What is temperament: definition, types and their brief characteristics

Definition of the concept

Temperament is a set of stable properties of the nervous system that determine the speed and strength of the reaction to external stimuli. In simple words, these are the basic settings of the individual’s psyche. Temperament has a significant impact on human activity and behavior.

This is an innate characteristic that does not change throughout life. If you were born, for example, melancholic, then you will remain so forever. Temperament manifests itself in men and women, in children and adults, in people with different cultural backgrounds and social levels.

Temperament should not be identified with a person’s character. There are specific differences between them, which we will discuss below.

The classification is based on the following properties of the nervous system:

Emotional excitability. How quickly a person develops an emotional reaction in response to a stimulus.
Introversion/extroversion. Where is the main attention directed: to the inner world or to the outer world.
Rate of reactions. How quickly mental processes occur.
Rigidity/flexibility. Ability to adapt to changing conditions.
Reactivity. The severity of involuntary reactions to internal and external stimuli.
Activity. The intensity of human influence on objects of the external world.
Sensitivity. The minimum threshold of exposure that can cause a mental reaction.

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Bibliography

S.L. Rubinstein // Fundamentals of general psychology // St. Petersburg: Petersburg Publishing House, 2000.
Kretschmer E. Theory of temperaments // Psychology of individual differences. Textbook. M., 2000.
Kant. About temperament//Psychology of individual differences. Texts. M., 1982.
W. Sheldon. Psychology of individual differences. Texts / Edited by Yu.B. Gippenreiter, V.Ya. Romanov. M., 1982.
V.S. Merlin, Outline of a Theory of Temperament, 1973.
Klimov E.A. Individual style of activity // Psychology of individual differences: texts. - M., 1982.
Pastelov I.G. Temperament through the eyes of an ordinary person // Life and Health. - M., 2001.
Ilyin E.P. Psychology of individual differences. - St. Petersburg, Peter, 2004.

History of the study of human temperament

The concept of temperament was first introduced by the Greek physician and philosopher Hippocrates.

He noticed that his patients responded differently to the treatment. Some recovered quickly and easily, while others required long months of rehabilitation. This was also due to the person’s own attitude towards the disease. If a person was optimistic and cheerful, then the disease receded faster. Depressed and despairing patients took much longer to recover.

This led Hippocrates to the idea that each person has stable internal characteristics that determine one or another type of reaction. He suggested that these features are associated with the predominance of one of the fluids in the body: blood, lymph, yellow or black bile. Subsequently, it was they who gave names to the four types of temperament.

According to Hippocrates:

lymph (Greek “phlegm”) predominates in phlegmatic people;
blood (Greek “sanguis”) predominates in sanguine people;
bile (Greek “chole”) predominates in choleric people;
black bile (Greek “milane chole”) predominates in melancholic people.

This classification has not lost its relevance today, almost 25 centuries later. Although Hippocrates incorrectly defined the basis for classification, he described the characteristics of each type quite accurately.

Research on temperament has been conducted throughout this time and continues to this day. Scientists such as Hans Eysenck, Carl Jung, William Herbert Sheldon and others worked on its study.

The Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov made a significant contribution to explaining the nature of temperament. It was he who connected temperament with the type of higher nervous activity and pointed out the similarity of these processes in humans and animals.

Another of our compatriots, Boris Teplov, studied the dynamic features of nervous activity, such as reaction speed, duration of mental processes, and the ability to switch from one stimulus to another. Subsequently, these studies were used to derive the physiological basis for dividing people into types.

Carl Jung proposed classifying people into introverts and extroverts according to the direction of their mental processes. Extroverts are focused on interacting with the outside world, while introverts are immersed in the inner world. Subsequently, this division will become one of the main indicators underlying the classification. Cholerics and sanguine people will be classified as extroverts, and phlegmatic and melancholic people will be classified as introverts.

Hans Eysenck created a detailed and accurate method for determining temperament, which is used today by both professional psychologists and ordinary people interested in self-knowledge.

By the way, you can find this technique in our selection of the best psychological tests.

