- Nature versus nurture.
One of, if not the most,
fascinating questions in psychology.
Are you more defined by your genetics
or by your environment and your upbringing?
Today, we're gonna look into the science of personality
and personality type
to see what the research says about why
we are who we are.
That's right.
Research, not just FJ making stuff up.
Okay. There will be a little FJ,
a little making stuff up.
- Liar.
- But now, let me nurture you
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Now, back to the regular content
that you clicked on the video for.
- To understand how early
your personality can be influenced,
we actually need to go back to
when you were a baby.
That's right. Do you remember back then?
I doubt it. I don't know why.
That's not even funny.
The main reason why many scientists
believe there is a strong genetic component
to personality is because babies
are born with a temperament.
Like, have you met some babies?
Yeah, you know.
They got different temperaments.
Babies all ain't the same.
There are easy babies who are super chill
and just go along with whatever.
Like, if there's a problem,
instead of crying or freaking out,
they express a little discomfort reasonably
and they adapt to it.
Like, if you accidentally spill some milk
on an ISTP baby,
they're just gonna be like hey, no worries.
I ain't gonna cry over it,
'cause it's just spilled milk.
What do I look like? Some chump?
Then, there are difficult babies, okay?
The babies who are just not having
a great time, man.
They are cranky.
They cry a lot for no real reason,
kind of like me
and they are generally high need.
Am I just describing myself?
They're like a bossy ESTJ baby
who just wants their way.
You donkey. Where's the formula?
There are slow to warm babies
who start out difficult and then,
they get easier as they become
more accustomed to new situations,
like the introvert who says they don't like parties,
but if you can actually get them to go to a party,
then they have a good time at the party.
These temperaments exist
despite baby's upbringings.
Essentially, you can't teach a baby how to react.
So, their little baby personalities just
kinda do whatever they're gonna do.
Baby's gonna baby.
You know what I'm saying?
This leads many scientists to believe
that personality does have, at the very least,
some foundational component that exists
in your genetics.
Another reason why researchers think there's
a genetic component to personality is twins,
specifically identical twins
who were raised apart.
Identical twins, as opposed to fraternal twins,
have the exact same genes.
They both got Levi's, they both got Wrangler.
Is that even a jean brand?
I don't know. It wasn't a good joke, Frank.
So, what better way to see if personality
is genetic or environmental than to study
identical twins who have the same genes,
but different upbringings?
One study in particular is pretty cool,
because it's studied identical twins
and their Myers Briggs personality types.
So, the study looked at over 100 identical twins
raised apart and 92 of their spouses.
The twins' spouses were chosen,
because they have similar environments to the twins,
but not the same genetics,
because if they did, that would be illegal.
I'm calling the FBI.
So, if the environment played the biggest role
in your personality,
you would expect the twins to share traits
with their spouse, not so much with their sibling
who was raised apart
in a different environment.
The study showed that twins
have about a .6 correlation
in their extroversion-introversion
and thinking-feeling scores.
Frank, I'm not a scientist.
I don't know what .6 means.
It sounds like kind of a low score.
Actually, no.
That .6 means they were quite likely
to share a similar personality score
in those areas.
More than random chance.
The sensing-intuition and judging-perceiving traits
have a .4 correlation,
which is not as high,
but still a pretty solid indicator
that they are clearly shared traits
between the twins.
Now, it's important to point out
that the twins' personalities weren't
exactly the same.
They just correlated
to a statistically significant degree
compared to the spouses.
The results of this study suggest there
is a meaningful impact of your genetics
on your personality
despite your upbringing.
A very well-known study was also done
using identical twins
with the big five personality model,
which is a scale more typically used
with scientific personality research.
This study found very similar results
with twins having scores that were
40 to 60% similar,
which is funnily enough,
almost exactly the same as the MBTI study.
Does this mean MBTI,
the 16 personalities are scientific now?
Not really, but it's really interesting.
Now, all this data might suggest
that your personality is largely,
if not entirely, defined by your nature,
A.K.A. your genetics,
but that's not the whole story.
Your environment, where you grew up,
the type of family you have, your friend groups,
all of these shape your personality, as well,
or at least how your personality presents itself.
Like, maybe you live in a culture
where everyone is pretty introverted
and it's seen as rude to be overly extroverted
and outgoing.
So, you adapt to your environment,
even if you are naturally an extrovert.
That wouldn't make you not an extrovert,
but instead, you might be a little toned down
compared to say an extrovert from America
where the culture is pretty openly
loud and talkative
or maybe you're like an ISTJ
and you grow up in a family of intuitive types.
You might grow an appreciation
and interest in some intuitive topics
like say philosophy.
It's very abstract.
It's not something that an ISTJ
would usually be very into.
The nurture component to personality
goes deeper than just your family and culture, though.
Researchers have made note of the difference
between a shared environment
versus a non-shared environment
when it comes to siblings.
So, a shared environment is like your house.
Siblings typically have the same house,
access to the same food, the same neighbors,
same Nintendo 64 you gotta fight over,
all that sort of stuff.
Non-shared environments are the things that
people don't share with their family members.
So, say for example
we have a brother and a sister
who are both INFJs.
They're the same age.
They go to the same school,
but they have different teachers.
Because they have different teachers,
they're in different classrooms.
Because they're in different classrooms,
they make different friends
and because they make different friends,
the sister becomes a billionaire entrepreneur
and the brother ends up in a street gang
called the Van Buren Boys.
Okay, maybe it's not that extreme,
but the INFJ brother might fall
into a friend group that is outgoing and social.
