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Why You Are Who You Are: Investigations Into Human Personality
To understand the roots of personality is to understand motivations and influences that shape behavior, which in turn reflect how you deal with the opportunities and challenges of everyday life. That's the focus of these exciting 24 lectures, in which you examine the differences in people's personalities, where these differences come from, and how they shape our lives.
Drawing on information gleaned from psychology, neuroscience, and genetics, Professor Leary opens the door to understanding how personality works and why. Throughout his illuminating lectures, five important personality traits come into focus, traits that form the foundation of how psychologists approach the topic of personality: extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness.
Combining psychology with neuroscience and behavioral genetics, this exploration will open your eyes to the myriad ways our traits, motives, emotions, beliefs, and values are shaped by things like our genes, environment, experiences, and evolutionary history. Why is it so hard to change our behavior? Why do people develop different values and morals? Does personality change as we age? Is personality passed down through genes?
Designed as a fascinating, accessible scientific inquiry, these lectures will have you thinking about personality in a way that enriches your understanding of the complex psychological processes that make you who you are.
Drawing on information gleaned from psychology, neuroscience, and genetics, Professor Leary opens the door to understanding how personality works and why. Throughout his illuminating lectures, five important personality traits come into focus, traits that form the foundation of how psychologists approach the topic of personality: extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness.
Combining psychology with neuroscience and behavioral genetics, this exploration will open your eyes to the myriad ways our traits, motives, emotions, beliefs, and values are shaped by things like our genes, environment, experiences, and evolutionary history. Why is it so hard to change our behavior? Why do people develop different values and morals? Does personality change as we age? Is personality passed down through genes?
Designed as a fascinating, accessible scientific inquiry, these lectures will have you thinking about personality in a way that enriches your understanding of the complex psychological processes that make you who you are.
13 pages, Audible Audio
First published January 1, 2017
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November 23, 2018
These twenty-four lectures provide a thorough review of psychology for those of us who have not studied the subject in detail. Hopefully it has equipped me to be a better conversationalist when I'm talking to people who throw around "terms" used in the field. For example I've heard people say, "He manifests negative affect." Well, now I sort have an idea of what they're talking about.
Another bit of trivia I learned is that Sigmund Freud wasn't a psychologist. He was a neurologist. The author of these lectures seemed pleased to be able to disown Freud from his field of study.
You can see a description and list of lecture titles at this LINK.
As I went through the lectures, I made note of the following items which I found of special interest. I have included them below. They don't necessarily provide a summary or description of the lecture contents. They're simply those factoids that I thought of interest.
Items of interest:
Another bit of trivia I learned is that Sigmund Freud wasn't a psychologist. He was a neurologist. The author of these lectures seemed pleased to be able to disown Freud from his field of study.
You can see a description and list of lecture titles at this LINK.
As I went through the lectures, I made note of the following items which I found of special interest. I have included them below. They don't necessarily provide a summary or description of the lecture contents. They're simply those factoids that I thought of interest.
Items of interest:
In a study that tested how impulsivity and the quality of neighborhoods are related to delinquent behavior, researchers found that impulsivity predicted delinquency as expected, but only for boys who lived in poor neighborhoods. In other words, being in a poor neighborhood was related to higher delinquency only for boys who were already impulsive; nonimpulsive boys in poor neighborhoods were no more likely to be juvenile offenders
When researchers have studied the personalities of dogs and of chimpanzees, they find the same big five traits, plus a sixth trait that reflects how dominant they are.
About 40% of the variability that we see in how achievement- oriented different people are has some sort of genetic basis.
One experimental study measured people’s happiness and then injected them with the cold virus. The results showed that happier people were less likely to come down with a cold. And if they did get sick, happier people tended to have less severe symptoms and were sick for fewer days than unhappy people.
Somewhere between 30% and 50% of the variability in happiness across people is due to people’s personality characteristics rather than to the objective quality of their lives.
