Typical Taurus or Total Bull? Café Psychologique, 26 July

Astrology, Personality Types and What Makes Us Who We Are

People have believed for centuries that your time and date of birth are of great significance in understanding your personality and the type of person you are. While astrology remains outside the scientific mainstream, there are a host of psychological models for describing and defining personality types, such as the popular Myers Briggs Type Indicator. However, the evidence base for these is often little more robust than that for astrology.

Is personality something that can be defined into types or is each person a unique entity with distinctive traits all of their own? More than that, is personality something you are born with, whether defined by your genes or the alignment of the planets, or something that is shaped by your upbringing and your environment? Can we even talk of someone having a single, definable personality when it is clearly the case that many people change how they behave and what they are like, depending on where they are and who is with them.

Maybe the most critical question is whether we can change (or expect others to change), or whether – in the words of Popeye – ‘I yam what I yam!’, and our personality is something defined and fixed.

Ruth Sutherland is a Clinical Psychologist and she will help us explore these questions and more at Café Psychologique Leeds, on Tuesday 26 July, from 8.00 pm to 9.45 pm in Seven Arts, Chapel Allerton, Leeds. The Café costs £4 on the door.

There is a poster to download here:
Café Psychologique July 2016

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