Science of Personality Part 3
The motivations discussed to date relate to how our personality seeks to achieve certain external outcomes. How others perceive us is to varying degrees important to us. On the other hand we also have internal values that affect the nature of our personalities. We call these intrapsychic motives.
However, the current consensus by psychiatrists is that we attempt to behave consistently because other people expect us to. Predictability is something others feel more comfortable with regarding other people. People are motivated to be accepted by other people and to the extent they can do this they have higher self esteem. Some ghetto kids will dress in threatening ways because they want those who like to bully or terrorize others will be less likely to attempt this with them. To the extent they achieve a feeling of higher personal safety they then have a greater self esteem. I learned in teaching these perceived ‘thug dressed’ students that it is often necessary to create a personal clash with them in front of the class, then tell them to see me in my office about the matter. This, of course is risky to confront their ego in this manner, but once they show up to the office ready to punish me for their perception of my ‘disrespecting’ them, I pretend I don’t remember the incident and instantly start asking them friendly and empathetic questions about their background, at which point they invariably become talkative and friendly. Despite their personal appearance they usually have a strong need for friends in ‘high places’. Often they become a sort of front line of defense if any other students become confrontational in the classroom, and will verbally take the upset student down and thus deflate the tension.
It is well understood that our emotions affect our personality traits. This is rampant globally in today’s political/religious/cultural/ethnic/economic environment. Beliefs are based on evidence and emotions. Facts and evidence are now playing less and less importance roles compared to emotions in deciding reality for more and more people. Evangelicals are not supporting Donald Trump because he sounds and acts like Jesus Christ. They support him because he assures them he will help certain religious beliefs they hold become the law of the land. Poor rural citizens support Trump because he is as angry at establishment politicians as they are. Immigrants, often a major source of slave labor for many decades, are suddenly the reason perceived by other citizens as the reason they are falling further behind economically decade after decade. Emotions blind them to the reality that if these immigrants are gone, they then become the sole source of slave labor and will need to work two jobs to achieve a livable income. Elimination of prostitution stems partly from a belief that prostitutes are victims and generating moral decay in our society. However, the ones who are angriest at prostitution crack downs are the prostitutes themselves, whose source of income shrinks. Sexual diversity is one of the most mysterious human behaviors, not readily reasoned out by facts. People seldom use their own sexual turn-ons, as the basis for social discussions, as it is impossible to rationally explain a foot fetish, a preference for oral sex, sexual dominance, exhibitionism, etc. Sexual practices involve feelings, not facts, and yet the intensity of sexual practices can vary from high to a disinterest in sex, or at least certain sexual practices. Other areas of human behavior are based a lot more on logic and facts. These are the kind of behaviors discussed in this series of personality musings.
Emotional differences between humans can be divided into two general categories—positive affectivity and negative affectivity—that is, how often a person experiences positive and negative emotions. We need be careful here since these two general emotions are controlled by separate areas of the brain. This is important to remember since being high in one area does not necessarily mean we are low in the other area. Most of the time we are not highly emotional so there is plenty of time here for one to actually be high in both negative and positive affectivity.
People who are high in negative affectivity not only experience negative feelings more often but their emotions here are stronger. Trump once stated that he could kill someone in public and most of his base would defend him. He is probably right. That hardly makes a portion of his base evil or sinful, but it does demonstrate how strongly emotions are driving their support for him. The recent Congressional hearing on nominating Cavenough to the Supreme Court is a clear example of emotions driving the debate, not facts or evidence or logic. Normally, conservative Republicans are fire and brimstone pulpit denouncers of improper sexual behavior, and Liberal democrats are more tolerant of sexual misconduct—-but here the roles were reversed based on the emotional drives to get a conservative on the Court or stop a conservative from getting on the court. Feelings can be the major force for actions. What intelligent, rational national politician would send pictures of their genitals over the internet to strangers unless their emotional state at the time drove these actions? If one’s income has been losing buying power decade after decade no matter which party was in office, why is it puzzling that antiestablishment feelings will drive their politics to the point where they would choose blowing up the whole system just out of anger. Our feelings matter. Terrorists are often not crazy, just so bereft of any hope for their future that they prefer to end their life— and just for spite, take as many others out with them as they can, thereby making all of society feel less secure, just like they have felt for so long.
People high in negative affectivity dislike their jobs, their friends, and even their marriages, and their lives overall. Furthermore, this is a fairly stable trait. Notice that when evaluating personality traits we are not using terms like evil, sinful, bad, good, God fearing, acts of a Devil, religious affiliation, cultural affiliation, ethnicity, conservative or liberal, etc. It is all about genetics, the environment, neurotransmitters, diversity, and chance. There is no rational reason to literally hate or blame products of an urban, rural, or suburban ghetto for their damaged personalities and mental health, since clearly, but for the wheel of fortune, these kind of personalities and mental/physical health situations could be us as well as them.
People who have high positive affectivity are more cheerful, upbeat, and optimistic than those high in negative affectivity. People who are happiest are so based on three factors: Higher positive affectivity, lower negative affectivity, and they are more contented with their lives. However, happiness and contentedness are two separate mindsets. Happiness is often temporary—your team won the game, you got a promotion, you just bought a new car, etc. Contentment is more lasting and often signals you have learned when enough is enough of varied desired goals.
Many of the personality traits already discussed contribute to the ultimate degree of contentedness in our lives. Also high positive affectivity ensures better health for more people. For example contented people show more resistance to infectious diseases, but not conditions like cancer. Contentedness is probably the universal goal of all individual humans everywhere, and our varied personal traits play a major role in just how much contentment we achieve. That is not to say the playing field is level for everyone. It obviously is not. The goal of any human society is to set up a governance in which the maximum number of citizens can achieve the maximum degree of contentedness. So far, no form of government is achieving this today. But the evolutionary process is moving forward, on evolutionary time. The reality is that time does not fly by, Time stays, We go. None of us, personally, are the focus of evolution. Rather the genius of the process is not any of us personally, but the continuing progress achieved over billions of years by this process. We can pray to all the various Gods and religions we, as humans, have created, but there is no evidence that any believers of any particular religious faith, are exempted from any of the pitfalls which accompany human existence at any particular time in human history. Religious beliefs may give us the strength to endure life, and that is good as an isolated benefit, but religious beliefs also create intolerance and often ensure conflicts which become seeped in extreme cruelty to perceived heathens. There is no fury which exceeds those who believe their punishment of heathens is the will of God. This is one of the ironies of life, beliefs that should supposedly make human life more peaceful, just, and prosperous—instead often lead to just the opposite. Part four to follow. Varied personalities are interesting to me.
