By Greg Murray | June 15, 2021
There is a certain thrill that people get from taking personality tests. The thought that you can finally know who you are on a deeper level and understand how your profile interacts with other people’s is very appealing. Unfortunately, personality tests are about as accurate as your astrology sign or your destined Hogwarts house (Slytherin all the way). This blog discusses why you’re much better off examining your identity and making gradual changes in your beliefs and your relationships in order to become the person you want to be, instead of becoming preoccupied with your personality.
Psychologists espousing the Five Factor model of personality have long claimed that personality development is determined by genetic factors. Although this has been invalidated, this long standing claim has led to a public understanding of personality as something real and inherent, something that you are born with. This misinformation is further reinforced when parents observe that their children turn out with very different personalities even though they were raised in the same households with the same philosophies. All of this, combined with the pop psychology industry of personality tests, has created a cultural mythology started by bad science.
I was so excited to see this narrative changing as I listened to the latest episode of The Psychology Podcast with Scott Barry Kaufman, where cognitive neuroscientist Christian Jarrett discusses his new book, “Be Who You Want: Unlocking the Science of Personality Change.” Jarrett and Kaufman brilliantly laid out the science on personality and discussed a few topics that stood out to me:
1. The impact of identity on personality is very clear. Identity consists of our values and beliefs about ourselves and the world at large (personal identity), the roles we play in life (role identity), and the groups we are a part of (group & social identity). Take a second to reflect upon the things you value, the actions you regularly perform, and the people with whom you associate. Imagine how much of this determines your behavior on a day to day basis. Jarret mentions the findings from Social Investment Theory as a recognition of this. With all of this evidence, it makes me wonder how much value there is in psychologists continuing to analyze personality at all? Why not focus on identity?
2. Biology does play an important, causal role which I understand much better now after listening to the podcast. According to Jarret and Kaufman, people have a biological predisposition for sensitivity to their environment that can end up determining how much interaction they choose to have with others (extroversion/introversion) or their level of emotionality (neuroticism).
Click here for a primer on the difference between identity and personality
How Does Identity Determine Personality?
There were many points in the podcast where Kaufman and Jarrett pointed out the effect of identity on personality, but they rarely used the term identity. Below I will break down a few specific instances and explain how they acknowledge identity as being the causal factor in shaping a person’s personality. As mentioned, identity is further categorized into personal identity, role identities, and group & social identities. With quotes from Jarret and Kaufman, I will demonstrate how each of these determines your personality.
Personal Identity Determines Personality
“He changed his values and his beliefs and changed his personality.”
In the podcast, Jarrett discusses the example of peace activist Majid Nawaz who was formerly a radical extremist who advocated for the killing of homosexuals and was eventually jailed for terrorism. In prison he educated himself and completely changed his beliefs and values and is now an important player in the counter-extremism movement. There is a large body of research that shows that values make up the core of our personal identity. This, as well as other research on personality change, makes the important point that people are capable of radical change. The key takeaway here is that your values and beliefs about yourself and the world around you make up your personal identity which determines how you interact with others (which some psychologists will refer to as personality). Many of my coaching clients would be deemed “agreeable” and “introverted” by personality psychologists. They accommodate others, shy away from conflict, and end up with unmet needs. With a little bit of coaching and identity work, they quickly shed those fears and are able to change their personalities.
Role Identity Determines Personality
“The roles we take on in life shape us. We get feedback on how we’re expected to behave and this shapes our personality.”
“Our personalities are to a large degree affected by our relationships with our friends, and the roles we play in our friend group.”
The other two quotes from the podcast above refer to a person’s role identity. They describe how the social roles we adopt have expected behaviors attached to them, and when we are positively reinforced for having performed those behaviors, it molds how we think of ourselves and how we behave in the future. This, in fact, is precisely the explanatory basis of motivation and behavior in Identity Theory, and it is a mistake, in my opinion, to refer to this as personality.
To say that our personality plays a causal role in our behavior is a bit of a misnomer since personality is a descriptive measure. Personality psychologists are simply noticing the patterned behavior and labeling it. Focusing too heavily on personality also disregards the fact that we are aligning our behavior to fit with our identity goals. Many are further misled by the notion that personality is genetically determined rather than thinking about the root cause of behavior and motivation, which is social interaction.
