Difference between temperament, character and personality

This trio of terms acquired relevance within the nascent psychology between eight hundred and nine hundred through two different channels: "physiological" psychology on the one hand and psychoanalysis on the one hand. the other. Throughout the history of psychology, in fact, the term personality was preceded by the term temperament, first, and the term character, later. The temperament-character-personality sequence makes it possible to read very clearly the gradual passage of a physiological conception to another one that is more and more psychological, to later integrate the whole in an global. In this Psychology-Online article we will see together the ddifference between temperament, character and personality.

Index

1. What is personality
2. What is temperament
3. What is character
4. Differences between temperament, character and personality

In common usage, the meaning of the term personality can be identified with skill or social acumen, evaluating an individual's personality based on of their ability to act positively in contacts with different people and in the most varied circumstances.

A second meaning considers inherent to the personality of an individual the most intense and vivid impressions that it arouses in others; the reaction of others to the way an individual interacts defines her personality: for example, arrogant, fascinating, difficult, etc.

Personality can still be understood as set of the qualities and characteristics of a subject, I mean, like sum of its biological and psychic aspects susceptible to observation and objective description, abstracting from interpersonal reflections.

In other definitions, the concept of personality includes the unique, unrepeatable or most representative aspects of an individual. Ultimately, personality is the set of terms used to describe the individual, terms chosen based on different variables and dimensions, according to the field of interest of the studious.

Speaking of temperament, we connect to the innate psychophysical basis, still centered on the structure biological, the provisions and peculiar tendencies of each individual to act in the world, to react to the environment and to behave, with special reference to the affective sphere. In this article you can find the types of temperaments with examples.

Temperament should be viewed as difficult, or not at all changeable. Although life experiences, the particular characteristics of interpersonal relationships and family relationships, as well as the commitment of will to determine one's social position, adventures of existence, frustrations, justifications, different possibilities of realization, in a word, the infinite existential circumstances, affect the temperament, making the subject assume modes of behaving and reacting even different from innate ones, do not produce alterations, but interact with complex modalities, guiding the character building of the individual.

The character represents the result of the interaction between temperament and environment: it is not, then, a static component of the personality, but rather a dynamic component that changes over time and with the vicissitudes of life that make up its aspects. This modifiability of character, on the other hand, is relative, possible in some expressions, but not in its deep core; also in the concept of character is inherent a component of habitual and predictability, as an aspect if not rigidly permanent. However, it has persistence.

Furthermore, the character is the less modifiable the more it progresses with age: we speak of evolutionary age, which ends with maturity, to underline the still wide possibility of modification of the character, proper youths.

In the following article you will find the different character types of a person.

As we have seen, character, personality and temperament are closely related aspects and with certain differences. Next, we will see exactly how personality, temperament and character differ.

Every human person has from birth a biological foundation: the innate organic heritage that each one receives through the hereditary transmission (hereditary constitution), from which the shapes and proportions of the body derive (morphological constitution) and vital functions (circulatory, respiratory, digestive, etc.) dependent on the nervous and endocrine system (constitution physiological).

• The set of these elements determines an initial psychic structure or temperament: initial because the conditioning of the hereditary factors must be added due to environmental factors, which affects the entire life of the subject.
• Personality is the fruit of these "external" conditioning and of the reaction to these conditioning.
• With the word temperament we understand the natural psychic response to the hereditary organic whole: it expresses impulses, instinctual tendencies, dispositions, affective states, etc.
• The character, on the other hand, is the fruit of the initiative of the subject under the influence of the environment. In the child character is not yet distinguished from temperament, decision is not distinguished from impulse, inhibition processes are underdeveloped, mental schemes are too simple, and so on.
• Personality not only unifies biological aspects of temperament and psychic aspects character, influenced by the environment, but also creates values, behavior models, forms of social organization capable of modifying the environment and their own personality.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

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