Preference or Personality?

It is no secrete that we derive our understanding of things from our experiences in life. Our brains take in information and categorize it, so that we can make references to better prepare ourselves in approaching other conditions. Know as stereotyping, this can be a very useful way to quickly judge a person based on our associations from similar situations. But when it comes down to it, this may work to protect you in Central Park at night, but can we figure out someones personality based on their personal preferences? In the article, "The Psychology of Musical Preference" Tomas Chamorro Ph.D. tries to begin and understand that question in studying people and their music taste. When we observe new people, every thing about them can lead to pre-depositioned feelings about how they relate to our understandings. From clothes, to mannerisms, to speech, we come up with a summary of how that person operates, but does everything we observe have significance? Today there are two opposing believes on this concept. One is that a person's preferences are completely random; and the other is that our choices reflect important aspects of our personality. When it comes to music, we use music to fulfill three important psychological functions. Scientific research shows that people listen to music to improve performance in certain tasks, stimulate intellectual curiosity, and most importantly, manipulate emotional states with a goal of achieving a desired mood. (PSYT) Our emotions represent our personality state, and since the music we choose is largely used to regulate our moods, the music choices we make are a large indicator of how we operate internally. So does this mean I can assess someone based off their iTunes Library? The reason this type of stereotyping is controversial, is that music, as well as other things, already has its own description, and like most people, don't only listen to one gene of music. And coming up with assumptions based on one part of a giant picture leaves a lot of room for interruption. And in today's world, does every person have the option to make all decision they want? Could someone who is limited to where they can get their (music, clothing, education) not be the person we see them as being because of this? Is it safe to say that personality is more widely effected by social circumstance? closing people in categories based on sex, age and economic issues? How do I determine decisions from dispositions, preference from personality, understanding from stereotyping?