Essay

“Types of temperaments, their psychological characteristics”

Content

Introduction

1. Concept and types of temperament

2. Natural bases of temperament

2.1 Excursion into history

2.2 Modern idea of the organic basis of temperament

3. Physiological bases of temperament

4. Properties of temperament

5. Temperament and individual style of activity

5.1 The difference between individual style and temperament

5.2 Factors influencing the formation and development of individual style

6. Temperament and character

7. Temperament and communication

Conclusion

List of sources used

Introduction

All people differ in the peculiarities of their behavior: some are active, energetic, emotional, others are slow, calm, imperturbable, some are withdrawn, secretive, sad. One and the same personal property, for example, patriotism, can have different dynamics of expression, from an instant attack on the enemy’s embrasure (the feat of Alexander Matrosov) to many years of methodical activity full of precautions behind enemy lines (Richard Sorge). The set of generalized formal-dynamic properties is called temperament (from the Latin temperamentum - ratio of parts).

History says that the concept of temperament was introduced into scientific circulation by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, who lived in the 4th–5th centuries. BC. He also proposed names for the types of human constitution (physique), which later began to be used as modern names for temperament types: sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and melancholic. The Hippocratic teaching on temperament was continued by the Roman physician Claudius Galen in the 2nd century. AD, filling the corresponding concepts with content that no longer related to the structure of the body, but actually to the temperament of a person as a property of his soul.

Temperament manifests itself in three spheres of the subject’s mental activity: in the characteristics of general activity, in the motor sphere and in the sphere of emotionality. The first signs of temperament are revealed at the very beginning of a child’s life, when there is still no talk about the meaningful structures of his personality. So A.V. Libin provides data that newborns differ in the degree of general activity (some constantly move, while others lie quietly), in excitability (some scream and cry a lot, vigorously express their needs, while others behave quietly), in the liveliness of their response to new stimuli (toys, faces) and the speed of getting used to them (loss of interest), etc.

Temperament is the only, purely natural personal characteristic of a person, and the reason to consider it a personal characteristic is the fact that the actions and deeds that a person performs depend on temperament.

Dynamic features of behavior are those characteristics that are described in purely physical terms and are not subject to moral and value assessment. The dynamic characteristics of behavior include, for example, the energy inherent in it, with which a person’s performance is associated, the speed and tempo of the movements performed, their general emotional background, as well as the ease and speed of the transition from performing one movement to another.

Let us note that in human behavior, in addition to dynamic aspects, there are also aspects that need and can be assessed in value terms such as: “good - bad”, “moral - immoral”, “decent - dishonest”. Such assessments are not suitable for characterizing temperament; they relate to other aspects of a person’s personality, for example, his abilities, values, needs, character. The only case when temperament can be assessed as good or bad is when it comes to the correspondence of a person’s temperament type to the dynamic requirements of a particular activity.

1. Concept and types of temperament

Temperament is a set of stable, individual, psychophysical properties of a person that determine the dynamic characteristics of his mental processes, mental states and behavior. Let us clarify the above definition of temperament.

The main types of temperament: sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic and melancholic. According to the tradition that has developed over centuries, this is the name given to people with the corresponding types of temperament, and these types themselves would be correctly called sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic and melancholic.

The sanguine type of temperament is characterized by a high pace of activity, moderately fast reactions, fairly high, but not excessive, activity, energy, well-expressed emotionality and balance. Most of the above-mentioned temperament properties in a sanguine person are expressed moderately, averagely or slightly above average.

The choleric type of temperament, in contrast to the sanguine one, is characterized by an extreme degree of expression of many dynamic properties of temperament. A choleric person is a person with very quick reactions, a high pace of activity, rapid mood changes and high switchability from one type of activity to another. A choleric person has strongly expressed emotional reactions, that is, the increased emotional background of activity is quite clearly visible. At the same time, a choleric person is an unbalanced person, with a clear predominance of excitation processes over inhibition processes. This makes him significantly different from a sanguine person.

