Individualness: Who & What are you?

Mankind's tendency to quickly "profile" a person by generalizations probably had (and STILL has) survival advantages. Without even thinking about it, we learn to "profile" people by age, gender, personality type, neighborhood, speech patterns or dialects, perceived or known extent of education, job type, social class, "looks", habits, clothing, size and shape, common interests or forbidden interests, religion or lack of religion, friends in common, etc. Almost immediately, we ALL make a preliminary judgement about (1) our safety near that person and (2) maybe...depending on circumstances...whether the person is judged one of our "birds of a feather flock together". Gangs do certain tattoos, clothing, eyebrow or hair cuts which deliberately allow other members to quickly profile to be initially comfortable that the observed person is a member of the "flock".Though studies to prove whether profiling is valuable or a waste of time would be impossible to do in a way people could find "fair", Darwinian common sense strongly suggests that there is value. The Christian "Way" of Jesus indicates that profiling is just an initial step and should be open to quick modification based on particular situations. In my lifetime, the dumbness of maintaining a generalization of a person (or group of people) by "profiling" is a tendency whoppingly strong in political types, the intelligentsia, the media, and religious organizations. Political organizations use profiling to denigrate, polarize, or divide (rather than heal or unite). The intelligentsia use it to strut their superior store of academic and historical knowledge. The media use inflammatory & negative generalizations to keep people stirred up so that they "watch" and "read" media products more often & bring in large advertizing money. Check this set of links for elements of what make you, "you", HERE.

In the human drive for power, there is a tendency for us to want others to conform to standards which we prefer. Whole national politicalmovements can be focused on either more government control or less government control. The spectrum of such attempts to exert power to control you end up as part of the struggle all the way down into family and small social and friendship groups. This brings up the need to consider "boundaries".

Boundaries:____.

Judgementalism is is a personal disposition or state of mind where-in you are quick to lump people profile types too quickly (& with a tendency for you to be resistant to changing that initial profile classification) into a category that is less desirable than your category.

Evolutionary limits:

As has been pointed out elsewhere in this website, "DIFFERENCES" have been tolerated within worldwide society much better in some countries only since the 1960s. So, mankind has at least 15,000 years of genetic and social evolutionary adaptation accrued in favor of "sameness" and prejudicial (profiling) thinking & grouping. Growing up as a child in the 1940s-50s, I was aware of strong pressures to "fit in" and "be alike" and be "like-minded". Though we may be truly unaware of it, we are all different in dozens...if not 100s...of ways. What makes this so? Marriage difficulties often start because the parties do not understand the differences between men and women. Ever heard of the books pointing out just gender difference such as John Gray's 1992 "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" & Bill & Pam Farrel's 2007 "Men Are Like Waffles--Women Are Like Spaghetti"?

Types of things:

Lets just glance very superficially at an outline of a few of the aspects/attributes of us. When I was a youngster and TV had just come into being, there was a game show which asked the contestants questions and centered an aspect of the answer on whether the object was (1) animal, (2) vegetable, or (3) mineral...the only choices possible.

Love:

Because so many aspects & factors comprise who a person is and therefore how different we all must be (one from another), it is amazing that humans have been able to organize...in spite of differences...and accomplish (for good or bad) all that has happened in human history.  Love [defined] helps to bridge the differences & is a key teaching of Jesus [short love-topic essay]! The ability to be thankful & have gratitude may be directly related to one's capacity to love.

Identity:

Also, all of the factors/components of your personhood come together in your mind and make up your "identity"...who you deeply see yourself as (both consciously & subconsciously). Did you identify most strongly with your mother or father? If you had only one parent, there is likely a strong undercurrent of gender identification with that parent. This may result in some degree of "gender confusion" if your gender is biologically the opposite of that parent. As a male, for example, one adds on other possible identification subcategories (such as: a man, a father, a golfer, a welder, a pathologist, a homemaker, an abused spouse, a liquor-store owner, a preacher, a failure, a person of potential but always held back by "low self esteem", a Christian, etc.). Great internal anxiety/conflict can happen when a person says he/she is one thing and actually down deep "is" another thing. Many have a difficult time keeping straight who they are from what they do...or, maybe they are what they do.

You can see that we have many identities, and where we rank (is the rank actually the same as what we "say" it is?) each identity can have a profound effect on those close to us & on our role-modeling for children & grandchildren. Now a further outline of factors in differences:

Biological (nature) Factors:

•  genetic (life beginning...when?) factors:
   
  genetic directions reside in genes which make up the 46 chromosomes
   
  genes state whether one becomes animal or vegetable...or human and,
   
  gender: male or female
   
  identical twins: same genes but different degree of penetrance (the degree to which the genetic info penetrates from gene molecules to the actual physical expression of that info).
   
  parental identification: the genetic DNA contributed from a male to combine with her DNA & fertilize the egg of a female may contain genetic info that allow & cause yearning within that newly created individual for special relational interactions between the person and his/her parents (both the male & female sources of the DNA that combined to form that new person).
     
