Everyone is aware that each of us has a different character, but not everyone uses this knowledge. This is completely in vain, because having knowledge of a person’s character in service, you can predict his behavior and correct it personally.

Moreover, in order to understand the character, it is not at all necessary to communicate with a person for a long time, it is enough just to look at him carefully. We assure you that you will be able to see a lot!

Most people think that it is intelligence that makes a great scientist.
They are wrong - it's character.
Albert Einstein

Character as a personality trait

Speaking of character, they mean a complex of personality traits that significantly affects a person’s actions. Character is determined by the nervous system, and its development is determined by the environment.

There are 4 categories of character, which form:

1. Attitude towards members of the team, society as a whole- responsiveness, respect for others, contempt, callousness;
2. Features that demonstrate the attitude of a person to his work- integrity, responsibility, laziness, passivity;
3. Features that reflect the attitude of the individual to himself- self-criticism, pride, shyness, egocentrism.
4. Features that demonstrate the relationship of man to the material- carelessness, neatness.

Classification of a person's character according to E. Kretschmer

Kretschmer's theory describes 3 body types and 3 character types that correspond to them.

The type of character that such people have schizothymic- closed, stubborn people who do not get used to changing conditions.

2. Athletics

They correspond xotimics- calm and little impressionable people who do not tolerate change.

Mental disorders in these people can cause the development of epilepsy.

3. Picnics

The type of character inherent in these people, cyclothymics- Contact people expressing their emotions. They are quite easy to adapt to new conditions.

Mental disorders in them lead to prolonged depression.

WikiReference:
Ernst Kretschmer (German: Ernst Kretschmer) (10/08/1888, Wüstenrot, near Heilbronn - 02/09/1964, Tübingen) - German psychiatrist and psychologist, creator of the typology of temperaments based on physique.

Character properties

1. emotional- cheerfulness, balance, cheerfulness, etc.
2. Volitional- self-control, the desire to achieve success.
3. intellectual- prudence, observation, thoughtfulness.
4. Moral- Responsibility, justice, kindness.

Personal status

With the formation of a lifestyle, the person himself is formed. Equally important are the life circumstances and social conditions that take place in the life of each of us.

However, the formation of character is carried out in different groups(class, group of friends, team at work). The character will depend on the status of the individual in the team, as well as on what values ​​are supported by the reference group.

The team creates favorable conditions for the formation of the best character traits, and since this is a mutual process, the team itself also changes due to the individual. The character itself determines life values and the person's position.

Conclusion

At the same time, character traits are clearly displayed in a situation where a person must choose tactics of behavior.

Apart from external signs, individuals differ from each other in terms of physical features and mental abilities, mental and spiritual properties, in character. The worldview of a person, his environment, type of activity, and sometimes his appearance depend on its properties. Knowing what character is, one can better understand the essence of personality.

What is character in psychology?

The human character is influenced not only by psycho-emotional factors, but also by the features of work nervous system, habitat and social circle. A person's temperament is a combination of individual ones that determine the specifics of her behavior, lifestyle and interaction with others.

From the point of view of psychology, character combines the specific features of the mental and human, which are constant and stable. In most cases, it is formed throughout the entire life path and may be subject to some changes depending on lifestyle and environment.

Types of human character

There are the following types of character:

1. Choleric- often unbalanced, enthusiastic, with a sharp change in mood, quickly emotionally exhausted.
2. sanguine– mobile, productive, plunges headlong into interesting work, loses interest in a boring business, quickly reacts to a change in the situation and easily puts up with failures.
3. melancholic- often worried, vulnerable, impressionable, not much dependent on external factors.
4. Phlegmatic person- calm, hiding emotions, with a stable mood, balanced, calm, with high performance.

What determines a person's character?

Strengths of a person's character

The advantage may be positive traits person's character:

• honesty;
• diligence and conscientiousness;
• stress resistance;
• independence;
• discipline and diligence;
• communication skills, resourcefulness and self-confidence;
• punctuality.

