Can you change your personality type?

This is a very interesting and frequently asked question and I am happy to shed some light on the topic today.

Can you change your personality type? The quick answer is: No.

At least, not in the way that most people think about it when using the MBTI. Here is why.

What is personality? Personality is the sum of personality traits, thoughts, feelings and behaviors that are enduring over time. To put it simply, personality is what makes you you. About personality tests and types. The goal of personality psychology is to better understand how people think, feel, and behave. Creating and using personality tools such as personality tests is just one way to attempt to assess people's differences. Personality tests differ a lot from each other. Depending on what they measure, how they measure it and their foundations, they can vastly differ in assessment, format, method, purpose or application, reliability and accuracy. Some are theory-based (like the MBTI), others are data-driven (like the Big 5). Some are focused on types (like the MBTI), others are focused on traits (like the Big 5 or the NEO-PI), others are focused on unconscious motives and conflicts (such as the Rorschach Inkblot Test), others are about identifying people's motivations or needs. In the case of the MBTI, even if it is based on Carl Jung's Personality Types theory, over the years the company relied more on self-testing results and data analysis to come up with more accurate descriptions than trying to identify or use Jungian's cognitive functions. I find that starting with the identification of Jungian cognitive functions, and then using the MBTI's classification as a means to simplify the terms used greatly helps at assessing people's types more accurately, so this is the personality test that I will refer to in this blog article. Nature vs nurture Personality varies over time. A baby, a child, an adult or an elderly can't be thought as exactly the same individuals in all these stages, even if they actually are. Personality evolves and grows, develops and changes according to life's seasons. Does that mean that you have another personality type at each of life's season? The answer is no, since you are still you at each stage. "Nature" refers to what was already present at birth, while "Nurture" refers to what will develop according to the person's education, environment, culture and life experiences. Even if some research has been made to try to answer the question "personality traits: nature or nurture?", science still has to catch up with what observing moms already know from the get go: "I had 5 babies, I did the same for all of them, and they are all very different and unique. They were born this way". Nature seems to be very intertwined with personality.

Indeed, there aren't a lot of personality traits that even small babies don't already show preferences for. For instance, the preference for the Thinking or the Feeling trait is already present at their first month of life. Using cognitive functions, the exercise will stay inconclusive until the child's brain enters its "crystallization" (that is when their brain preferences are set), around age 6 or 7. Before that it's speculative work to try to assess types accurately, but it doesn't mean that the child doesn't have a type yet; it only means that to assess it accurately we need to wait and see. Nurture seems to intervene in the spectrum of ease the individual will have using their cognitive functions. In short, whatever brain preferences they will have at birth, only the degree of freedom of use of the cognitive functions during their early years will tell how at ease they will be using them in the future.

How the brain works

In short, it is binary. People working in computer science know that very well. Whether it's a Yes, or it's a No. There is no "in between", no "shades of grey", no "spectrum". What allows its complexity is the multitude of "Yes" and "No" that it deals with in a short amount of time. Once a thought emerges, whether it is accepted or it is discarded. If it is accepted, it will generate a neuronal connection. Now if that same thought is thought of multiple times and for long periods of time, it will eventually create neuronal pathways. These neural pathways are very difficult to change, and every change is perceived as very painful. The stronger the neural pathway the less possible it is to change it. Cognitive preferences are comparable to these neuronal pathways. Neuroscience of personality Cognitive functions are fundamental psychological processes described by Carl G Jung to assess how individuals perceive and judge the world, based on how they prefer to assimilate information and make decisions.

Science is only just beginning to catch up in correlating certain brain activities with Jungian descriptions of cognitive functions.

Dario Nardi's work on the neuroscience of personality provides interesting insights into the structural location and brain activity of Jungian cognitive functions.

