Beneath the complexity

Personality is a very hard entity to define or to recognize in its entirety.  As psychologists have studied it over the years (at least 150), they have tried to give its characteristics.  At first they explored it as a philosophy behind a person's actions. Then, some of them took the reductionist approach.  These psychologists classified major traits and saw that these traits formed basic groups.  A particular psychometric company even administered a test that allowed people to see their patterns of thinking and behavior based on 4 main traits that they seemed to act on.  Disastrous.  There really is no such thing as a Type A personality.

Some psychologists have decided to find patterns in what people are interested in.  These interests help define a person because they manifest themselves in jobs, hobbies, and philosophical persuasions.  Tests were developed to let people see how their interests could drive them in major areas of life.  People answer a series of questions that cater to the manifestations of their interests.  Again disastrous.  People's interests and values are derivatives of personality, but they don't tell what underlies them.  The real nemesis for this view is that people change, or at least become more experienced, and thus, interests can follow a different path than their philosophy at the time they took the test.  Does personality change?  Of course not.

Personality is a hard deer to hunt.  It is more than interest, behavior, talents, and aptitude.  It is also more than the sum of those.  It depends on interactions between people and events.  It is dependent in part on priorities assigned to various values delicately balanced between what is experienced and what is inherited.  A part of the formula has to include patterns that emerge and the search for what underlies those patterns.  But another part of the formula must include reasons for acting and finding what contributes to forming those reasons.

It's complicated.  But here's the final result.  People relate to each other because of personality.  Hatred and disdain are driving forces for personality.  So are attraction and admiration on the other end of the spectrum.  Personality alignment is the game people play when hiring, forming friendships, developing routines such as timeliness, turn-taking in conversation, showing interest, avoidance, and hundreds of automatic and deliberate actions and reactions.

But, even though personality is a complex issue to discuss, define, and classify, people find it beautiful when personalities harmonize.  It gives life  more quality.  When personalities don't match so well, quality is sacrificed.  And the decision to act on being with people of complementary personalities is also a function of personality because it governs priority assigned to values such as change, tradition, perception of (or by) others, approval of third parties.

I do know one thing is very true about personality.  When two personalities harmonize, enjoyment rises to its highest level making life worth living, and the absence of harmony makes life less navigable, certainly much less enjoyable.