Personality, Character and Temperament

1. Personality, Character and Temperament

2. Personality • Combination of emotional, attitudinal, and behavioral response patterns of an individual • Personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving. The study of personality focuses on two broad areas: • Understanding individual differences in particular personality characteristics, such as sociability or irritability. • Understanding how the various parts of a person come together as a whole.

3. What exactly makes up a personality? • Traits and patterns of thought and emotion make up an important part • Consistency - There is generally a recognizable order and regularity to behaviors. Essentially, people act in the same ways or similar ways in a variety of situations. • Psychological and physiological - Personality is a psychological construct, but research suggests that it is also influenced by biological processes and needs.

4. Behaviors and Actions • Personality does not just influence how we move and respond in our environment; it also causes us to act in certain ways. • Personality causes patterns of behaviors

5. Dimensions of Personality • Extraversion: This trait includes characteristics such as excitability, sociability, talkativeness, assertiveness and high amounts of emotional expressiveness. • Agreeableness: This personality dimension includes attributes such as trust, altruism, kindness, affection, and other prosocial behaviors. • Conscientiousness: Common features of this dimension include high levels of thoughtfulness, with good impulse control and goal-directed behaviors. Those high in conscientiousness tend to be organized and mindful of details. • Neuroticism: Individuals high in this trait tend to experience emotional instability, anxiety, moodiness, irritability, and sadness. • Openness: This trait features characteristics such as imagination and insight, and those high in this trait also tend to have a broad range of interests.

6. It is important to note that each of the five personality factors represents a range between two extremes. For example, extraversion represents a continuum between extreme extraversion and extreme introversion. In the real world, most people lie somewhere in between the two polar ends of each dimension. Extroversion Introversion

7. Personality- Character- Temperament Differences • Temperament: Aspects of psychological individuality that are present at birth or at least very early on in child development, are related to emotional expression, and are presumed to have a biological basis... • Character: Usually refers to those personal attributes that are relevant to moral conduct, self-mastery, will-power, and integrity.

8. Personality- Character- Temperament Differences • Personality traits are individual, subjective and vary widely • Character traits are constant, objective and timeless. • Temperament is highly genetic in origin, present at birth and is effective on personality development, predisposes personality types

9. Character traits • Honesty, trust, respect, responsibility, leadership, loyalty and courage. • One's character can be objectively judged. Character is defined as right or wrong. Character, despite its detractors, can be taught. • Without character, self-esteem is a hollow concept.

10. Personality Traits • Personality is subjective. • It includes your sense of humor (or lack of), whether you're outgoing or shy, friendly or stoic, your interests, passions, and the list goes on.

11. Personality Disorders • Personality disorders are a class of mental disorders characterised by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating markedly from those accepted by the individual's culture

12. Definition • A person is classified as having a personality disorder if their abnormalities of behavior impair their social or occupational functioning. • Personality disorders are inflexible and pervasive across many situations, due in large part to the fact that such behavior may be ego-syntonic (i.e. the patterns are consistent with the ego integrity of the individual) and are, therefore, perceived to be appropriate by that individual. This behavior can result in maladaptive coping skills, which may lead to personal problems that induce extreme anxiety, distress or depression.

13. Class A • Schizoid • Schizotypal • Paranoid

14. Class B • Antisocial • Borderline • Narcissistic • Histrionic

15. Class C • Avoidan • Dependent • Obsessive-compulsive personality disorder

16. Temperament Dimensions • Novelty Seeking • Harm Avoidance • Reward Dependence • Persistence • Self-Directedness • Cooperativeness • Self-Transcendence Cloninger, 1994

17. Affective Temperaments • Hyperthymic • Anxious • Depressive • Irritable • Cyclothymic