A phlegmatic person, unlike a choleric person, is a person with slow reactions. He gets into work slowly and leaves it relatively slowly. It moves relatively slowly from one state to another, for example, from a state of rest to a state of excitement, and vice versa. The emotional background of his activity is relatively weakly expressed. But, at the same time, such a person is dynamically balanced, that is, the processes of excitation and inhibition in him proceed, although slowly, but approximately equally in strength and duration.

The melancholic temperament is in many ways similar to the phlegmatic one, with one significant difference from it. A melancholic person is an unbalanced person with a weak nervous system, and in him the processes of inhibition clearly prevail over the processes of excitation. If a choleric person is almost always in a state of increased excitement and increased activity, then a melancholic person, on the contrary, is more often in a state of inhibition and passivity. It is no coincidence that the corresponding psychological state of a person is called melancholy.

2. Natural bases of temperament

2.1 Excursion into history

Claudius Galen believed that a person's temperament is determined by the ratio or mixture of four "juices" in the body: blood, lymph, black bile and yellow bile. The names of temperament types that have survived to this day came from the ancient names of these “juices.” “Sangva” is blood, “hole” is ordinary bile, “melan hole” is dark bile and “phlegm” is lymph. It was believed that the type of human temperament is determined by the type of fluid that predominates in the body.

The idea that a person’s temperament type is determined by the ratio of fluids in the body lasted for quite a long time, until the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, when I.P. Pavlov, having introduced the concept of the basic properties of the human nervous system, hypothesized that it is they, their combination, that determines the type of human temperament.

Pavlov's scientific research is associated with the discovery of the following basic properties of the nervous system: strength - weakness, excitability - inertia and balance. It is characteristic that Pavlov first discovered and described these properties by observing how dogs behave during the development of conditioned reflexes to various stimuli: electric shocks, light and sound influences. Consequently, Pavlov believed that temperament is not a personal property of only a person, but represents the individual physiological characteristics of the activity of any highly developed living organism.

However, this idea is also in the 20th century. did not remain the same as Pavlov expressed it, and was subject to change. It turned out that three properties of the nervous system are not enough to characterize all the features of temperament. Domestic psychologists B.M. Teplov, V.D. Nebylitsyn and V.M. Rusalov proved that the human nervous system has many other properties. They ultimately came to the conclusion that the human nervous system has not three, as Pavlov assumed, but four pairs of basic properties and several more pairs of additional properties. For example, such a property of the nervous system as lability, that is, a rapid response to stimuli, was discovered, as well as its opposite property, called rigidity, a slow response of the nervous system to stimuli.

In addition, research conducted by these scientists discovered that different parts of the nervous system may have different sets of properties. There are, for example, properties related to the entire nervous system as a whole, large blocks of the nervous system, and properties inherent in its small sections or parts, for example, individual nerve cells.

In this regard, the picture of the natural basis of people’s temperament types (while maintaining the conviction that the type of temperament depends on the individual combination of properties of the nervous system) has become much more complex and quite confusing. Unfortunately, it has not yet been possible to fully clarify the situation, but modern scientists still agree on the following.

First of all, they recognize that the type of human temperament is determined not by the combination of those three simple properties of the nervous system that Pavlov spoke about, but by many different properties. Then, they assume that different structures of the human brain, in particular those that are responsible for a given person’s communication with people and for his activity with inanimate objects, may have different sets of properties. It follows that one and the same person may well possess and demonstrate different types of temperament in work and in communicating with people.

But this idea of the organic basis of temperament is likely to change in the coming years, which is associated with advances in human genetics.

2.2 Modern idea of the organic basis of temperament

What is the organic basis of temperament according to modern ideas. Such a basis, apparently, is some features of the human genotype, on which, in turn, the properties of the nervous system depend. Bearing in mind the fact of the existence of the four pairs of properties of the nervous system indicated above: strength - weakness, excitability - inertia, lability - rigidity and balance - imbalance, as well as the fact that their combination determines the type of human temperament, we can assume that the following type temperament corresponds to the following typical combinations of properties of the nervous system:

1. Sanguine – a strong, excitable, labile and balanced nervous system.

2. Choleric is a strong, excitable, labile and unbalanced nervous system, with the dominance of excitation processes over inhibition processes.

