Who Are You? By Melissa Bush

     In my high school Economics class, there was a girl who would blurt out the most outrageous, entertaining things. I distinctly remember one time when all I could think was, “How does she think of these things?” It hit me then exactly how different our minds can be.

     As humans, we’re cognocentric. Yes, I just made that up. Essentially, we see others’ actions and words through the lens of our own thought processes, much as we have cultural assumptions that shape our perceptions of other cultures, i.e. ethnocentrism, making it hard to see what is truly behind them. This is the natural outcome of only being familiar with our own thought processes, unable to imagine paths our own minds wouldn’t take. The only way to grow out of it is exposure and education.

     This is where personality psychology comes in useful. It can help you understand how you think in relation to how others think, which can improve communication, teamwork, and self-understanding. Personality is the unique combination of thought processes working in patterns to create a fabric of psyche, and in striving to understand your own personality, you can augment your characteristics with habits that benefit you.

     For those of us in school, that can mean making a special effort to improve your study habits if your openness is low (Voracek, Komarraju, Karau, Schmeck, & Avdic, 2011). Openness is one of the Big Five personality factors, and is directly linked to curiosity (OpenStax, 2014).

     There is debate about whether our personalities, our habits of thinking, change over time (Harris, Brett, Johnson, & Deary, 2016; Soldz & Vaillant, 1999). I prefer to think that it doesn’t matter whether or not our base personalities can change because either way, the action needed is the same. Whether you assume you cannot change, and therefore simply change your surface habits to accommodate for your traits, or you assume you can change and therefore try to influence your deeper thought patterns by changing your habits, the outcome is the same: you change your habits.

What habit will you create this week?

References

Harris, M., Brett, C. E., Johnson, W., & Deary, I. J. (2016). Personality stability from age 14 to age 77 years. Psychology and Aging, 31(8), 862–874. doi:10.1037/pag0000133

OpenStax College. (2014). Psychology. Houston, TX: Rice University. Retrieved from http://cnx.org/content/col11629/latest/>.

Soldz, S., & Vaillant, G. E. (1999). The Big Five personality traits and the life course: A 45-year longitudinal study. Journal of Research in Personality, 33, 208–232.

Voracek, M., Komarraju, M., Karau, S. J., Schmeck, R. R., & Avdic, A. (2011). The Big Five personality traits, learning styles, and academic achievement. Personality and Individual Differences, 51, 472–477.