“Refuiting the idea of rigid personality types could make us all happier”
Simone Rotella
There is a meme in modern therapeutic culture saying that you should not try to change – you are perfectly imperfect and that good people will adapt to each of your idiosyncrases. Likewise, personality has traditionally been defined as a fairly stable collection of lines. Indeed, you might believe that you are hostage in the genetic hand that you have been treated at birth when it comes to things as how pleasant or conscientious. These ideas are absurd.
There are many evidence that our personalities are more fluid than we think, fueling the fascination for the profession of personality change to improve our lives. For example, a study in 2024 revealed that three months of digital coaching reliably increased features such as emotional stability and consciousness.
Other traits provide additional support for the fluidity of the personality. Most people will qualify exclusively as extroverts or introvert. But Carl Jung, who invented these terms, said that they were a spectrum and that there is no “pure” introvert or an extrovert. Some of us may be more likely to revel in the role of the artist of Chief Party, while others tend to prefer a quiet task of their environment, but these preferences are malleable. Who you are by a cold winter Wednesday is probably different from who you are by a sunny Saturday. If you are lying, where you are in your cycle, you can radically affect your personality.
Whatever your trends, obtaining sufficient social connection is crucial for your well-being. The display of extroverted features is linked to being better able to withstand the physical effects of stress, such as higher blood pressure and heart rate. The Harvard study of adult development, an 80 -year project that followed the lives of around 700 men in order to understand the fundamental components of a happy and healthy life, revealed that nothing is more important to this end than prosperous social relations.
Of course, many of those who prefer small groups and head-to-face conversations, or who need significant time alone to feel better, also have a robust social life. But in a loneliness crisis, these results make the growing popularity of the introverted label – and its potential use as a badge to allow people to lean on their less social – alarming side.
Before the Covid-19 pandemic, young people in the United States were already more likely than the older ones to define themselves as an introvert. The pandemic seems to have accelerated this trend, folding many personalities in a less social form: a study has shown falls in extraversion, as well as openness, aggressibility and consciousness, in American adults in 2021-2022 compared to the fore-201010. It’s not good. Globally, 1 in 6 people say they feel alone, a state -related state, cardiovascular disease and premature death. Again, rates are higher among young people.
Even if you are stooding up as a hardcore incident, kissing a more social inclination can be easier than you think. Indeed, the research of 2022 shows that it is the strength of someone’s identity as an incomplete, more than the way in which they mark on introversion features, which makes them uncomfortable when it is invited to act more outgoing. This indicates that a more loose handle on self -image can help generate a deliberate change.
Already very extroverted? Perhaps you would benefit from working to increase your capacity for reflection, a line often found in those who lean towards a quieter life. Likewise, improving other well -being features – such as good emotional regulation or becoming more open to new experiences – has proven to be several times possible.
Refusing the idea of rigid personality types could make us all happier. But first, you may have to accept a painful truth: maybe trying to change is not such a bad idea.
Claudia Canavan is the head of the characteristics to New scientist
