The four temperaments of personality

All things are made form 4 simple elements: air, water, fire and earth
Their qualities can be found in 4 corresponding humours
Humors: fluids
Affect our temperaments - emotion, behaviour
Temperamental problems caused by an imbalance in our humors
Key to curing emotional and behavioural problem: fix the imbalance

Galen's 4 temperaments:

Galen states that:

- Some people are born

predisposed to certain
temperaments.

- Imbalance can be cured by diet

and exercise.

- Cures may include purging and blood-letting, e.g a sanguine person

- STRENGTH: Galen’s idea that many physical and mental illnesses are
connected forms the basis of some modern therapies.
Personality is composed of nature and nurture

Francis Galton = 1st person to identify these 2 things as two separate

influences whose effects could be measured and compared.
“These two elements alone were responsible for determining personality.”

Sent out a large survey by questionnaire to members of the Royal Society to

inquire about their interests and affiliations.
With his results he claimed that where nature and nurture are forced to
compete, nature triumphs. External influences can make an impression, he
says, but nothing can “efface the deeper marks of individual character.”

Exceptions: Intelligence is inherited but must be fostered through education.

1875: Study of twins

Participants: 159 pairs
Findings:
- They didn’t follow the “normal” distribution of similarity between siblings,
they are moderately alike, but were always extremely similar or
extremely dissimilar.
- The degree of similarity didn’t change overtime.
He had anticipated that a shared upbringing would lessen dissimilarity
between twins as they grew up, but found that this wasn't the case.
Nurture seemed to play no role at all.

INSPIRED:
Study of eugenics e.g Hitler (1940s - “Aryan race”)
“People could be “bred” like horses to promote certain characteristics”

DIFFERING ARGUMENTS:
Every baby is a tabula rasa, or “blank slate,” and we are all born equal.

OVERALL:
Most psychologists today recognize that nature and nurture are both crucially
important in human development, and interact in complex way.
The neurotic carries a feeling of inferiority with him constantly

Freud’s approach was limited to addressing unconscious drives and the

legacy of an individual’s past.
Alfred Adler - 1st psychoanalyst to expand psychological theory and suggest
that a person’s psychology was also influenced by:
- Present and conscious forces,
- Influence of the social realm and environment

Adler founded “individual psychology” on these ideas

What did he find:

- Some people with disabilities were able to reach high levels of athletic
success, the disability served as a strong motivational force.
- Other patients felt defeated by their disability & made little effort to
improve their situation.
- Adler realised that the differences came down to how these individuals
viewed themselves: their self-esteem.

Inferiority complex:
- Rooted in childhood
- Children naturally feel inferior as they’re constantly surrounded by
stronger people with more abilities
- People with a balanced personality gain confidence each time they
realise that they are capable of meeting external goals.
- Someone with a physical inferiority may develop more generalised
feelings of inferiority - leading to an unbalanced personality & “inferiority
complex”
- The equally unbalanced “superiority complex,” manifested in a constant
need to strive toward goals. These goals don’t instil confidence in the
individual, but prompt them to continually seek further external
recognition + achievements.
Person-centred therapy - Carl Rogers

Approach before:
- Psychoanalytic theory defined people struggling with their mental health
as “neurotic.”
- Most psychological practices & theories of the time offered strict
definitions with structured explanations of the underlying causes of the
mental illness, and methods to cure it.

Carl Rogers: took a much more esoteric route to mental health & felt humanity
is too diverse to be fitted into delineated categories.
- A healthy self-concept is not a fixed identity but a fluid and changing
entity, open to possibilities.
- To experience “the good life” we need to stay flexible and open to what
life brings, by experiencing it fully, moment by moment.