With the help of the considered qualities, a person is able to achieve his goals, interact with others, be a reliable friend, life partner or partner. The development of such properties can contribute to the expansion of horizons, career growth and the emergence of new acquaintances.

Can a person change his character?

The question of whether it is possible to change the character of a person is always relevant, but there is no exact answer to it. There are a number of opinions regarding how the character of a person is revealed, each of which has the right to exist. Someone says that the basis of temperament lies in the genes or is formed in the first years of life, and all subsequent changes only slightly change moral traits or add minor adjustments to them.

Another opinion is that throughout the entire life path an individual is able to change characteristic qualities depending on the environment that surrounds him, new interests and acquaintances. For example, the following changes may occur:

• a person can become more emotional or, conversely, restrained;
• become cautious, reasonable or reckless with age;
• responsible or careless;
• sociable or uncommunicative.

IN modern world a person has many different options for self-realization and changing some of his character traits. You can try to do this by changing activities, choosing an environment, changing your worldview and outlook on life. It is important that such actions are aimed at developing positive and worthy character traits.

Having understood what character is, you can try to understand the intricacies of its definition. An interesting point is the ability to determine the features of temperament by the outlines of the face:

• a square-shaped face can speak of uncompromisingness and independence;
• people with a round face are often smart and practical, but emotional;
• oval - one of the signs of deep intelligence and diligence;
• the triangular shape of the face often accompanies creative, creative people.

Sometimes character traits can surprise others with the fact that they are very contradictory. So, strong, brave people are closed, and merry fellows and jokers are the most faithful friends and reliable companions in life. There may be diametrically opposite situations, because mother nature has not in vain endowed each person with individuality.

It is often said that a person has a complex, gullible, docile or terrible character. A variety of emotions is associated with the characteristics of a person's psychotype, his state of mind, hereditary factors or upbringing. Knowing what character is, allows you to understand the individual characteristics of a person. But it is important to remember that not only character can be decisive for assessing a person.

Each person is a unique individual. He has his own character, corresponding to certain tastes, activity, life goals, interpretation of events, and so on. Everyone speaks differently about the circumstances around him, reacts to problems, and does things. Life goals, family education, principles, life values ​​and priorities directly affect its formation from childhood. But, despite such a difference, there are common features of a person’s character that helped create a generalized typology to facilitate analysis. We did this based on certain criteria.

Character - from Greek means "different from others", "not like that", "individual lifestyle". This is an association of persistent relatively unchanging mental properties of a person, which determines the characteristics of behavioral reactions in society and alone with oneself.

In order to highlight the type of human character, psychologists can take various indicators:

• The temperament of a person (melancholic, choleric, sanguine, phlegmatic), which is very important in shaping her personality, because it is inherent in everyone from childhood, some actions are performed "on the machine" according to temperament. But if the temperament is mixed, as most often happens, then some difficulties will arise with the definition of the style of behavior, which are very interesting to solve.
• Physical physique. It would seem, what does this have to do with it, but scientists - psychologists have proven that the more beautiful the physical form of an individual, the more comfortable he feels in society, it is easier to establish connections, less slouch. But do not scratch everything one size fits all, there are exceptions.

• By date of birth. Astrologers believe that fate depends a lot on the star under which he was born. The day and month, year, time when the person was born are taken into account. All this affects a person, forming his unique character. If the birth was accompanied by a red severe Mars, then he endows the person with a vital core, steadfastness, firmness, clarity of mind.
• Handwriting. Yes, this factor is very variable, often it depends on mood, fatigue, interest in writing, even a pen. Handwriting and character of a person are two interrelated criteria. It is by the first that the second is most often determined, because the handwriting is selected at a subconscious level. People who are confident in themselves and their abilities often have a sweeping, beautiful, even style of writing, and those who are secretive, unsociable, insecure choose small slanted letters.
• According to external indicators. Some doctors believe that a person's character can be determined by his face. This is understandable, because seeing a sad, thoughtful face, many will recognize an unsociable melancholic in a person, and being in the company of people with happy “shining” faces, everyone will feel positive energy.

