It helps me to think of each aspect of our makeup as having a genetic component which gives us a range of responses. For example, the entire range of human anger might go from extreme, killing rage to total absence of anger. Our personal genetic inheritance gives us a smaller range, such as from mild irritation to anger that makes us shake with rage, but not kill.
The way we are raised can affect these ranges, so that it might have been drummed into me that any display of anger is unacceptable. We can often step outside this “learned” range depending upon what we see as the consequences.
So now what you have is an individual who gets mildly irritated at times, who keeps other more serious types of anger from showing, but can step outside his learned range and kill if need be, but doesn’t have to… the choice is his.
Thus we have three ranges where anger is concerned: the genetic range, the learned range, and the decisional range.
Apply this to all aspects of personality, and you can begin to see that the total range of human behavior is highly complex, yet most of it is still subject to indivitual decision. This is where people can choose to change.
Just a thought.