why do we expect people to react in certain ways? why do we say, "its so you to do that"?

what goes into the classification of our personalities, in people's minds?

like for example, *no offense intended to anyone* we readily expect abby to clear accounts at the end of the day, not jean. we would expect wanlin to participate in big group conversations more than haoguang. we know (fill in name) can take jokes better than (fill in 2nd name). we would expect (fill in name) to clear up the dishes after eating. etc etc etc

why do we come to these conclusions about people?

perhaps day to day, we accumulate experiences in our interactions. so we build up this rough idea of what a person would do, act, think, say, feel in certain situations. all this in a bid to understand his/her personality. so we can make decisions that will be comfortable with him/her, to suit the person. or to weigh the effects of making a choice.

okay, fine.

but are we a prisoner of these perceptions people have of us? if we don't react as we normally would do (or in other words, what people expect us to do), others say we're not ourselves. sometimes even we feel that we're not ourselves. we aren't conforming to our personality.

are we living according to expectations? people would expect me to do this specific action when i have this choice to make, and normally in the past i've always been comfortable doing that. so okay, this time i do the same thing.

fixed characteristics. why should we have them? are we considered "unstable, double-minded" if we don't behave in a consistent manner? do we have fixed characteristics so that people can prepare themselves, and thus wont get hurt/taken aback when we react in a certain manner?

a blog shdn't be a place to display your true feelings, isn't it. whats the point of blogging except to inform? and what do you aim to inform people about? is it what goes on in ur head? or what is necessary for them to hear? what they want to hear? or what is good for them, that will invoke them toward greater action?

conflicting interests.