Scientific research says that core personality traits remain consistent throughout a person's life. This isn't a concrete fact, however, so it's open for debate. This kind of bothered me for a while; I don't really like the thought of us being slaves to our genes. I thought we were more complicated than that. After thinking about it for a while, though, I think that while the scientific research is technically correct, for all intents and purposes your personality can change.
First of all, let's examine a person who inherits a bunch of positive traits. Let's take... a person who's an extrovert by nature. Sadly, at the age of eight he moves to a town named Dickheadville. Every day, he receives a roundhouse kick to the face from at least thirty of his schoolmates, and his teachers constantly pick on him and give him zeroes for no reason. He becomes disillusioned and develops a distrust of people. Now... let's say somebody reaches out to him and tries to treat him kindly at the age of... say, sixteen. Naturally, he isn't able to fully trust the person... but does that mean the kid's personality has changed deep down? No, it just means there's a lot of stuff covering it up. The kid merely adapted as a defense mechanism, and he has yet to receive sufficient evidence that he made a mistake in doing so. I have this rubbery red floppy thing that's used as an armrest on top of the computer desk. I can fold it in half, and it will change its shape momentarily... but when I let go it will return to the way it was. However, what if I don't let go? It will stay in its altered shape. That's kind of the way it is with the kid and people in general. If the reasons he had for adapting are, in any situation, temporarily considered null and void, his natural personality will come out. From an absolute point of view, the chain of events which lead a person into adopting a certain viewpoint can always be undone if met with an equally powerful force from the opposite (in this case, more positive) end of the spectrum. The problem lies within the human psyche, which is usually not strong enough to carry such a burden (that is, to remove the effect of the years leading up to who you have become), and that while some of the horrors in the world are very real, there is nothing powerful enough from the positive end of the spectrum to make up for it. Let us say, for instance, that a man's family was killed, but he received reassurance from God himself that they were in Heaven and living in eternal bliss and that he could join them some day; until that day came, they would enjoy each other's company and wait for Daddy, but not with sadness in their hearts. Just waiting. That might be enough to bring his mind to ease. The problem with that, though... that's not going to happen. There might be a force powerful enough to save the man whose family was killed, but as God hardly talks to people directly anymore, all the man would know for certain is the loss of his family.
Now let's take a teenager who has an anger problem. There's some people that he, you know, loves or whatever, like his hot girlfriend that he bangs seventy-five times a week. He is able to make a lot of progress because the belief he has in others and the belief others have in him fosters development, but what if this form of support is taken away? What if he's not inspired by the progress he made in the past, and has no motivation to change his thoughts and feelings? Then... he's left with nothing but a clean slate. He's left with what nature gave him: a problem with anger.
In the end, I think that when all our history is rendered irrelevant and we're left with nothing but a clean slate, then we do remain the same throughout life. That slate never changes. However, I don't think that we're slaves to our heredity. We have enough control, for our intents and purposes, to achieve self-satisfaction. Whenever we're presented with a clean slate, for better or for worse... we'll never get rid of that, but we can try to keep the writing we put on that slate from being erased as well as we can, in order to preserve our good traits and replace our bad. Nobody will be 100 percent successful, maybe not even 50 percent, but at the same time I don't think it's a futile effort.
So... any agreements? Disagreements? I kind of feel like I stated the obvious, only in a really long and pretentious way. >_> Oh well.
I had typed out a long reply delving into this interesting topic and my FUCKING COMPUTER hiccuped when I pressed the "submit reply" button and I lost it! GRRRRR!
I will try to come back later when I'm not pouding the keys in rage to retype what I had written.
I'm usually brilliant those times when the internet screws up. I never get it back...
DR CASEY.. ahhh but in our minds JP has just written the most brilliant work of his lifetime! he is a hero!!
as for your text.. I think the older we are, the more chances we have of changing things.. but they are still very hard to change.. and many people don't even want to try, and only go deeper and deeper into their personnality. I've often heard that when we're in our 80's we become a caricature of what we were at 40.. the fun people are real fun oldies.. and the grouchy people are REAL grouchy.
That scares me sensibility wise.. but I'll try to prove it wrong
Dr. Casey you are talking about 2 different things: Personality and adaptability.
