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We all are same in many ways like we all have got the same human body, nature, feelings, mind and so on. But if you observe deeply you will find that every human being has certain different traits and habits that make him/her unique. It is a fact that two persons can never be exactly identical to each other, even if you talk about twins, they also differ more or less in their perception, hobbies, mood, nature, etc. Take a read of this article in which we’ve simplied the difference between personality and character. Content: Personality Vs Character
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Definition of PersonalityPersonality can be defined as a combination of mental behaviour and traits or qualities like thinking pattern, feeling and acting. It is a range of enduring tendencies of an individual to think, feel and behave in a specific manner in diverse situations. It refers to the systematic arrangement of all your dispositions like attitude, thoughts, feelings, emotions, etc. Definition of CharacterBy the term
character, we mean an enduring and distinguishing mental and moral characteristics in an individual. It is the only factor which determines our reaction or response to the given event or situation. It defines a person’s behaviour pattern, thinking style, controls feelings. It is based on the environment that surrounds us, mental ability, moral principles and similar other factors. It is the most precious thing possessed by a person, evidenced by the limits he/she never crossed. The significant differences between personality and character are discussed in the following points:
ConclusionAfter reviewing the above points, it is clear that personality is different from a character in a sense that personality reflects the outer shell, whereas the character, shows the inner self. If you combine your personality and your character, the result will be who you are in reality. Learning ObjectivesBy the end of this section, you will be able to:
Personality refers to the long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways. The unique constellation of the ways we approach the world, interpret events, and act consistently across situations is our personality. Each person has an idiosyncratic pattern of enduring, long-term characteristics and a manner in which he or she interacts with other individuals and the world around them. Our personalities are thought to be long term, stable, and not easily changed. Given the breadth of human experience and the diversity of things that make each of us unique it is unsurprising that many different perspectives for empirically studying personality have been proposed. Each perspective does well in explaining aspects of what makes each of us unique, but also is limited by the assumptions underlying the approach. Only by sampling each perspective can we truly understand what personality really means. The word personality comes from the Latin word persona. In the ancient world, a persona was a mask worn by an actor. While we tend to think of a mask as being worn to conceal one’s identity, the theatrical mask was originally used to either represent or project a specific personality trait of a character (figure below).  HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVESThe concept of personality has been studied for at least 2,000 years, beginning with Hippocrates in 370 BCE (Fazeli, 2012). Hippocrates theorized that personality traits and human behaviors are based on four separate temperaments associated with four fluids (“humors”) of the body: choleric temperament (yellow bile from the liver), melancholic temperament (black bile from the kidneys), sanguine temperament (red blood from the heart), and phlegmatic temperament (white phlegm from the lungs) (Clark & Watson, 2008; Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985; Lecci & Magnavita, 2013; Noga, 2007). This perspective suggests that personality comes from within and is based in biological causes. Centuries later, the influential Greek physician and philosopher Galen built on Hippocrates’s theory, suggesting that both diseases and personality differences could be explained by imbalances in the humors and that each person exhibits one of the four temperaments. For example, the choleric person is passionate, ambitious, and bold; the melancholic person is reserved, anxious, and unhappy; the sanguine person is joyful, eager, and optimistic; and the phlegmatic person is calm, reliable, and thoughtful (Clark & Watson, 2008; Stelmack & Stalikas, 1991). Galen’s theory was prevalent for over 1,000 years and continued to be popular through the Middle Ages. In 1780, Franz Gall, a German physician, proposed that the distances between bumps on the skull reveal a person’s personality traits, character, and mental abilities (figure below). According to Gall, measuring these distances revealed the sizes of the brain areas underneath, providing information that could be used to determine whether a person was friendly, prideful, murderous, kind, good with languages, and so on. Initially, phrenology was very popular; however, it was soon discredited for lack of empirical support and has long been relegated to the status of pseudoscience (Fancher, 1979). The pseudoscience of measuring the areas of a person’s skull is known as phrenology. (a) Gall developed a chart that depicted which areas of the skull corresponded to particular personality traits or characteristics (Hothersall, 1995). (b) An 1825 lithograph depicts Gall examining the skull of a young woman. (credit b: modification of work by Wellcome Library, London)In the centuries after Galen, other researchers contributed to the development of his four primary temperament types, most prominently Immanuel Kant (in