The Differences Between Identity and Personality

Written by: Numair Qureshi

Your Identity is not the same as your personality.

Personality is fluid, and it can change based on the situation you are in. We can see personality manifest itself in the Big Five OCEAN model, characterized by Openness, Conscientiousness, Extroversion-Introversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism.

It is incorrect to view yourself as fixed in any one of these traits. For example, to view yourself strictly as an "extrovert" is not exemplary of who you completely are because there may be situations where you need to express more introversion.

For example, if you're sitting at the NBA championships and your team is doing well, you may express a ton of Extroversion; if you're at school, it may be best - for the respect of your classmates - to be more of an introvert.

Personality is fluid.

This is an important realization to make and take in because what this means is that you have the capacity to become more extroverted if you desire to be so, and you have the ability to show agreeableness when your default tendency may be to disagree, and so on.

All these personality traits can be strengthened and tailored to adapt to various situations we come across in our lives.

Identity, however, is of a more rigid and permanent construct. I am not going to discuss gender identity here or sexual orientation, because those are topics that lend a discussion unto themselves. However, the type of Identity I am referring to is the one that is fundamentally the root of your actual and unique composition as a human.

In simpler terms, what I mean to say is that ALL people exhibit the same personality traits (OCEAN); however, NO two people are truly identical (identity). Even identical twins have different identities.

Identity must have its own roots, then. It must be grounded in something that is not as fluid as personality.

My theory is that Identity is grounded in four quadrants:
1. Memes: the units of cultural inheritance, or the theory of how culture and ideas are transmitted from person to person.

2. Intelligences- there are 9 of them according to Howard Gardner. These intelligences are observable and measurable within the brain to an extent (reference the right brain/left brain theory).

3. Talents - we are all born with different talents, which are expressions of our innate, predominant, intelligences.

4. Nurture - which is our interplay with the universe and how society plays a hand in helping guide is into becoming our differentiated and actualized selves.

In order to localize these aspects of the self to a more comprehensive and personal level, I prefer referring to these four as:

1. Heroes - the specific Memes that give you an orientation to become something greater than the self.

2. Intelligences

3. Talents

4. Collections - how you build your environment as a projection of the self, and you design it according to who you are.