Slashdot Mirror
Study Says Your Personality Doesn't Change After 1st Grade
A study authored by Christopher Nave, a doctoral candidate at the University of California, says that our personalities stay pretty much the same from early childhood all the way through old age. From the article: "Using data from a 1960s study of approximately 2,400 ethnically diverse schoolchildren (grades 1 - 6) in Hawaii, researchers compared teacher personality ratings of the students with videotaped interviews of 144 of those individuals 40 years later. They examined four personality attributes - talkativeness (called verbal fluency), adaptability (cope well with new situations), impulsiveness and self-minimizing behavior (essentially being humble to the point of minimizing one's importance)." This must explain my overriding need to be first captain when we pick kickball teams at the office.
took acid later in life?
The problem with slashdot is that most of its users were bullied and stuffed into lockers as kids!
I still pull girls hair and play with my wiener.
Yes and no. Yes, it does not change, in fact it does not change since your first day, simply because your DNA is already setup, and ready to go. And NO, it does change, if you are willing to learn.
A couple of years ago, I bumped into an old friend that I lost touch with. Long story short, he said that I am a completely different person than the guy he met 15 years ago. I believe I am an outlier, though. I spent over a decade and almost $70,000 of my own money on personal growth.
A person can and does change when they want to.
On the other hand, I was told by a professional that I really didn't change, per se, and that the old person was really a "false self" and that I becoming the real "me".
RIP America
July 4, 1776 - September 11, 2001
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I've been waiting for somebody to answer the age-old question:
Were you born an a-hole or did you work on it your whole life?
$70,000 of drugs and hookers would change anyone's personality.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
I spent over a decade and almost $70,000 of my own money on personal growth.
I'm trying really hard not to be cynical here, but how does somebody spend $70K on personal growth? I've had the occasional habit throughout my life of being a bit of a rube, and spending money on "experts." My observations so far have been:
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
I spent over a decade and almost $70,000 of my own money on personal growth.
I'm trying really hard not to be cynical here, but how does somebody spend $70K on personal growth?
college?
In Soviet Russia jokes are formulaic and decidedly non-humorous.
"I was an extreme introvert...I'm meeting plenty of random people all the time"
Wait? How does this disprove or prove your introversion and or change to extroversion?
People think not being around others is introversion...and it isn't. It is where do you get your energy from. An extrovert will find energy by being around people in ANY activity...not just ones that are hand chosen. An introvert generally has to be in their comfort zone before they can deal with others...they are able to gain more energy from their comfort zone that they may now expend on being around others.
I am a HUGE introvert...and I was a stage performing / touring musician for years. Being an introvert, it make aquiring people skills a little harder, but I made them...and when I did I was able to seem very outgoing under certain circumstances.
BTW -- the sports you list? Very introvert friendly...they are all about being able to focus on you internally, and less about the external.
That said, personality generally is set early on...but people can make a concerted effort (or even a situational one) and change with time. If you were in one of my grad courses, my profs would have used you as an example of not knowing what introversion and extroversion are...then again, unless you are in the field, I wouldn't expect someone to require in depth knowledge (and yeah, the standard def is pretty accurate for 90% of what people use it for).
The question of whether people are shaped by nature or nurture is easy. The answer is "yes".
I distinctly remember my Second Grade class and how much I preferred to be alone. We had group reading assignments but I didn't enjoy them, nor did I enjoy many other group activities. In Fifth grade I had a psychological assessment (for Gifted/Advanced students, but I was nothing special). The report, which I read many years later, said that I was quiet, quite shy, but had exceptional command of language, and so on. This was before autism was readily diagnosed, and I suspect that had I been tested 15 years later, I would be labeled mildy autistic.
In college, though I was involved in many groups, I still preferred to run off by myself. Fast forward 20 years and it's still the same. I'm involved in a sports team, clubs, etc., but it's almost as if I'm pretending. I do the team activities, give talks, am involved in film making (one of the most extroverted activities I can imagine). People tell me that I am a great speaker and they feel that I relate well, but even to this day I approach conversations in a methodical way: listen, confirm understanding, ask questions, repeat. This pretense is precisely because I enjoy being alone and I found it much easier to pretend to be well-adjusted and sociable than to just tell everyone how I really felt.
It's sad that introverts have to pretend to be extroverts to get by in so many situations. You're not maladjusted or broken just because you don't want to be surrounded by people at all times, despite what people might say. I'm a strong introvert (I don't hate being around people, it just drains me) but I love giving speeches or acting because it lets me bring my thoughts and emotions out in a way that doesn't directly involve interaction with others. At the end of the day, nothing makes me happier than getting the hell out of the office where everyone and everything is clamoring for my attention and reading a book or playing a game of chess with a stranger online.
If you're looking for a good read, I'd like to recommend Introvert Power by Laurie Helgoe. It is a self-help book but it provides some very interesting insights into how you operate, it will make you feel a bit better about it as well as offer ideas on how to deal with the rest of the world. The short version is this: introverts make up approximately half the world's population, setting up a quiet space in your home will go a long way (earplugs work wonders at home and the office, seriously), and it's okay to stay home instead of go out.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
Having raised a significant number of children to adulthood and through college, I feel qualified to contribute the following anecdotal observations to such a debate: (1) each child arrives shrink-wrapped with his/her own unique personality from birth, with high-order traits ranging from fussy to content, alert to no-so, timid to adventurous, more verbal to more physical, etc.; (2) that basic personality evolves through childhood and is shaped by experiences and interactions with parents, siblings, and childhood friends; (3) in retrospect one can see (or at least rationalize) the evolution, but such evolution seems by no means so smooth or constraining as portrayed by such studies; and, most significant, (4) such studies appear every bit as absolutely worthless in any practical sense as nearly all books on child rearing. Yes, as a new parent I went to classes, read books and even "coached" ridiculously with "he-he-hoo-hoo's" with the best of them. I rushed the first baby to the doctor at every sniffle or fervor, and fretted every "percentile" comparison chart entry by every "peeds" nurse. By the 3rd, 4th and 5th kid, one progressively realizes that most of the anxiety is worthless. As a parent, one can only do what one can do and hope for the best. Any experienced parent will eventually throw away all parenting books and ignore most psychological studies unless medical in nature and directly relevant to a specific issue. But then again, even social scientists need to eat, I guess...
Yes, but.... as the (by far) oldest of a family of 7 kids (12 years between me and my closest sibling, 29 years between me and the youngest one), I have some experience in this area myself. The thing with your insight about the anxiety of the new parent being useless is that there are also a fair number of studies which show that birth order DOES make a difference in the personality of children. I think there is plenty of room to wonder whether the lessening anxiety you describe (like the old joke... first kid, the pacifier falls on the floor, you sterilize it before giving it back; 2nd kid, you rinse it off then stick it back in his mouth; 3rd kid's lucky if you wipe it off before you give it back) does have a significant impact in how the child develops.