the myth of a fixed personality

you can, in fact, and you do, in fact, change during life: and this is a good thing

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Does your personality remain largely unchanged after the early years of life? Are stuck with a lack of openness to experience (O); low levels of conscientiousness and extraversion (C: E); being too agreeable to the whims of others (A); and high levels of neuroticism (N)? These are the generally agreed upon Big 5 dimensions of personality, easily remembered as the acronym OCEAN.

The mix I've just described comes across as a recipe for someone who will have difficulties holding onto a job; unwilling to learn from others while going along to get along, and will have the feeling of hypervigilance and anxiety most of the time.

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

Not a pleasant state to always find yourself in, by any means. For this is a dimension of personality - enduring dispositions in your thoughts and behaviours (note, not necessarily permanent dispositions, however).

But are you stuck like this? Unhappy, and unable to change? Not necessarily…

Our future self: The stranger we are unable to imagine, and yet will come be

looking into nostalgia’s mirror: bittersweet, fond-ish, social reflection

below the line: method and data; change is possible…; implications for the clinic and policy; unexpected implications of misjudging our future selves; emotional maturation and resilience; cognitive evolution and adaptive planning; broader societal and individual consequences