There is absolutely everything on the Internet today, if you search well. The personality test is no exception. There are a huge number of them, to pass them you just need to answer questions that most often relate to behavior in various situations, thinking, tastes. Then the received data is processed according to a special scale, which then determines the result of the passed test. But it should be understood that such “checks” are not always compiled by experienced psychologists. Sometimes they are created by ordinary people, such tests will not give a 100% result, but will only be close to the truth.

A psychologist for research compiles a characterization of a person, taking into account many factors, to determine his character. Why is this needed? Sometimes some mental disorders or illnesses, experiences are accompanied by a certain style of behavior. By analyzing the cause of the disease, you can find its solution, so everyone should know who he is in order to avoid further psychological problems.

These are the most popular methods, but there are a huge number of them, because each doctor interprets many factors in his own way, they are no less interesting if you understand them. A description of a person's character, according to each of the above criteria, goes below. After reading this article, everyone will be able to find themselves in the characteristics, and also understand how to find out the character of a person from them.

Temperament is a constant association of individual isolated mental and physiological characteristics of a person, associated with an effective, and not with a meaningful aspect of actions. It's kind of hard, isn't it? Simply put, this is what determines not thoughts, but behavior in a particular situation.

There are four main types: choleric, phlegmatic, melancholic, sanguine.

• Choleric is a person who is very bright, fast, passionate, but completely unable to control herself in critical situations. Frequent outbursts of unreasonable anger, sudden impulses, constant mood swings - all this is an integral part of the life of any choleric person. Such people rush into something with their heads, without planning anything, very soon they get bored with it, it starts to annoy. They are terrible brawlers, debaters, they will never allow themselves to agree with someone else's opinion, even if it is at least three times true, and the choleric person does not understand this topic.
• Melancholic is the exact opposite of choleric. Melancholic people are very vulnerable, emotional, they are easy to bring to tears. They are constantly in a state of anxiety or worry. It is difficult for them to control their emotions, especially in critical situations, they worry about every action they take. Alone with themselves, they are calm, often dream about something, analyze actions. Assiduous, but sometimes experiences or extraneous thoughts interfere with work. It is difficult for melancholic people to make connections with others, as they are very shy, picky about themselves.
• Phlegmatic - “calm, like an old oak tree on a hot summer day” is the whole essence of this temperament. Phlegmatic people are infinitely calm, imperturbable, it is difficult to get some emotions from them, because they do not worry about any events or actions. Unhurried, they can slowly wander around the street all day, immersed in detached thoughts. Phlegmatic people are very productive at work, because nothing distracts them in any situation. They make up for their slowness with the quality of their actions. They are good at learning new things.
• Sanguine is a truly living person. Sanguine people are mobile, impressionable, hot. They are constantly changing impressions. They have expressive facial expressions. The sanguine is easily drawn into the whirlpool of events around him, instantly reacting to everything that happens. Very efficient people. If they are interested in the occupation, then they will go into it headlong, but if not, they will not pay attention. Sanguine people are considered the most easily trained people.

Types of a person's character are sometimes classified according to his physique. The more athletic the shape of the body, the more confident the person. Although the “fat men” more often feel like the soul of the company than the most inveterate jocks, it all depends on self-esteem. This method of characterization was proposed by the famous German doctor - psychologist Kretschmer.

