The psyche of absolutely every person is unique. Character features and temperament also vary.
The individual differences that exist between people have caused genuine interest for a long time. This topic includes many questions and puzzles regarding abilities, temperament and character of a person. The uniqueness of each individual individual from a psychological point of view depends not only on the environment in which his socialization occurred and is happening, but also on biological and physical characteristics.
Studying the properties of temperament and character is very exciting. In modern conditions, when we have to communicate with a large number of people every day, acquired knowledge of human psychology will be very relevant.
Why do we need knowledge about the main types of human temperament, character and personality?
Why should a person know about the mental processes taking place in the body of another person? Mental processes determine the differences between us. The acquisition of knowledge about the psychology, temperament, character and abilities of people will help to better understand the human nature and catalysts for the commission of certain actions.
If you take into account a certain group of people and put them in the same situation, their behavior will not be identical. The emergence of emotional experiences and reactions to the same event will be different for each member of the group. Possession of the basic knowledge of human psychology and its components such as character and temperament will help predict the behavior of these people. Such skills will be useful not only to people studying psychology-related disciplines, but also to those who want to begin to better understand themselves and understand others. The study of character, temperament and ability gives an idea of the differences between people.
Determining the motives for the activities of people from your environment will help you find the best ways to build communication ties. But more importantly, having knowledge from this field, you can better understand yourself and analyze your positive and negative qualities.
Temperament, character and personality abilities are individual. The whole range of our interests will never completely coincide with all the interests of another person. Our emotions and emotional impulses in a certain life situation will not 100% coincide with the experiences of another person. And also the difference in perceptions and beliefs will be very noticeable. There cannot be complete similarity in all respects due to socialization under different life circumstances.
This kind of deepening in the field of human psychology will help to easily establish relationships with other people. Knowing the personality traits of people from your environment will help you find an individual approach to each.
Effective communication is the goal of any interpersonal communication. In order to achieve this effectiveness, more time needs to be devoted to the study of a science such as psychology. Of course, only professionals possess in-depth knowledge. But for everyday life, a thorough study of the available information about human psychology is completely unnecessary. It will be enough to study the basics and concepts from this area.
The concepts of temperament and character in psychology are very common. They are crucial when it comes to human psychology.
So, what does the concept of temperament and the concept of character mean?
The meaning of the term "temperament"
The study of various aspects of the human personality by general psychology gives an understanding of temperament as a set of certain innate traits. From birth, a person is endowed with one of the four types of temperament, which correlates with his personality throughout life. Also, several types of features can be inherent in a person. These types are called mixed. It is not possible to change one’s affiliation with one type or another. The question immediately arises: “Why can’t you change your temperament?” The answer is given by the natural sciences.
Finding temperament in direct proportion to the biological characteristics of the human body, which are given to a person from birth and do not change throughout life, gives reason to be completely sure that belonging to one of the four types of temperament will be constant.
When the traits of temperaments are discussed, this primarily refers to the characteristic in the manifestation of emotions, the degree of energy in a particular activity, as well as the intensity of the feelings experienced.
If we clarify the concept of “temperament”, then we can say that this concept is a certain biology-related style of human behavior, manifested in the characteristic features of his mental activity. Under mental activity refers to the speed, pace and intensity of mental reactions.
The history of the separation of people by type of temperament
We all know about the existence of four types of temperament. It is noteworthy that this separation is a merit of not modern researchers. This classification has its roots in the life of the well-known ancient Greek "father of medicine" Hippocrates, who is the founder of the theory of the separation of temperaments into four types. In his works, he said that the presence of distinctive features in the behavior of each person directly depends on the predominance of one and four types of fluids in the body, which he called “life juices”. These types included: blood, lymph, bile and black bile. The predominance of blood refers to sanguine people and makes them quite sociable, cheerful and moderately active people. A high percentage of lymph in the body belongs to phlegmatic people and defines them as balanced, calmly calm and somewhat slow-moving people. A high level of bile concentration is the cause of fussiness and excessively violent reactions that have an external manifestation. People with a predominance of this fluid are choleric. As for black bile, it makes a person very susceptible and sensitive. Determines a high level of empathy.
