Characteristics of Homo-sapien Personality (Research Paper)
With over 80 billion individually-functioning neurons, the human mind is the most complex organism in the world, possibly in the universe. What makes the brain so complex is not just the thousands of motor commands and responses but the individuality and personality that is produced. Even with several billions of people in the world, everyone is unique, as an impressive result of evolution. However, the difficult part is figuring out why the brain is unlike anything else. Life started as homogenous, single-celled organisms, so it is mind-boggling to fathom how humans have developed into autonomous personalities. It is easy to say that humanity's main characteristic is having emotions, but those emotions are different in each person. The one-in-seven-billion chance of being “you” is humanity’s novel premise. This rarity is because of evolutionary, social-environmental, technological, and hierarchical reasons over time.
To talk about the characteristics of Homo-sapien personality, historical patterns and conventional behaviors must be considered. Instinctually, people are born with two basic fears: loud noises and falling. If history is considered, these natural fears are evident. Baby birds must not fall out of their nests, and loud noises can signify a predator. Furthermore, learned habits are what cause other fears such as those of pain and death. Now, the reason why basic fears are essential is that they are incentives for everyday actions. Throughout the day, people make plans based on anxiety. If someone has the option to go to the cinema with friends or to stay at home with family, the decision will depend on unique fears and the process of elimination, and part of that decision-making process is derived from evolutionary fears. Over time, these decisions will end up forming a personality like a long string. Because of evolution, more knots in the string will form into a person's unique pattern of individualism.
Autonomous decision-making is not the only factor that influences someone's personality. Other people are also influential. Later on in history, communities started forming. Then, another variable was introduced: hierarchical influences and social constructs. Hierarchical diffusion describes the spread of ideas through people of the same class or hierarchy. This idea can be applied to personality building. Tying into evolution, people who were hunter-gatherers had a niche that they played in society. Those people evolved to have a specific skill set, which influenced personality. In a modern lens, someone in the working class who goes to public school is going to be influenced by people in the same situation. Someone from this class may gain ideas that secondary or tertiary jobs are necessary to be successful, while someone from a high class may gain ideas that working in a quaternary fashion is needed to make a living. Overall, a lot of a person’s perceivable personality comes from people of similar social circles.
On another level of social-environmental impacts, personalities are also formed by direct social influences. Children develop habits based on their close family and friends; however, rapidly-changing ideas such as political views are likely caused by something else entirely. Social-environmental beliefs these days are not limited to in-person contact because of the world of technology. This means that ideas can spread to children from the news and social media. Naturally, parents are selective about what they show their children, so in the end, most of the parents' beliefs will trickle down to their children. For example, in a democratically-dominant household, because parents make actions and give the children media, ideas such as supporting developing communities and pro-abortion will spread to the children. However, it is still possible to have a family with conflicting beliefs, and that occurrence is becoming more common because of technology. Variables are becoming abundantly inexorable, and especially in the modern-day, there are countless possibilities in which the strings of life can knot and intertwine.
Starting from the beginning of time, humans have worked tremendously for the freedom of individualism, beginning with stimulus-response to survive and ending with the modern influences of technology and globalization. Given that a person who is able to make decisions is needed to develop a personality, yes, people can indeed "choose" their character traits. However, choices are narrowed significantly because of external reasons, therefore, it is safe to say that personalities are formed by external motives.