• psyche (the "biological" aspect of emotions, impulses, & drives of the "mind") factors:
   
  our conscious (minor) aspect (superego) of psyche: how we "govern" ourselves as persons/individuals/groups.
   
  our of unconscious (major...like a huge hidden gyroscope committed to keeping the "you" as "you"...a large part of why it is so hard to change) aspect of or psycheour :
   
              ego: a higher-minded, less self-centered force.
   
              id: a base and low-minded, totally selfish
     
• "normal" vs. "impaired" status: what is "normal"?
    
• intelligence potentials: some "smarter" than others and/or in different ways.
    
• physical potentials: some with greater strength & dexterity, etc., than others.
    
• race: there are some sorts of differences between races (mostly cultural).
    
• gender: there are some sorts of powerful differences between the genders.
    
• attitudinal: some see a half-filled glass of water as "half full" and others as "half empty"; some tend to be focused back at the past...what has already happened...and others are present or future oriented (one related quote: "The windshield is bigger than the rear view mirror"). Some are happy and some gloomy. Could any of these attitudinal things be based in biology? Or are they reflections of the various temperaments, below?
  

Social (nurture) Factors:

•   Personality types are different:
   
    psyche (the "learned" aspect of emotions, impulses, drives): 
   
           conscious aspect (superego): learned limits & boundaries; relatively minor component.
   
           unconscious (unaware) aspect: relatively huge component.
   
                     ego: see above.
   
                     id: see above.
     

types or temperaments (by classification systems):

Table of Equivalents for the 4 Personality Types

            
        
    
   
From Young Ladies Christian Fellowship website

• Spiritual inclinations differ: as has been said for hundreds of years (B. P.), in each person's  heart  is a God-shaped vacuum...people fill the vacuum in different ways in inner-compelled attempts
  to find God. And, whether acknowledging God or not, each human possesses:
   
  God-given (but possibly not yet discovered) purpose.
   
  God-given talents..."giftedness".
   
  God-given SPIRITUAL gifts.
     
• Experiential factors: Whether we generate them or they come "out of the blue" upon us (epi-individual), our life experiences vary; childhood ones tend to be epi-individual and later ones are layered on as consequences of our own choices in life plus the confounding, continuing onslaught of epi-individual factors.
     
• Epi-individual factors (outside forces impacting the individual):
     
• cultural origin influences (for example: Jewish; Oriental).
    
• nationality influences (USA; Chinese; Italian).
    
• governmental system influences: representative democracy vs. socialist democracy vs. kingdom vs. brutal dictatorship.
    
• generational influences (children of The Great Depression vs. children of the internet age).
    
• regional cultural (Southern USA; Northern USA; southern Italy, Sicilian).
    
• neighborhood (raised in ghetto vs. wealthy area).
    
• family (what kind of role model was the father & mother?).
    
• political influences & beliefs.
  
•  moral influences & personal morality.
    
• effects of war, natural catastrophes, terrorism.
    
• etc.
    
• Communication: this all important factor and skill of life encompasses all of the above. Here is an eye-opener: 10% of communication is by words, 45% by tone of voice, and 45% by body language. Therefore, communication only in writing is operating on a very small part of the entire "playing field" of what is available for successful communication. It makes biological sense: written communication among the masses has only been widely used in the USA for 100 years!
  

Jesus came to show us the way to right relationships (righteousness). It is hard to use His teachings without understanding that each human is, by God, unique. Therefore, we are ALL different. To the extent that you (1) learn facts about those you are in relationship with, (2) use the facts to understand, appreciate, & (3) deal with the differences among people, the more able you will be to have wisdom & rise to higher positions (in family, jobs, organizations, etc.) which give satisfaction to your greater purpose, talents, gifts, skills, & intellect. You have to work on relationships. The Way of Jesus (emphasizing others rather than self) is key to this! Go to Gary Smalley's website (link in table, above)...then click on "assessments"...then click on "personality test" (shortcut to exact URL). His website assessment tools are one way to learn more about yourself...this may be a quick "help" to understand how easy or difficult a relationship might be. People armed with information and determination to make changes are blessable people in their goals. In any case, finally, we are differently subject to sins & possessing of virtues.

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(posted 31 December 2005; latest addition 1 February 2016)