The equation of human personality

[Jalopy]

Human personality is such a vague term, nobody really understands it. In my opinion, personality is a coaliscion of preprogrammed responses to external stimuli. 

 

 

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by Jalopy

[Peterkin]

IOW - there is no such thing as a personality. However, in order for your proposition

20 minutes ago, Jalopy said:

personality is a coaliscion of preprogrammed responses to external stimuli

to be true, there had to be something internal , some entity or mechanism, which was able and willing to respond to external stimuli. If that was so, such an entity or machine might equally well be able and willing to initiate action and elicit a response from the environment. And, of course, there remains the question of who or what did the preprogramming.

You might be closest to this school of thought  https://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html

Quote

Behaviorism is only concerned with observable stimulus-response behaviors, as they can be studied in a systematic and observable manner.

 

Edited March 3, 2022 by Peterkin

[Jalopy]

6 minutes ago, Peterkin said:

However, in order for your proposition to be true, there had to be something internal , some entity or mechanism, which was able and willing to respond to external stimuli.

 

example, a jew in israel vs a jew in germany in 1945. jew 1 would a happy person, jew 2 would be a sad person. difference: preprogrammed responses to stimuli such as racism and concentration camps.

Edited March 3, 2022 by Jalopy

[Peterkin]

Example: you under an avalanche; you at at ice-cream bar. Scared person and greedy person.

Of course people respond to their environment, other people and whatever happen to them. How is that a reflection on personality or the meaning of personality or the lack of a personality?

BTW, I wouldn't be quite so quick to pronounce on what "nobody understands". I don't begin to scratch a sliver of the surface of all the things all those other people understand. I have only a tentative grasp on what I myself understand.

[Phi for All]

4 hours ago, Jalopy said:

Human personality is such a vague term, nobody really understands it.

Insisting on the use of vague terms is probably why you don't understand it, but that doesn't mean NOBODY really understands it. The study has been broken down to remove any vagueness. All you need to do is pick your area (cognition? behaviors? emotional patterns?) and pick an approach to drill down for better information. No need to make up words like "coaliscion", or come up with your own ideas . All you have to do is study what's been discovered already, and ask questions about the parts you don't understand. This type of science is more fact-based, and less opinion-related.

[Jalopy]

4 hours ago, Peterkin said:

Example: you under an avalanche; you at at ice-cream bar. Scared person and greedy person.

Of course people respond to their environment, other people and whatever happen to them. How is that a reflection on personality or the meaning of personality or the lack of a personality?

BTW, I wouldn't be quite so quick to pronounce on what "nobody understands". I don't begin to scratch a sliver of the surface of all the things all those other people understand. I have only a tentative grasp on what I myself understand.

if i lived in an ice cream bar or i lived in a avalanche, my personality would be cold, or greedy. thats different than my reaction would be cold or greedy

[Peterkin]

1 minute ago, Jalopy said:

if i lived in an ice cream bar or i lived in a avalanche, my personality would be cold, or greedy

No, it wouldn't. Cold is a sensation, not a personality type. Greed is a trait, which part of a personality. 

Nobody lives very long in either place. Just as events in the rest of world tend not to be stable and permanent. To each kind of external event, people react in different ways, according to their personality. To each kind of single stimulus, people respond differently.

OK. So tell us about the analyst or architect or whoever does this pre-programming, so that people are able to respond to stimuli.

[Phi for All]

4 hours ago, Jalopy said:

example, a jew in israel vs a jew in germany in 1945. jew 1 would a happy person, jew 2 would be a sad person.

This seems to suggest all Jews in Israel are happy people. Is this what you meant?

[Jalopy]

17 minutes ago, Peterkin said:

No, it wouldn't. Cold is a sensation, not a personality type. Greed is a trait, which part of a personality. 

Nobody lives very long in either place. Just as events in the rest of world tend not to be stable and permanent. To each kind of external event, people react in different ways, according to their personality. To each kind of single stimulus, people respond differently.

OK. So tell us about the analyst or architect or whoever does this pre-programming, so that people are able to respond to stimuli.

on principle, ecosystems are made up of repetitive stimuli. lifestyle, perhaps, is a good word to describe it.

the lifestyle of a fashion model in NYC versus the lifestyle of a IT worker in china. each day, the IT worker is exposed to chinese type stimuli, the language, the work he does, the schedule, etc. These are repeated day in and day out until same becomes the lifestyle of the IT worker. The NY fashion model has a different lifestyle, that also grows on her, shaping her personality differently than the IT worker. 

Lifestyles create personalities by virtue of repetitive stimuli of social, psychological, and physical nature.

12 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

This seems to suggest all Jews in Israel are happy people. Is this what you meant?

Perhaps not lol. they are very crotchety, always fighting over the gaza strip

Edited March 3, 2022 by Jalopy

[Peterkin]

4 hours ago, Jalopy said:

chinese type stimuli,

really?  I've met Chinese people of quite different temperaments, proclivities, tastes and habits. 

Even New Yorkers are not all similar. I don't know any fashion models.

4 hours ago, Jalopy said:

on principle, ecosystems are made up of repetitive stimuli.

I just don't see eco-systems can exist in that kind of spatial greyscale, or who provides the stimuli and the programming. 

nope. Just doesn't work for me. Sorry.

[joigus]

If there are such things as personality disorders, and personality disorders there are, there must perforce be something we can call a personality, that can ultimately be attached to patterns of behaviour.

I would suppose we speak of personality disorders when the patterns of behaviour of a person make them dangerous to themselves and/or others, or unfit to lead a normal reproductive life, socially harmonious life, etc.

And I would suppose we speak of somebody's personality as such when patterns of behaviour --either considered healthy or pathological-- have enough differences among them that attaching a personality to a particular individual makes some empirical sense.

Different aspects of personality are being addressed with several degrees of success by neuroscience, with considerable rate of ongoing success, I would say.

But personality is extremely complicated. Genetics-hardwired responses, environment-development, environment-induced behaviour imprinting ulterior constraints on molecular mechanisms, etc. It's hugely complicated. What you won't find is a clear-cut definition of personality, IMO. Personality has emergence written all over it.

Edited April 1, 2022 by joigus
emphasis added

[Donjlv]

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So tell us about the analyst or architect or whoever does this pre-programming, so that people are able to respond to stimuli.

If I am not mistaken, that entity or entities, should it even exist in a form that can be remotely comprehensible to us, has been around a good, long while; and, as a "scientific being" itself, it most likely does not take too kindly to us lower life forms who would question its motives or methods. 

That said, the concept of "responding to stimuli," is often a chicken or egg problem. And, as we humans will often take many liberties with such things, and never seem too shy to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory - so it is with modern medicine, wherein, we often equate the concept of being permitted to apply names and labels to people and things, with the need to do so. And thus, in an effort to be relevant, we create entire dictionaries of terminologies that apply to "personalities," and the parameters which might characterize or influence them - all the while, oblivious to the fact that, though we are simply using our little labels to sound erudite in our communications - someone else is using them to do things like deny someone health insurance coverage, refusing them a job, or otherwise spreading misleading information, and so forth. 

For the above sorts of reasons alone, as well as others, one might wish to consider the possibility that "personality" may be one of those things that, while we can spend an eternity attempting to understand it - the case may be that our energy is far better spent in simply noticing our own "p word," and then enjoying it as much as possible, absent any additional classification.....