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  • Why You Are Who You Are

  • Investigations into Human Personality
  • Written by: Mark Leary, The Great Courses
  • Narrated by: Mark Leary
  • Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (202 ratings)

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Why You Are Who You Are

Written by: Mark Leary, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Mark Leary
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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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Excellent Reading

I really enjoyed this book and found it full of useful information. Mark, or whoever was the reader, spoke with great clarity and with compelling diction. Much of the content was not new but there were also new insights which I appreciated.
Roy Godber

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Light bulbs in my brain turned on!

Fantastic listen! Very educational and makes sense! While is was listening i made personal connections and had a few revelations. I felt more self aware and in control after listening. Knowing why I do certain things is very interesting and empowering. Maybe have a note book with you while listening in case you want to follow up and do some personal research!? I will definitely be listening again and doing so.

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Marin

Very good, learning book. One would benefit a lot of it . I discovered few traders I could improve in myself.

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enjoyed this book

I listened to this book in just a couple of days. Reread worthy.
Well done. Very insightful.

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High yield and enjoyable to listen

This lecture series explains in detail the form and structure of human personality. The lecture series are comprehensive in covering all topics within the field of personality psychology. Professor Dr. Mark Leary provides many useful and high yield practical tips throughout the series to help apply the knowledge to improving interpersonal interactions and communication. Dr. Leary's lectures are well structured and easy to listen to.

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1 person found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars

very interesting information clearly delivered!

loved the lecture format of this book. the narrator was great and kept my attention the whole time.

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A GREAT course!

This course via e-book was certainly one of THE best, most helpful and informative, course, I ever had until now in term of my personal growth and understanding of myself as well as of people's behaviour, in general. For all this, I am greatful to professor Leary for such opportunity and look for to profit from my next course online as much as I have through this one. Last, I'd recommend it without a tiny doubt. Enjoy it, folks (A smile).

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great listen , loved it

i really loved the books content. it's a great book. easy to follow along with.

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Very informative subject

This was a very well done course with some really great insight on human personality. I can say that it dragged on a bit towards the end and felt a bit repetitive, but because the subject matter was so dense, it was worth hearing some of it repeated. I'll likely listen to this again.

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Very informative!

So much information to take in on what constitutes our personalities. Worth a second listening.

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