• 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
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars (2,336 ratings)

Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
Why You Are Who You Are  By  cover art

Why You Are Who You Are

By: Mark Leary,The Great Courses
Narrated by: Mark Leary
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $25.00

Buy for $25.00

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

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

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,589
  • 4 Stars
    508
  • 3 Stars
    155
  • 2 Stars
    46
  • 1 Stars
    38
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,474
  • 4 Stars
    404
  • 3 Stars
    110
  • 2 Stars
    35
  • 1 Stars
    19
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    1,331
  • 4 Stars
    464
  • 3 Stars
    135
  • 2 Stars
    47
  • 1 Stars
    33

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

As an addict, I listened to this book. Very Helpfu

I've struggled with meth addiction for nearly 13 years and have sought so many ways to kick my habbit. I wasn't a daily user but once a month, I'd go on a binge. it affected my family, work, and myself. After listening to this book twice, it helped me understand more how some personality types are more prone to drug abuse. Many of the categorically specific traits, habits, and inclinations hit home for me and I did an aweful lot of self reflecting - Trying to unburry the true me who got lost. thanks for the awesome book. I hope next time you can do something specific for substance abuse. We're out here looking for hope.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

318 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Highly informative - thought provoking insights

Dr. Leary outlines scholarly approaches to human personality in an easy to engage with manner. What could be more complex than human behavior, and yet he offers the foundation concepts in ways that I could understand without any real background in modern psychology. When I consider courses like this I often have a couple of concerns: 1) will the material be too watered down i.e., lack the intellectual substance to be useful, or 2) will the lecturer get into too much detail about their favorite studies, or use too much lab jargon and acronyms at the expense of clear insights. This course has plenty of substance, just the right amount of study summaries to sustain credibility, and the jargon is well explained but not over explained. Finally, the material is presented in a way that I could retain most of the concepts. I have already shared a number of insights with friends and family. I highly recommend this course to anyone interested in investigating the dynamics of personality, or looking for more insight into their own behavior.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

207 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting material, but word of caution...

The author's political biases and agenda are patently clear even as he attempts to convince of his neutrality. He applies all the typically appealing character traits to one political party and the less favorable behaviors to the other. The preachy political statements were boring, and the thinly veiled references to current politicians were annoying.
I have enjoyed previously published courses by Prof Leary and would have found this more useful if not distracted by these unnecessary inferences.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

205 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the Best in the Great Courses Library

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Along with "Nutrition Made Clear" and "Customs of the World," this is one of the three best courses I have taken on TGC. As is the case with the former two courses, "Why You are Who You Are" provides with you with detailed, evidence-based information about a topic that pervades everyday life but for which general information and everyday knowledge is, at best, unreliable. This course definitely helps you to understand the world around you far better, both in an academic and practical sense. Dr. Leary is an excellent presenter as well.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

93 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Why Did I Do That, Anyway?

This is a good one, folks. It explains the reasons for many human behaviors, your own unique behaviors and those of other people whom you just can't fathom. Although it covered areas of which I was quite familiar (Personality Disorders), the Professor covered plenty of information that was new to me, enough to make me want to listen to the audiobook a second time to fix it into my brain!

The narration was just fine as it is in most of these Great Courses. It is a winner in my book!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

82 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good at first, then inaccurate

As a mental health professional, I'm always looking for books to expand my working knowledge regarding my specialty. This book starts out strong with scientifically-based material presented in an engaging manner. By the point of personality disorders, however, I couldn't listen anymore as it had become a judgmental, pseudo-scientific tirade. Most importantly, it was pointedly wrong in the material presented. I can't speak to the direction the book took after this point because it became unlistenable.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

81 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Nothing about “why”

This book is about tools for measurement of human behavior. Not a bad one at that, but nothing about explaining why the behaviors occur. Read “Behave” by Robert Sapolsky, Instead.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

68 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

don't waste your time, read articles online

I had to stop. It's like it was written by captain obvious.

There are some very informative parts, but when he's about to hit the meat of the subject, he drifts off. Much of what he says can be condensed to 40 sec from 5 min, which left me rather frustrated wanting to yell out; "yeah I get it already!"

look up the subjects he talks about online. A good article that's about a 10 min read will be more informative than half an hour of his yammering

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

53 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

???? Padded ???

Here is an example:“it’s best to be agreeable “ (pause) “are you agreeable?” (Pause) “or are you disagreeable?” (Pause) “well statistics show blah blah” (pause) “do you think you are blah blah?” (Pause) “or do you think you are blah blah blah?” (Longer Pause) “well if you answered blah blah you would be about half of the population” (Pause) “on the other hand,(Pause) if you answered blah blah blah you would be the other half”. This book would make a great white noise machine to fall asleep with.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

51 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

One of the better Psych series

This is one of the better psychology oriented THC courses I’ve heard. The speaker grows they the big five trainers and then goes thru how those trainers display themselves in different social settings: leadership, attachment, authority, etc. The lecture on personality disorders was also particularly interesting.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

47 people found this helpful