3. Phlegmatic – a strong, inert, rigid and balanced nervous system.

4. Melancholic – a weak, inert, rigid and unbalanced nervous system, with inhibition dominating over excitation.

3. Physiological bases of temperament

I.P. Pavlov, studying the work of the cerebral hemispheres, established that all traits of temperament depend on the characteristics of a person’s higher nervous activity. He proved that among representatives of different temperaments, typological differences in the strength, balance and mobility of the processes of excitation and inhibition in the cerebral cortex change.

The strength of nervous processes is the ability of nerve cells to tolerate strong excitation and prolonged inhibition, i.e. endurance and performance of nerve cells. The strength of the nervous process is expressed in the appropriate reaction to strong stimuli: strong stimuli cause strong processes of excitation in a strong nervous system, and weak processes of excitation and inhibition in a weak nervous system.

Balance presupposes a proportional relationship between these nervous processes. The predominance of excitation processes over inhibition processes is expressed in the speed of formation of conditioned reflexes and their slow extinction. The predominance of inhibition processes over excitation is determined by the slow formation of conditioned reflexes and the speed of their extinction.

The mobility of nervous processes is the ability of the nervous system to quickly, in response to the demands of environmental conditions, replace the process of excitation with the process of inhibition and vice versa.

Various relationships between the indicated properties of nervous processes were used as the basis for determining the type of higher nervous activity.

The relationship between these processes is presented in the diagram:

Depending on the combination of strength, mobility and balance of the processes of excitation and inhibition I.P. Pavlov identified four types of nervous system, which correspond to four temperaments:

1. Sanguine – strong, balanced, agile.

2. Phlegmatic – strong, balanced, sedentary (inert).

3. Choleric – strong, but unbalanced, with weak inhibitory processes compared to excitation.

4. Melancholic – weak processes of excitation and inhibition.

We all know that people differ from each other in temperament. You can easily determine the temperament of your friends and acquaintances, but determining your own temperament is much more difficult. And this is no coincidence.

Not all people are “pure” representatives of basic temperaments. In life there are many mixed and intermediate types of higher nervous activity, and therefore temperaments. In most cases, there is a combination of features of one temperament with features of another.

4. Properties of temperament

Temperament as a personal characteristic of a person has its own properties. The first property of temperament is the pace of periodic and cyclic movements made by a person when performing a particular activity. Tempo is the number of movements per unit of time: the more such movements, the higher the pace of activity.

The second property of temperament is the speed of external movements or the speed of the internal, psychological processes of a person.

The third property of temperament is switchability. It manifests itself either in the transition from performing one movement to performing another movement, or in switching from one internal process to another, or, finally, in the transition from one psychological state to another. The faster a person makes such transitions, the higher the switchability as a property of temperament. One of the manifestations of this property is the reaction speed, i.e. the speed of a person’s transition from a state of rest (no reaction) to a state of excitement (presence of a reaction).

The fourth property of temperament is activity or energy. It refers to the amount of energy inherent in an action performed by a person, or the amount of energy expended by a person when performing a particular action. Such characteristics of a person as active, passive, energetic, weak, refer to the manifestations of this particular property of temperament.

The fifth property of temperament is the emotional background against which a person’s activity takes place, or, in short, his emotionality. It refers to the strength and variety of a person's typical emotional experiences.

The sixth property of temperament is balance. It is characterized by the relationship between the processes of excitation and inhibition, both in the human nervous system and in his behavior. Accordingly, a person whose processes of excitation and inhibition are approximately equal in strength and duration is called balanced. In this case, excitation is understood as a transition from a state of passivity (rest, inaction) to a state of activity (action, activity), and inhibition is the reverse transition: from a state of excitation to a state of rest. The combination of these properties characterizes a person’s temperament.

