Improving Well-Being

Behavioural scientists are coming to conclusions about happiness and personality traits that are fairly different, now that it is no longer believed by psychologists that one's personality is immutable. Why should it be, after all? Neural pathways mapping out our reactions to life events do make us susceptible through habit, to behaving in the same way in response to stimuli, emotional and otherwise, in fortifying the belief that how we react is predictable.

It is true that we inherit certain behavioural personality traits from our ancestors, through our genetic code, but they can, with intention, and much, much repetition, be modified. It is without doubt a difficult thing to do, but it can be done, as the narrative of personal and professional events described in Dr. Norman Doidge's book, The Brain That changes Itself, Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brian Science, testifies.

A new study coming out of psychological experts at England's University of Manchester has reached the conclusion that changes in personality can be linked to people's sense of well-being. Rather than other, external-sourced factors such as marital status, employment and income. "Before, personality was seen as quite a fixed, stable thing", explained a researcher at Manchester's school of psychological sciences.

There is as yet no consensus of opinion whether or not people are capable of consciously changing personality traits toward a direct effort to improve their happiness levels. To begin with, people have to be aware that there are certain elements of their personality that lead to unhappiness. People who blame others for all the untoward incidents of their lives, for example, rather than attempting to understand what part they themselves played in such events.

People, in other words, who are oblivious to the effect their personality has on other people. People who, through habit becoming part of their character, are difficult to live with, who constantly demand change in others, and claim to themselves be misunderstood and unappreciated. People who cannot focus on their interpersonal-damaging reactions to the interplay of personalities.

Who, rather than be conciliatory and meet another opinion half way, will emphatically and dramatically claim they are always right.

People whose dominating personalities and sour outlook on life has the effect of others actively distancing themselves. Leaving them alone with their miseries, wondering what went wrong in yet another intimate, personal relationship. And coming to the conclusion that because they are different in many superior and exceptional ways, lesser personalities resent them, abuse them and try to take advantage of them.

If such people are incapable of introspection, they will simply fall deeper into their neuroses and immoderation, further isolating themselves from human contact and further embittering themselves. And that way lies extreme unhappiness. Those people, clearly, experience difficulties in altering let alone controlling their personalities because they see no fault in themselves.

I recall reading about the salutary effects experienced by someone who was interviewed with respect to delving into personal heritage and genetically endowed personality traits. A woman in her late middle ages who had always experienced extreme difficulties in interpersonal relationship, whose off-putting manner left her socially adrift. Once she understood that her personality was inherited it made her feel better about herself, but it also spurred her into taking action to alter her personality.

One of the lead authors of the study (Published in the journal Social Indicators Research) said: "whether people can actively change their personalities is an ongoing debate at the moment. The point is that (personality) does change and this feeds through to important changes in our well-being. so, we need to look more carefully at this as a potential source of improving people's well-being."