Research shows that there’s no relationship between affect intensity and happiness overall—probably because happiness reflects the proportion of positive and negative emotions that a person experiences over time. Happy people experience a higher ratio of positive to negative emotions than unhappy people do.
30% to 40% of the variability that we observe in virtuous feelings and ethical behaviors is related to stable aspects of personality
People who identify as liberal versus conservative tend to use the 5 moral foundations differently. In every country that’s been studied, liberals primarily use only 2 of the foundations when they make moral judgments: the one that emphasizes caring for other people and avoiding harm and the one that involves the importance of fairness. Conservatives, on the other hand, tend to endorse and use all 5 foundations—not only care and fairness, but also group loyalty, respect for authority and tradition, and physical and spiritual purity. So, people on the right sometimes judge things as wrong that people on the left don’t even see as moral issues.
Research shows that religious people and conservatives are no more intellectually arrogant on average than atheists and liberals are.
People who think that the world is just are more likely to derogate and blame people for their personal misfortunes. For example, people who score higher in the belief in a just world are more likely to think that poor people are responsible for their plight and that victims of crimes probably did something to cause it or at least weren’t careful enough.
People who score higher in authoritarianism tend to populate the most fundamentalist segments of every religion.
Research has shown that people with different identity orientations give different reasons for being physically active. Having a predominately personal identity orientation is associated with reasons such as improving one’s health and physical condition, feeling better physically, and self-satisfaction. But people with a predominant social identity orientation said they exercised to interact with other people and to look better.
The ability to infer other people’s emotions is more highly heritable than the ability to infer what other people are thinking.
Women are, on average, 2.3 years younger than their male partner.(in USA)
Studies of men who are in prison show that prisoners with higher testosterone are more likely to have been incarcerated for violent crimes, such as murder and assault, whereas those with lower levels of testosterone are likely to be in prison for nonviolent crimes.
Amounts of heritability:• 40% to 60%—Five basic dimensions of personalityThe most individualist countries tend to be the most Westernized; the United States, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and the Netherlands top the list.
• 50%—Intelligence
• 87%—height
• 43%—identifying as politically liberal or conservative
• 45%—attitude toward organized religion
• 36%—attitudes about exercise
• 37%—attitude toward reading
It’s common for people from Western cultures to assume that the most collectivist cultures are countries in East Asia, such as Japan, but in fact, the most collectivist countries are places such as Ecuador, Peru, Columbia, and Venezuela. Pakistan is also on that list.
Japan actually falls in the middle of the individualist- collectivist continuum, along with countries such as Spain, India, Israel, and Austria. They’re the most balanced between individualism and collectivism.
One study found that self-control was the only personality variable among 32 variables studied that significantly predicted grade point average among college students.
The lecturer told listeners not to become worried if they occasionally manifest symptoms of a "personality Disorder." Estimates are that, in any given year, around 10% of adults would qualify for a diagnosis of at least one of the 10 personality disorders. And many more people would show the general disordered pattern of behavior, but it wouldn’t create enough of a problem for their lives for it to meet the diagnostic criteria. The symptoms need to be sufficiently persistent to damage social relationships to meet diagnostic criteria.
A study conducted in 2015 showed that narcissistic people tend to have parents who overvalued them—who thought they were unusually special— which implies that children seem to acquire narcissism, at least in part, by internalizing their parents’ inflated views of them.
The study also showed that parental warmth, not parental overvaluation, seemed to lead to greater self-esteem in the child, supporting the idea that narcissism is different than just having high self-esteem.
Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder is one of the most prevalent personality disorders in the United States, with an estimated prevalence of about 2.4% of the general population.
Personality disorders appear to be more heritable than most normal personality characteristics. About 50% to 80% of the variability that we see in these disorders seems to be genetic.
Five Criteria of Psychological Adjustment1. a lack of genuine psychopathology or mental illnessA meta-analysis of more than 100 studies showed that flexibility was related to psychological adjustment, well-being, and mental health.