5. Temperament and individual style of activity

5.1 The difference between individual style and temperament

What is an individual style of activity? Observations of people's behavior show that the natural type of temperament is not always clearly manifested in their activities, and especially in their social behavior. Culture imposes certain restrictions on human social behavior. In Italian culture, it is allowed to talk loudly, make active body movements and wave your arms when communicating; in English it is forbidden to do this; in Japanese culture it is considered unethical to openly express one's emotions, etc.

Culture, training and upbringing undoubtedly leave a certain imprint on the external manifestations of a person’s temperament. As a result of this, in the dynamic features of human social behavior observed from the outside, we are dealing not with the so-called pure temperament, but with something else, designated as an individual style of activity.

An individual style of activity can be defined in different ways: both relatively independently and in comparison with a person’s temperament. Self-determination of individual activity style is as follows. This is a characteristic way of behavior for a person in typical life situations, which, in turn, can be of two types: activity situations and communication situations.

The definition of an individual style of activity in its comparison with temperament looks somewhat different. In this case, an individual style of activity is understood as the result of an adaptation of a person’s individual type of temperament to the characteristics of his activities and communication with people or to the conditions in which they take place. How does an individual style of activity differ from temperament and what does it have in common with it? An individual style of activity is manifested in all features of human activity, while temperament is manifested only in its dynamic features. For example, an individual style of activity can be manifested in how a person prepares to perform a particular activity, in what order he performs the actions that are associated with this activity, and how he completes and controls the corresponding activity. All this has no direct relation to temperament as such.

The individual style of activity, although it depends on the properties of the human nervous system and, possibly, on the genotype, is not innate. Knowing the properties of the nervous system that a person possesses from birth, it is impossible to predict what his individual style of activity will become.

A person’s individual style of activity can change over the course of life, but temperament does not. For example, if a person chooses a new specialty for himself or enters a job where he is required to have a different style of activity compared to the one to which he is accustomed, then in order to obtain the appropriate specialty and not lose his newly acquired job, the person is forced to change his style of individual activity. It is impossible to change a person's temperament even if one wants to.

The individual style of activity represents mainly external forms of behavior. At the same time, the internal processes taking place in a person may not correspond to his externally observed behavior. In other words, there may be significant differences in the dynamics of internal activity associated with an individual style of activity and in the dynamics of external activity in which this style of activity is expressed.

This is not characteristic of temperament: external and internal types of activity that characterize temperament are identical in their dynamic characteristics. If, for example, a person is choleric or phlegmatic, then his external behavior, his mental processes, and his mental states will have the same, phlegmatic or choleric, properties, respectively.

At the same time, temperament and individual style of human activity are closely related to each other. Their connection is manifested in the following. The individual style of a person’s activity, in its dynamic characteristics, usually corresponds to his temperament. But such a correspondence is not always observed: there may be discrepancies between the dynamic characteristics of temperament and individual style of activity. For example, being a phlegmatic person, a person may be forced to engage in activities, the implementation of which requires from him the dynamic characteristics characteristic of a sanguine person. It also happens the other way around: a sanguine person, while doing something, is forced to behave like a phlegmatic person. In these two cases, a person, while performing the corresponding work, will feel tense and uncomfortable and, most likely, will quickly get tired and make a considerable number of mistakes in his work. If a person’s temperament and individual style of activity correspond to each other, then the person feels quite comfortable in work, receives satisfaction from it and demonstrates increased performance.

An individual style of activity, on the other hand, cannot be completely independent of temperament, and the basic type of temperament that is characteristic of a given person, one way or another, will certainly manifest itself in his individual style of activity. Let us clarify what has been said, remembering that most people have mixed types of temperament, and the type of a person’s temperament is conditionally determined by the dominant properties of the nervous system. This is what is meant when talking about the basic type of temperament of a given person. It is this type that manifests itself in the individual style of human activity.

5.2 Factors influencing the formation and development of individual style

There are several such factors, and they can act, influencing the individual style of activity, at different periods of a person’s life. At a time when a person’s individual style of activity is just beginning to form, it develops both under the influence of the types of activities in which the child is engaged, and under the influence of the child’s observation of the activities of adults and imitation of them. Trying to be like the adults who are significant to him, the child simply imitates them, without thinking or caring at all that his individual style of activity corresponds to the characteristics of his own temperament. And only over time, with the accumulation of life experience, through trial and error, the child comes to the conclusion that the dynamic features of his individual style of activity begin to correspond to the characteristics of his temperament. This usually happens already during school years.

