In Geography of Thought, Nisbett states that “Americans regard personalities as relatively fixed and Asians regard them as more malleable” (120). Do you think your personality is fixed? Or flexible? Explain.
Q.2
In Chapter 5, Nisbett gives an example of a Chinese student in Iowa University who killed his advisor and his collegues (111~112). Do you think you have more focus on the disposition of the person or the context when thinking about the cause of such an incident? Take the case of “Akihabara Torima” incident as an example in Japanese society and give your opinion on whether you attribute the cause to the person or the context (Japanese society) in this case.
Q.3
In chapter 5, it is said that Koreans were more holistic in their beliefs than Americans, and the following examples are given to describe such a view (129).
-Everything in the universe is somehow related to everything else.
-It is not possible to understand the pieces without considering the whole picture.
Do you agree or disagree (or somewhat between) with these ideas?Also, write your opinion if these holistic ideas are related to ICU's Liberal Arts Education system.
Dear CD
Please answer to one of these questions.
Your answers could be in any length, any style, so just feel free to post your comment.
Group5 Leaders:
Yukie Kawamura
Nozomi Obinata
Kanako Takahashi
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAnswer to question 1:
ReplyDeleteI believe a personality undergoes constant change throughout one's lifetime.
What comes with every new experience is a shift, however slight, in how you understand and analyze something. Those "shifts" are what I believe that compose someone's personality. An extreme example would be traumas; experiences that expose a person to extreme fear or anxiety could result in a great alternation of that person's personality and behaviour.
Also, the belief that personality is changeable is an optimistic view of people's nature. If you're able to think that people are able to change and perhaps able to "reform" their personalities if they try(the flaws, for the most part), you'd have hope in building relationships with people you at first thought you wouldn't be able to become friends with. That's why I always try to keep this in mind and not be intimidated by or discomforted when encountering anyone.
For question 2
ReplyDeleteI focus more on the context. In the case of “Akibahara Torima”, the criminal had been feeling a lot of stress from his surroundings and that eventually lead him to commit such crime. One of his stresses is stress from his family. His family made him to become a good student telling him what to do. Also,notion of “Kachigumi” and “makegumi” in the society drove him to hate the society and to attempt to destroy it.
However, I also think that context also cause the disposition of the person too. It seems that they are closely related.
From Ms Takaki:
ReplyDeleteI will like to answer to question #1(♥´ｖ`ｐ)
I think that my personality is fixed.
I hate losing, and a nervous person. By this personality that I have, I sometimes concentrate on one thing too much, and make me blind to the world around me.
This personality causes to hurt people’s feelings. After realizing that I had hurt someone, I really regret it, and try to change my character. However, I always fail to do so. I think changing your personality is a very tough thing to do.
On the other hand, I think changing your personality depending on people is not a good thing to do. Japanese people often do this, because they want everyone to like them.
It is very hard for me to decide whether personalities should be fixed or flexible. However, I think personalities are important. So, every person should have their own fixed personality.
I will answer question1.
ReplyDeleteI think my personality is relatively flexible. I am a typical Japanese, and I don’t want to bother others. When I was a elementary students, I was so quiet person. And when I was a senior high school student, I was so loud and cheerful person. So I am easy to be influenced by my surroundings such as classmates, club members and environment. Now I try to be fixed person because in the university, I meet many people. If I am influenced by many people I meet during my college life, my personality would be lost.
I would like to answer #1.
ReplyDeleteI think my personality is rather flexible,I mean, just like Yuriko,I always try to make myself harmonious with others unconsciouly. It is not necessarily a good thing, but I cannot change this. I think Japanese people tend to be so careful about others and surroundings that they feel very stressful. I sometimes feel that way,too. However,I try not to be influenced by others so much so that I could have "myself."
Nozomi Otaki
I will answer Q#1.
ReplyDeleteI think my personality as the self is fixed. Well, I might "kill" myself in certain times and situations, if I feel the need and can bear it. But changing something like a personality, which requires you to "kill" and furthermore, to "overwrite" your foundation is hard to do for me. I only have the on-and-off switch.
I think personality is different from characters since characters are like the outer case for iPhones. It does not change the function, which is the self and the self is what I define as personality.