2. the ability to get along with other people and maintain some supportive close relationships
3. the ability to pursue and achieve one’s goals
4. the ability to cope with problems that arise in life
5. a sense of subjective well-being.
Well-Adjusted Personality Types—studies repeatedly reveal 3 qualitatively different types of people, and these 3 basic types of people differ mostly in terms of their psychological adjustment. (1) resilient type, (2) overcontrolled personality type, (3) undercontrolled personality.
Addressing psychological adjustment by classifying everybody into one of 3 personality types is an oversimplification that misses nuances and differences among people within each of these types. But it does reveal a few things about personality and adjustment:— 1. In general, there is only one basic way to be well adjusted but 2 basic ways in which to be poorly adjusted. Fundamentally, the difference between being well adjusted and poorly adjusted lies in how high people are in neuroticism and how well they get along with other people.Extreme childhood trauma can affect well-being, but as long as parents or other adults provide the needed emotional support and rational guidance, a certain amount of stress, struggle, and adversity in childhood actually promotes better long-term adjustment than if the child has no negative experiences.
— 2. The specific characteristics that create the resilient, overcontrolled, and undercontrolled personality types are correlated in nonrandom ways that produce these patterns. In other words, the various characteristics that create each of these 3 types of people tend to go together. People who have one of the characteristics in a profile also tend to have the others.
—3. As we deal with problems in ourselves and in other people,it may be helpful to think about the degree to which those problems reflect the overcontrolled profile versus the undercontrolled profile. Looking beneath the behavioral and emotional manifestations of adjustment problems allows us to think about the psychological characteristics and processes that undermine adjustment and lower well-being in any particular case.
January 22, 2020
1st Lecture Series for 2020.
An excellent series of talks covering current knowledge about the psychology of personality.
4-stars.
An excellent series of talks covering current knowledge about the psychology of personality.
4-stars.
January 9, 2020
This is one of The Great Courses Series available on Audible.
It was easy to understand, presented in an intelligent manner and the presenter, Mark R. Leary of Duke University has a great lecture style.
I learned a great deal about normal, neurotypical personalities. As far as neurodiverse (spectrum) personalities, such as mine and many in my family, I have plenty of info with which to extrapolate.
It was easy to understand, presented in an intelligent manner and the presenter, Mark R. Leary of Duke University has a great lecture style.
I learned a great deal about normal, neurotypical personalities. As far as neurodiverse (spectrum) personalities, such as mine and many in my family, I have plenty of info with which to extrapolate.
March 26, 2024
Why You Are Who You Are was a decent offering from The Great Courses.
Professor Mark Leary is Garonzik Family Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, where he heads the program in Social Psychology and is faculty director of the Duke Interdisciplinary Initiative in Social Psychology.
Mark R. Leary:
The course is my second from the professor, after his 2013 course: Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior, which I also enjoyed. I took this course over a few weeks while on the cardio machines at my gym, so unfortunately I don't have any quotes or notes from the course, like my reviews typically contain...
He sets the course off on a decent footing by talking about what personality is, and isn't. Prof Leary has a decent presentation style, for the most part, although I did find some of the lectures a bit slow and repetitive.
The formatting of the course is fairly typical for a series from The Great Courses. This one is 24 lectures, each ~30 mins long.
The lectures are:
1 What Is Personality?
2 Key Traits: Extraversion and Neuroticism
3 Are You Agreeable? Conscientious? Open?
4 Basic Motives Underlying Behavior
5 Intrapersonal Motives
6 Positive and Negative Emotionality
7 Differences in Emotional Experiences
8 Values and Moral Character
9 Traits That Shape How You Think
10 Beliefs about the World and Other People
11 Beliefs about Yourself
12 Personality and Social Relationships
13 Consistency and Stability of Personality
14 Evolution and Human Nature
15 Personality and the Brain
16 Genetic Influences on Personality
17 Learning to Be Who You Are
18 How Culture Influences Personality
19 Nonconscious Aspects of Personality
20 Personality and Self-Control
21 When Personalities Become Toxic
22 Avoidance, Paranoia, and Other Disorders
23 The Enigma of Being Yourself
24 The Well-Adjusted Personality
********************
I would recommend this course to anyone reading the review. It's not one of their best courses, but a ton of valuable info was still presented.
