{"id":28491,"date":"2022-04-07T20:43:28","date_gmt":"2022-04-08T03:43:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=28491"},"modified":"2022-04-07T20:43:28","modified_gmt":"2022-04-08T03:43:28","slug":"personality-and-intelligent-design","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/personality-and-intelligent-design\/","title":{"rendered":"Personality and Intelligent Design"},"content":{"rendered":"

Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are<\/em> demystifies human personality by providing an empirical, yet easy-to-read, examination of individual differences and human uniqueness. Written by Daniel Nettle, a widely-published professor of behavioral science in the UK, Personality<\/em> builds on the work of Galton[1]<\/a>, Jung[2]<\/a>, and other theorists to discuss the psychology of personality, enduring personality dispositions, and how these partly predict what each individual will do[3]<\/a>. Nettles also shows how personality and personality dispositions \u201cstem from the way [peoples\u2019] nervous system is wired\u201d and explain the science behind the study of personality[4]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

An individual\u2019s personality disposition is important to understand their uniqueness and \u201cnaturally recurring patterns of thoughts, feeling or behavior[5]<\/a>.\u201d Maximizing this will help leaders not put round pegs in square holes<\/em>, but assign people to their area of strength. In contexts such as mine, where political connections and favoritism trump right fit and qualifications, this is such a critical issue. Nettle argues that<\/p>\n

there are at least five broad personality dimensions along which we all differ, and which cause us to behave in certain ways rather than other ways. A great deal of what happens in our interests, careers, relationships, romantic lives, and health follows from where we fall along this continua[6]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The big five<\/em>, as Nettles refers to them, are the \u201cmost comprehensive, reliable and useful framework for discussing human personality[7]<\/a>\u201d and include wanderers, worriers, controllers, empathizers and poets. What determines one\u2019s place is how the person\u2019s brain is wired, which is informed by genetics and early life experience \u201cover which we have no control and which seem essentially irreversible[8]<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Personality<\/em> highlights several important truths for me. First, the beauty of human uniqueness. In addition to our fingerprints, our unique brain wiring demonstrates our inherent uniqueness and ultimately points to the intelligent design behind the amazing creation each individual on earth is. For me, intelligent design is also the explanation behind the difference in people\u2019s interests in food, clothing, romantic attraction, language, culture, architecture, career, and a host of other things. The Creator is displaying His creativity in our diversity; and one reflection of His creativity is in our leitmotif<\/em>. Nettles seems to lean on the side of evolution, so this is perhaps the only aspect in which I disagree with him. Within my ministry context, human uniqueness could result in a greater level of celebrating individuality within a culture that is very group orientated. Based on Nettle\u2019s ideas, we can celebrate the individual without any fears of diminishing the value of community. This idea of human uniqueness also implies that leadership development within my context should be strengths-based and driven by favoritism.<\/p>\n

Second, since early life experiences significantly shape our personality, and are often negative, being fostered by older individuals whose minds are \u201cblinded\u201d by the god of this world[9]<\/a>, \u00a0Paul urges followers of Jesus not to conform to popular culture. Instead, he recommends being transformed by the \u201crenewing of your mind.[10]<\/a>\u201d Perhaps no other spiritual discipline renews the mind better than Biblical meditation. Yet to benefit the most from meditation, one must practically and consistently implement whatever instructions emerge from their meditation. This is where I struggle a lot. I meditate occasionally but do not often conclude with action steps. When I have action steps I struggle with intentionally and regularly implementing these. Nettle\u2019s thoughts about the impact of early life experiences also explain why mental health professionals advise that an important starting point to providing care is knowing the client\u2019s story[11]<\/a>. A good grasp of the client\u2019s story helps caregivers understand how early life events may have shaped a client\u2019s personality, and how best to assist them in the journey to wholeness and shalom. Overall, Personality<\/em> will equip me to better understand myself, the people I serve, and ultimately, the Creator, behind us all.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Nettle, Daniel. Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are. <\/em>\u00a0(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 17.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Nettle, Personality, 81.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid, 8.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, 8<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Buckingham, Marcus and Don Clifton. Now, Discover Your Strengths<\/em>. (New York: Free Press, 2001), 29.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Nettle, Personality, 234.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid, 9.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> Ibid, 234.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> 2 Corinthians 4:4<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Romans 12:2<\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Westman, Lyn, Understanding People, Mental Health and Trauma<\/em>. (Unpublished manuscript, 2019), xix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are demystifies human personality by providing an empirical, yet easy-to-read, examination of individual differences and human uniqueness. Written by Daniel Nettle, a widely-published professor of behavioral science in the UK, Personality builds on the work of Galton[1], Jung[2], and other theorists to discuss the psychology of personality, enduring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":143,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2287,35,2268,2286],"class_list":["post-28491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-intelligent-design","tag-leadership","tag-nettle","tag-personality-psychology","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/143"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28492,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28491\/revisions\/28492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}