Several centuries later, the Russian scientist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, who lived at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, developed his theory regarding the cause of differences in temperaments. He associated the presence of characteristic features in the course of mental processes with the functioning of the nervous system.
In order to compose psychological portraits of four types, it is necessary to identify the properties of each temperament on certain points. The main points will be: reaction rate, level of excitability, manifestation of activity, sensitivity, as well as plasticity, which determines a person’s ability to adapt.
Each of the temperaments is unique and carries a set of both positive and negative characteristics. Knowing your strengths and weaknesses will help you most effectively use your positive traits and skillfully hide the negative manifestations of temperament, minimizing the detrimental effect on their life. Understanding this topic will allow you to understand yourself, as well as provide an opportunity to better understand the features and causes of other people's behavior patterns.
Next, psychological portraits of people by four types of temperament in a generalized form will be presented. It should also be understood that this division is very arbitrary. Very rarely, a person can be attributed to any one particular temperament. More often, one can observe a mixture of several features of different types of temperament in one person.
Melancholic
The psychological processes in people who belong to this type are somewhat slowed down. In the external manifestation, melancholic people are particularly inexpressive. And although for the most part they can’t stand the feelings for everyone to see, inside they are very violently experiencing any events and tend to worry about nothing. People with this type of temperament have a high level of empathy and perceive everything close to their hearts. Such people cannot be called the soul of the company because of their lack of sociability, but such people focus not on the quantity, but on the quality of communication. They are distinguished by depth and constancy in feelings. In the performance of an activity, they are characterized by a low level of involvement. As for external manifestations, people of this type of temperament are distinguished by a quiet voice, inexpressiveness and smooth movements, some slowness, as well as a low level of energy.
Most of the melancholy can be attributed to introverts.
Choleric
Choleric is the exact opposite of melancholy.
Choleric is distinguished by the activity of the course of mental processes in the body.
In their activity, choleric people are distinguished by a high degree of involvement in the process of completing a task and their willingness to find a way out of difficult situations. But they are not always productive, as their energy level is subject to constant changes. The presence in the team of a person with this type of temperament can cause a lot of interpersonal conflicts due to their incontinence and harshness in the statements. The intense course of mental processes affects such people in terms of the manifestation of emotions. Often choleric people are not balanced, prone to short temper and irritability. Their facial expressions are distinguished by a special degree of expressiveness, and gestures are sharp. They say about such people: "Everything is written on his face."
Most of the choleric are extroverts.
Phlegmatic person
The closest to melancholic on the hallmarks of temperament are phlegmatic. Weak mobility of the nervous processes, just as in melancholic people, becomes the cause of their leisurelyness, a certain degree of slowness and inexpressiveness in terms of the manifestation of feelings.
If we talk about the mood of these people, then according to numerous observations of researchers, we can distinguish its stability. Such people have an enviable calm, and even in unforeseen situations, they retain the ability to remain calm. It’s hard to act emotionally. In mental activity, they are distinguished by following a clear structure in the actions performed. Do not differ in high emotionality.
Most phlegmatic people are introverts.
Sanguine
The most sociable, optimistic, cheerful and energetic are sanguine people. They are also distinguished by a high level of performance, which is characteristic of them due to the presence of a high level of energy.
These are people who are characterized by positive thinking and a laid-back attitude to any manifestations of life. Such a person knows how to please almost anyone. He has the ability to easily make new acquaintances and easily join different companies, and more importantly, to feel absolutely comfortable in them. Such people light up very quickly and also go out quickly. To a greater extent this applies to feelings in which they are distinguished by inconstancy. They also tend to quickly switch from one case to another, leaving the previous unfinished. His facial expressions and gestures are distinguished by special expressiveness.
Almost all sanguine people are extroverts.
The meaning of the term "character"
Character determines the manifestation of the human personality.
