Differences between personality, temperament and character

These concepts are used to express ways of thinking and feeling; it is important not to confuse them.

In everyday language, the terms "personality", "temperament" and "character" are often used interchangeably; however, psychology has established clear boundaries between these three concepts, which account for different aspects of human experience.

In this article we will define personality, temperament and character.. To do so, we will briefly review the etymology of the terms and the use that has been given to them throughout history, as well as the point of view of scientific psychology regarding their differences and similarities.

What is temperament?

When we speak of temperament we are referring to the Biological and instinctive dimension of the personality, which manifests itself before other factors.which manifests itself before all other factors. During the life of any person, the environmental influences that he/she receives interact with his/her temperamental base, giving rise to the traits that will characterize him/her and differentiate him/her from the rest.

Temperament is determined by genetic inheritance, which has a significant influence on the functioning of the nervous and endocrine systems. functioning of the nervous and endocrine systemsthat is to say, in the relative influence of different neurotransmitters and hormones. Other innate aspects, such as the level of brain alertness, are also important for the development of personality.

These individual differences generate variations in different traits and predispositions; for example, hyperreactivity of the sympathetic nervous system favors the appearance of feelings of anxiety, while extroverted individuals are characterized by chronically low levels of cortical activation, according to the PEN model described by Hans Eysenck.

Historical evolution of the concept

In Ancient Greece the famous physician Hippocrates stated that human personality and disease depended on the balance or imbalance between four bodily humors: yellow bile, black bile, phlegm and blood..

In the second century A.D., some 500 years later, Galen of Pergamon created a temperamental typology that classified people according to their predominant mood. In the choleric type yellow bile predominated, in the melancholic type black bile, in the phlegmatic type phlegm and in the sanguine type blood.

Much later, in the twentieth century, authors such as Eysenck and Pavlov developed theories based on biology. theories of personality based on biology. Like the models of Hippocrates and Galen, both used the stability (Neuroticism-Emotional Stability) and activity (Extraversion-Introversion) of the central nervous system as basic differentiating criteria.

Defining character

Character is the learned component of personality. It appears as a consequence of the experiences we live, which influence our way of being by modulating the biological predispositions and tendencies, that is, temperamental.

Although there is not such a high degree of agreement on the definition of character as in the case of temperament, most proposals emphasize the fact that it is derived from social interaction. This means that it depends on the context in which we develop, and therefore has a cultural origin.

At the beginning of the 20th century the study of character, or characterology, was a predominant trend that would eventually be replaced by Personality Psychology; basically, these perspectives did not differ much from current models. Among the authors who worked with the concept of character, Ernst Kretschmer and William Stern stand out.

Nowadays, in many cases no distinction is made between these elementscharacter and personality. Strictly speaking, the first term specifically designates the part of our nature that is determined by the environment, but the difficulty in separating it from temperament means that the definitions of character and personality often overlap.

Personality: the sum of biology and environment

In psychology, the term "personality" is defined as a organization of emotions, cognitions and behaviors that determine a person's behavior patterns. Both the biological basis (temperament) and environmental influences (character) are involved in the formation of personality.

Therefore, the most remarkable aspect of personality in comparison with the concepts of temperament and character is that it encompasses both. Given the difficulties in delimiting which part of the way of being is given by heredity and which by the environment, this term is more useful than the previous ones at the level of the personality. is more useful than the previous ones at a theoretical and practical level..

Psychology has offered a large number of conceptions of personality. One of the most influential is that of Gordon Allport, who also emphasizes mental and behavioral manifestations and the organizational component, although he adds a factor of dynamism (continuous interaction with the environment) and individual specificity.

Each psychological theory of personality emphasizes different aspects of the human experience. In addition to Allport's individualistic theory, among the most important are Eysenck's, which focuses on biological dimensions, and those of the humanists Rogers and Maslow.

It is also important to mention the situational to mention the situationist modelswhich bring the concept of personality closer to that of behavior. From these perspectives it is proposed that human behavior does not depend so much on mental constructs as on environmental influences in a given situation, or that personality is a behavioral repertoire.

History of the word "personality

In Ancient Greece the word "persona" was used to refer to the masks worn by actors in the theater. Later, in Rome, it would come to be used as a synonym for "citizen", designating mainly the social roles of privileged and influential individuals.

Over time, the term "person" began to refer to the individual as a being differentiated from his or her environment. "Personality," which was derived from this word, has been used since the Middle Ages to describe a set of characteristics that determine a person's behavioral tendencies..

Biblliographic references:

• Church, A.T. (2000). Culture and personality: Toward an integrated cultural trait psychology. Journal of Personality, 68(4), 651-703.
• Corr, Philip J.; Matthews, Gerald. (2009). The Cambridge handbook of personality psychology (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Harris, Judith Rich (1995). Where is the child's environment? A group socialization theory of development. Psychological Review. 102 (3).