Character (from the Greek charakter - seal, embossing, distinctive feature, sign, omen, peculiarity. The concept of “character” means the totality of individual mental properties that develop in activity and are manifested in methods of activity and forms of behavior typical for a given person.
Character is an individual combination of stable mental characteristics of a person that determine a typical way of behavior for a given subject in certain life conditions and circumstances.
Character is an established system of stable mental characteristics that express a person’s different attitudes towards reality and himself.
Character is a set of stable personality traits that determine a person’s attitude towards people and the work they do. Character is manifested in activity and communication (like temperament) and includes what gives a person’s behavior a specific, characteristic shade (hence the name “character”).
Character expresses the most typical essential features of a person, knowledge of which allows one to predict how a person will act in certain situations.
Character reveals dependence on worldview, beliefs and moral principles, revealing its socio-historical nature.
Character formation.
Some character traits that are stable throughout a person’s life are already found in young children, for example, preschoolers. This means that the origins of a person’s character and the first signs of its stabilization should be sought at the very beginning of life.
The main role in the formation and development of a child’s character is played by his communication with people around him. The sensitive period of life for the development of character can be considered the age from 2-3 to 9-10 years, when children actively and extensively communicate both with surrounding adults and with peers, are open to outside influences, readily accept them, imitating everyone and in everything.
The style of communication between adults with each other in front of a child, the way they treat him himself is very important for the development of character. This especially applies to the treatment of parents with a child, primarily the mother. Before others, such traits as kindness, sociability, responsiveness, as well as their opposite qualities: selfishness, callousness, indifference to people are laid down in a person’s character. There is evidence that the beginning of the formation of these character traits goes deep into preschool childhood, to the first months of life and is determined by the way a mother treats her child (the first stage of personal development according to E. Erikson).
Those character traits that are most clearly manifested in work—hard work, accuracy, conscientiousness, responsibility, perseverance, and other “business” qualities—develop somewhat later, in early and preschool childhood. They are formed and reinforced in children’s games and the types of household work available to them.
In the elementary grades of school, character traits that manifest themselves in relationships with people are developed. This is facilitated by the expansion of the child’s sphere of communication with others due to many new school friends and adults - teachers.
In adolescence, strong-willed character traits are actively developed and consolidated, and early adolescence lays the basic moral, worldview, and foundations of it.
By the end of school, a person’s character can be considered basically established, and what happens to him in the future almost never makes the person’s character unrecognizable to those who interacted with him during his school years.
For the formation of character, social education and the inclusion of individuals in groups are of decisive importance. One of the physiological mechanisms of character formation is a dynamic stereotype. Character is formed and approved under the influence of environmental influences, activities and educational influences from other people. In addition, with age, self-education plays an increasingly important role, but it is conditioned by appropriate motivation - the need for self-education must first of all be realized. Character is not only formed in activity and communication, but also influences and determines the implementation of various types of activities and communication processes.
Any character trait is:
- Subject-related attitude of people. to things, to oneself, to other people and to activities.
- Generalized attitude.
- The character trait is different:
- Resilience.
- Constancy.
- Transferability from one situation to another.
- Expressive character traits:
- Deeds and actions are conscious, intentional actions that allow us to judge what a person is like;
- Features of speech;
- Appearance.
- Classification of character traits and character structure.
Character is a complex mental formation consisting of numerous stable personality traits that express a person’s attitude to the world around him, to his activities, to other people and to himself. These relationships are fixed in forms of behavior, communication and activity familiar to a person, become typical for him and manifest themselves in various conditions of his life and activity. However, typicality does not exclude the individually unique manifestation of these properties. Character is not a simple aggregate, a random collection of isolated features and traits. Its various properties are interconnected, interdependent and form an integral structural formation. Regular connections and relationships between individual character traits express its structure.
The structure of character allows, knowing this or that trait, to assume that a given person has a number of other related traits.
Character structure is the personality traits that make up a person’s character:
- those personality properties that determine a person’s actions in choosing the goals of his activity. Rationality, prudence, or the opposite qualities may appear here.
- traits that are aimed at achieving set goals: perseverance, determination, consistency and others, as well as alternatives to them (as evidence of a lack of character). In this regard, character comes closer not only to temperament, but also to the will of a person.
