They say that there are no identical people in nature. As a matter of fact it is really so and each person has absolutely individual and unique features. However, there are a number of characteristics that are characteristic of all people. Their totality is called temperament. Thanks to him all people can be divided into at least 4 different and unique groups. How do they differ from each other and what is similar in them? This is for us to analyze.
Temperament, its properties and types
Everyone from birth has a set of specific behaviors. As an infant, he manifests a reaction to any vital effects in the form of motor, visual, speech and other activities. The assertion that human behavior forms the social environment in which it is located is only partly true. Nature also contributes to the formation of individual characteristics of the personality, which sometimes manifests itself in early childhood during communication and play. Temperament paints the psyche with certain nuances: the rate of speech, willpower, emotional reaction, but it does not in any way affect the social attitudes, world outlook and life beliefs of the individual.
Types of temperament and their characteristics were first introduced in ancient times. Observing the individual characteristics of the behavior of patients, the doctor Hippocrates made an attempt to explain the processes occurring in the human body. It is Hippocrates who is considered to be the person who first considered the types of man's temperament from the scientific point of view. So, the scientist believed that human behavior is due to the mixing in his body of four liquids: blood, mucus, as well as black and yellow bile. After many centuries, four types of temperament still have the same names as those of these liquids. So for example the sanguine type has an origin from the word sanguis ("blood"), choleric from the word chole ("bile"), phlegmatic - from phlegma ("slime"), melancholic - from melan chole ("black bile"). It was believed that temperament is associated with a person's way of life. If, for example, it is mobile and energetic, then bile accumulates in the body, and if a person sits for a long time, phlegm accumulates. However, there are many more theories as to how and where the temperament came from, but all of them do not provide a full explanation for this concept. Only I.P. Pavlov already in our time was able to make a description of the types of temperament, relying on the study of human higher nervous activity. As a result, under the temperament, it is now common to understand the general characteristic of the dynamic side of behavior, which basically expresses the properties of the nervous system.
Psychological characteristics of temperament types
- Temperament type - choleric. The peculiarity of such people is the cyclicity in actions. They can happily set to work and overcome difficulties, but as soon as the forces are over, the working spirit also leaves. Choleric type of temperament is characterized by imbalance of nervous activity. As a result - increased excitability, quick temper and even aggression. Such people are energetic and mobile. At the same time they are quickly excited and also quickly calmed down.
- Temperament type is sanguine. Like the previous type, this one differs by more smooth and soft mood jumps. The main feature of people with this temperament is a superficial attitude to the phenomena of the surrounding world. Sanguine quickly get carried away and also quickly cool down. The same happens with their emotions. Most often these are mobile and sociable people, not deprived of humor and wit.
- The type of temperament is phlegmatic. Its owners - people calm and balanced, stubborn and diligent. The device of the nervous system, or rather the presence of strong inhibition, can restrain the seconds of impulses and clearly follow the planned schedule in life. Phlegmatic difficulties are that for each action they need a long swing, a mood to switch attention, etc. Usually such people are good
suitable for a long, monotonous work. - Temperament type - melancholic. Its representatives, as a rule, are closed, emotionally sensitive and vulnerable people. In difficult situations, they are timid and indecisive. Weak processes of excitation and inhibition in the nervous system lead to the fact that the activity of a melancholic is almost always inhibited. Only in a circle of close and familiar people, people with such a temperament can feel confident and successfully conduct business.
Most often in nature, the pure of the described species does not occur. Usually people have a mixed type of temperament. However, which of the four species prevails in one or another personality can be checked with the help of numerous psychological techniques.