Overall, the prof did a pretty decent job putting it together.
3.5 stars.
Professor Mark Leary is Garonzik Family Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, where he heads the program in Social Psychology and is faculty director of the Duke Interdisciplinary Initiative in Social Psychology.
Mark R. Leary:
The course is my second from the professor, after his 2013 course: Understanding the Mysteries of Human Behavior, which I also enjoyed. I took this course over a few weeks while on the cardio machines at my gym, so unfortunately I don't have any quotes or notes from the course, like my reviews typically contain...
He sets the course off on a decent footing by talking about what personality is, and isn't. Prof Leary has a decent presentation style, for the most part, although I did find some of the lectures a bit slow and repetitive.
The formatting of the course is fairly typical for a series from The Great Courses. This one is 24 lectures, each ~30 mins long.
The lectures are:
1 What Is Personality?
2 Key Traits: Extraversion and Neuroticism
3 Are You Agreeable? Conscientious? Open?
4 Basic Motives Underlying Behavior
5 Intrapersonal Motives
6 Positive and Negative Emotionality
7 Differences in Emotional Experiences
8 Values and Moral Character
9 Traits That Shape How You Think
10 Beliefs about the World and Other People
11 Beliefs about Yourself
12 Personality and Social Relationships
13 Consistency and Stability of Personality
14 Evolution and Human Nature
15 Personality and the Brain
16 Genetic Influences on Personality
17 Learning to Be Who You Are
18 How Culture Influences Personality
19 Nonconscious Aspects of Personality
20 Personality and Self-Control
21 When Personalities Become Toxic
22 Avoidance, Paranoia, and Other Disorders
23 The Enigma of Being Yourself
24 The Well-Adjusted Personality
********************
I would recommend this course to anyone reading the review. It's not one of their best courses, but a ton of valuable info was still presented.
Overall, the prof did a pretty decent job putting it together.
3.5 stars.
October 26, 2019
As a species we are very judgemental of each other and for the traits that we portray in our behaviour. What listening to this book made me realise is that we’re all given a cocktail of traits and usually find our behaviour is determined within the constraints of these, much to our own frustrations. It is perhaps wrong of us to admonish a person for the way they behave when they do so from the position of their own personality traits; people who are grumpy quite frequently or are low in conscientiousness are usually so because of how they are, not because they choose to be. As these were lectures I found them sufficiently stimulating and enjoyed how each one broke down the complexity of personality. These lectures refer to the theory of the Big 5 personality traits of Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism and explain how these continuum of traits explain who we are and how we respond in certain situations. It also explains why we are all so very different as the probability of a person having the exact combination of traits as you is minuscule. As I listened I found myself becoming more accepting of my own personality and realised that being frustrated that I behave in ways that are not socially desirable is a product of my personality traits and getting mad at myself is not helping; sometimes you just need to accept the way you are and stop being offended by people who judge you for it. I found out a lot about myself such as my off the scale openness is the reason I am so curious and driven to find knowledge in anything I can get my hands on. My off the scale conscientiousness is why I enjoy my work so much. My low extraversion is why I rarely think to contact people to hang out and socialise and instead prefer to stay in and read a book or do my own thing. My low agreeableness is why I question authority, hate small talk and refuse to obey social norms such as smiling at things I don’t find amusing or mirroring body language. It’s a funny feeling thinking that the way you behave is determined more by these traits than your own free will.
April 21, 2019
This is valuable stuff.
