A personality in the making
Are traits like sociability and conscientiousness fixed through life? Experts used to think so but, as psychologist Meg Arroll discovers, new research shows we are more adaptable than we previously thought
psychology
ILLUSTRATION: JESSICA DURRANT/GETTY IMAGES
A bout a million years ago, when I was a psychology undergrad, I remember sitting in a module called ‘Personality and Individual differences’, taught by one of the best lecturers I’ve ever had. In this class, we were introduced to personality theory – the crux of which was the notion that our personalities are relatively fixed throughout life. While listening to the age-old nature-nurture debate, I wondered if I really was the same painfully shy, skinny scrap of a thing I had been as a child. I recall thinking that yes, it does seem plausible that our personality traits are an innate part of us, yet I didn’t feel like that same frizzy-haired girl whose goose flustered and flapped away if anyone said ‘boo’. If my personality was fixed, I contemplated, how had I transformed somehow into the bold, roguish young woman, who was now shaking with choked laughter in a lecture hall with my best mate?