Spilt Personalities?

The discussion in class on Monday about whether or not people can have different personalities in different situations hit close to home. My best friend since high school we used to call two face. In school he was loud and usually obnoxious, making comments both under his breath, and occasionally too loud. But at home, being the youngest of five boys, he was very quiet and almost shy. He rarely spoke in conversations unless he was directly spoken too and would never think about saying the comment he was thinking. We all enjoyed this as his family could not believe us that he was outgoing at school. (I can recall once when his oldest brother pulled me aside and asked me to introduce him to his real brother.) Of course this did not last forever, and when he's home from school now, he is just as loud as his brothers.

I think people can act differently in different situations, and this can have nothing to do with their personality; rather it is their personality that causes them to act differently. I do not think Michael had two different personalities, instead I think he learned at a young age that if he says something obnoxious to his older and much bigger brothers, he could easily expect to be punched or hit or whatever brothers do to each other. In school, however, he was free from them and felt comfortable enough to say those things without the fear of getting punched, and so he was obnoxious and very similar to his brothers. Only now he has begun to realize that they have all grown up and that he will not get hit for saying what he is thinking.