Has your personality changed significantly throughout your life?

[Jaguar]

No. But I thought it would be an interesting question.

[Timexwatch]

Aren't you a teenager? A bit presumptive, aren't we?

[BeBMan]

If you never change then something is wrong

[JohnT]

An individuals personality changes all the time, Jaguar. It's called "growing up."

Sometimes you have can have dramatic personality changes caused by trauma (emotional or physical).

[Sava]

I'm 22, and no. In fact, it was startling to hear some of my relatives and parent's friends tell me stories of what I was like as a youngster. At 4, I asked my very religious grandmother, "If God is everywhere, why do I have to go to church?", "If you are good, but don't believe in Jesus, do you still go to heaven?", and "What about all the people that lived before the Bible was written? Did they go to hell?"... she looked at me with a somewhat fake smile and said, "But Jesus loves you". From that point, I really stopped taking religion seriously.

I've was an obnoxious kid, that didn't really change.

If anything, I'm more negative now because I've learned about how much the world sucks.

[JohnT]

But Sava, it sounds like when you were four you were questioning and full of wonder. Now that you are 22, you are blindingly dogmatic and full of s***. I'd consider that to be a major personality change!

[Sirotnikov]

I think it did.

I became more outgoing, more self reliant, more sure of one self (and recently - less sure of one self).

I became more of a leader.

Basically - I believe that everything we do and exprience in life changes us. Though some things can change us in trends which are already set - thus they don't appear to change us.

Ex: I'm very... uhm... stingy. I decide to try and spend more money than I used to, and immediatelly get fooled by some false advertising. As a result I return to my stingyness and get even more stingy.

People who didn't wittness this incident would assume I'm just naturally developing into being more and more stingy.

[General Ludd]

Yes, I was once baby Hitler. I think that is because I lived in windsor, and pretty much the only channel we got was a local FOX station from across the border. Damned americans, tainting my young mind!

[monolith94]

I used to be mroe excitable and have more impatience. And less tolerance for various aspects of culture. I got better.

[Myrddin]

There is no doubt that your personality changes, and is heavily affected by what you are doing

Proof

Try doing a personality questionnaire, lock it away in a drawer for a couple of years and do it again

There will be a significant difference

[SlowwHand]

Mine has.
As a teenager I was a punk just like a lot here.
Then I went in the military. Met people. Saw things. Learned.

Never going back again.

[Az]

"got to the military" my ass. You just got old.

[monkspider]

Yep, back when I was young I was very, very conservative, probably to the right of posters like Imran or Ned even. ( )
Thankfully, as I have matured, and grown a great deal spiritually, I have become far more liberal. I could never imagine wanting to go back. That is probably the most salient change I have encountered in my personality over the years.

[Lorizael]

When I was younger I was a depressed, nihilistic little **** that cared only for myself, paid no heed to the emotions and feelings of my friends, and sought confrontation.

Then I lost my bestfriend (for those very reasons (though I didn't know it at the time)) read a couple of books that completely changed the way I looked at the world, and saw the world fall into chaos on September 11.

Now I'm a crazy pacifistic liberal with delusions of grandeur regarding saving the world and writing books. I'm much more open and much less confrontational (I don't argue about anything except the fate of the world, the fate of me, and the very, very important aspects of my relationships with people).

Generally I'd say I am a much better person than I was before, with the notable exception that I am so logical as to annoy the hell out of my friends. I think too much, analyze too much, live not enough.

[Drake Tungsten]

"If you're not a liberal when you're 25, you have no heart. If you're not a conservative by the time you're 35, you have no brain."