Temperament and character: the difference between concepts and definition

"How temperamental!" - we are talking about an emotional and loud-voiced person who expresses his thoughts accompanied by violent gestures. "Look, with character!" - relatives shake their heads over the child, flatly refusing to eat semolina or to cut their hair.

What is temperament? And how does it differ from character? Or maybe they are the same thing? Let's try to figure it out, supporting our reasoning with the thoughts of outstanding psychologists.

Before finding out how one differs from the other, and what is primary - temperament or character, we will give definitions to both concepts.

In psychological science, temperament is usually called the totality of a person's psychodynamic qualities, manifesting themselves in the reactions of his psyche, as well as how intense they are, what their speed and pace are. Another definition can be chosen as follows: temperament is a person's natural tendency to a certain type of behavior. It depends on this type whether a person is emotional, sensitive to the influence of the outside world, impulsive or restrained, sociable, withdrawn, whether it is easy for him to communicate with unfamiliar people or it causes difficulties.

As for the psychodynamic features of human behavior, they are determined by higher nervous activity. Nervous processes have three main properties, as revealed by Academician I.P. Pavlov. He attributed to them strength, poise and mobility. It is their combinations that provide the basis for the four types of temperament.

It is rare when you can meet a pure choleric or melancholic, much more often in a person properties of two types are mixed, but with one predominant.

To identify an individual's belonging to a particular type, one should take into account the manifestations of such temperamental properties in him:

• sensitivity - that is, an indicator of what the least impact on a person from the outside should be in order for him to react to it;
• reactivity - the degree to which an involuntary reaction to any influence from the inside or from the outside manifests itself - criticism (both constructive and not so), loud shouting, offensive phrases;
• activity is an indicator of the degree to which a person is involved in the external world and intensively acts in it, how persistent, focused and purposeful he is;
• the ratio of reactivity and activity in a person depends on what is more important for a person - external or internal factors or his aspirations and tasks;
• the counterbalance of plasticity and rigidity shows whether it is easy for a person to adapt to the external influence of circumstances, or whether he behaves inert;
• depending on the rate of reaction, it is determined how quickly a person's mental reactions proceed, as well as the speed of speech, the abundance of gestures, the acuteness of the mind;
• the scale of extraversion-introversion characterizes the factors on which the reaction and actions of a person depend - for an extravert they are directly related to external immediate impressions, and for an introvert - with images and thoughts that arise in his mind and have a connection with past and future events;
• emotional excitability shows what the minimum impact on a person is needed for an emotional reaction to occur, as well as the amount of time it takes for it to occur.

Taking into account all of the above properties, psychologists distinguish 4 main types of temperament.

An individual with this type of temperament is highly reactive, but it is balanced by activity. To what is interesting to him, he reacts vividly and quickly, his facial expressions are quite intense, as well as gestures. It is immediately noticeable from him what mood he is in, he is not able to hide his reaction to a situation or a person. He gives out a strong reaction to all the events that happen to him - and no matter how significant it is. It is difficult for him to notice soft sounds and weak light, in such conditions (in poor lighting) it is difficult for him to work.

Sanguine people are very hardy and have a large supply of energy., which gives them the opportunity to do business without getting tired. Persons with this type of temperament know how to concentrate, easily switch from one task to another, have a flexible mind and resourcefulness. Sanguine people speak quickly and think quickly, are highly plastic - thanks to this, they do not dwell on one emotion for a long time. A child with this type of temperament will most quickly find friends in a new class, it is easy for him to get acquainted and communicate. A person with a sanguine temperament has high personal discipline, learns to control the manifestations of emotions with age. Most often, sanguine people are extroverts, as they react to external events, and not to the processes taking place inside them.

Choleric people are united with sanguine people by high reactivity and low sensitivity. However, the balance between activity and reactivity in them is disturbed, therefore choleric people are characterized by irascibility, unbridledness, lack of patience and restraint. Despite the fact that the choleric person is most often an extrovert, he is very persistent, not inclined to easily "switch" from goal to goal. Choleric people tend to get stuck in getting what they want due to low plasticity and high inertia (compared to sanguine people). It will take time to switch the attention of the choleric to another task.

Phlegmatic people are highly active, but their reactivity is low. In addition, these people are extremely stingy with the manifestation of emotions - it is hard to wait for them to both laugh and express sadness. Most often, representatives of the phlegmatic type of temperament look calm. During a general panic, it is phlegmatic people who remain calm, which often helps others to calm down. Their facial expressions and gestures are also stingy, you won't get interesting stories from such personalities.

Phlegmatic people find it difficult to switch attention, especially if you need to do it quicklybesides, the sudden change of scenery also unsettles them. However, what phlegmatic people cannot refuse is a huge supply of energy and high efficiency. Understanding the task, these "workhorses" are able to literally move mountains. In addition, the difference between phlegmatic people is in the ability to thoroughly study the questions posed, to get to the bottom, which makes them excellent narrow specialists. The reserves of patience of persons with this type of temperament are truly gigantic, it is very difficult to get them out of themselves. Phlegmatic people are polite and self-possessed, calm and do not lose their composure even in the most uncomfortable situations for themselves. Most of these people are introverts, it doesn't matter to them what is happening around them, the processes that go on inside them are much more important. Most often, those around them consider phlegmatic people strange because of their restraint and equanimity, but those friends who have known them for a long time are "time-tested" love and appreciate phlegmatic people precisely for their steadfastness and stability.