When I first started this lecture series, I was afraid it was just going to be a rehash of other “books” I had read over the years and some of it was but a lot of it was quite interesting and useful. Especially the later lecture about your authentic selves. I thought there was lots of good and interesting stuff there.
I think if you want to gain some insights and what makes other people tick, but also in what makes you tick, this is a good place to start.
When I first started this lecture series, I was afraid it was just going to be a rehash of other “books” I had read over the years and some of it was but a lot of it was quite interesting and useful. Especially the later lecture about your authentic selves. I thought there was lots of good and interesting stuff there.
I think if you want to gain some insights and what makes other people tick, but also in what makes you tick, this is a good place to start.
December 24, 2018
I started this unsure about how much I would get out of it. But, crikey, it was flipping brilliant.
Until now I've been familiar with a couple personality coategorising systems, but these lectures give a far more nuanced view. Starting with the 'big five': extroversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness, the lectures use this as a foundation to explore ideas about self-control, authenticity, personality disorder, and even cultural identities.
There was so much content in these lectures that I definitely want to listen to it all again... just need the time to do it.
Until now I've been familiar with a couple personality coategorising systems, but these lectures give a far more nuanced view. Starting with the 'big five': extroversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness and openness, the lectures use this as a foundation to explore ideas about self-control, authenticity, personality disorder, and even cultural identities.
There was so much content in these lectures that I definitely want to listen to it all again... just need the time to do it.
September 8, 2018
I want to write a longer piece, but for now: This is an impressive piece of work - a concise summary of the fundamentals of functioning of human mind, signposted specially around Personality. Ideally recommend for readers keen on getting to know more on Human Personality , but also is a great compilation of important information about Human Mind for rereading/ refreshing.
December 13, 2024
I found the course interesting. I think the information will help me be more empathetic to people in general, might help me be a better coach, and maybe even help me in becoming a better person.
September 24, 2021
Basic lesson attained: stop projecting your personality onto others.
April 11, 2023
Fantastic book! So many great inputs and overviews about several theories about the human mind. In addition there is a great book in the audible version!
January 1, 2025
Fascinating. I was completely engaged from beginning to end of this lecture series on the academic perspective of personality. If you are at all interested in MBTI, the enneagram, astrology, or any of the other personality tools used in personal development, this is a wonderful resource. Understanding the state of current scholarship was not something I knew I wanted until I started and then I couldn't get enough. I will enjoy reflecting on and incorporating this information into my own practices and teachings.
April 21, 2019
Useful overview, starting with the Big 5 and working through a range of traits and psychology disorders. Does give the impression that psychology is a lot of bits and pieces, rather than a set of theories about human personalities. There seem to be almost no theories, but just a series of statistically identified traits.
May 9, 2020
Very informative course on the fundamentals of personalities and it’s different traits. My retention after the first listening is relatively Low (like most audio-reads), but I intend to come back to the course and it’s accompanying reading guide for a refresher. One question that I have frequently wondered about is addressed expansively in the course - what constitutes authenticity. I can’t say it answered my question to satisfaction but it gave me many clues to build my own views on it, and that’s even better.
I want to write down lecture summaries now.
I want to write down lecture summaries now.
January 13, 2019
Very interesting book containing so much information that I feel I should reread in order to put it all together.
August 14, 2019
Thought provoking, entertaining and all around so interesting. A great introduction to psychology.
January 29, 2021
Kind of too encyclopedic at times, and kind of all over the place too (many chapters weren't about personality per se), but an interesting listen.
April 30, 2022
Great book about personality traits, how genes and our experiences mold our characters. Author discusses many aspects and angles of the topic and makes the reader question their understanding of why people act as they do and question how free will and accountability of our actions should be addresed.
May 30, 2022
Satisfying, insightful, expertly written and well-researched.
January 17, 2021
The only Great Courses series I’ve disliked. Should be titled “Who You Are”—the “Why” is mostly tacked on as an afterthought. Most of the lectures are focused on dry comparisons between different personality traits rather than discussion of how those traits develop. The later lectures finally addressed some personality development, but rarely went in depth.
