How tightly integrated are our personalities?

and on the other they know that the fear is groundless

Are you sure about this? I know many people who have irrational fears, who use any statistic they can get their hands on to “prove” how grounded their fear is. Or, they ignore all statistics and justify their fear based on whatever they can find, sometimes using anecdotes.

Furthermore, I don’t believe that the example of flying in an airplane is a good one for examining how similar or dissimilar our personalities may be. With regards to heights, it is easy to explain why many humans are apprehensive about them – it’s a survival instinct. The human body doesn’t have much of a chance to survive a long fall. Natural selection may favour a human who was apprehensive around heights over one who may not be apprehensive, as the non-apprehensive one may have higher odds of dying due to a height-related fall (considering that for most of human evolution, we did not have reliable tools to aid us with heights). Another angle to consider is the speed at which our bodies move while in a plane. Such speeds are not speeds that human bodies are built to travel at. Our instinct for survival recognizes this, and thus may cause us to become apprehensive.

Flight is still very new to us, when you consider humanity’s entire existence. It’s no surprise that we haven’t completely abolished all fears related to it.

Another thing to consider is the interesting fact that we are essentially old-world humans in a new-world era. Our brains have not evolved anywhere near as fast as our technology and sciences have. Despite our knowledge and awareness of who we are and how the body works, humans still have a ‘gut instinct’ that can lead them to a different choice or conclusion despite the abundance of evidence which shows the correct answer. For further reading on this, I highly recommend the book “Risk: The science and politics of fear” by Dan Gardner.

There are 5 basic personality traits in humans. Some of us lean towards one trait more than another.

Openness – appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience.

Conscientiousness – a tendency to show self-discipline, act dutifully, and aim for achievement; planned rather than spontaneous behavior.

Extraversion – energy, positive emotions, surgency, and the tendency to seek stimulation and the company of others.

Agreeableness – a tendency to be compassionate and cooperative rather than suspicious and antagonistic towards others.

Neuroticism – a tendency to experience unpleasant emotions easily, such as anger, anxiety, depression, or vulnerability; sometimes called emotional instability.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Five_personality_traits

Was nobody else tempted to make a pun on the fear of flying being ‘groundless’?!

I equate the current state of the “science of personality” with the current state of the science of quantum physics. Everyone is certain that we have discovered the way things work – for a year or two – then the scientists make another discover and have to wipe all the chalk off their boards and start over.

@benseven – LOL, I like that.

How tightly integrated are our personalities to what? Integration suggests a relationship between two things…

@nikipedia Personality integration is a Jungian concept. The premise is that much of our behavior is rooted in subconscious impulses, so that there’s a disconnect between our conscious, rational understanding of the world and our actual behavior. Integration involves becoming aware of the subconscious motivations, the “shadow self”, in such a way that it’s no longer obstructive.

@Harp, I was not aware of the Jungian origin of the concept.

What I am thinking of is that the brain is compartmentalized into different sections. As far as we know, there is no master controller, no little guy inside the brain calling the shots. Somehow all the different subsystems have to be coordinated. So how then is any kind of consistency of behavior achieved? Consider the extreme case of a person with multiple personalities, where not just one but several distinct personalities are separately integrated.

Daniel Dennett, in his book Consciousness Explained , envisioned a kind of race for control among the various sections. I did not find this to be a very satisfactory explanation.