In adults, an individual style of activity develops under the influence of their professional activities, in particular, successes and failures in this activity. Those features of the individual style of activity that lead a person to success in work are reflected and consolidated in the individual style of his activity; those features that give rise to failures, on the contrary, are eliminated over time. The individual style of a person’s activity usually becomes optimal, corresponding to the characteristics of temperament, in adulthood, when a person accumulates quite a lot of life experience and is faced with the task of maximally optimizing his activity, achieving the best results in it with minimal expenditure of energy, effort and time.

6. Temperament and character

Temperament type cannot be “good” or “bad”. Temperament gives uniqueness to a person’s behavior, but in no way determines the motives, actions, beliefs, or moral principles of the individual. One of the psychological books describes a very expressive life situation, revealing the specific behavioral features of representatives of different temperaments.

Four friends are late for the theater.

The choleric man got into an argument with the usher, trying to get into the stalls and take his seat. He assures that the clock in the theater is fast, that he will not disturb anyone, and tries to push aside the usher and slip into his seat.

The sanguine man immediately realized that they wouldn’t let him into the stalls, but it was easier to get to the upper tiers, and he ran up the stairs.

The phlegmatic person, seeing that they were not allowed into the hall, thought: “The first scene of the play is always uninteresting. I’ll go to the buffet for now and wait for intermission.”

Melancholic: “I’m always unlucky. Once again I made it to the theater, and even then unsuccessfully.” And he went home.

A person exhibits the same dynamic characteristics in different situations, but temperament only affects the form of manifestation of character. Thus, persistence in a choleric person is expressed in vigorous activity, in a phlegmatic person - in deep concentration. Each temperament has its positive and negative sides. An example of the valuable properties of a choleric person: passion, activity, energy; sanguine – mobility, liveliness, responsiveness; melancholic – depth and stability of feelings, high sensitivity; phlegmatic – calmness, lack of haste.

But not every choleric person is energetic and not every sanguine person is responsive. These properties must be developed in oneself, and temperament only makes this task easier or more difficult.

B.M. Teplov wrote that with any temperament there is a danger of developing undesirable personality traits. Choleric temperament can provoke a person to lack of restraint, harshness, and a tendency to constant “explosions.” A sanguine temperament can lead a person to be frivolous, prone to scatterbrain, and lacking depth and stability. With a melancholic temperament, a person may develop excessive isolation, a tendency to become completely immersed in his own experiences, and excessive shyness. A phlegmatic temperament can cause a person to be lethargic, inert, and indifferent to the events taking place around him.

The properties of temperament are formed in a person’s activities and are largely determined by the direction of his personality. Based on each temperament, valuable personality traits can be formulated.

7. Temperament and communication

Temperament is closely related to the characteristics of a person’s communication with other people, and therefore, to a large extent determines the psychological compatibility or incompatibility of people.

V.S. Merlin, a prominent Russian psychologist who specifically studies the dynamic characteristics of the human psyche: “Imagine two rivers: one calm, the other fast, mountainous. The flow of the first is barely noticeable, it is smooth, it carries water, it does not have bright splashes, stormy waterfalls, or dazzling splashes. The course of the second is the complete opposite. The river rushes quickly, the water in it rumbles, seethes, bubbles and, hitting the stones, turns into shreds of foam... Something similar can be observed in dynamics (features of the flow of mental life of different people).” It is represented here that both rivers - stormy and calm - flow separately, independently of each other. But in ordinary, everyday life - in the family, at work, during classes at the institute, in the company of friends, etc. there is a merging of a variety of “streams” of the mental life of different people, giving rise to a surge of emotions, waterfalls and whirlpools in human relationships, since each of the “streams” in a common channel strives to preserve its self-worth and originality. From here it is clear how important it is for each of us to know the characteristics of our own temperament and the temperaments of others and take into account each other’s strengths and weaknesses in the process of communication, interaction and relationships.