Personality does not change. Adaptability does. Adaptability is controlled by your personality. And over the period of years I have noticed that people who adapt better to changes around them are people who had a good childhood at "Home". Notice I said Home. If your home provided you a secured environment which built your self-worth then all is taken care of. These are people who have strong personalities. Anger/
introvertness/ being bullied are just a little fish to fry.
What life teaches you is experience. A 30 year old knows that if a car is high beaming from behind, it is better to let that person pass. Will I loose my self-worth if the person overtakes me? Will my self-worth increase if I let that person stay behind my back?
My self-worth will decrease the day I have to lie to my son or to my family. My self worth will decrease the day I do something that I ask my son to not do. My self worth will decrease the day I make my parents/family less proud of me. and that is personality. This has not changed since the day I was born and if it has not changed in these 30 years then there are less chances it will ever change.
But many of my traits have changed. My patience with people and their shortcomings is more than what it was a year back. I have become more careful of what I speak with people around me ( I have become less offensive now). I have learnt to learn from my mistakes. This is adaptability and it has changed and it will keep on changing and I hope it changes only for better.
I have been lurking in this forum for a couple of years and have not participated because the topics did not converge sufficently with my personal interests. In my experience, yoga has been more than adding a new routine to a fitness regime and that idea appears to be a subtext of this thread.
I have a friend who likes to describe the mind as a muscle: if you actively bring it into the realm of personal reflection (awareness) and control, it develops strength, flexibility, and resiliency. Mental fitness comes about in the same way as does physical fitness. That is, both disciplines involve developing personal discipline and knowledge about effective practices on every level of one's being.
This thread caught my attention because it appears to be moving toward a balanced discussion of mind and body rather than one with a singular focus on physical culture. Presently, I am pretty much overwhelmed with circumstances and do not have a lot of time; but I would like to join in your exchanges as I am able.
DC -- How embarrasing. I had just read some of the recent threads in this forum, and many of them have to do with yoga. By the time I got to this thread, I had mushed them altogether. Regardless, many of your comments are certainly consistent with yoga philosophy.
My interest in posting this forum is because its named purpose is to consider the relationship between the mind and body, i.e., "The Mind Body Discussion" forum. The content of your post was indeed psychological, but I understood your reference to not being "slaves to our heredity" as as a frame for contrasting your notions of personality and emotion within a physiological context.
To be honest, I have grown weary of the scientific-empirical persona I typically present and would enjoy interacting with some wooly headed metaphysicians. Obviously, my personal interests led to haste and carelessness. Sorry to have misunderstood your intentions.
I had typed out a long reply delving into this interesting topic and my FUCKING COMPUTER hiccuped when I pressed the "submit reply" button and I lost it! GRRRRR!
I will try to come back later when I'm not pouding the keys in rage to retype what I had written.
I've had similar experiences with typing a long post and finding I timed out when I hit the submit button.
Just the behavior, but at the same time, increase your awareness.
I read on the Dream Views site that you can use lucid dreams to modify personality/behavior, but I haven't started to explore this yet. I've got a lot of work to do to get ready for my move, so it'll probably have to wait longer.
Just the behavior, but at the same time, increase your awareness.
I read on the Dream Views site that you can use lucid dreams to modify personality/behavior, but I haven't started to explore this yet. I've got a lot of work to do to get ready for my move, so it'll probably have to wait longer.
CYNIC ..I use to really be into lucid dreams.. and still control them at times.. but I don't see at all HOW they can modify personality/behavior.. do you know anything more about that?
CYNIC ..I use to really be into lucid dreams.. and still control them at times.. but I don't see at all HOW they can modify personality/behavior.. do you know anything more about that?
Well, I thought this a hokey reasoning:
You can try different scenarios and if something doesn't work, you can try a different approach.
However, it sounds hokey because you're in a dream state. Nothing is as it should be. Say I'm wanting to approach a woman I like. I say hi, how ya doing, she snubs me. The next time I say, "what's shakin baby" and I'm now going home with her. However, I know the woman in real life is better than that. The explaination doesn't quite fly with me.
To what degree can personality be changed?
Linear Mode
