Question

What is the difference between values and personality?

Answer 1

Personality represents our patterns of thinking and feeling

Values represents what we believe to be right.

Answer 2

Explanation:

Personality traits are inborn things, things stamped on one's DNA. For example, I have a shy smile, but I am animated when I have a fire in my belly. I feel like I am stretching outside my shyness when I do this, and I laugh at the joke of it. I purse my lips, which makes my dimples form. I turn my head and look at you like we are sharing a cosmic joke.

About 10 years ago, I attended a church service at which my daughter preached the sermon. She was pastoring a church attended mainly by the homeless, as part of a seminary program. She'd been pastoring there for several months. After the service, I met her parishioners. One after another after another said to me, "Oh my God! You have the same facial expressions as Sarah!" And I realized that I do. I had just watched her preach. Yes, she has my facial expressions. She has a gleam in her eye. She's gentle, but she delivers a punch. She smiles as if sharing a joke when she does. Because she's actually very shy.

Personality traits are things like shyness, a sense of humor, being an introvert or an extrovert or an ambivert. Of course, one's environment enhances or discourages personality traits, but there are likely traces that remain from the first months of life. Barring extreme circumstances.

Values are what you make of yourself, and they relate to good and evil, right and wrong. I'm sure alot of people would say values relate to beliefs. But if you believe, for example, in white supremacy, or in survival of the fittest, or in ethnic cleansing, I would venture to say, your beliefs are rooted in evil. If you believe in democracy, equality, fairness, charity, honesty, goodwill, compassion and justice for all, I would say your beliefs are rooted in good. You might say something different, but these are my values. This is how I view "values." Of course, it's not black and white. There are many shades of gray.

We develop our values through the challenges that life sends our way. Each of us faces somewhat unique, and somewhat universal, challenges. All of us will face a choice, at some point, whether to lie or to tell the truth. We all will decide what we think about racial prejudice no matter what our parents think. We all will decide whether to stand with the class bully in order to suck off his power, or to stand with the bullied and face bullying ourselves. Every time we choose right, we strengthen our values. Every time we choose wrong, we weaken our values. In fact, we strengthen or weaken our value. In the spiritual, it's the same thing. There is also a uniqueness to the challenges each of us faces. Some of us get the same challenges again and again, each time the challenge becoming more difficult to recognize and the choice harder to make. The unique challenge or set of challenges represents the individual destiny, the thing we came here to master.

If we are on our right path, we will recognize our unique challenges, and we will strive to meet them. Our values develop out of meeting those challenges