adopt good habits and drop bad ones. The links need a change in names.

 

[highlander]

Changing healthiness levels cannot be considered as changing personalities could they? It's just feeling more secure about self. That's not changing your personality. The links suggest changing personality but gives advice on how to adopt good habits and drop bad ones. The links need a change in names.

No - changing healthiness levels cannot be considered as changing personality. It really is a definitional question. What is "personality?"

If we say it is the behavioral and emotional characteristics of a person, then those things can be visibly changed. You can train yourself to be a more positive thinker. You can become a Christian and your outlook on life changes. You can have negative life experiences such as being a victim of a violent crime or being in a war and it can affect how you react and behave.

So, if we're looking at behaviors and emotional characteristics - I think those things can change. The core of who you are as a person - that I think does not change. What you realize as an individual with respect to that core is something that can be influenced.

 

[Such Irony]

I don't think we can change who we are at the core. I do think we can change our behaviors and our mindsets. If you're naturally introverted you can learn to behave in a more outgoing manner and learn to appreciate small talk and social gatherings more but I think the preference for introversion is still there.

 

[miss fortune]

you can always learn to change... you will always be yourself

 

[Mole]

Personality is merely the way we interact with the outside world. Personality is an artifact, a thing, while we are persons. We go far, far deeper than personality. Personality is merely the flotsam and jetsam of life.

However if we are socially mobile upwards, if we want to get on, if we want to get ahead, we will naturally focus on our personality as a tool. And if we are to make it, we even think of changing our personality. Gosh, we will even think of re-inventing ourselves.

If we want to make it, we know we must sell ourselves. And if they aren't buying our old personality, why, we will retool and invent a new personality.

For in the final analysis we are commodities in the consumer society, and we are consumed along with everything else. And so we become things, we reify ourselves, the better to get on. And slowly our personalities harden to form a protective shell and we become a thing that can be bought and sold like any other old thing.

 

[Viridian]

If one changes his/her personality, is it still the same person?

 

[garbage]

We can grow much more than we give ourselves (and others) credit for.

We also give more credence and explanatory power than deserved to models of the less malleable (or 'unchangeable') aspects of our personality. We keep some separation between cognitive science and behavior modeling for a reason. It's pretty hard to predict behaviors and surface level traits with a model that is designed for a more deep-rooted look at the psyche since there's so much variability in between.

 

[Mole]

Human Sacrifice

We can change our personalities the same way we change our socks.

Look at the great chameleons, the actors, the singers, the celebrities. They change their personalities to catch the prevailing breeze and when the breeze changes direction, so do they.

And although we demand change from our idols, change comes at a price. And the price is usually drugs, broken relationships, and addiction. They sacrifice themselves for us. Just as human sacrifices went willingly to their deaths, because it was the highest honour and they would be rewarded in the next life, so idols and celebrities today live their drug hell and go to their drug addicted deaths as the highest honour immortalised on celluloid.

 

[LEGERdeMAIN]

We can change our personalities the same way we change our socks.

Look at the great chameleons, the actors, the singers, the celebrities. They change their personalities to catch the prevailing breeze and when the breeze changes direction, so do they.

I like this part. Oh cam.

 

[LEGERdeMAIN]

If one changes his/her personality, is it still the same person?

People are always changing. At the cellular level, we are constantly killing old cells and creating new ones to take their place. Our brains are the same way, new neurons are made and the old ones are recycled for spare parts. It'd be pointless to say that a change in personality also changes the person, I don't consist of the same atoms, molecules/compounds, cells, skin, brain in a lifetime and yet I'm the same person I was ten years ago.*

*according to official documents.

 

[Anew Leaf]

It's very easy. Under the user setting there is a box wherein you can put a new personality type. Since people often look at that box and assume that that is your type you can continue acting like how you always do... but your actions will be viewed through a new lens in the eyes of the forum.

Come, take flight with us my INTP fwend.... Let go the burden of Ti and let your wings stretch to their full crazy potential.