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?