Have you ever taken a personality test? If you're like me, you've consulted BuzzFeed and know exactly which Taylor Swift song “suits your mood perfectly.”
It could also be obvious that Internet quizzes usually are not scientific, but lots of the seemingly serious personality tests used to guide people in selecting education and careers are also not supported by research. Although they’re a Billion dollar industryindustrial personality tests utilized by schools and firms to put people of their ideal roles don’t predict skilled success.
Aside from their lack of scientific support, the most well-liked approaches to understanding personality are problematic because they assume that your traits are static – that’s, you might be stuck with the personality you were born with. However, modern studies of personality science have found that Properties can and do change over time.
Not only have I observed how my very own personality has modified over time from chaotic and lazy to extremely conscientious, but I’m also a Personality change researcher and clinical psychologist. My research confirms what I even have seen in my very own development and in my patients: people can consciously design the traits they need to achieve the life they need. This contradicts the widely held belief that your personality type puts you in a box and dictates that you just select partners, activities, and careers in accordance with your traits.
What personality is and what it shouldn’t be
According to psychologists, personality is your characteristic way of pondering, feeling and acting.
Are you the sort of one that tends to view situations in your life pessimistically, or are you the kind who all the time sees the glass half full?
Do you get indignant when someone cuts you off in traffic, or do you trust them when doubtful – perhaps they're on their strategy to the hospital?
Do you wait until the last minute to finish tasks or do you propose ahead?
You can consider your personality as a set of labels that summarize your answers to questions like these. Depending in your answers, you could be described as optimistic, empathetic, or reliable.
Research suggests that each one of those descriptive terms summarized in five overarching characteristics – what psychologists creatively call the “Big Five.”
Back within the Thirties, psychologists literally combed through a dictionary to seek out all of the words that describe human nature and sorted them into thematically similar categories. For example, they grouped words like “kind,” “considerate,” and “friendly.” They found that 1000’s of words may very well be explained by categorizing them under five traits: neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness.
Whale Design/iStock via Getty Images Plus
What personality shouldn’t be: People often feel they should protect their personality – you might consider it the core of your personality. However, in accordance with scientific definitions, personality shouldn’t be your likes, dislikes, or preferences. It shouldn’t be your humorousness. It shouldn’t be your values or what you think about necessary in life.
In other words, changing your Big Five personalities doesn't change your core personality. It just means you learn to answer life situations with different thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.
Can you alter your personality?
Can personality change? Remember that personality is the characteristic way an individual thinks, feels, and behaves. And even though it may sound difficult to vary personality, persons are consistently changing the way in which they think, feel, and behave.
Let's say you're not particularly reliable. If you begin pondering “being on time shows others that I respect them,” when you take pride in arriving at brunch before your mates, and adopt recent behaviors that increase your punctuality – like getting up with an alarm clock, setting appointment reminders, and so forth – then you definately embody the characteristics of a reliable person. If you maintain these changes in your pondering, emotions, and behavior over time – voilà! – you're reliable. Personality: modified.
Data confirm this concept. In general Personality changes over the course of lifeAs people age, they have a tendency to experience fewer negative and more positive emotions, are more conscientious, place more value on positive relationships, and are less judgmental of others.
However, there’s variability here. Some people change so much and a few remain fairly constant. In addition, studies show that including my very ownthat test whether personality interventions change traits over time find that folks can speed up the technique of personality change by make targeted changes to their pondering and behaviorThese optimizations can result in significant changes in lower than 20 weeks as a substitute of 20 years.
Mascot via Getty Images
Develop personality traits that profit you most
The excellent news is that these cognitive behavioral techniques are relatively easy and also you don't necessarily should go to a therapist if that's not a problem for you.
The first component is changing your thought patterns – that's the cognitive part. You have to turn into aware of your thoughts to see in the event that they are stopping you from acting in accordance with a specific trait. For example, when you think that “people only look out for themselves,” you're more likely to react defensively within the presence of others.
The behavioral component is about becoming aware of your current motion tendencies and trying recent responses. If you act defensively around other people, they’re more likely to react negatively to you. For example, in the event that they withdraw or snap at you, this confirms your belief that you just cannot trust others. On the opposite hand, when you attempt to act more openly – for instance, by telling a colleague that you just are combating a task – you have got the chance to see if this changes the way in which others behave toward you.
These cognitive-behavioral strategies are so effective at influencing personality because personality is just your characteristic way of pondering and behaving. By consistently changing your perspective and actions, you possibly can develop lasting habits that ultimately result in the event of the personality you desire.
image credit : theconversation.com