Thank you for your comment Nanako!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that his surroundings had a lot to do with this incident. I also think that family pressure is a big stress, especially when they tell you what to do without telling you why. It is also very true that, Kachigumi and Makegumi measurement is in our society, and most probably he felt himself on the later side. I think that this notion meaningless in a sense that there are many ways of life and you can`t simply measure it by that. At the same time, I also think it is almost factual that, in terms of income and social acknowledgement, the society is largely divided into several social classes at the point when you enter university. Especially when you are on the weaker side, it would be felt as a harsh reality of the society. If I were him, I cannot promise I won`t do the same thing. So, I agree with your idea that the type of society we live in is closely related his disposition to some extent. May be we should consider a better way of society.
For question 1
ReplyDeleteI used to think that my personality was flexible, because I change my language, character, and tone depending on the person. Moreover, my personality changes depending on the circumstances. For example, especially when I speak to elders, I use Keigo, and change my words and tone of my voice. I usually become calm and gentle. On the other hand, when I speak with close friends and classmates, I speak louder and my voice becomes low.
However, in ICU, many people tell me that I’m on my own pace (my pace). For me, I do not think this way, but I think I do have some fixed personalities. For example, I tend to say “no” to things that I don’t want to do because I do not understand the reason of it. However, my friends tell me that if your personality is flexible, it is impossible to refuse especially to senpai.
Now, I think having personality of both fixed and flexible is the best. It is important to have your own way of thinking and changing ideas depending on the situation if needed.
Dear Yurika,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment.
So, you thought that your personality was flexible because it changes depending on the person you were talking to, or the situation you were in. However, you think your personality is fixed now because you have your own opinions and you are able to express them.
I really like the idea that the personality should be fixed and flexible at the same time because it means that you have your own ideas or thoughts but you can be adjustable depending on the situation!
Dear Yuriko,
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting on question #1.
You think that your personality is flexible because you tend to change it depending on the surroundings. However, you think having fixed personality is better in university (and other communities with many people) so that you don't lose your "self".
I agree with your idea because adapting your personality based on the society you are in can be stressful. When you don't have the affixed personality, you will soon be lost with yourself and go, "What is the real me??"
Dear Yuta,
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment!
So, you think that you have stabilized personality, but you sometimes decide not to express your personality depending on the situation.
Then, when and how do you think your personality got fixed??
I am going to answer Question 1
ReplyDeleteI think my personality is malleable. I change the behavior, tone, and context of my speech depend on whom I speak to. In Japan, it would be hard if we stayed with one personality all the time. We need to adjust our personality depend on different situations. I act differently when I am with my friends and with my family and when I am in the part time job. Furthermore, I feel it is rude to stay in one personality as we grow up. The flexibility allows me to live more comfortably and avoid troubles.
Thank you for your comment Naoko!
ReplyDeleteSo your idea is that one`s personality can change through out the lifetime.The term “shift” that you used in explaining the change in understanding the world is very interesting. Although I hold the opposite position from yours, I can`t fully disagree with your notion. It is truly so, that experience causes a lot of difference. However, I still think that the core is the same regardless to experience. “The child is father to the man”. I hold a view like in this saying.
Consequently, I must disagree with your idea that you can expect people to change, so you have hope for becoming nice friends even if you don`t really like the person at first encounter. According to my experience, people who I thought I wouldn`t hope to get along with at first few days observation, could never become anybody better than that after months or years. So, my opinion is that, good or bad, the first impression determines everything about the relationship between you and the person you encounter.
Thank you for your comment, Naoko!
ReplyDeleteI share your idea that our personality undergoes constant changes throughout our life.
You said that “shifts” are composition of oneself (personality), and I also think that whatever I have experienced are essential to my personality (that means, who I am right now).
Have you ever experienced important “shafts” that especially essential to you?
(You don't have to write in here since it might be very personal.)
Thinking about such influential shafts might tell you who you are and what is the important things in your life.
In my case, I cannot imagine myself without having experience of spending a time in the US.
It was one of the best and the most challenging time in my life that had strong impact on me.
It was the shaft that changed my life afterward.
I also like your idea that alternation of person's personality is good to make our life more enjoyable.
Being honest, I have experienced very terrible experiences (shafts) in my life, and, yes, they were tough. (I think we all have some kind of terrible “shafts” that make us to think, “I wish it didn't happened.”)
Those tough shafts just changed my view of the world, and I even thought they destroyed my life.
At that time, I was totally lost myself and had no idea who I was (it's like an identity crisis).
