From a young age we are familiar with the concept of temperament. More precisely, not even his definition, but the division of people into sanguine, melancholic, choleric, phlegmatic. But is this approach relevant in the 21st century? What is temperament? Have more modern classifications emerged? Is it fair to say that temperament is the basis of our behavior? What gives the knowledge of your temperament or understanding of what temperament the other person has? Is it possible to change life if you look into this issue?
What is temperament?
Temperament is a persistent characteristic of the personality that determines its vital activity and is associated with the type of higher nervous activity. Unlike the character that forms and changes throughout life, human temperament is laid before birth. It is caused by hereditary factors. Therefore, it would be a mistake to believe that temperament and character are one and the same. They are certainly interrelated, but not identical. Character develops under the influence of temperament, but still depends on education, life experience.
Rumors that the personality temperament is changing are caused by an incorrect understanding of a person’s belonging to a particular psychological type. Pure temperaments are found less often.. Mostly they are combined, just the degree of their manifestation depends on the influence of external and internal factors. For example, a person with pronounced sanguine properties, by coincidence, begins to behave like a choleric person. Someone decides that the temperament has changed. In fact, this man had the makings of both types of temperament. The emphasis was simply traced towards the behavior of the sanguine person, which was replaced by the impulsivity of the choleric person.
Types of temperament
The division of people into basic types of temperament was made in the times of the ancient Greeks. For the first time, the ideas of the existence of four groups of people were formed by Hippocrates, who singled out sanguine (merry), melancholic (crybaby), choleric (frantic), phlegmatic (pofigist) people. After half a millennium, his ideas were refined by Galen. The teaching turned out to be so successful that the classification proposed by them still exists.
Characteristics of temperament were explained by the dominance of one of the four "vital juices". At the sanguine person blood predominates (sangua), giving them energy and fun. Melancholic are ruled by black bile (melene chole), instilling a sense of sadness and fear. Choleric clouded mind bile (chole), because of which they can not control the outbursts of anger. Phlegmatic manages the "sputum" (reflux), soothing and slowing them down.
Despite the fact that this classification of temperaments has been created for a long time, it has not undergone significant changes even now. Although there are regular attempts to update our ideas about temperament. Psychology is developing, along with it the key postulates of this science are not in place.
Modern theories of temperament
Four basic types are one of the temperament classifications. Although it is worth paying tribute to the Greeks - the most popular. His contribution to the study of temperament made Karl Gustav Jung, Hans Jurgen Ayzenk, Ivan Petrovich Pavlov, Boris Mikhailovich Teplov and etc.
Pavlov's temperament is determined by understanding the type of the nervous system. The scientist identified three main criteria to identify temperament. It is strength, mobility, balance. He compared his teachings with the Hippocratic classification, describing the well-known temperaments:
- Sanguine - strong, balanced, mobile;
- Choleric - strong, unbalanced, mobile;
- Phlegmatic person - strong, balanced, inert;
- Melancholic - weak type.
Pavlov refined the existing structure, complementing it with data from the field of physiology of higher nervous activity.
Another Soviet psychologist Boris Teplov described the temperament in its own way, the definition of which included the dynamic characteristics of mental processes. Their strength, as well as the rate of occurrence, change, termination.
Carl Jung in his works combined temperament and personalityby applying the concepts of introversion and extraversion. He took as a basis the human desire for communication, or an orientation toward his inner world. Jung also studied in detail the influence on the temperament of each of the main psychological functions: sensations, feelings, thinking, and intuition.
One of the most popular systems describing the typology of personality was created by Hans Eysenck. Temperament, according to his ideas, in addition to extraversion and introversion, depends on the emotional stability of the individual. Having gathered together all the information about temperament, which was available at that time, he proposed a unique method of testing personality. This approach was named after the author - a test for temperament by Eysenck. It allows you to determine with high accuracy the type of temperament, the degree of its manifestation in a person.
Temperament properties
Temperament in psychology is considered very closely. To make it easier to characterize its types, scientists have analyzed the following properties of temperament:
- Activity - perseverance and energy of the individual in achieving their goals;
- Reactivity - the level of involuntariness (passivity) of a person and his reactions;
- The ratio of activity and reactivity - an indicator that determines the level of awareness of a person's own role in life;
- Extraversion - interaction with the world;
- Introversion - emphasis on “immersion” in oneself;
- Plastic - the ability of the individual to adapt to external changes;
- Rigidity - reduced adaptive capacity of a person;
- Sensitivity - the smallest threshold of exposure that can cause a mental response in response;
- Emotional excitability - a similar property, only manifested on an emotional level;
- Reaction rate - the speed of mental processes and body reactions, including facial expressions, gestures, speech dynamics.
The characteristic of temperament is formed on the basis of the analysis of all its properties. For example, phlegmatic persons are characterized by the dominance of introversion, increased rigidity and reactivity, they are characterized by lowered emotional excitability, as well as the rate of reactions. Psychic response from phlegmatic can only be caused by attaching a tangible impact, which is determined by its “impenetrable” sensitivity.
Why define temperament?
Understanding your own temperament makes life easier for a person. It becomes much easier for him to look for a job, make new friends or build relationships. Without knowing oneself, a person risks losing himself in this world, not finding his own way of life.
There are people who claim that temperament is psychology, so let the scientists study it. They are clearly wrong in confusing others. A person can independently understand the question of determining his temperament. And, after reading a couple of topical articles, understand what to do with the information received further. Know our type of temperament will help our test for temperament, the passage of which takes only five minutes.
It is important to understand the interlocutor's temperament, because the quality of the dialogue depends on this, an understanding of the direction in which the conversation can lead. It is useless to “load” a phlegmatic person, to subordinate a melancholic person, to provoke a choleric person, to whine in front of a sanguine person. Each type has its own approachand the sooner it is found, the greater the chances of successful communication. And since the role of communications in society is difficult to overestimate, the ability to build a dialogue is one of the most important at any age and social environment.
Temperament is one of the most popular topics. Moreover, this statement is true among scientists and among ordinary citizens. Just not all people know what will help them understanding their temperament. In this publication, we answered many questions. Updated knowledge of the four basic types of temperament. More information can be found in thematic articles on our website, where all kinds of temperament are considered in detail. They contain the main features of each type, tips on using this knowledge for career building and personal life.