the 18th century) and psychologist Wilhelm Wundt (in the 19th century) (Eysenck, 2009; Stelmack & Stalikas, 1991; Wundt, 1874/1886) (figure below). Kant agreed with Galen that everyone could be sorted into one of the four temperaments and that there was no overlap between the four categories (Eysenck, 2009). He developed a list of traits that could be used to describe the personality of a person from each of the four temperaments. However, Wundt suggested that a better description of personality could be achieved using two major axes: emotional/nonemotional and changeable/unchangeable. The first axis separated strong from weak emotions (the melancholic and choleric temperaments from the phlegmatic and sanguine). The second axis divided the changeable temperaments (choleric and sanguine) from the unchangeable ones (melancholic and phlegmatic) (Eysenck, 2009). Developed from Galen’s theory of the four temperaments, Kant proposed trait words to describe each temperament. Wundt later suggested the arrangement of the traits on two major axes.Sigmund Freud’s psychodynamic perspective of personality was the first comprehensive theory of personality, explaining a wide variety of both normal and abnormal behaviors. Freud was influenced by Charles Darwin’s ideas and incorporated the notion of a sex drive into all aspects of his theory of personality. According to Freud, unconscious drives influenced by sex and aggression, and our childhood experiences, are the forces that influence our personality. Freud attracted many followers who modified his ideas to create new theories about personality. These theorists, referred to as neo-Freudians, generally agreed with Freud that childhood experiences matter, but they reduced the emphasis on sex by adopting the notion of psychic energy and focused more on the social environment and effects of culture on personality. The perspective of personality proposed by Freud and his followers was the dominant theory of personality for the first half of the 20th century. Other major theories then emerged, including the learning, humanistic, biological, evolutionary, trait, and cultural perspectives. In this chapter, we will explore these various perspectives on personality in depth. SUMMARYPersonality has been studied for over 2,000 years, beginning with Hippocrates. More recent theories of personality have been proposed, including Freud’s psychodynamic perspective, which holds that personality is formed through early childhood experiences. Other perspectives then emerged in reaction to the psychodynamic perspective, including the learning, humanistic, biological, trait, and cultural perspectives. References: Openstax Psychology text by Kathryn Dumper, William Jenkins, Arlene Lacombe, Marilyn Lovett and Marion Perlmutter licensed under CC BY v4.0. https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology ExercisesReview Questions: 1. Personality is thought to be ________. a. short term and easily changed b. a pattern of short-term characteristics c. unstable and short term d. long term, stable and not easily changed 2. The long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways are known as ________. a. psychodynamic b. temperament c. humors d. personality 3. ________ is credited with the first comprehensive theory of personality. a. Hippocrates b. Gall c. Wundt d. Freud 4. An early science that tried to correlate personality with measurements of parts of a person’s skull is known as ________. a. phrenology b. psychology c. physiology d. personality psychology Critical Thinking Questions: 1. What makes a personal quality part of someone’s personality? Personal Application Questions: 1. How would you describe your own personality? Do you think that friends and family would describe you in much the same way? Why or why not? 2. How would you describe your personality in an online dating profile? 3. What are some of your positive and negative personality qualities? How do you think these qualities will affect your choice of career? Glossary: personality Answers to ExercisesReview Questions: 1. D 2. D 3. D 4. A Critical Thinking Questions: 1. The particular quality or trait must be part of an enduring behavior pattern, so that it is a consistent or predictable quality. Glossary: personality: long-standing traits and patterns that propel individuals to consistently think, feel, and behave in specific ways What were the enduring characteristics that describe an individual behavior?Personalities are characterized in terms of traits, which are relatively enduring characteristics that influence our behaviour across many situations. Personality traits such as introversion, friendliness, conscientiousness, honesty, and helpfulness are important because they help explain consistencies in behaviour.
What personality traits are genetic?Some Traits Are Inherited
As far as why kids are sometimes exactly like or nothing like their parents, Bressette says studies show that personality traits can be inherited. “There are five traits that have a link to personality: extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, conscientiousness and openness.”
What do you call the enduring behavior and traits that distinguishes one person from another?Definition of Character
By the term character, we mean an enduring and distinguishing mental and moral characteristics in an individual. It is the only factor which determines our reaction or response to the given event or situation. It defines a person's behaviour pattern, thinking style, controls feelings.
What are the 4 types of personality?The four temperament theory is a proto-psychological theory which suggests that there are four fundamental personality types: sanguine, choleric, melancholic, and phlegmatic.
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