• Picnics are funny "fat men". These are people who have excess weight or prone to fullness. They are sociable, often become the soul of any company, if they do not have worries about their weight. Easily make contact, make new acquaintances, communicate with strangers. Picnics correspond to such a type of behavior style as cyclothymic. It is this style that corresponds to all sociable, sociable people.
• Athletics - the so-called "pitching". Athletes closely monitor their figure, nutrition, and are always in excellent physical shape. Often they have an overestimated self-esteem, which reflects pride, cold calmness, craving for supremacy in their characteristics. They do not support changes that are difficult to get used to. They love to command both in the hall over newcomers and acquaintances. Athletic - iksotimik - a constant, unshakable person.
• Asthenics are people who have a "teenage" figure: long thin limbs, tall stature, undeveloped body musculature. Often they are compared to a pole. Such people are often secretive, uncommunicative, but stubborn. They do not like noisy companies, where they feel deprived of attention, unnecessary. As athletics, asthenics do not like changes in life, they prefer stable constancy. Asthenics are schizotimics who are very serious in any situation, stubborn, closed.

Date of Birth

Astrologers often determine the character of a person by date of birth. To determine your style of behavior, you can refer to multiple astrological sites that the Internet has in abundance, since there will be a lot to describe, this will go far beyond the scope of the article. Usually, the analysis asks for the date and month, since each sign of the zodiac is divided into three decades. The Chinese horoscope analysis only asks for the year, identifying the appropriate animal.

Handwriting

Graphology is a science that studies all the variety of handwriting. It says that there are no absolutely identical handwritings, but all of them can be conditionally combined into certain groups according to certain criteria. As it turned out, people with similar characters have similar ways of writing signs and letters.

Absolutely everything influences the characteristic: the size of the letters, their shape, slope, the distance between them, spaces between words, the force of pressure on the paper, the margins.

1. The size of the letters speaks of the openness of nature. If the letters are large and sweeping, then you have a creative person. Such persons are usually impulsive, quick in action, pay little attention to details or advice, they are more interested in the goal. By nature, they are warriors, rebels, disagreeing with society. But small symbols speak of the secrecy of a person, the closeness of the soul. Such natures are very stubborn, have good mental analysis skills, are friends with the exact sciences, but prefer their company to a crowd of people. Very small letters speak of scrupulousness, even greater secrecy and detachment.
2. The shape of the symbols characterizes social character person. The owners of angular badges are most often stubborn people who disagree with other people's opinions. They fight for their complete independence from others, but at the same time they are very faithful in friendship. Those who prefer smooth transitions, roundness of characters - soft, cordial natures. They are always ready to give a hand to the needy, they know how to reassure, give advice. people who combine different forms- ideal residents of society, as they combine both vitality with kindness, and firmness of mind.
3. The pressure on the paper plays an important role in characterization analysis. So strong pressure is characteristic of choleric people, lovers of constantly proving something, arguing, keeping promises, setting goals. And dim letters on paper speak of uncertainty, anxiety of melancholic people.
4. Spaces between words, as well as indents from fields, indicate the ability to share. Greedy can give out handwriting with small spaces and indents from the margins, it seems that they feel sorry for the paper. Large indents speak of the generosity of nature.

Everyone has their favorite shade from a huge range. The color and character of a person are interconnected things, because even in ancient times people betrayed their meaning to each shade.

White is a symbol of pure innocence, virgin honesty. The angels in the paintings are always dressed in white robes, which speaks of their spotlessness, purity.

Black - sadness, strength of character, but sometimes uncertainty. The presence of black elements speaks of the severity, courage of a person, but his abundance is a sure sign of insecurity.

Red is associated with passionate love, jealousy, revolution and blood. People who prefer all shades of red are real rebels. They are impulsive, courageous, decisive, disagreeing with other people's opinions.

Yellow - wealth, prosperity. The children of the sun shine bright gold of light. Lovers of yellow are energetic, kind, open. Such natures can chat for hours non-stop, walk all day long, love sports, active pastime, cannot sit still.

