isn’t personality not very mutable past the age of around 7? At least without psychedelics or brain damage or something?
Only if you define “personality” as “whatever doesn’t change past the age of around 7″. ;-)
The complexity comes from the fact that we can’t really measure “personality”, only observed behavior (from the outside) or feelings/perceptions/preferences (from the inside).
Given that there are lots of things that can influence all of those things on a day to day basis, it’s kind of hard to make a distinction between what might be considered “innate”.
This is further complicated by the fact that human beings are innately disposed to think of people as having innate personality characteristics, when in fact there is little reason to assume that human beings’ behavior is so simply defined, or so independent of social/environmental cues, incentives, whether someone’s eaten recently, etc.
Only if you define “personality” as “whatever doesn’t change past the age of around 7″. ;-)
The complexity comes from the fact that we can’t really measure “personality”, only observed behavior (from the outside) or feelings/perceptions/preferences (from the inside).
Given that there are lots of things that can influence all of those things on a day to day basis, it’s kind of hard to make a distinction between what might be considered “innate”.
This is further complicated by the fact that human beings are innately disposed to think of people as having innate personality characteristics, when in fact there is little reason to assume that human beings’ behavior is so simply defined, or so independent of social/environmental cues, incentives, whether someone’s eaten recently, etc.