quiet-the-power-of-introverts-in-a-world-that-cant-stop-talking-susan-cain
behavior of people like Brian Littlemuch better than supposed personalitytraits.For the next few decades, Situationismprevailed. The postmodern view ofself that emerged around this time, influencedby theorists like Erving Goffman,author of The Presentation of Selfin Everyday Life, suggested that sociallife is performance and social masks areour true selves. Many researchersdoubted whether personality traits evenexisted in any meaningful sense. Personalityresearchers had trouble findingjobs.But just as the nature-nurture debatewas replaced with interactionism—theinsight that both factors contribute towho we are, and indeed influence eachother—so has the person-situation debatebeen superseded by a more nuancedunderstanding. Personality584/929
psychologists acknowledge that we canfeel sociable at 6:00 p.m. and solitaryat 10:00 p.m., and that these fluctuationsare real and situation-dependent.But they also emphasize how muchevidence has emerged to support thepremise that notwithstanding thesevariations, there truly is such a thing asa fixed personality.These days, even Mischel admits thatpersonality traits exist, but he believesthey tend to occur in patterns. For example,some people are aggressive withpeers and subordinates but docile withauthority figures; others are just the opposite.People who are “rejection-sensitive”are warm and loving when theyfeel secure, hostile and controllingwhen they feel rejected.But this comfortable compromiseraises a variation on the problem offree will that we explored in chapter 5.585/929
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- Page 563 and 564: man. As a child, he was afraid ofev
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- Page 615 and 616: I, too, was once in this position.
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behavior of people like Brian Little
much better than supposed personality
traits.
For the next few decades, Situationism
prevailed. The postmodern view of
self that emerged around this time, influenced
by theorists like Erving Goffman,
author of The Presentation of Self
in Everyday Life, suggested that social
life is performance and social masks are
our true selves. Many researchers
doubted whether personality traits even
existed in any meaningful sense. Personality
researchers had trouble finding
jobs.
But just as the nature-nurture debate
was replaced with interactionism—the
insight that both factors contribute to
who we are, and indeed influence each
other—so has the person-situation debate
been superseded by a more nuanced
understanding. Personality
584/929
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