People with this type of temperament are highly sensitive, at the same time they are not very reactive and very inert. This "explosive" mixture makes melancholic people very touchy and sensitive. People of this kind have a quiet and low-expressive voice, facial expressions and gestures. Constant doubts about their own abilities lead to the fact that the melancholic gives in to the difficulties that arise on the way. People-melancholic have low efficiency, get tired easily, their attention is difficult to focus on one task. Melancholic people are influenced by external processes, but only in terms of reflection on their internal experiences, which is why most representatives of this type of temperament are introverts.

The extent to which a person works productively is connected precisely with the type of his temperament. And the choice of profession or type of activity should be made taking this factor into account. For example, in works requiring thoughtfulness, analytical mindset, calmness, regularity, some "obstinacy", corrosiveness, there is no specialist better than a phlegmatic. But as for activities that require constant communication with people or work in multitasking mode, a sanguine person will be indispensable. Choleric people are perfect for the role of a leader, they are good at “kindling” subordinates with ideas. However, someone must constantly be above the choleric boss who will restrain his violent nature, preventing him from turning into a tyrant. The melancholic works well only in an atmosphere of complete psychological comfort, it is very easy to injure him, so the boss should be especially attentive and sensitive with him.

By the way a person reacts to events happening to him, one can judge his temperament. Someone stoically endures all everyday hardships, and someone is discouraged even by the bad weather outside the window. Someone, discovering that they have put on a sweater inside out, will laugh at themselves, and someone will be embarrassed. Some people find it very difficult to knock out of their rut with the usual little things like a broken jacket zipper or turning off the lights without warning. And it is common for someone to flare up like a match from everything that does not go according to his plan. This is how the main types of temperament are manifested.

It is wrong to call the type of temperament determining in relation to the rest of the psychological differences of a person. Personality is multifaceted, and the type of temperament is just one of its components. To date, the theory of temperaments has been supplemented with such definitions as inhibition of the nervous system and its excitation. Also psychology with biochemistry and genetics find out how the type of temperament is determined by means of hormones (serotonin, melatonin, dopamine), as well as other biochemical mediators.

The way a person behaves depends on what type of temperament a person belongs to. It is in the "field" of temperament that a person's character is formed, and his abilities are also developed. That is, if we consider the relationship of concepts, then temperament is a kind of “base”, and character is a “superstructure”. If a person is well aware not only of his merits, but he also understands his demerits, it will be easy for him to turn to his advantage by applying psychic compensation.

The experience a person gets in life plays a role. For example, a choleric person, several times in a row “losing” the same situation with the same manner of his behavior (hot-tempered and unrestrained), respectively, can draw conclusions and lose, suppress these properties in himself, becoming inert and with little initiative. Nevertheless, serious life trials, as a rule, “rip off the masks”, and a person shows exactly those qualities that he tried to suppress, behaves as it is laid down in him. A choleric person is prone to nervous breakdowns, fits of rage, a melancholic person can also easily get psychological trauma, but it will manifest itself in a different way. The phlegmatic, on the contrary, will fall into a kind of stupor, having lost the ability to more or less quickly respond to what is happening.

Quite a long time ago, Academician I.P. Pavlov proved that, although personality traits are directly interconnected with its neurophysiological organization, they are not determined by it. His experiments showed that nervous activity can be changed. The formation of a human character and style of behavior depends not only on innate qualities, but also on everything that influences, influenced or will influence a person throughout his life.

Modern psychologists classify temperament as a personality trait, despite the fact that it is due to nature. The division of people into extroverts and introverts is more often used, this scale was introduced by Carl Jung, an outstanding scientist-psychologist. G. Eysenck, who developed a personality testing system. It has been found that in people with predominant introversion, the cerebral cortex is more highly active. Extroverts have other strengths - they are sociable, attentive to what is happening outside, active and assertive.

Let us now consider what is the connection between temperament and character, how mutual it is, what is the difference between these concepts. The first is not decisive for the second, but, of course, both are closely interrelated.

• The manifestation of dynamic character traits depends on the type of temperament. For example, a sociable sanguine person is completely different from a sociable choleric person.
• The type of temperament influences how character traits develop. Moreover, development can occur both due to the properties of temperament, and in spite of them.
• Raising the necessary character traits in a child, one should take into account his type of temperament and, depending on him, choose a method of influence.
• Having developed certain character traits, you can control the manifestation of those properties of temperament that can harm in a particular situation.

There is a connection between character and the type of temperament and level of a person's abilities, and this connection is reciprocal. Each of these three components affects the rest. It depends on the type of temperament how a person manifests his character traits, and it depends on the strength of his character whether the individual will "give free rein" to his destructive temperament properties. Human abilities are also associated with temperament (strength of efficiency, methodicalness, attentiveness, flexibility and sharpness of mind) and character (ability to work in a team, organization, creativity, ability to take initiative).

An interesting video about temperament and character is waiting for you below.