{"id":28494,"date":"2022-04-08T20:04:50","date_gmt":"2022-04-09T03:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=28494"},"modified":"2022-04-08T20:04:50","modified_gmt":"2022-04-09T03:04:50","slug":"a-journey-in-self-knowledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/a-journey-in-self-knowledge\/","title":{"rendered":"A Journey in Self-Knowledge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reading Daniel Nettle\u2019s \u201cPersonality: What Makes You the Way You Are\u201d was worth it for many reasons, but especially for his closing encouragement: \u201cNone of this [the content of his book] means changing your personality. It means understanding what your personality entails, and using this information to make wise choices. This requires many things, one of which is self-knowledge.\u201d[1]<\/a> This encouragement resonates with what I have experienced the entire DLGP journey to be about\u2014a deepening self-knowledge added to developing layered global maps that explore the multi-faceted dimensions impacting leaders molded by the person of Jesus Christ in today\u2019s world.\u00a0 But I am getting ahead of myself.<\/p>\n

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Nettle\u2019s book integrates the fields of psychology, neuroscience, genetics, and evolutionary studies as he examines the nature of personality and what its make-up means for humans collectively and individually.[2]<\/a> The historical notes he includes grounds his work in the evolutionary discoveries being made in the late 1800s forward.[3]<\/a> The personality framework he develops rests on what he (and others) calls the \u201cfive-factor model of personality or the big five.\u201d[4]<\/a> Before he unpacks these five personality dimensions in chapters three through seven, he makes use of his first chapter to explore what makes up a personality trait and traces some of the key developments of how personality has been and is currently being measured. In his second chapter he unpacks the role of evolution in personality development, especially the challenging issue of why variations in personality have evolved. Then, step-by-step in the following five chapters, Nettle describes through science and case studies the core of each personality dimension and its respective cluster of characteristics. From there he also discusses both the evolutionary and present-day costs and benefits to each dimension and each end of that dimension. The five dimensions are: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness.<\/p>\n

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In chapter eight Nettle addresses the thorny issue of environmental influences on personality development, saying, \u201cPeople often talk as if the environmental effects had been well understood for decades, and the new discovery was that there were genetic effects too. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.\u201d[5]<\/a> He concludes, \u201cWhether we are talking about genetic, prenatal\u2026, or postnatal environmental influences\u2026they have all done their work, automatically, implacably, and certainly with no reference to our wishes, long before we have become self-aware adults.\u201d[6]<\/a> This leads him to his final chapter where he explores what one can then do with the personality one has, and his closing encouragement quoted above.<\/p>\n

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I was reminded of Akiko Busch\u2019s book, \u201cHow to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency\u201d[7]<\/a> as Nettle traced the impact of genome sequencing on understanding personality. Busch writes about her concerns over fading privacy in our lives. I found myself wondering as I read Nettle in light of Busch, if genome sequencing becomes common place for us to know our physical and mental vulnerabilities,[8]<\/a> how will this information be used by the medical field and insurance companies? What then becomes a pre-existing condition not covered for treatment? Can our ethical and moral frameworks and practices keep up with scientific discoveries? What then will it mean to work for just and equitable access to medical and mental health care?<\/p>\n

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I was also reminded of both Vincent J. Miller\u2019s book[9]<\/a> and Max Weber\u2019s book[10]<\/a> as Nettle explored the unconditioned incentive of social status as the anchor for both the Protestant work ethic and the excesses of consumerism. Social status is one of the factors at work in the extroversion personality dimension which drives us forward in the relentless drive of finding the good stuff in our environment.[11]<\/a> Weber argued this work drive was fueled by anxiety over one\u2019s status with God, leading to the lived theology that the material rewards of hard work confirmed the favor of God toward the one who worked hard and materially succeeded. Nettle seems to suggest that it is not more money that drives us forward, but rather it is a deep evolutionary sense that more stuff equates to a higher social status and that this is a deep unconditioned incentive for humanity\u2014or at least for those among us who are higher on the extroversion personality dimension. \u00a0This observation by Nettle also left me wondering about the interaction between the personality dimension of extroversion and levels of dopamine which also impact our drive for more (Lieberman and Long).[12]<\/a><\/p>\n

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These differing insights on the same human behaviors leaves me respectful of our complexity as individuals and societies. As I continue to develop my NPO, I am realizing out of this week\u2019s reading and reflections that creating space for young adults to experience a growing self-knowledge in interaction with the complexities of the world around them will need to be part of my underlying foundation.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Nettle, Daniel. 2009. Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are<\/em>. 1. publ. in paperback. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 248.<\/p>\n

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

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[3]<\/a> Ibid., 15.<\/p>\n

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

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[5]<\/a> Ibid., 211.<\/p>\n

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[6]<\/a> Ibid., 233.<\/p>\n

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[7]<\/a> Busch, Akiko. 2019. How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency<\/em>. New York: Penguin Press.<\/p>\n

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[8]<\/a> Nettle, 12.<\/p>\n

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[9]<\/a> Miller, Vincent Jude. 2013. Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Religion<\/em>. Repr. New York: Continuum.<\/p>\n

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[10]<\/a> Weber, Max, Peter Baehr, and Gordon C. Wells. 2002. The Protestant Ethic and the \u201cSpirit\u201d of Capitalism and Other Writings<\/em>. Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics. New York: Penguin Books.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[11]<\/a> Nettle, 86-87.<\/p>\n

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[12]<\/a> Lieberman, Daniel Z, and Michael E Long. 2019. The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity-and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race<\/em>. Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, Inc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Daniel Nettle\u2019s \u201cPersonality: What Makes You the Way You Are\u201d was worth it for many reasons, but especially for his closing encouragement: \u201cNone of this [the content of his book] means changing your personality. It means understanding what your personality entails, and using this information to make wise choices. This requires many things, one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":141,"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":[2122,255,2268,11],"class_list":["post-28494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-busch","tag-miller","tag-nettle","tag-weber","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28494","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\/141"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28494"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28494\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28495,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28494\/revisions\/28495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}