Why do people try so hard to be someone they're not?

Question

Wouldn't it be easier to just be yourself?

Answer 1

1. the sense of self is not developed or is not accessible to the individual
2. skinner would say the person was either reinforced while operating under a percieved "other person" schema or were punished for acting in harmony to their self chema
3. the individual behave as self and finds this is in conflict with their own attitude abvout self
4. they are just "void" and thus behavior is attributed to the lesser amount of effort required to be "somebody else"

hope this helps

Answer 2

A) They feel that the person they _are_ would not be accepted by society or the people close to them. For example, the secondary school nerd who joins the popular kids on account of her physical attractiveness and hides her more intellectual side.

B) They don't accept the person that they are; they feel like they have weak or inferior tendencies, and would like to pretend that those tendencies don't exist, regardless of whether these tendencies are weak or not. Such as, a university student who takes Science because he thinks that Fine Arts is too easy, even though he really wants to be a musician.

C) They don't know what they really are like, and find it a lot easier to pretend to be someone else than to really explore themselves. Like, a man who has bisexual tendencies that he doesn't really understand, and would prefer to act heterosexual than to really explore the possibilities.

Obviously, these three principals can be very closely intertwined!

Answer 3

Many people mimic what they think will best position them to get what they want. It's no different than a baby crying when they want milk or attention. It would be nice to say that people are above that, but in the end most people are not because the easiest path is often the most attractive.

Answer 4

Because they are not happy with themselves and they feel pressure to fit in. Differences are what make the world such a unique and interesting place. Imagine how boring it would be if each person was a mirror image of his neighbor. Talk about a nightmare!!

Answer 5

Sadly, people try hard to be someone else thinking they'll be loved, accepted, admired, adored, and the list goes on because all human kind yearn for that.

But little did they know, if they work on being true to themselves, work on themselves (as in not be an A**H***), people would appreciate who they are.

Love and accept one another. Love and accept oneself.

Answer 6

i think that people try hard to be someone they're not because they are either trying to impress someone else or just trying to fit in with the other groups that they are associating with

Answer 7

Insecurity.

Answer 8

Because that is what they originally want themselves to be. They try hard to be those kinds of people for they might achieve "them" someday.

Answer 9

sometimes people do not like who they are and the try to to be someone else to make them feel better about them selves if you think about it every one has their own way that they don't like so they try to change and even if it takes some one trying to be some one else then that is what they will do

I don't like who i am sometimes i will admit and its not that i am trying to be someone Else's its that i am trying to make my self a better person

Answer 10

Probably to make people like them, but if you just be yourself people will like you more.