- purely instrumental traits directly related to temperament: extraversion-introversion, calmness-anxiety, restraint-impulsiveness, switchability-rigidity, etc.
Basic criteria for a psychological portrait of a personality - from temperament to self-esteem
The development of individuality continues throughout life. In management, we must remember that people adapt to life conditions differently. In individuality, basic and programming properties are distinguished. Let us briefly consider the main components that characterize the psychological portrait of a person.
Determining the psychological portrait of an individual is one of the most difficult and important issues, the solution of which will improve the success of personnel management. Let us present some provisions that define the psychological portrait of an individual, based on the basic idea of management psychology: treating a person poorly is unprofitable.
In managing people, we must remember that people adapt to life conditions in different ways. Based on their ability to adapt, three types of people can be distinguished:
- With an orientation to the current moment and easy adaptability to the situation.
- With a focus on the past, the ability to act within a rigid structure with clear permissions and prohibitions, rights and responsibilities.
- With a focus on the future, behavior inappropriate to the situation, poorly adapted to the hierarchical structure.
The first type of people works better when making decisions, the second - when implementing them within the framework of existing structures, the third - as generators of ideas.
It is important for every leader to be able to reveal their internal psychological reserves. To do this, you need to learn to know yourself and other people, identify temperament, character, personality orientation, attitude to activity and life, goals and life situations, expected emotional behavior in tense situations and interpersonal relationships, business qualities.
In individuality, basic and programming properties are distinguished. The basic ones include temperament, character, and human abilities. It is through the basic properties that the dynamic characteristics of the psyche are revealed (emotionality, rate of reactions, activity, plasticity, sensitivity) and a certain style of behavior and activity of the individual is formed. Basic properties are an alloy of innate and acquired personality traits in the process of education and socialization.
The main driving force for the development of individuality is its programming properties - direction, intelligence and self-awareness. Individuality has its own internal mental world, self-awareness and self-regulation of behavior, which develop and act as organizers of the behavior of the “I”.
Based on an assessment of a person’s properties, it is possible to create a psychological portrait of the person, which includes the following components:
- temperament;
- character;
- capabilities;
- direction;
- intelligence;
- emotionality;
- strong-willed qualities;
- ability to communicate;
- self-esteem;
- level of self-control;
- ability for group interaction.
The development of individuality continues throughout life. With age, only a person’s position changes - from an object of education in the family, school, university, he turns into a subject of education and must actively engage in self-education. Let us briefly consider the main components that characterize the psychological portrait of a person.
Temperament
Observing other people, how they work, study, communicate, experience joy and sorrow, we undoubtedly pay attention to the differences in their behavior. Some are fast, impetuous, mobile, prone to violent emotional reactions, others are slow, calm, imperturbable, with imperceptibly expressed feelings, etc. The reason for such differences lies in a person’s temperament, inherent in him from birth.
The founder of the doctrine of temperament is the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates (V-IV centuries BC), who believed that there are four main fluids in the human body: blood, mucus, bile and black bile. The names of temperaments, given by the names of liquids, have survived to this day: choleric , comes from the word “bile”, sanguine - from the word “blood”, phlegmatic - mucus and melancholic - black bile. Hippocrates explained the severity of a certain type of temperament in a particular person by the predominance of one or another liquid.
In modern psychology, the word “temperament” denotes the dynamic features of the human psyche, i.e. only the pace, rhythm, intensity of mental processes, but not their content. Therefore, temperament cannot be defined by the word “good” or “bad.”
Temperament is the biological foundation of our personality; it is based on the properties of the human nervous system and depends on the structure of the human body and metabolism in the body. Temperament traits are hereditary and therefore extremely difficult to change.
Temperament determines a person’s style of behavior and the methods a person uses to organize his activities. Therefore, when studying the traits of temperament, efforts should be directed not at changing them, but at understanding the characteristics of temperament in order to determine the type of human activity.
Temperament types:
A sanguine person is the owner of a strong type of nervous system (that is, nervous processes are strong and durable), balanced, mobile (excitation is easily replaced by inhibition and vice versa); Choleric is the owner of an unbalanced type of nervous system (with a predominance of excitation over inhibition); Phlegmatic - with a strong, balanced, but inert, immobile type of nervous system; Melancholic - with a weak, unbalanced type of nervous system.