Lots of generalizing statements such as “optimistic people are more happy!” without analyzing any external factors or reasons why people might be more optimistic or pessimistic. The lectures are often repetitive and barely scratch the surface of more interesting topics. I’d love to see a lecture series that actually addresses the development of personality, and how we’re affected by life experiences rather than looking at single traits in isolation.
Lots of generalizing statements such as “optimistic people are more happy!” without analyzing any external factors or reasons why people might be more optimistic or pessimistic. The lectures are often repetitive and barely scratch the surface of more interesting topics. I’d love to see a lecture series that actually addresses the development of personality, and how we’re affected by life experiences rather than looking at single traits in isolation.
December 31, 2018
This was a very good introductory course on behavioral psychology, but man, does it make you feel bad about yourself. Everybody naturally starts comparing themselves to what is being discussed, and you'll start to think how weird and maladjusted you are, so you have to keep reminding yourself that you likely fall in the middle with everyone else, and it's all okay. If you keep that in mind, you'll learn a lot! It can really help to understand why other people do things that seem weird and illogical to you, and why you work better with some people than others. It was very well organized and you never feel like it's too much or too little information.
October 29, 2019
Great set of lectures on personality of what makes everyone unique. It made me think a lot about what I think about and why I think it. Why do I still remember an embarrassing moment from the 3rd grade? Why do people I know care so much about national politics and lose sleep over it, when I almost couldn't care less?
This book demystifies some of those things, and shed light on aspects of our behavior and personalities that I never thought about before. Sort of like a series of lectures teaching fish about the water they swim in. Great read.
This book demystifies some of those things, and shed light on aspects of our behavior and personalities that I never thought about before. Sort of like a series of lectures teaching fish about the water they swim in. Great read.
April 30, 2019
I didn't take much away from these lectures. They are interesting and try to separate nurture from nature, but I don't recall any epiphanies. A lot of traits are inherited. Leary works very hard to draw lines between those traits that have genetic sources and those that do not. Needless to say, most traits are inherited. He mentions Freud. That's about all I remember and I finished the lectures less than two weeks ago.
October 16, 2022
Highly recommend everyone read this book if you are at all curious about psychology and/or personality.
It gave me some great insight that will help guide me in all relationships in my life from business to romantic... Can already see how this could have helped me save a lot of wasted time, energy, and money.
It gave me some great insight that will help guide me in all relationships in my life from business to romantic... Can already see how this could have helped me save a lot of wasted time, energy, and money.
September 13, 2018
Started with a good introduction to the Big 5, and to the sixth point, the honesty humility factor. I got lost in the second half of the book
February 9, 2019
A strong start. Lost me in the second half.
December 5, 2020
Really enjoyed this! I would say it is closer to the 4.5 range, however not quite a 5/5 but still very, very good.
This is a wonderful introduction into personality psychology and the studies of emotions, behaviors, so on and so forth. This material is full of labels, but I feel like it works and is appropriate in the end. What I mean by 'labels'...
- "The top 5 most important character traits"
- "The top 10 values that are universal in all cultures"
- "The top 5 moral judgements"
- "The top 5 common virtues"
- ... you get the point.
This delivery method didn't bother me, I suppose it might for others. I think this is just the way behavior science functions and the way the research is delivered over all the years of studies.
I would highly recommend this Great Course for anyone who is interested in psychology, wants to learn more about emotions, reactions, and just people in general when it comes to emotions and reactions/personalities.
The biggest takeaway of this book, which for most will come to no surprise and is already known (this just throws it in your face) = =
This is a wonderful introduction into personality psychology and the studies of emotions, behaviors, so on and so forth. This material is full of labels, but I feel like it works and is appropriate in the end. What I mean by 'labels'...