Green - hope, purity. Giving preference to green, a very kind person, believing in others, trusting, pure, gives himself away. Such people will always come to the rescue, they will never leave at a difficult hour, they will sacrifice themselves, but they will help out. Often they are let down by their own faith in good, because often the world is full of evil betrayal.

Blue is loyalty. Does your significant other love the color blue? Then you are a real lucky one, because it is blue that is a symbol of fidelity, constancy, patience. The brighter its shade, the more open, warmer the nature.

Violet - cold, pride, lust for power. Violet is preferred by selfish natures who love to control others. This color is the coldest of all existing, which speaks of the spiritual coldness of a person, her steadfastness in business, clarity of mind when solving problems.

Above was a list of the most popular ways to determine the character of a person, but there are many more ways, because each specialist interprets temper in his own way.

Was last modified: December 11th, 2015 by Elena Pogodaeva

Each person has a unique set personality traits. In another way it can be called - character. How and when its formation is determined, how it happens, depends on many reasons, which will be discussed below.

All the people we meet in our lives differ in their way of life, thinking, behavior. These differences are largely determined by the character - that is, the totality of the properties of the psyche. Personal qualities determine almost everything that will happen in the personal life of an individual, in his relationships with other people. The properties of the psyche make it possible to predict many human actions. But in order to say that a person has this or that character, one must always keep in mind that certain features of his psyche must be constant, and not depend on the situation.

We react differently to different situations, show different traits of character. It also happens that in different situations a person demonstrates the same type of behavior, regardless of its consequences. If any traits become dominant, play an increasing role in behavior and relationships, then they talk about character accentuations. This is the norm, but its extreme, borderline version. Under certain, often negative, circumstances, accentuation degenerates into a personality disorder.

Character is the totality of all the mental, spiritual properties of a person that are found in his behavior.

Character accentuation is an extreme variant of the norm, in which certain character traits are excessively strengthened, as a result of which selective vulnerability is found in relation to a certain kind of psychogenic influences with good resistance to others.

Some personality traits in a person are already manifested from birth, for example, sociability or isolation. From the first days of life, a baby can catch the eyes of his mother, walk, turning to her, demand to take himself in his arms, love to be surrounded by people. Or vice versa, the child may feel comfortable being alone. The character develops in the first years of life, acquiring certain features by the age of three to five.

In many respects it is laid down genetically, children often inherit certain traits of their parents, many personality traits are determined by lifestyle, social conditions, and life circumstances. But the main thing that influences the formation of character is being in a team, communication with other people.

The first team is the family, it is in it that the initially inherent personality traits begin to develop or be suppressed. The formation of character falls on the school and adolescence period, when a person is not just in a team (most often he joins it already in early childhood), but learns to build relationships with people. Based on what values ​​this or that group to which the individual belongs, he will develop certain character traits. It turns out that the character of a person develops throughout his life changing depending on life situations.

Classification and list of character traits

In modern psychology, four groups are defined into which the properties of the psyche can be combined:

1. As a man relates to other people(such character traits as respect - contempt, sociability - isolation, responsiveness - callousness);
2. As a man goes about his business, to work (responsibility - irresponsibility, diligence - laziness, accuracy - dishonesty, a penchant for creativity - a penchant for routine, initiative - passivity);
3. As a man refers to himself(self-criticism - vanity, self-esteem - conceit, modesty - arrogance, etc.);
4. As a man refers to things(careful handling - negligent handling, neatness - slovenliness).

Groups of character traits are combined in different ways, manifest themselves in different ways, but scientists have long tried to derive a typology of human characters. For example, based on physique, constitution. German psychologist Ernest Kretschmer deduced three types of character, which corresponds to a particular physique:

1. Asthenics (schizothymic) - thin, with long limbs. The prevailing character traits are seriousness, isolation, stubbornness.
2. Athletics (ixotimics) - tall, with well-developed muscles, skeleton, proportional addition (calmness, authoritativeness, practicality, restraint).
3. Picnics (cyclothymics) - medium height or short, with short limbs, full or inclined to be overweight, with a large head (sociability, emotionality, sensitivity).

