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  • Why You Are Who You Are

  • Investigations into Human Personality
  • By: Mark Leary, The Great Courses
  • Narrated by: Mark Leary
  • Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.7 out of 5 stars (128 ratings)

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Why You Are Who You Are

By: Mark Leary,The Great Courses
Narrated by: Mark Leary
Free with 2 month trial

AUD $16.45/mo after 2 months. Renews automatically. Cancel anytime.

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Publisher's Summary

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

What listeners say about Why You Are Who You Are

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Really interesting topic, well told

Excellent lectures and learnt a lot about myself and other people and what makes them/me tick. Never boring at all - was always very engaged.
My only criticism is that there were no lectures about how to change/improve personality traits, it was purely about what is (though I guess that may be another topic...)

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3 people found this helpful

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Thorough, insightful and valuable.

The depth of information in this course is impressive. I’ve learned far more than I expected and found the overall experience exceeded all expectations. It requires singular focus to retain everything but that’s the nature of the topic and not a reflection of the quality of the offering. Professor Leary himself narrates this and his style, cadence and subtle humour add to the experience. It was at times confronting as I reflected on myself and how some of who I am (that I dislike) is identified and explained throughout the series. But it has helped my sense of understanding of myself (and others) and I am profoundly more self aware having navigated these lectures.

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2 people found this helpful

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    4 out of 5 stars

Well worth taking the course if you’re interested in understanding the differences in personality

This is a great course that I will be listening to again for the insight it gives for understanding the self and others.

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2 people found this helpful

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More insightful and helpful than any self help book

Filled with good science and insightful discussion this book will provide more meaning insight into yourself, your relationship, and the people around you than any self help book.

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very informative and interesting

informative, clear and eye opening. made me reflect on my own thinking and understanding of personalities along the way

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Very interesting, well written, informative and substiantiated book

I really enjoyed this whole book. Easy to understand and carefully explained, with up to date information on the nature vs nurture argument. Feel like I understand myself (and others) better

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Excellent way to get a really solid and well delivered understanding

I was hooked by lecture 2. Found the whole course highly informative and well constructed. The pdf reader helps reinforce key takeaways and so much of the content is applicable in our daily lives. Listened at 1.4x (sorry Mark) which fitted my daily walk routine 👍

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Really interesting and easy to listening.

An interesting perspective on the reasons people behave the way they do. I have a lot more understanding of personality traits and will now be more understanding towards others.

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excellent

loved the way it was narrated as apposed to being just read. content gave a lot to think about. well worth the listen.

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Overall very happy with these lectures

Great lecturer and interesting content! I highly recommend it for anyone interested in psychology. It was great!

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