Who Are You, Really? The Puzzle of Personality
Who Are You, Really? The Puzzle of Personality
Brian Little's TED talk: personality is more than fixed traits. We are like all others, like some others, and like no other — and what makes you individually you are personal projects enacted through free traits.
Trait Psychology: OCEAN
Big Five dimensions (normally distributed, universal differences):
- Openness vs closed
- Conscientiousness vs lackadaisical
- Extroversion vs introversion
- Agreeableness vs disagreeable
- Neuroticism vs stable
Openness and conscientiousness predict life success via different paths (audacious/odd vs deadlines/perseverance). Extroversion and agreeableness help working with people.
Three Natures
- Biogenic — neurophysiology
- Sociogenic — culture and social context
- Idiogenic — what makes you individually you
Introversion and Extroversion
See introversion-extroversion for stimulation needs, caffeine effects, communication styles (black-and-white vs contextually complex "weasel words"), and the Tom/Brian "asshole" translation joke.
Introverts aren't necessarily antisocial — they may need to lower stimulation (quiet spaces, no coffee before quantitative speeded tasks).
Free Traits and Core Projects
Traits describe tendencies; free traits are when you act out of character to advance a core project. Agreeable person acts disagreeably to break hospital administrative torpor for a sick child. Introverted professor acts extroverted to engage students at 8am.
Don't ask "what type are you?" Ask "what are your core projects?"
Protracted out-of-character performance requires restorative niches — repair alone after pseudo-extroversion (men's room escape, Susan Cain reference).
Connections
- big-five-personality
- free-traits
- personal-projects
- three-natures-of-personality
- introversion-extroversion
- match-quality — traits inform fit but projects define pursuit
- grit — free traits can look like grit; restoration matters
Sources
(this is the source page)