Let’s take an example of a person who becomes a teacher. They want to leave a positive impact on future generations and hold deeply the values of humanism in their personal identity. Their profession demands that they be very outgoing and extroverted during the day in order to impact as many students as possible. It would be incorrect to say that this person is a good teacher because they’re extroverted. Implementing the classic definition of extroversion and saying that this person is extroverted because they gain energy from being around people, is also wrong. In truth, they are gaining energy because they are fulfilling their identity motives. The outgoingness is a requirement of the role-identity. You can think about how this example holds true for you in the many roles you play in your family and friend groups, and then consider which of your identities is most prominent.
The podcast also discusses how parents have little influence on their child’s personality formation. As I mentioned earlier, this common observation reinforces the myth of the genetic determinacy of personality. If a parent doesn’t impact their child’s personality then it must be a case of nature over nurture! In reality, as Jarrett and Kaufman reveal, it is a child’s role in their friend group that has a much more significant impact on their behavior. Again, role identity motives are forming the basis of what is commonly understood as personality
Group and Social Identity Determine Personality
Not covered in the podcast is how a person’s group and social identities also determine motivation and behavior. While personal identity is about how we differ from others, and role identity focuses on the things that we do, group and social identities revolve around how we are similar to others. The easiest example is the social construction of gender. Being gendered as a male in society results in a person fulfilling masculine expectations like expressing more anger than sadness or fear. Similarly, we judge a woman as hostile or aggressive if she exerts too much anger or dominance while the same behavior from a male would often be rewarded. This has now been called into public attention thanks to the feminist movement, and been discussed in depth by social psychologists. This phenomena is explained well by symbolic interactionism’s Affect Control Theory which states that society attaches affective meanings to identities, and individuals perform behaviors to fit those expectations in social situations. I look forward to focusing on this theory in my doctoral studies and later applying it in my coaching.
Importantly, while I maintain that identity is the primary causal factor in determining a person’s motivation and behavior, the podcast also helped me understand the key role that biology plays in the phenomena.
The Role of Biology
Proponents of the Five Factor Theory (FFT) of personality have espoused that personality is genetically determined. For example, FFT claims that people become more agreeable, more conscientious, and less neurotic in early adulthood due to a natural biological process. Psychologists have recently challenged this theory by showing that this phenomenon is more likely due to cultural factors rather than biology or genetics. Those researchers speculated that this significant personality change happens when young adults take on professional identities, and data confirmed that this shift in personality happened earlier in cultures with earlier onset of adult role-responsibilities.
As Kaufman and Jarrett discuss, however, biology does play an important role in determining behavior. Traits like extroversion and neuroticism, it seems, boil down to a person’s predisposed inclinations for stimulation tolerance. This means that if a person is more sensitive to stimulation, they will naturally display behavior associated with neuroticism and introversion. Rather than connecting this to personality, I believe that this can be explained much more appropriately in terms of a person being “highly-sensitive,” or with the explanation of orchid vs dandelion children, which is also discussed on the podcast. Again, personality psychology is descriptive rather than explanatory, so it is a fallacy to say that a person is sensitive because they are introverted and neurotic, and far more accurate to say that some psychologists will label them as introverted and neurotic because they are sensitive.
While I wish they gave more recognition to the centrality of identity in motivation and behavior, Jarrett and Kaufman focus on the fact that we are highly malleable, which I wholeheartedly agree with. With some reflection and effort, we can consciously construct our identities. Unfortunately, most people are led to believe that they have naturally existing personalities, and that these patterns are out of their control. This leads to blind trust in things like Meyers Briggs and the enneagram, and reduces people’s ability to change. The personality measures become self-fulfilling prophecies! With all of this evidence that identity determines our motivation and behavior, it’s time to drop the personality charade and start acknowledging the deep impact that identity has on how we think, what we care about, who we fall in love with, and what we choose to dedicate our lives to.
For more insights on personality and identity, check out our previous blog on the topic. You can also read on our other blogs that cover topics like emotion, relationships, and communication. Don’t hesitate to reach out to me at Greg@adaptiveedgecoaching.com to begin a journey of personal transformation today.