Presented by Steven Kator Iorfa on Friday August 30, 2019 during the event of Possibilities Meals on POSH WhatsApp Group; and edited by the POSH Editorial Team
Steven Kator Iorfa, is a trained Social Psychologist with specialty in Behavioral and Personality Psychology. He is very passionate about impacting lives and changing the world.
Tonight's session is going to be on personality, basically temperamental dispositions.
You need to understand the reasons behind your actions, the motivations and emotions that take place deep within your inner selves, which sometimes find expressions outwardly as overt behaviors.
You need to understand the reasons that is why we act the way we do.
You also need to know how your emotions and motivations shape your cognitions (thought processes) and how your behavior define you.
However, the issue of personality is so broad a topic that we may not conclusively exhaust it all today. We all need this so we can better understand ourselves; understand others; and manage our relationships with others better.
Why do you act the way you do?
Psychologically, we are wired with some traits that predispose us to being who we are. Now the process of this wiring has remained a subject of debate for centuries. Some say it’s nature, and that we are born the way we are, others say it’s environment (nurture), and that the child is a gift to the world as a blank slate, the world writes on it. I like to believe, it’s a combination of both. Nature and nurture interact to create the persons we become.
It is important therefore, that we understand how our experiences shape us, and make us behave. Because basically, our behaviors define us. And when people have definitions of us, that’s what they say we are.
So who are you?
You are a product of the interaction of your biological make up and experiences. And because no one goes through similar experiences at similar times by similar situations and persons, you remain one of a kind.
Is it important that people have good views of us? Yes. So basically, people want to be told that they fall under one of four basic temperaments. Do we have to change who we are in order to satisfy their expectations of us? Not completely!
However, it is important that relationships must thrive. Whether as friends, family, spouses, partners, neighbors, classmates, colleagues, Christians, our relationships with others must thrive and be healthy. And one of the most possible ways of making this happen is knowing who we are. Who they are. Why do they act the way they do? Why do we act the way we do? And I’m sure many have already identified with one category, or have been made to believe they belong to one category or the other
Brief Explanation of these categories as they have been put forth by scientists.
Choleric- being more extroverted. Cholerics are described as independent, decisive, and goal-oriented, and ambitious. These combined with their dominant, result-oriented outlook make them natural leaders. In Greek, Medieval and Renaissance thought, they were also violent, vengeful, and short-tempered
Sanguine- being highly talkative, enthusiastic, active, and social. Sanguines tend to be more extroverted and enjoy being part of a crowd; they find that being social, outgoing, and charismatic is easy to accomplish. And many people associate with them. With this Greek medieval period thoughts... as being violent and vengeful
Melancholic- these individuals tend to be analytical and detail-oriented, and they are deep thinkers and feelers. They are introverted and try to avoid being singled out in a crowd. A melancholic personality leads to self-reliant individuals who are thoughtful, reserved, and often anxious.They often strive for perfection within themselves and their surroundings, which leads to tidy and detail oriented behavior.
Phlegmatic- these individuals tend to be relaxed, peaceful, quiet, and easy-going. They are sympathetic and care about others, yet they try to hide their emotions. Phlegmatic individuals also are good at generalizing ideas or problems to the world and making compromises.
These categorizations I’ve outlined above have been widely researched and they seem to lean towards the biological explanations to behavior. Although other theorists have come up with varying explanations and categorizations of temperaments, this four categorization seems to be the most widely accepted.
Some have opined that there are five categories, for personality... they call it the big five.
It’s absolutely normal to want to attribute causality to external reasons, and most times, to default settings... “that’s who I am”, “that’s the way God created me”
So what do we do when we find ourselves with a temperament we think is negatively impacting our lives? Do we just wave it away? and assume That’s who we are?
So it is common to see people explain away every behavior, good or bad with temperament.
Unacceptable behavior cannot be excused by temperament
We must know this and strive to be better persons. Do we just continue, that grace May abound?
There is no good or bad temperament. All have advantages and disadvantages. Firstly, all temperaments are lovely. All are subject to being influenced by the environment and most times, people ain’t just fixed in one temperament. What we have is a mixture of two or more.
It’s interesting to know that the word “temperament” itself originates from the latin word “temperamentums” which loosely translates to mean “mixtures”. So truly, all individuals share a blend of two or more. Only, one most times, dominates the other(s).
The highly choleric lady May completely melt when she falls deeply in love... she’d struggle between being the leader that she’s always been and being a subservient lover.
The highly sanguine person, may in the next moment after being told about the death of his mother, remain sober for the rest of the day.
Temperaments like personality traits, are fluid... although scientist want us to believe that temperaments are biological. Science has so far been unable to unequivocally prove this.
To Be Continued...
Anticipate "Determinants of behavior, personality shifts and behavior modification."
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