Stabile & Situation-dependent behavior as alternatives

[Ghost of the dead horse]

I'm studying this idea: a stable person is predictable and they can be used like a tool. Consistent behavior in a man is same that you expect from a tool; it performs the same way regardless of circumstances, only depending on your ability to use it.

On the other hand, one of the best (if not the best) personality style paradigmas is to act according to situation. Now, situations change, and someone who's quick to understand what the situation is all about is also prone to act and behave differently in different situations. Now, this kind of a person isn't as much of a "tool" but she seems "unstable" to some, and "witty" to some.

Edit: compare this with p-types, where strong commitments to any particular personality trait are seen as illness, and one should act depending on circumstances instead.

 

[Stanton Moore]

A stable person is so until they are not, whether through action, circumstance or accident.

So the same person can be considered stable now and unstable later.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

So very true. So at what point is stable behavior the same is being stuck in a rut?

 

[sprinkles]

Being unable to adapt to situations is not stable, it's just dull.

Being dynamic is not unstable. Instability is pathological behavior. Not only is an unstable person 'unpredictable', they are also unpredictable in bad ways.

 

[Stanton Moore]

So very true. So at what point is stable behavior the same is being stuck in a rut?

Hmm...I suppose, when stability creates dysfunctional solutions; in other words, when a stable formula does not adequetly reddress an unstable citcumstance.

 

[Ghost of the dead horse]

I've felt that true and good stability is not just static stability, like that a rock is resting on the bottom of the pit, but also dynamic stability: a pendelum swings back and forth, it's kinetic energy changes to potential energy and vice versa.

I've liked to compare human behavior to similar rules. Someone can alter their mode of operation, their behavior in similar ways: they can utilize opposite behaviors in constructive ways. Say, solitude and teamwork, constructiveness and criticism.

What I've seen is that if the interplay of the variables in a dynamically stable individual isn't clear to an outside observer, the person will appear erratic to most statically stable individuals.