You need to find your own approach to a representative of each type of temperament based on certain psychological principles:
1. “Trust, but verify.” This suits a sanguine person, who has the following advantages: cheerfulness, enthusiasm, responsiveness, sociability - and disadvantages: a tendency to arrogance, scatterbrain, frivolity, superficiality, over-sociability and unreliability. A nice sanguine person always promises so as not to offend another, but he does not always fulfill his promise, so you need to check whether he has fulfilled his promise.
2. “Not a moment of peace.” This is the principle of the approach to a choleric person. The principle is based on the use of its advantages: energy, enthusiasm, passion, mobility, determination - and the neutralization of its disadvantages: hot temper, aggressiveness, lack of self-control, intolerance, conflict. A choleric person must be busy all the time, otherwise he will direct his activity towards the team and can corrupt it from the inside.
3. “Don’t rush.” This should be the approach to a phlegmatic person who has the advantages: stability, constancy, activity, patience, self-control, reliability - and the disadvantages: slowness, indifference, “thick skin,” dryness. The main thing is that a phlegmatic person cannot work under time pressure, he needs an individual pace, so there is no need to rush him, he will calculate his own time and get the job done
4. “Do no harm.” This is the motto of a melancholic person, which has advantages: high sensitivity, gentleness, humanity, goodwill, the ability to sympathize - and, of course, disadvantages: low performance, suspiciousness, vulnerability, isolation, shyness. You shouldn’t shout at a melancholic person, put too much pressure on them, or give sharp and harsh instructions, as they are very sensitive to intonation and very vulnerable.
In fact, it is difficult to meet a person who fully corresponds to a certain type of temperament; one of them is dominant.
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Purely formally, without taking into account the specifics of each individual, when organizing working pairs, one can proceed from the following principle: it is easiest for a choleric person to work with a sanguine person, for a sanguine person - with a melancholic person, and for a melancholic person - with a phlegmatic person.
If you are a sensitive melancholic person, then you are a wonderful friend; if you are a phlegmatic person, then your loved ones, friends and subordinates can hide behind you, “like behind a stone wall,” because you are very reliable; If you are a choleric person, then you can hope for the success of your life path, since you are good at setting goals and achieving them. Well, if you are sanguine, then warm sunlight emanates from you, which is also what people need in our lives.
Character
Character is a set of stable individual characteristics of a person that develop and manifest themselves in activity and communication, determining the typical modes of behavior for that person. Those personality traits that relate to character are called character traits.
Character traits are not random manifestations of personality, but stable features of human behavior, features that have become properties of the personality itself. Character expresses not random, but the most typical, essential features of a person.
In the character structure, there are 4 groups of traits that express the individual’s attitude towards a certain aspect of activity:
- to work (for example, hard work, a penchant for creativity, conscientiousness in work, responsibility, initiative, perseverance and the opposite traits - laziness, a tendency to routine work, irresponsibility, passivity);
- to other people, the team, society (for example, sociability, sensitivity, responsiveness, respect, collectivism and their opposites - isolation, callousness, callousness, rudeness, contempt, individualism);
- to oneself (for example, self-esteem, correctly understood pride and the associated self-criticism, modesty and their opposites - conceit, sometimes turning into vanity, arrogance, resentment, egocentrism, selfishness);
- to things (for example, neatness, thrift, generosity or, on the contrary, stinginess, etc.)
The core of the formed character is the moral and volitional qualities of the individual. A person with a strong will is distinguished by certainty of intentions and actions and greater independence. He is determined and persistent in achieving his goals.
Lack of will in a person is usually identified with weakness of character. Even with a wealth of knowledge and a variety of abilities, a weak-willed person cannot realize all his potential.
Karl Leonhard identified 4 types of character: demonstrative, pedantic, stuck, excitable.
Demonstrative type , which got its name because of the ability of people of this type to express their emotions very strongly, from the point of view of others - more strongly than they are experiencing them at the moment. A demonstrative personality has a developed ability to repress some traumatic ideas from consciousness: she can lie without realizing that she is lying, while the lies of a demonstrative personality differ from the conscious lies of a pretending person.