However, now I can give a lot of meaning in such challenging shafts, and I'm able to think that these shafts helped me to grow up. They are like spices in my life (maybe it was too spicy though!).
Without of such shafts, I'm not the one I am right now. So I guess I can say, “thank you” to such spicy shafts.
I hope that we can experience a lot of “shafts” in ICU.
No matter what kind of “shafts” (good or bad) we encounter, as long as we have an attitude you mentioned, we can use them to improve ourselves (our personalities) in the future.
The time in ICU is maybe only the slight shaft in our life, but let's enjoy it!
I'm really thankful to be able to have many shafts in ICU with you guys.
Just you mentioned, I'm not be here without all the shafts I have throughout my life.
I'd like to say, “thank you” to all the shafts I have experienced up to now and those that we will experience in the future!
From Nozomi Shiraishi:
ReplyDeleteSorry for being late!
For question 2
I think the person caused this “akihabara tourima” incident. In high school, we have talked about this incident in our class. We read the internet page which the suspect used to write just before the incident. There, the suspect wrote about him being betrayed by his friends and family. When I read that passage, I didn’t think it was people around him, but it was himself who made him to cause this incident. He might have been betrayed by his family and friends, but that doesn’t it was their fault. The suspect could have cooled his temper if he had tried. Therefore in my opinion, it is not the context, but person who causes incidents.
Thank you for your comment, Moe!
ReplyDeleteI agree that changing one's personality is not an easy thing to do.
When I think backed about myself, I'm not sure if I have changed greatly. (Every times I see my close friends from an elementary school, we always say to each other, “you haven't changed at all since you graduated from the elementary school!”)
So maybe we don't change the core (central) personality that we have although we change outer personality (less important parts in our personality) because our perspective and interpretation of the world is relatively fixed based on our experiences.
I would also agree that we change how we act depending on situation or who you are with, but I think that is more “read the Kuki” and differentiating your actions (choosing how to present yourself) rather than changing a personality.
For example, compare your attitude when you are in front of you mom and in front of your boyfriend. Probably, there are differences, but you' re not the different person. You just acts differently.
Deciding if your personality should be fixed or flexible is a challenging question to answer (and I think that really depends on person), but it might be a good question to try to find answers throughout your time in ICU.
Even me(5 years older than you, probably?), there are times that I think I haven't found out enough about myself. I think I need more to time to know about myself.
So I hope that you will have a better idea of what kind of person you want to be (what is the important things that make you “Moe”) by meeting with a lot of different people, experiencing different activities, and learning different perspectives, beliefs, values, and attitudes in ICU.
If you think that you should have a fixed personality, then what will be?
Hope we can both have find our the answers for that question before we graduate from ICU!
Thank you for your comment Saki!
ReplyDeleteYou think that personality is flexible and by adapting the personality depending on the person you are talking to or situation you are in can avoid troubles.
You said that in Japan, it is hard to live without adjusting personality. Do you think it is easy (not so hard) to live with fixed personality in other countries?? (from your own experience abroad??)
Ryota seems to have a problem posting the comment, so I will just copy and paste for him.
ReplyDeletePlease reply to him, if needed.
I will answer question #2
I think it was context that made the murderer of the incident to kill. What I think caused him to do such a thing is that he did not have a single friend who could listen to what he was thinking. He had changed his job for five times before he murdered those people. I do not think changing your job for five times in three years was not caused by his personality; it was the depression in economy or the society that caused him to get fired. If he did not have to change his job so much he could have at least make a friend in his workplace. The fact that he had to change his job so much shows that he did not receive much money to have a hobby. The only thing he could do was write his frustration to the internet and have communication through internet. I do not think this is how normal person should live. It is true that what he did was absolutely wrong, however, if he had someone who could understand his feelings, the incident would never have happened. Therefore I think it was the context that made the murderer to murder.
Thank you for your comment, Nozomi Otaki!
ReplyDeleteYou said that you unconsciously changed your personality in each situation, and you cannot change that. Personally, I think that choosing your actions depending on situation is somewhat different from changing your personality. I mentioned this point in Moe's comment too, but you probably act differently on the stage of Owaraiken, a comic skit. On the stage, you're an entertainer and you are expected to make audiences to have a exciting time which is quite different from what you are expected during ELP class.
You also mentioned that you were influenced by other people around you was not necessarily a good thing. However, I think that kind of attitude is very important as a member of Owaraiken. Entertaining people by making them laugh cannot be achieved without understanding toward other people's thinking and feelings. So I think that (understanding toward people around you) is one of your strength!