- "The top 5 most important character traits"
- "The top 10 values that are universal in all cultures"
- "The top 5 moral judgements"
- "The top 5 common virtues"
- ... you get the point.
This delivery method didn't bother me, I suppose it might for others. I think this is just the way behavior science functions and the way the research is delivered over all the years of studies.
I would highly recommend this Great Course for anyone who is interested in psychology, wants to learn more about emotions, reactions, and just people in general when it comes to emotions and reactions/personalities.
The biggest takeaway of this book, which for most will come to no surprise and is already known (this just throws it in your face) = =
July 10, 2019
Many of us want to understand personality, our own and other people's better, and in this Great Courses set of lectures, Mark Leary presents the current state of knowledge in psychology, neuroscience, and genetics, as it applies to human personality, how it develops, how it affects our choices and our relationships with others, and how much we can affect our own personalities so that we can improve those things if we're not satisfied currently.
This isn't a self-help book. It's not a handbook to fixing yourself. It's intended to expand your knowledge and understanding, and I found that it does that.
He covers the origins of the study of personality, the broadly agreed basics of personality, what's genetic, what's the result of life experience (most features of individual personality are affected by both), and how we've learned these things.
It's really fascinating how much of ordinary personality features are in fact highly heritable. At the same time, very few things are entirely determined by genetics.
He also discusses personality disorders, which have a large heritability component, but are also probably genetically complex. That is, they're not just one gene. They're likely to be a complex set of genes, creating an increased risk of developing a particular personality disorder.
Leary is clear about when he's talking about broadly accepted scientific principles, and when he's expressing his own opinion or sharing his own opinion or scientific ideas that are still speculative. He's a very good, lively, interesting speaker, and I very much enjoyed listening to him.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
This isn't a self-help book. It's not a handbook to fixing yourself. It's intended to expand your knowledge and understanding, and I found that it does that.
He covers the origins of the study of personality, the broadly agreed basics of personality, what's genetic, what's the result of life experience (most features of individual personality are affected by both), and how we've learned these things.
It's really fascinating how much of ordinary personality features are in fact highly heritable. At the same time, very few things are entirely determined by genetics.
He also discusses personality disorders, which have a large heritability component, but are also probably genetically complex. That is, they're not just one gene. They're likely to be a complex set of genes, creating an increased risk of developing a particular personality disorder.
Leary is clear about when he's talking about broadly accepted scientific principles, and when he's expressing his own opinion or sharing his own opinion or scientific ideas that are still speculative. He's a very good, lively, interesting speaker, and I very much enjoyed listening to him.
Recommended.
I bought this audiobook.
February 17, 2025
I disagree with the example in lecture 8 about the "scary" homeless person in need of help.
The claim is that someone who wouldn't help is because they value security more than benevolence. However, the truth is that they wouldn't help because they are prejudiced against homeless people.
Through claiming it is about security they are showing that their prejudice is them thinking all homeless people they could help but don't are violent and a threat to their security, especially if they are "scary looking".
There's nothing wrong with that belief, but don't lie about it to make yourself feel better and maintain your self image that you're a good person who usually helps people in need except when ____.
The end of lecture 10, about authoritarian personality, is BS. There are just as many left-wing/liberal authoritarians as there are right-wing/conservative.
When you rig the definitions and criteria to mostly include attributes of right-wing people, such as "traditional" beliefs and values, then of course it correlates that way.
It's like making the criteria to be defined as an athlete to be a list of attributes that all endurance athletes have while excluding anything more general or that strength and power athletes have. Then saying "Look, it correlates that all athletes are in aerobic sports, there are no, or very few, anaerobic athletes."
Well yeah, you rigged the selection criteria.
As an example, Feminism has just as many authoritarian feminists that are rigid to their dogma and won't let you question their "progressive" beliefs and values, such as their patriarchy hypothesis, that want leaders that will crackdown and enforce their beliefs through policy, and are prejudiced to a wide array of people -- but especially against rich white straight cis men -- who to them are literally Hitler.
