The Science of Personality Change
Your personality is the set of basic traits that makes you you, influencing your habits of thought and behaviour. But how fixed are they? The great American psychologist William James said that our personality is set like plaster by age 30. But new findings show that while there is a degree of stability in our traits, we also continue to change in meaningful ways through our lives – our personalities are more like plastic than plaster.
In this talk, psychologist and author Dr Christian Jarrett will explore the pros and cons of the main personality traits, the role they play in shaping our lives, how your traits are likely to change as you age and in response to different experiences. But we don’t have to be passive: you’ll also discover evidence-based ways that you can deliberately change your personality.
About the Speaker:

Dr Christian Jarrett, PhD
Dr Christian Jarrett is a psychologist and author of PERSONOLOGY – using the Science of Personality Change to your advantage. A cognitive neuroscientist by training, Christian now works for the BPS as editor of their award-winning Research Digest blog. He writes regularly for the BBC, 99U and his recent TED-ED lesson has been viewed over 500,000 times. He tweets at @Psych_Writer.
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Next Event:
- University of Greenwich, London
- 18/12/2022
