Personalities not so personal?

This has bothered me for quite some time. I decided to make this thread to see if others have noticed this as well.

From time to time, I'll meet someone or see someone on TV who reminds me of someone else. Not because they look like them but because they have the exact same mannerisms. It's almost uncanny how close these are and often find myself wondering what it would be like to have them both in the same room.

This leads me to believe that your life experiences and social upbringing have very little, if any, effect on molding your personality. This would also lend credence to the theory that we're in a machine/program, perhaps with a finite group of personalities to choose from.

From my understanding, it's impossible for a computer to have a truly random algorithm since there is a base "key" value from which they're calculated. This leads to duplication of end values eventually.

I don't know, it's just something I've been kicking around in my head for a while.

I can see what you mean. I know a number of people who act the same as others I know and have met. Is there a finite set of personalities? Perhaps. One theory I've done some studying in is the Enneagram Personality System. This separates personalities into 7 distinct types.

I've never believed in any of these personality tests however. It strikes a nerve that answering 100 questions supposedly tells you who you are.

I also believe that language barriers have a lot to do with personalities. Have you ever traveled to a country where English is not the national language? A whole different set of mannerisms over there.

reply to post by obsolete


Yes, this is true. Try to be different and you won't get far in this thing called 'success ladder'.

People that are extremely successful, don't always mistake them for trying to make a difference, sometimes, they are just extremely good at conforming.

A significant part of conforming is your personality, so there you go. Most people are keen to adopt the most successful practices, even if sometimes, it's counter-productive as a whole.

[edit on 27-2-2009 by ahnggk]

Could it be that people choose the same or similar role models?

There is so much exposure to 'celebrities' and actors, characters in films or TV that maybe the people you come across have consciously or otherwise adopted the mannerisms of their favourites.

Maybe their favourites are selected because they 'strike a chord' with some characteristics the person already has and so encourage that person to exaggerate or be more ready to display those traits?

It might be interesting to study your friends and acquaintances and see if you can identify the the actor or whoever they are mimicing.

I should have known ATS would turn something up for "Enneagram" when I searched.

I am so intrigued by a book I've borrowed from my library "the essential enneagram, The Definitive Personality Test and Self-Discovery Guide", Orinally Published as "The Stanford Enneagram Discovery Inventory and Guide".

Seemed pretty spot on in my case so I have begun researching this method of "self discovery" and suggest it for an interesting line of thought to anyone interested in the subject of personality differences. The edition I have now offers was perfect for "beginners".

You're right; people can be very similar in behaviour and you can pretty much sort people into categories.
I'm not sure if this has already been said (I haven't read the whole thread yet) but could this be down to the fact that we are in fact the same animal and therefore- despite general differences -we are linked with similar ways of acting? You know how other animals tend to behave the same as one an other? Just because we are quite diverse doesn't mean that we are above our species' ways of living- we just have a bit more intelligence than most things and can do it for ourselves.
If this has been posted before that'd be great because it would show how people behave similarly!

Ramadwarf on personalities in nature

Ok, I see that no one has soo I'm a bit more disappointed than maybe I ought to be... I don't know if what I have suggested above is credible or not but, it's an ok statment to help out I hope.

[edit on 14-7-2009 by Ramadwarf Philes]

If you work sales or customer service enough, and expose yourself to the right amounts of social interaction you will find it all comes down to numbers.

I've lived on the East and West coast of the united states, and certain behaviors, attitudes, and manner in which people conversate and make choices will all blur together.

How many cats have you had, how many dogs have you had? On average how many cats and dogs do you know act like other cats and dogs that you know when responding to any given stimuli?

In short, we aren't as unique as our freudian EGO kraves us to be.

We are animals, we just like to forget it because we can own things and tell ourselves we are not animals.

Ooh!

I loved that test!

I am very pleased with the results. I'm an enthusiastic mulder! Watch out world, I smell what you are cooking, and TPTB aren't the only chefs!

I am not so sure that it is completely personalities that should be focused on. I believe that people's personalities can be similar, but everyone has their own style that distinguishes them.

I think more of what we are dealing with in this topic is the profile system.

Profiling is used in many different aspects of life, most notably in law enforcement.

Many different personalities can fall within a certain profile. If you know someone who fits into a profile and you meet someone else who fits into the profile you will probably be reminded of the person - regardless if their personalities are really that much alike.

[edit on 14-7-2009 by esteay812]

It does seem that there are a certain number of "cookie cutters" for personality and appearance. However, it's my opinion that this would only apply to the exterior traits. In other words I doubt that any two people's subjective experience is exactly the same, since how we see the world is a lot more complex than how we look and act.

They sure do look alike though...