I'm interested in how you try to be yourself so that you don't have to feel stressed out by adjusting yourself to others. What actually makes you “yourself,” and not somebody else?
Also, do you think that there will be influential events or persons that will have strong impact on you that can change greatly how you are right now? Or have you ever have such kind of experiences in your life? (In my case, my ex-boyfriend changed me greatly.)
If you can share, I'd like to hear about it (not necessary on this blog since they are probably like very personal, but maybe during the next CD party?). If it's not, then never mind! I think secrets make a woman more attractive!
Sorry for late commenting
ReplyDeleteFor question 1
I think my personality is flexible as Koreans. As Yurika said, my personality slightly changes by the place I stand. For example, in my family, I am the eldest sister so my personality becomes older and feels I have responsibly for my siblings. That is different personality than how I act and feel in the classroom or the dorm. In classroom, everyone stands on same place, I mean, they are all students so I can talk freely. I think that I have many “faces” that I change as circumstances. For each surrounding, I have different positions and roles and I slightly change my personality to fit that positions and roles.
From Ms Inoue:
ReplyDeleteI am very sorry that I comment too late but my pc did not allowed me to post a comment. So I am trying from the beginning.
I want to answer for question 1.
I think my personality is malleable because I guess my personality actually and completely changed through my high school life. Until I entered high school, I only had asian way of thinking, liked to be normal. However, in the high school, I came in contact with many people who had western way of thinking and wanted to be unique. It was kind of culture shock for me. At the first time, I could not accept them and avoided ,but I eventually used to it. That means my personality which accept only asian way of thinking has changed. I do not know what my personality is like, but I guess I have a piece of western way now.
Also, even now my personality is different by who I am talking with. I think it is akay as long as it is not on purpose. i do not mean to behave differently, but I naturally changed how to behave. So I think it is still who I am what called in Japanese “su”.
Thank you for your comment Ryota!
ReplyDeleteIt is absolutely true that the context had made him commit such crime. I truly agree with you that human relations are very important for a person especially when he is having trouble in life, because just by being able to share complaints with colleagues could have made him feel much better. Internet may be a good place for sharing ideas, but that is not actually face-to-face communication, and also, internet communication is mostly anonymous, so as it happened actually, he received harassing and got totally ignored by others on internet. As you say, the economic depression could be one major context that he had to commit such crime. But was it the only choice for him to commit the killing? I think he just cannot be excused for taking away multiple lives just for his frustration.
Thank you for your comment Shiraishi san
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to here about your research in highschool. So, in the internet page, the suspect was writing that he was betrayed by his family and his friends. And your opinion is that it is his responsibility that he could not calm down. I partly agree with you, that it was his lack of some qualities in communicating with people. However, it was probably a heartbreaking situation for him when he found out he could not trust anybody. Humans cannot live without connecting with people. When he lost his trust to his closest connections (family and friends), I think that he could not find any hope for living anymore and was experiencing a serious despair.
Thank you for your comment Yumi.
ReplyDeleteI also think that my personality change depending on the situation. And I think that it is quite natural because as you say, you cannot define yourself without considering who your surroundings are. However, that type of attitude brings a problem. During my elementary school years, when I met my family and my school friends at the same time I always didn`t know how I should act, because I used to act totally different in school and home. So I think some part of your personality may change but should keep the core part always the same.
Thank you for your comment Ms Inoue.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting to hear how you eventually got used to different type of attitude and changed your view through your high school years. On everyday basis, I also experience differences in my attitude depending on who I am talking to. I think it is totally natural since communication is two-way process and both of the communicators influence each other during the process.
I believe the personality is flexible. I assume many people have the idea that one can get affected by the surrounding environment including people and location. In my experience, my personality has changed over time when I was aware of disorder, that is, when I noticed that I was not able to see the sides that everyone else was aware of.
ReplyDeleteWith the expanded view, one will have different attitude towards the surroundings.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Hiroki!
ReplyDeleteI believe your answer is for Question 1
So your idea is that your personality can change when you notice new aspects of things. I agree with you that with wider perspective, your view on the world becomes very different. Especially when you go outside of your own country, I think many people experience such change in the view of the world. They change not only in terms of knowing the other side of the world, but they also start to have different view of their home country when they come back.