Temperament, as a psychophysiological characteristic, is the subject of study of various sciences, but temperament in psychology is considered in more detail. Socio-psychological understanding implies by it a relatively stable set of personality characteristics that are directly interconnected not with its substantial aspect, but with a dynamic one. This, in fact, explains the subject belonging of temperament to psychology. Nevertheless, temperament in psychology, in sociology, and even in such sciences as political science, history, and some others, in some cases is considered as the basis for the functional development of the personality character. If we consider it exclusively as a dynamic characteristic, that is, from a physiological point of view, then this phenomenon is a special type of higher nervous activity of the individual.
There are several versions of the interpretation of the origin of this concept and its subsequent consideration in science. According to one, temperament as scientific knowledge arose on the basis of the Hellenistic doctrine of numbers, the origins of which lie even in ancient Pythagoreanism. It is there that we find the idea of four temperaments, which distinguished the European tradition of interpreting temperament from the eastern, in which five types stand out. The word itself is translated from Latin as "moderate." But this translation has a somewhat arbitrary meaning, because by “moderate” we mean a certain stable state of the parts connected into a single whole. Hippocrates was the first to use this term, explaining to them the fact of the dominance in man of “one of the vital juices”. He gave each of the types a conditional color meaning, thereby showing that each color contained only his inherent psychology of temperament. This approach and interpretation is largely preserved to this day.
The key moment in the study of types of temperament was the scientific work and teaching of I.P. Pavlov. In his conception of the types of the nervous system, the great Russian scientist argued that temperament in psychology should be analyzed as an indicator of how various properties of the nervous system relate to each other in higher nervous activity . And based on the actual material, Pavlov identified 4 genotypes of temperament, corresponding to 4 types of nervous systems:
- weak, characteristic of melancholic and characterized by low rates of both excitatory and inhibitory processes;
- strong unbalanced (choleric) - both types of processes are active;
- strong balanced (sanguine) - high rates of excitatory processes, and moderate - inhibitory;
- strong inert-balanced - phlegmatic temperament in psychological examination, characterized by the dominance of inhibitory processes over excitatory.
The description of the types of temperaments helps to describe human characters, especially if the individual properties of temperament are clearly expressed. However, as a rule, this does not happen often, mainly a person is a bearer of traits that belong to different types of temperaments. That is why, as a temperament in psychology, it interprets their relationship and gives us an idea of the prevailing type.
It is accepted that:
Phlegmatic, as a rule, is slow, calm, emotionally stable, at work - an irreplaceable worker who silently and efficiently does the work entrusted to him.
Choleric is a “fast” person, he is impulsive, hot. Often his behavior is completely reckless. As a rule, emotional energy is quickly depleted in choleric people and they “cool down”.
Sanguine is active, active, but unlike choleric, his actions are rational and meaningful. He can be quick-tempered, but quickly finds the resources to calm himself, is very productive, and, as a rule, creative in work.
A melancholic is a very vulnerable and impressionable person. He not only takes everything close to his heart, his perception is often painful. The melancholic is so impressive that sometimes you have to calm his emotions by volitional efforts.
In general, from the standpoint of psychology, the allocation of four types of temperament is only one of the classifications used. In addition, one should take into account the subjectivity, which is now present in psychological science in the description of types of temperament.