Why You Are Who You Are

Investigations into Human Personality

By: Mark Leary, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Mark Leary

To understand the roots of personality is to understand motivations and influences that shape behavior, which in turn reflect how you deal with the opportunities and challenges of everyday life. That's the focus of these exciting 24 lectures, in which you examine the differences in people's personalities, where these differences come from, and how they shape our lives.

Drawing on information gleaned from psychology, neuroscience, and genetics, Professor Leary opens the door to understanding how personality works and why. Throughout his illuminating lectures, five important personality traits come into focus, traits that form the foundation of how psychologists approach the topic of personality: extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness.

Combining psychology with neuroscience and behavioral genetics, this exploration will open your eyes to the myriad ways our traits, motives, emotions, beliefs, and values are shaped by things like our genes, environment, experiences, and evolutionary history. Why is it so hard to change our behavior? Why do people develop different values and morals? Does personality change as we age? Is personality passed down through genes?

Designed as a fascinating, accessible scientific inquiry, these lectures will have you thinking about personality in a way that enriches your understanding of the complex psychological processes that make you who you are.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your Library section along with the audio.

©2018 The Teaching Company, LLC; 2018 The Great Courses

Great for workers

Will help you understand why some people are not conscientious. That's a personality trait that is heritable. The professor also can explain a lot of political disagrees with personality characteristics that are primarily genetic. There is not much practical advice in here other than perhaps choose your partner carefully if you're going to have children (and also don't expect people to change!).

great short course!

very insightful and helpful. gave me ideas on how to work better with others. excellent!

A great course

This is a great course; I absolutely loved it. I Learned a great deal from it; I recommend it highly to everyone.

Look A guided tour to understanding what makes us tick

I’m usually skeptical of authors reading their own works, but in this case I can’t imagine anyone else delivering these lectures. Mark Leary’s skill and knowledge as a professor deliver with clarity and insight what might otherwise be a dry topic, and his conversational narration style kept me engaged. I wish I could take one of his classes.

a great piece of work

this book has opened my mind, and has helped me better understand, why I do things I do, and others do the things they do around me.

Quality voice, content, simple explanation

I enjoyed listening to this audiobook and learned new kind of understanding to have different and humble perspective about people that I couldn't understand before.

Interesting take on what shapes personality.

The Great Courses are usually worth a listen. This one certainly isn't earth shattering or terribly exciting, but is useful for people who are always interested in learning more, especially about themselves. You can learn about the Big Five personality traits (and a few others some psychologists would like to add to the list) and how that differes from other personality tests. Get some information on how much of personality comes from your genes versus your life experience, and listen to a discussion on the question of... well, what IS personality, when you get right down to it anyway?

Why I are who you are

Insightful. Interesting. Have taken lot people things to think about in relation to myself and those around me.

Very comprehensive

A very good overview of psychology. Goes over known disorders and categories of personality.

Great Information

Very informative and eye opening to why some people act and or respond to different situations the way they do. It has helped me learn a great deal about how to also respond to different people in different ways or situations. Very much worth the read/listen.