Personality, Temperament, and Character

The term personality has historically meant many things to many people. To aid in our definition of personality, it may be of some value to contrast our notion of personality to the related concepts of temperament and character, terms that are often used interchangeably with personality.

 

                As noted above, personality as used in this text, refers to the pattern of deeply embedded and broadly exhibited cognitive, affective, and overt behavioral traits that emerge from a complex biological-environmental formative matrix. This pattern persists over extended periods of time and is relatively resistent to extinction.

                Temperament, on the other hand, may be viewed as a biologically determined subset of personality. Each child enters the world with a distinctive pattern of response dispositions and sensitivities. Nurses have long observed that infants differ from the moment they are born. Parents, particularly mothers, are capable of noticing distinct differences in successive offspring. For example, some infants have predictable cycles of hunger, elimination, and sleep, whereas other infants are far less rhythmic in those processes. Some infants suck vigorously at birth, whereas others must be assisted. Some infants are tense, whereas others seem relaxed and happy. Finally, some infants are energetic, whereas others are lethargic.

                The conclusion that infants differ dramatically at birth from a number of perspectives may be supported by more than just the observations of nurses and perceptive parents. Researchers have identified different patterns of activity among newborn infants that are manifested in electroencephalographic patterns, autonomic nervous system activity, and even sensory thresholds (Escalona, 1968; Murphy & Moriarty, 1976; Thomas & Chess, 1977; Thomas, Chess, & Birch, 1963).

                It would appear as if such differences in patterns of behavior are more a function of biological factors than environmental factors. In other words, such patterns of behavior appear to be biogenic because they are manifested before postnatal learning experience can account for them. These biogenic foundations of personality development will be referred to as temperament. Temperament is most commonly defined as the raw biological materials from which personality will ultimately emerge. It may be said to include the neurological, endocrinological, and even biochemical substrates from which personality will begin to be shaped.

                The other term that is often used interchangeably with personality is character. Character may be thought of as the person’s adherence to the values and customs of the society in which he/she lives. The term character was derived from the Greek word meaning engraving and was used to identify the distinctive features of the individual’s persona. The term later appeared in the psychoanalytic literature to reflect the integrating functions of the personality structure, that is, the ego (Fenichel, 1945).

                Today, however, the term character appears to reflect a moral judgment of a person’s behavior (Millon, 1981), that is, to what extent a customs of his/her society. Character, then, can be seen to reflect numerous and diverse environmental influences. It is broader in scope than temperament but far narrower than personality.

                Temperament will be viewed as the raw biological materials from which personality will be shaped, and character will be viewed as a subset of personality, broader than temperament, but narrower than personality and defined along societal guidelines.

(Source: Millon, Theodore, & Everly, George S. (1985). Personality and Its Disorders. United States of America : John Wiley & Sons.)

× 『rui@96yR』【butterflyuu】 ×