Even if his work is preliminary and requires more exploration, it is not a stretch to think that what Jung observed through direct observation could be the end result of a specific type of brain activity that each personality type has. Just witnessing these processes via EEG proves that each person's preference developed over time and has been reinforced through repeated use, according to the user's preferences to be at play today. Therefore identifying a person's cognitive functions is a direct window into their way of thinking and allows us to identify specific brain activity and patterns, that persist over time and are characteristic of the individual's personality. Even if cognitive functions don't include people's emotions, they offer a model for understanding consistent mental habits and preferences in cognition, emotions and values; it is a window to understand their interaction with the world. It also gives insights into people's motivation, communication styles, decision-making and stress-responses. The way that we are wired also responds to specific brain regions and neurotransmitters. For example, David Keirsey's Temperament Theory is a personality model that builds on historical temperament concepts (like those of Hippocrates) and adapts Jungian typology (used in MBTI) into four distinct temperaments. New personality theories like the Fisher Temperament Inventory can be easily correlated with Keirsey's Temperament Theory between temperaments and the brain dominance of certain neurotransmitters. What about neuroplasticity?

The brain regenerates, but in a very limited way. In total, neuroplasticity accounts for only 1% of the growth of new brain matter. To change one's personality type, the magnitude of the changes required largely exceeds the brain's ability to regenerate and start new connections. Every change, even the smallest one, is extremely painful for the brain/the individual. To shape one's personality in a significant way it needs to happen when the person's brain is still malleable, usually before crystallization. Also, it will not change the person's personality but will very much affect the individual for life. Ultimately it will be very difficult to rewire this individual without inflicting tremendous pain in the process, which is absolutely out of the question! We don't touch the kids please!! As for reference, think about "The Little Albert" experiment and how well it went at reversing the damage. If personality types are accurately assessed, it is simply impossible to see a person switch from one type to another even during long periods of time.

This type of change would require to graft someone else's brain into the person. Even if a person suffered an accident that destroyed part of their brain, they would still retain the same personality type, although some areas of the brain would certainly be affected.

What changes can we expect regarding personality? So you might ask, if personality preferences are probably present since the early stages of life, does our personality change at all? Yes, of course, but the person's cognition will stay the same.

Here is what can change:

• People's emotional regulation, emotional intelligence and emotional stability

• People's behavior

• People's beliefs and perceptions

• People's values and priorities

• People's social roles and identities

Behavior, emotions, values can change. We can change our mindset, our priorities, culture, language, emotions, identity or ways of interacting with the world but it will ultimately come from the same brain, therefore from the same personality type. This belief that we can change type is mostly coming from personality tests that identify traits upon a spectrum instead of types. While I agree that using a spectrum is relevant to evaluate people's preferences, personality doesn't vary according to a spectrum and therefore cannot be assessed the same way.

Inaccuracy of the tests

Personality tests upon self-assessments are highly inaccurate and might give the impression that since results vary, personality types vary. Also, personality tests performed by trained professionals vary in accuracy.

Lastly, most people tend to dislike being put into "boxes" or be limited by an assessment. Our brain is very much a box on its own, but it holds a universe of its own; within it lies an infinite potential for the individual, and probably as many variations of that individual. To the fear of being "boxed" or "predictable", I usually answer; "Well, we already are in a box. Wouldn't you want to know about it?"

What about Extraversion and Introversion? We all oscillate between one and the other at all times, but we do have a preferred way of interacting with the world. People who do experience trauma or mental illnesses see their main preference for Extraversion or Introversion affected. Usually it decreases the preference for Extraversion.

In conclusion Personality types assessed accurately using Jungian cognitive functions don't change as they are a reflection of your brain's inner wiring. But you can change and evolve in tremendous ways. Each person’s type has a core identity but allows for growth and flexibility. You can change your beliefs, your values, your communication style, your behavior, and you can even change the way you feel. There's infinite potential for growth and change within each of us and even if you belong to a specific type, there's still a universe of potential and possible ways you can change, learn and grow.

You are already limitless and the bonus is that you don't need to become someone else to be that way! Just be yourself.

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