Study Says Your Personality Doesn't Change After 1st Grade 221
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.
How many of those kids .. (Score:4, Interesting)
took acid later in life?
Still prefer to be alone.. (Score:2, Interesting)
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.
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not true (Score:3, Interesting)
Also, if being stripped naked and publicly flogged is your thing, you can get a lot of that action for 70k.
Very Very old news (Score:3, Interesting)
Hasn't anyone besides me seen the 7-UP series?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_Series [wikipedia.org]
Re:I have 100% changed. (Score:3, Interesting)
The point might be that - your behaviour at 40 is the same as your behaviour at 5. The in between stages are not considered - since people do change a lot through the years. But in the end, you mostly reach your behaviour back at 5.
Re:Oh Yeah? (Score:3, Interesting)
I am going to make a big assumption here, so please excuse me if I am wrong. I assume that your wife was previously fat. REALLY fat. I will also assume that she lost a HUGE amount of weight from that operation.
There is a common misconception that women are 'natural nurturers'. This isn't the case. Women (like men) have a tendency to be self serving. Making things about them. It is extremely common for that self serving attitude to be confused with being nurturing. This happens because women are generally given higher social status if they are 'good mothers' than if they are not. People look for all sorts of way to get personal gain. Frequently that gain is social status.
The more attractive a woman is, the more attention she will receive from men. The more money and goods that will be given to her, and all around the easier it will be for her to find things other than her kids to fulfill her sociopathic tendencies.
I don't know your wife, so I cannot say whether this is really true of her or not, but having a woman who goes from fat and centered on her kids to skinny and ignoring them fits plenty well in the hypothesis presented in the summary.
Re:Still prefer to be alone.. (Score:5, Interesting)
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.
Temperament vs. Personality (Score:3, Interesting)
Temperament doesn't change; that is, your basic innate tendency to react one way or another. However, personality is more than just temperament; it also includes emotional scars, life lessons, and the results of concerted effort to control your innate tendencies.
Basically, a naturally timid individual will never become a natural daredevil --though s/he might learn to fake it very well. In fact, sometimes people learn to fake it so well that they even manage to fool themselves, with the truth only revealed once the constant strain of impulse-denial and self-deception finally gets the better of them.
But it's also possible to truly moderate one's responses, given the right life experiences and lots of hard work. It's not a matter of becoming the opposite of what you are, more of learning to rein in your natural responses when possible, and to compensate for what can't be controlled. You may not ever become, say, more extroverted than Mr. Popularity, but you can still make strides toward the middle of the spectrum, sometimes enough to make your old self seem like a completely different person.
Re:Not true (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm a changed person from when I was in high school. Back then, I was an asshole who craved attention - so I egged people on and played the victim card. I was loud and obnoxious, but I actually wasn't very happy.
Fifteen years later, you wouldn't recognize me. I've made an active effort to bury my asshole urges - they're still there, but I don't give in to them very often. Also, I've found reasons to love myself (work out regularly, accomplish career goals, meet new friends, etc.), and that's made me a happier person. It's a lot easier to bury your asshole streak when you have real confidence and a smile on your face.
I don't think your personality is just coded in your genes - I think your personality is partially a survival mechanism developed in-response to the people around you. My sister and I had completely different personalities growing up, but now we're very similar - same genes, but different personalities at different stages of life. I think your genes have an influence, but it is your willpower that makes the final determination - and early in life, when you have no awareness of your "self," you create your personality blindly in response to external stimuli.
If the story is correct, and most people have the same personality as they did when they were 6 years old, I feel sorry for them. When you are 6, you have no idea what is really going on in the world, but you are forced to form a personality anyway. It's sad to think that people feel they cannot change something so important in their lives...because they can, if they really want to.
Re:Not true (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Not true (Score:3, Interesting)
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 (parental) anxiety you describe...does have a significant impact
It could also have just as much to do with having older siblings.