In interpersonal relationships, conflicts often arise due to the fact that people do not take into account the temperamental characteristics of both their own and the other person, such as impulsiveness, slowness, hot temper, great impressionability, vulnerability, etc. Some temperamental deficiencies can be neutralized by a person in the process of his daily work on himself; Using the characteristics of your temperament, you can achieve significant success in your activities and in improving your own personality.

Conclusion

Summing up the topic “Types of temperament, their psychological characteristics,” we understand that temperament gives originality to a person’s behavior, but in no way determines the motives, actions, beliefs, or moral principles of an individual.

Having considered the very meaning of the word temperament, we can clarify its definition. It talks about the stable psychological properties of a person, on which his behavior depends, and therefore about personal characteristics. The term “psychophysiological” in this case means that the corresponding properties constitute not only part of psychology, but also part of human physiology, that is, they are both psychological and physiological at the same time.

In other words, we are talking about individual human properties, which are more likely to be innate than acquired.

From the work I have done, we have learned that there are four types of temperament:

1. Sanguine – strong, balanced, agile.

2. Phlegmatic – strong, balanced, sedentary (inert).

3. Choleric – strong, but unbalanced, with weak inhibitory processes compared to excitation.

4. Melancholic – weak processes of excitation and inhibition.

In the 20th century Much in our ideas about temperament has changed, but much remains the same as it was several centuries ago. What has changed in our understanding of human temperament in the last few decades?

Firstly, in science there has been a clear separation of human temperament and character. Now in most modern textbooks on psychology, and especially in science, temperament and character are considered separately from each other and are interpreted as different characteristics of a person’s personality.

Secondly, psychologists have learned not only to describe types of temperament, but also to diagnose and evaluate them using special tests that were created for this purpose.

Thirdly, the study of temperament types in a large number of modern people has shown that the so-called pure types of temperament corresponding to traditional descriptions are quite rare in life. Such cases account for 25% - 30% of all cases. The remaining 70% - 75% of people have mixed types of temperament, in which the same person exhibits properties inherent in different types of temperament. Moreover, it turned out that about 25% of people cannot be classified as a certain type of temperament at all, since the properties inherent in different types of temperament are variable.

Thus, it turned out that the classification of temperament types that had been established for centuries and seemed unshakable does not more fully correspond to reality and is not fully confirmed by empirical, statistical research.

Fourthly, it was found that the same person can exhibit different types of temperament from time to time, and this depends on what he is doing at a given time. For example, one and the same person can be choleric in communicating with people and at the same time be sanguine in work. Or another, often encountered case: a person may exhibit a phlegmatic temperament at work and a melancholic type of temperament in communicating with people.

Finally, the old ideas about the organic basis of temperament were subjected to serious changes.

Research by psychologists has shown that representatives of different temperaments can achieve equally high success in their activities, but they go to these successes in different ways.

Temperament has nothing to do with the talent and giftedness of people. Among the great people there are bright representatives of all four types of temperaments: I.A. Krylov and M.I. Kutuzov – phlegmatic, A.S. Pushkin and A.V. Suvorov - choleric, M.Yu. Lermontov and A.I. Herzen - sanguine people, poet V.A. Zhukovsky, N.V. Gogol and P.I. Tchaikovsky is melancholic.

List of sources used

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4 Psychology and pedagogy: Proc. allowance./ A.A. Rean, N.V. Borovskaya, S.I. Intelligence. – M, St. Petersburg, Voronezh, Minsk, 2008. – 52 p.

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General psychology: Textbook. allowance. – M., 2008. – 76 p. Tags: Types of temperaments, their psychological characteristics Abstract Psychology

Why you need to know your temperament type

The division into temperaments is a basic classification in psychology. All other scientific classifications are mainly based on it. What does knowledge of one’s temperament give to an ordinary person, far from science?

