Does your personality influence what you do with your life and the decisions you make, or do life events and decisions influence your personality?
It’s now generally accepted that the environment plays a role in personality development, especially over the course of one’s formative years. But how? What factors steer an individual in one direction or another? How do life events, especially in early adulthood, shape an individual’s lasting personality?
In a previous post, we talked about how job satisfaction varies widely from one personality type to another. Some types overwhelmingly give their jobs high ratings, while others seem to dread every day in the salt mine. So what’s going on here? Why are some personality types so much more satisfied on the job?
Why do you vote the way you do? Is it because of a candidate’s platform or because he or she made a good first impression on you? How do you evaluate an unknown candidate? Well, you may just be surprised by the answer.
Who You Vote for Is a Lot about You
With the mid-term elections behind us and the presidential elections less than two years away, voting behaviors are a hot topic. So, what makes people vote the way they do?
It’s the thing we all want to know: What is the key to happiness? How can we find more enjoyment in life? The absolute glut of articles offering the inside secret to enduring happiness indicates this is something a lot of people wish they knew more about.
Are people happy because they’re extraverts, or are they extraverts because they’re happy?
Decades’ worth of research has shown that some people tend to enjoy their lives just a little bit more, experiencing higher highs and greater levels of momentary happiness than others. They’re called extraverts. In one study done by Wido G. M. Oerlemans and Arnold B. Bakker, they note:
“One of the most robust findings in personality research is that extraverts are happier than introverts.”1
Recent research on extraversion and what it really means to be an Extravert has us questioning our notions of what the “People People” are really all about.
Most of us think of Extraverts as people who are noticeably friendly, outgoing and chatty. When psychologists talk about extraversion in the context of the Big Five model of personality, they're referring to a collection of traits encompassing sociability, processing externally (i.e. thinking out loud) and talkativeness.
As the New Year approaches and we head into resolution season, you may be thinking about changes you want to make in your life. You may be considereding simple behavioral changes, like getting up early and going to the gym, spending less time on Facebook, or being more patient with your kids. Or maybe you're aiming higher. Maybe you'd actually like to change fundamental aspects of who you are. Have you ever wished you were more extroverted, less impulsive, or less prone to depression or anxiety?
What do your posts on Facebook say about you? Can experts really predict your personality traits simply from looking at your social media accounts?
Strangely, the answer is yes. While it all feels pretty random, what you like and what you post says more about you than you think. Social media engagement isn’t just an expression of your personal interests or your idealized self; it’s a window into your personality.
Do cheaters really prosper? Does the nice guy always finish last?
Recently, a few provocative studies have suggested that these old tropes are true. It seems that those very people we avoid in our personal lives—the shameless self-promoters, the manipulators, the endlessly self-absorbed—are actually rising to the top in the business world. These new studies examine anti-social personality traits (particularly narcissism) in relation to workplace outcomes, and suggest that the so-called "dark traits" can possibly mean a bright future in business.
THE FINE PRINT:
Myers-Briggs® and MBTI® are registered trademarks of the MBTI Trust, Inc., which has no affiliation with this site. Truity offers a free personality test based on Myers and Briggs' types, but does not offer the official MBTI® assessment. For more information on the Myers Briggs Type Indicator® assessment, please go here.
The Five Love Languages® is a registered trademark of The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, which has no affiliation with this site. You can find more information about the five love languages here.
