Who is a choleric person? Classification of temperament types

The passion for classification has taken possession of mankind for a long time. The inquisitive mind tried to understand the natural phenomena that were taking place, the relationships among themselves like and, of course, the differences between people. The fact that all people think, feel and react to the environment in different ways, the most observant guessed thousands of years ago.

Serious attempts to typologize common features were undertaken by Hippocrates in the 4th century BC. Of course, he thought in terms of his time. He believed that the structure and behavior of a person depends on a combination of some internal fluids: bile, blood, black bile and lymph. Based on this, he ranked a person to a certain type. There were four categories of temperaments: choleric, sanguine, melancholic and phlegmatic. According to this scientist, it was easy to understand who is who. Such a choleric was defined by Hippocrates as a very active, mobile person, quickly flashing and quickly dying out when obstacles arise, prone to aggression, irritability and fatigue.

Further this division was developed by Galen. It is no exaggeration to say that pure types of temperament do not exist in nature. This theory was scientifically substantiated in connection with the teaching of Ivan Pavlov, who deduced the regularity of the course of nervous processes and their dependence on three factors: strength, mobility and balance. According to the theory of Pavlov, the first of them shows the ability of the nervous system to load, and the latter - the alternation of the processes of inhibition and excitation.
According to this doctrine, it is easy to establish who a choleric person is. He is a strong, unbalanced, mobile person. Phlegmatic - also strong, but balanced and slow. Further studies have shown that the determining properties of the nervous system are greater.

Different scientists give a definition of temperament in different ways. In general, it can be described as a set of physiological stable properties that determine the activity, emotionality of a person and influencing his character. Such descriptions of temperaments were given by such scientists as Kant, Jung, Eysenck, Kretschmer and others. It is worth noting that professional psychologists do not use this term. However, in the mass consciousness, characterization of temperaments is a fairly common phenomenon. We especially like the German-British psychologist Eysenck. More than half a century ago, he developed a concise test for the determination of temperament. On two polar scales: emotional stability - emotional instability, extraverted - introverted - he formed 4 basic types.

For example, who is a choleric in the description of Eysenck? It is an emotionally unstable extroverted personality. Melancholics in this classification - emotionally unstable introvert, sanguine - a steady extrovert, phlegmatic - emotionally stable introvert. Obviously, this typology is too simple to describe all the diversity of human beings.

Quite often there are simplified interpretations of temperament types, their division into correct and incorrect ones. Who are the judges? Such a choleric, for example, knowing that he has a rapid decline in interest in work, will be able to use the skills of time management. There are no bad or good temperaments. You need to know your own characteristics in order to develop strengths and neutralize the weak.