A significant role in its formation is provided by the environment in which the person is. Depending on different circumstances, the individual may manifest and realize various qualities inherent in him, which can often be opposite in relation to each other.
A special influence on the formation of future personality traits is exerted by the process of socialization, which takes place during childhood and adolescence. However, qualities formed at a young age do not determine the character for life. Like a worldview that changes throughout life, the nature of a person undergoes multiple changes at any age.
Character traits are the distinctive properties of the human person, from which a distinctive behavior model is formed.
Manifestations are observed in the course of interaction with society. The manner of communication can be very delicate or, conversely, completely unceremonious. The difference is due to character traits that have differences on an individual level.
In society, it is customary to divide people into strong characters and weak. Those people who possess the first type are distinguished by such features as assertiveness, the ability to defend their point of view, perseverance. The second type is often characterized by weakness and inability to stand up for themselves.
Modern experts have proposed a classification that divided character traits into three main groups.
The first group consists of communicative traits, such as sociability or, conversely, isolation, empathy or indifference, etc.
The second group is determined by business traits, such as responsibility or irresponsibility shown in relation to work, accuracy or negligence, etc.
The third group includes strong-willed personality traits, such as perseverance or pliability, determination or indifference to one's own success.
From the point of view of the system of human relations, manifestations of character occur in four areas. In relation to other people, to business, to oneself, to property. After analyzing all four points, you can make a psychological portrait of the personality of each person.
To summarize all of the above, character can be defined as a distinctive combination of certain personality traits that defines the external manifestations of a human person.
Temperament and character in psychology
When it comes to describing the individual properties of a person, many concepts and terms are used. From the point of view of general psychology, temperament and character are key personality traits.
There is a connection between the two terms, but she does not define them as synonyms. Temperament and the nature of personality in psychology are not identically equal. What is the difference?
The main difference between the characteristics of temperament and character is that a person is endowed with temperament from birth without the ability to change it, while character is formed in the process of life and undergoes repeated changes.
People with the same type of temperament can be completely different in character. The qualities of character acquired in the process of socialization are determined by the influence of the environment and upbringing. Almost any traits can be brought up in a person who is not yet fully formed, i.e. to the child. It is noteworthy that the character is based and develops on the basis of temperament. In other words, temperament affects the development of individual character traits of the individual. Also, temperament determines the dynamics of the manifestation of character.
Based on this, we can conclude that the concepts of character and temperament of a person in psychology are interconnected.
Abilities
What determines the ability of temperament and character? Abilities depend on the type of nervous system. An example of the influence of temperament on a set of specific abilities is phlegmatic, who has fewer abilities to build successful social interaction than a sanguine person.
The psychological characteristics of a person include abilities that help the rapid acquisition and application of acquired knowledge in a specific area or several at once.
When we say that a person has certain abilities, in most cases we mean that their presence will help a person achieve success in a certain field.
Abilities are associated with a person’s temperament and are the reason for different people to differ in the results of performing the same activity under the same conditions.
The concept of "ability" is interpreted as the possession of skills, abilities and knowledge at a high level, which is the guarantor of the effective implementation of a particular activity.
Abilities can be divided into complex and elementary.
. . , . . - . , , , .
.
, , . , . .
. , .
. , , , . , . , , .
The psychology of personality, temperament, character and ability - all this determines the distinctive features of each person. Depending on each individual situation, any of the existing types may be in a winning position. It is important that the differences in temperament are not in the capabilities of the psyche, but in the uniqueness of its manifestations.
Now that the topic of self-improvement is very relevant, personality psychology is one of the first places in the list of topics studied. Most writers make this topic central to their work. Knowing yourself, using time to the maximum benefit and effective communication are subsections of many modern books aimed at improving your own life. And all these books are based on knowledge of human psychology. Therefore, reading them is an effective first step towards positive change. They provide the basics of the functioning of the nervous systems and how best to apply their characteristics in the performance of a particular business. The correct approach to activities, depending on their own distinctive features, allows you to be more effective in different areas of life.
Temperament and the nature of personality in psychology continue to be studied.