Having defined it, you will know your innate, unchangeable characteristics. This will help you predict your behavior as accurately as possible, build the most winning strategy for action in any situation, relying on your strengths and compensating for your weaknesses.

For example, you found out that you are melancholic. Your striking features are introversion and high sensitivity. If you choose a profession that involves constant interaction with people, you will be stressed most of the time. Of course, over time your psyche will adapt to this, but the process will be quite painful. And given the weakness of the nervous system of melancholic people, the price may be too high.

Or let's take choleric people. Knowing about their excessive temper, which often turns out to be a source of serious problems, they must consciously avoid acute situations.

It's also a good idea to know the temperament types of your family, colleagues and friends. This will help you increase the effectiveness of communication with them several times. Knowing the characteristics of a particular person, you will be able to avoid sharp corners, avoid touching pain points and show empathy at a higher level.

Characteristics of a phlegmatic person

Strengths:

Balanced
Flexible and calm
Assembled
Patient
Tends to be constant
Silent but witty
Friendly and kind
Tends to hide his emotions
Easily comes to terms with his fate
Universal man

Weak sides:

Lack of enthusiasm
Fearful and anxious
Indecisive
Avoids responsibility
Weak will
Selfish
Too shy and secretive
Compromises too often
Complacent

Phlegmatic at work:

Competent and constant
Peace-loving and executive
Possesses administrative skills
Serves as a mediator when problems arise
Avoids conflicts
Capable of working under pressure
Finds easy ways

Phlegmatic friend

He's easy to get along with
Pleasant to talk to
Harmless
Good listener
Dry sense of humor
Likes to watch people
Capable of compassion

Phlegmatic child, teenager, adult

Infant

Pros:

good-natured, unpretentious, joyful, easily adaptable

Minuses:

slow, modest and aloof, indifferent, unresponsive

Child

Pros:

observes others, easy to cheer, does not cause problems, stable, pleasant, calm

Minuses:

selfish, indecisive, avoids work, fearful, a little stubborn, lazy and sleepy, watches a lot of TV.

Teenager

Pros:

pleasant personality, witty, good listener, can be a mediator in solving problems, can lead if pushed, serious attitude

Minuses:

indecisive, unenthusiastic, compromises too often, lacks motivation, sarcastic, remains aloof, procrastinates.

Adult

Emotional needs:

peace and tranquility, sense of importance, lack of stress, respect

Cause of depression:

chaos in life, many problems, pressure from outside

How to cope with stress

: organize your life, turn off the TV, eat and sleep regularly

Energy Level:

Lowest energy level, needs rest, feels drained around people

Differences between temperament and character

People often equate or confuse the two, so let's be clear. Temperament, being innate and unchangeable, serves as the foundation for such a category of personality as character. Character is a set of acquired personality traits formed on the basis of temperament.

The characters of people with different temperaments may be similar, but they manifest themselves in completely different ways. For example, let’s take the quality of leadership. If a sanguine person becomes a leader due to his ability to find an approach to people, then the leadership of a choleric person is most often based on strength, submission and dominance.

The innate properties of the nervous system can predetermine the development of certain character traits. But not necessarily. As you know, the human psyche is very flexible and plastic. In some cases, compensatory mechanisms are triggered that make it possible to smooth out undesirable manifestations of congenital characteristics. What comes first here is the strength of a person’s personality, which helps him swim against the tide of the characteristics inherent in him.

Knowing this, you can find an individual approach to shaping the child’s personality. A child with any type of temperament can develop any character traits, only the methods of education will be different. And an adult can set the goal of developing certain qualities in himself and selecting suitable techniques according to his temperament.

Read more about the differences between temperament and character in a separate article.

Is it possible to change it

The type of temperament is laid down in the child in the womb; on the other hand, each person, depending on the current situation, manifests himself differently. For example, under extreme conditions, even the most ardent melancholic person can become choleric for a while.

There is an opinion among people that temperament cannot be changed in any way. It is erroneous, since even the most ordinary person can change their temperament for a short time; trained people can, in principle, choose it for themselves. In the process of education and training, most people can easily work out all types of temperaments for themselves.