You went straight to religion when it comes to beliefs and authoritarianism, where their views are absolutely correct and everyone else is absolutely wrong, but that's just ideologues in general, including leftist ideologues.
You went straight to Patriotism, but ignore the same thing about people thinking their political party or ideological group is the best in the world, and recoil at the idea that it's not. The democrats after the 2024 US election is a perfect example of exactly that behavior from leftists.
You promote post secondary education as "deprogramming" for authoritarians, especially liberal arts programs. However, are ignoring that those liberal arts programs and colleges are where left-wing/liberal authoritarians are indoctrinated into being authoritarians. Which they weren't before they took aliberal arts brainwashing program.
The claim is that someone who wouldn't help is because they value security more than benevolence. However, the truth is that they wouldn't help because they are prejudiced against homeless people.
Through claiming it is about security they are showing that their prejudice is them thinking all homeless people they could help but don't are violent and a threat to their security, especially if they are "scary looking".
There's nothing wrong with that belief, but don't lie about it to make yourself feel better and maintain your self image that you're a good person who usually helps people in need except when ____.
The end of lecture 10, about authoritarian personality, is BS. There are just as many left-wing/liberal authoritarians as there are right-wing/conservative.
When you rig the definitions and criteria to mostly include attributes of right-wing people, such as "traditional" beliefs and values, then of course it correlates that way.
It's like making the criteria to be defined as an athlete to be a list of attributes that all endurance athletes have while excluding anything more general or that strength and power athletes have. Then saying "Look, it correlates that all athletes are in aerobic sports, there are no, or very few, anaerobic athletes."
Well yeah, you rigged the selection criteria.
As an example, Feminism has just as many authoritarian feminists that are rigid to their dogma and won't let you question their "progressive" beliefs and values, such as their patriarchy hypothesis, that want leaders that will crackdown and enforce their beliefs through policy, and are prejudiced to a wide array of people -- but especially against rich white straight cis men -- who to them are literally Hitler.
You went straight to religion when it comes to beliefs and authoritarianism, where their views are absolutely correct and everyone else is absolutely wrong, but that's just ideologues in general, including leftist ideologues.
You went straight to Patriotism, but ignore the same thing about people thinking their political party or ideological group is the best in the world, and recoil at the idea that it's not. The democrats after the 2024 US election is a perfect example of exactly that behavior from leftists.
You promote post secondary education as "deprogramming" for authoritarians, especially liberal arts programs. However, are ignoring that those liberal arts programs and colleges are where left-wing/liberal authoritarians are indoctrinated into being authoritarians. Which they weren't before they took a
February 23, 2023
I wanted to give this 4 stars but I have two objections and one point of praise.
Objection 1: I wasn't that interested in the subject of human personality beyond the first few lectures. If this course had been shorter I probably would have given it 4 stars.
Praise 1: What saved this course from getting 2 stars was the professor's narration. His staccato delivery was precise and engaging, at least for me. I paid attention.
Objection 2: One lecture goes through the various personality disorders in some detail... a little too much detail. My fear is that people will use these descriptions to diagnose themselves or more likely others without professional evaluation.
Overall, the presentation was good, and had I been more interested I probably would have overlooked the one lecture I objected to and simply issued a warning. I doubt I will listen to this audio course again.
Objection 1: I wasn't that interested in the subject of human personality beyond the first few lectures. If this course had been shorter I probably would have given it 4 stars.
Praise 1: What saved this course from getting 2 stars was the professor's narration. His staccato delivery was precise and engaging, at least for me. I paid attention.
Objection 2: One lecture goes through the various personality disorders in some detail... a little too much detail. My fear is that people will use these descriptions to diagnose themselves or more likely others without professional evaluation.
Overall, the presentation was good, and had I been more interested I probably would have overlooked the one lecture I objected to and simply issued a warning. I doubt I will listen to this audio course again.
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