"Think about the last time you ran into someone you hadn't seen in years, maybe a school friend. You remembered them a certain way, maybe loud, always joking, the kind of person who filled a room. But when you met again, they seemed quieter and more thoughtful than you remembered. For a second, you wondered if time had traded them out for someone else."
"Some of these qualities show up early in life. You can see it in babies before they speak. One baby grins at every new face. The other baby hides in a parent's shoulder. That spark we call temperament comes from deep inside us. Even twins raised apart carry traces of the same habits and reactions, as if their personalities had been humming the same tune all along."
Personality arises from both innate temperament and ongoing experiences, with biological factors providing early tendencies but not determining fixed outcomes. Temperament appears in infancy and persists in familial similarities, yet life events reshape traits over time. Significant experiences such as illness, loss, or supportive relationships can alter habitual patterns and prompt self-reflection. Change can occur gradually or rapidly, leading to shifts in behaviors, values, and identities across adulthood. Cultural context and conscious choices influence which traits endure or evolve. People retain core dispositions while adapting, enabling continued growth, reversal of old habits, and active rewriting of personal tendencies throughout life.
Read at Psychology Today
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