So, he ends up more interested in
spending his time hanging out with friends in person.
While the INFJ sister might make a friend group
who is into technology and they're more reclusive.
They're a bunch of nerds.
So, she prefers to stay home
and spend hours on the computer.
Studies have shown that these non-shared environments
have a bigger influence on your personality
than the shared ones.
Essentially, it's the little differences
in our life and environment
that can snowball into changing our personalities
as we grow older.
Now, the most interesting aspect of nature
versus nurture in personality
is where the two meet,
where they become intertwined.
Your nature can have a big impact
on how you fit into or adapt to
your environment.
So, maybe you're an INTJ
and you're lucky enough to be in a family of people
who appreciate your thoughts and ideas
or you're an ESFP
and you have a fun loving family who loves to
live life to the fullest.
These types of situations are gonna lead
certain people to have a very easy time
integrating into their environment.
So, in these situations,
we might expect the more stereotypical versions
of these personality types,
what they look like when there's not
a ton of factors that they need to adapt to.
It's like hey, baby,
you're an INTJ.
Grow up to be an INTJ. That's fine.
On the other hand,
maybe you're an INFP in a family
who doesn't respect your emotional needs
or you're an INTP who was surrounded by people
who find your ideas bothersome.
They're like, dude.
Stop thinking so much, you egghead.
In these situations,
people need to adapt to
a less than accommodating environment
and that's where you get get versions
of each type that have some quirks to them.
You get an INFP who has a cold exterior
or an INTP who keeps all their ideas to themselves.
They're not the stereotype
of what you'd expect from the 16 personalities.
New environments can also act
as a big catalyst for personality change
and research shows that personality changes a lot
between the ages of 18 to 30
and this is because this is the age range
where people become independent,
move out, and get to experience new environments,
specifically, ones that they have chosen for themselves
now that they're adults.
Some research has shown that it might even
be environments that they did not choose
for themselves, as well.
Knowing that our personality changes as we age
and experience new things
leads to a pretty big question of
can you change your personality?
This is a complicated question.
It's so complicated,
I can barely spit it outta my mouth
and it's a question not all scientists agree on.
Now, when we're talking about your Meyers Briggs type,
your 16 personalities type,
at least according to the theory,
your type never changes.
I know. I'm gonna get blow back in the comments.
There's so many comments where it's like hey,
I'm a INTP, formally a ESFJ or whatever.
It's like, sorry, no.
That's not how it works.
More than likely,
you just identified with different traits
at different times.
That doesn't mean that your personality type changed.
So, that perceived change of what your type is is real.
The Carl Young and the Briggs family believe
that type was kind of like a starting point.
You're hard wiring and that those aspects
would remain constant over your lifespan,
but that doesn't mean you can't change your actions
and how you present yourself.
Say for example,
you're an ENFP and one day,
you notice that your wild and crazy ideas
got you went into a little bit of trouble.
You had some misadventures.
You perhaps had an escapade or two
that went awry,
because you didn't think something
through all the way.
You got into a little bit of a pickle, right?
Just... So, you as a person,
as an individual can make the conscious decision
to take responsibility, to slow down,
to think things through more logically
and to be more organized and methodical
and you can build those habits so long term
that eventually, it may appear to be so easy for you
that someone who's looking for stereotypical ENFP traits
might not see them in you.
Of course, this goes for any type.
I'm just using the ENFP as an example.
The difference is that when we use techniques
like this to change our behaviors
and our thoughts,
we're trying to change our natural processing.
Even if you change behaviors
and become super organized and logical,
at your core,
you would still be an ENFP in that example.
Even if an INTJ learns all the fashionable clothes
and whatnot,
they're still an INTJ.
Even if an ESFJ learns how to be very logical,
they know how to do math.
They didn't become an INTP.
They're still an ESFJ,
but they took responsibility for those other aspects
of their personality that were maybe
a bit weaker.
This is the same logic that scientists apply
to changing our more general personality traits.
We can change our beliefs, our coping strategies,
and our actions,
but all of these are still in reference
to our original personality.
Your personality, in general, overall, can change.
You can be whatever kind of person you want to be.
You just have to use your innate personality,
your MBTI type,
as a launching point to get there.
Now, I know you might be thinking to yourself
Frank, give us the scoop.
What is the official FJ opinion
on if your Myers Briggs type is like hardwired
fully into you when you're born
or if it takes some time to get solidified?
Because the research would suggest
that identical twins don't always score
with the exact same personality type.
My hypothesis is that your genes
set you up to have a certain range
of types that you could be when you're born.
You're probably born generally with the temperament
that your personality type is gonna end up with.
In other words, the first and last letters.
You're probably born as an EJ, an IJ,
an IP, or an EP.
I would go even further to say that
you're probably born with your dominant function
determined for you.
So, when you're born,
it's basically am I gonna be an INFJ
or an in INTJ?
Am I gonna be INFP or an ISFP?
Look, this is really just a hypothesis,
me speculating based on the data available
that certain factors in your environment
activate your genes in whatever way
and sometime in childhood,
to solidify that personality type.
So, if I had to throw a numba out there,
I don't know. I would say by the time you're eight,
10, 12, you probably have that fully baked
Myers Briggs personality type,
but in the early childhood years
when you're a baby and such, it's close,
but it's not quite fully there.
It's still waiting on those environmental factors
to shape you.
Take it or leave, my hypothesis,
but it's the official FJ stance.
Thanks for watching and until next time,
stay cool and attractive.
♪ They say a stranger's come to town ♪
♪ They call him Mr. Frank James ♪