An introvert is an introverted person. He lives his inner world, little interested in external events.

An extrovert is directed outward, he lives by events, not by experiences, by actions, not by thoughts. They behave differently: an introvert wears practical, discreet clothes, an extrovert - bright, decorative. The introvert tends to avoid social interaction, while the extrovert is looking for it.

Such a section of psychological science as socionics completely distributes human types, their characters according to their similarity to famous people(there is a type of personality "Napoleon", "Dostoevsky", "Huxley" and many others), each of which has such a mental function as logic, ethics, sensory and intuition.

Strong and weak character

There has long been such a definition of a person as "characterless". What does it mean?

In situations that require overcoming, struggle, some people over and over again show perseverance in achieving the goal, while others stop fighting all the time. In the former, character is fueled by will, that is, firmness, constancy in achieving the goal. The latter do not have such firmness, they do not have an inner core that leads to the goal. The first character can be called strong, the second - weak. People with strong character more likely to get what they want achieve more than weak characters.

Is it possible to "educate" a strong character?

Since it is largely based on temperament, that is, on the characteristics of the nervous system, it all depends on what kind of temperament a person has. Phlegmatic, with its slowness, low reaction rate, it is more difficult, say, to become sociable. While it is difficult for a sanguine person to engage in routine, monotonous, but important things. Changing character traits requires great job over oneself, it is possible, but, as a rule, a person begins only when he is strongly motivated: for example, a big goal has appeared in his life, or his character changes under the influence of strong love.

Character is leading, but not the only characteristic of a person. There is also the mind and actions by which a person is judged. And then the one who is called weak-willed does good deeds or makes an intellectual breakthrough, which, ultimately, is of greater importance to society.

As Victor Hugo used to say, a person has as many as three characters: one ascribes to him the environment, the other he ascribes to himself, and the third is real, objective.

There are more than five hundred character traits of a person, and not all of them are unambiguously positive or negative, a lot depends on the context.

Therefore, any person who has collected certain qualities in individual proportions is unique.

The character of a person is a specific combination of personal, ordered psychological traits, features, nuances inherent only to him. It is formed, meanwhile, for a lifetime and manifests itself during labor and social interaction.

Soberly assessing and describing the character of the chosen person is not an easy task. After all, not all of its properties are shown to the environment: some features (good and bad) remain in the shadows. Yes, and to ourselves we seem somewhat different than seen in the mirror.

Is it possible? Yes, there is a version that this is possible. Through long efforts and training, you are able to appropriate the qualities you love, becoming a little better.

The character of a person is shown in his actions, in public behavior. It is visible in the attitude of the individual to work, to things, to other people and in her self-esteem.

In addition, the qualities of character are divided into groups - "volitional", "emotional", "intellectual" and "social".

We are not born with specific traits, but acquire them in the process of upbringing, education, exploration of the environment, and so on. Of course, the genotype also influences the formation of character: the apple often falls very close to the apple tree.

At its core, character is close to temperament, but they are not the same thing.

In order to relatively soberly assess oneself and one's role in society, psychologists advise writing out their positive, neutral and negative traits on a piece of paper and analyze.

Try to do this and you will find examples of character traits below.

Positive character traits (list)

Negative qualities of character (list)

At the same time, some qualities are difficult to attribute to good or bad, and you can’t call them neutral either. So, any mother wants her daughter to be shy, silent and bashful, but is this good for the girl?

Again, a dreamy person can be cute, but completely unlucky due to the fact that he is always in the clouds. An assertive individual looks stubborn for some, unbearable and stubborn for others.

Is it bad to be gambling and carefree? How far has cunning gone from wisdom and resourcefulness? Ambitiousness, ambition, purposefulness lead to success or to loneliness? It will probably depend on the situation and context.

And what to be to you, you decide!