MY PERSONALITY IS MY SOCIAL CONSTRUCT: SO FAR SO COOL

 

ADAM HICKS -- SOUTHLAND BUSKER BOSS

In this essay I am purporting that one’s personality is simply an interpretation (by others) of one’s collective behaviors.  This is hardly a unique notion, and yet not one necessarily embraced, never mind thought about, by the pedestrian collective.  This notion about what constitutes a personality will be of interest only to those who enjoy reading about psychology, those of you reading this blog entry for example.

While there seems no generally agreed upon definition of personality, most theories focus on motivation and psychological interactions as being the major influences. Hippocrates (460-370 B.C.) suggested humans had a ‘persona.’  Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), the Father of Psychology, drew a clear distinction between the human body and the human personality.  Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), founder of Psychoanalysis, suggested our behaviors (and personality) were prompted by our innate exigencies (water, food, shelter, and so on).  Carl Jung (1875-1961), one of Freud’s disciples, insisted that innate exigencies are all part of the collective unconscious of all humans both present and past.  Well, whatever drives us certainly helps others to define our personality.

Whether the consequence of genes or environment or both, PERSONALITY is one’s signature set of behaviors and the social meaning attached to these behaviors. Personality is a social construct, a shared idea that has no inherent meaning, but exists only because people in a group or society have decided this to be the descriptor for somebody’s behavior.  (Other social constructs in my world have included the developmental years of pink for girls and blue for boys, girls playing with dolls and boys playing with trucks; the age of consent for emergent adulthood at 18 years of age; the ritual of marriage; the practice of religion; the notion of time.  Synonyms for social construct include “acceptable practice,” “cultural norm,” “societal norm,” even “tradition.”)

I should add that one’s personality is what determines one’s likeableness, and likeableness, too, is a social trait.  Being friendly, being a good listener, not taking oneself too seriously, and being of open mind, are common traits of likeable people.  On the flip side, unlikeable people do not really listen, take themselves too seriously, and are of closed mind. Likeable people are genuine, unlikeable people disingenuous.  Likeable people are positive and present a friendly face, unlikeable people are negative and smile only when forced.

I am purporting that if we can change our behaviors, we can change our personalities.  Simple changes such as practicing being a better listener or even offering an unwarranted smile will certainly parlay into a more positively perceived personality.   

However, some personal behavioral changes are not so simple to accomplish, in fact very difficult actually, especially if the behaviors have resulted in the deterioration of one’s physical and psychological well being. Excessive drugging and gambling are two such examples.  Oftentimes, for changes in personal and socially detrimental behaviors, one needs the resort of professional counselling, for which, I might add, the success of which is directly related to the client’s desire for change. 

Many psychologists and others in the social service industries believe that human personalities can be measured through quantitative constructions, such as the MYERS-BRIGGS, a personality test that will clunkily and confusedly label us in combinations of extraverts/introverts, sensors/intuitives, thinkers/feelers, and judgers/perceivers.  However, more qualitative junkies such as I, exercise far more faith in the projective type tests including my favorites, the GOODENOUGH DRAW-A-PERSON, DRAW-A-HOUSE, DRAW-A-TREE, and of course, the most famous of all, the RORSCHACH INKBLOT.

Be they charismatic or farouche, if personalities are social constructs, then personality disorders, too, are social constructs.  People suffering personality disorders noticeably have trouble when it comes to relating to situations and people, and this is especially apparent when their behaviors over time continually deviate from main-stream cultural expectations.  Ah, but personality disorders are another ship that I can sail another time.

Hmmm … If I were to enquire about my own personality, I wonder how others would describe me. Quirky or crazy?  Stoic or stupid?   Quaint or cool?

Hmmm ... I will go with cool.  I will take a risk and publicly hypothecate that I am cool.  Yes, cool is admittedly socially and individually subjective, and because I believe that personality is simply a collection of subjective behaviors being judged by others, I shall ask just a few questions to help prove my thesis: Is playing guitar at bar gigs cool?  Is being a Bobby Dylan wannabee, busking with a guitar and harmonica cool?  Or how about the highbrow portrait busking with my pencil and sketchpad?  Is that cool?  Is my job contract working with convicted murderers a cool occupation?  Is being a hypnotherapist, rather than an everyday eclectic counsellor, cool?  Is being a published author, one that has collected significant amounts of royalty dollars, cool?  If the answer to most of these, admittedly autobiographical questions, is a resounding YES, then I am, indeed, a COOL guy, and then COOL quite describes my personality.

Speaking of COOL, there were two cool guys marching in my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week:

There was ADAM HICKS, pictured above, organizer of the BUSKERFEST on Saturdays at the SOUTHLAND MALL in Regina SK, and there was my friend, ROQUES ANDRES, pictured below, chatting with me while I am busking at the FARMERS MARKET here in REGINA, and chatting with me several years earlier while I was busking at the DAM MARKET in AMSTERDAM!