She is not pretending, but really at the moment believes in what she is trying to convince others of. A demonstrative personality deeply adapts to the image required by the situation, and is characterized by high artistry in expressing any feeling: grief, admiration, etc.
The favorite images into which a demonstrative personality is reincarnated are an innocent victim, a person who was not appreciated, his trust was abused, his rare spiritual and intellectual qualities were used, etc., or a benefactor of humanity, a unique specialist, a gentle, subtle creature in need of tireless care .
With positive social development, a demonstrative personality can become an excellent writer, actor, social worker - thanks to the ability to get used to another image, to understand another person.
The opposite of demonstrative is pedantic . If a demonstrative person makes decisions quickly, impulsively, the thinking process is reduced to a minimum, then a pedantic person hesitates for a long time and carefully thinks about his actions.
Negative traits of this nature may be indecision, fear of an accident or mistake, which makes it necessary to constantly check and double-check your actions whether the gas is turned off, whether there is an error in the report, whether your hands are dirty, etc., unless, of course, these are isolated cases, and sustainable behavior.
But, as you know, our virtues are a continuation of our shortcomings, and a pedantic character can be expressed in such excellent qualities as punctuality, accuracy, responsibility, forethought, prudence, concern for one’s own health, avoidance of excesses - in a word, the whole complex that a demonstrative personality clearly lacks lacks.
The next type of character is stuck. People of this type are characterized by a very long delay in strong feelings (affects) of rage, anger, fear, especially when they were not expressed in real life due to some external circumstances. This affect may not fade and flare up with its original brightness after weeks, months, even years.
A stuck person experiences his successes just as long and vividly. People of this type are distinguished by touchiness and vindictiveness. The most common “ideas” and themes of stuckness are: jealousy, persecution, revenge. These people can say about themselves: “I can forgive an insult, but not forget it.”
Excitable individuals, just like demonstrative and stuck ones, often have a very uneven course of life, but not because they constantly avoid difficulties, but because they often express dissatisfaction, show irritability and a tendency to impulsive actions, without bothering to weigh the consequences . The inability to manage oneself leads to conflicts.
Capabilities
Ability in psychology is considered as a special property of a psychological functional system, expressed in a certain level of its productivity. Quantitative parameters of system productivity: accuracy, reliability (stability), speed of operation. Abilities are measured by solving problems of a certain level of difficulty, resolving situations, etc.
The level of abilities is determined by the degree of resolution of contradictions between the properties of an individual and the relationships of the individual. The best option is when you have abilities in any field of activity and an interest in doing it.
Abilities are divided into general and special. General abilities can predetermine a tendency to a fairly wide range of activities; they are formed by the development of intelligence and personality traits.
General abilities include:
- readiness to work, the need to work, diligence and high efficiency;
- character traits - attentiveness, composure, focus, observation;
- development of creative thinking, mental flexibility, ability to navigate in difficult situations, adaptability, high productivity of mental activity.
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General ability acts as a socio-psychological basis for the development of special abilities for a certain type of activity: musical, research, teaching, etc.
Personality orientation
The basis of a person’s orientation is the motivation of his activities, behavior, and satisfaction of needs. Focus can be on the task, on communication, on oneself. One person can satisfy only physiological needs and ensure the security of existence.
For others, in addition to these needs, it is very important to satisfy social needs and the needs for self-expression and the realization of creative abilities. The task of the manager and psychologist is to identify the needs, interests, beliefs of each individual and determine the specific direction of his motives.
Intelligence
Soviet psychologist S.L. Rubinstein considered intelligence as a type of human behavior - “smart behavior”. The core of intelligence is a person’s ability to identify essential properties in a situation and bring his behavior into line with them. Intelligence is a system of mental processes that ensure the implementation of a person’s ability to assess a situation, make a decision and regulate his behavior in accordance with this.
Intelligence is especially important in non-standard situations - as a symbol of a person’s learning everything new.
The French psychologist Jean Piaget considered one of the most important functions of intelligence to be interaction with the environment through adaptation to it, that is, the ability to navigate conditions and structure one’s behavior accordingly.
Adaptation can be of two types: assimilation - adapting a situation through changing conditions to a person, his individual style of mental activity, and accommodation - adapting a person to a changing situation through a restructuring of his thinking style.
Intelligence can also be defined as the general ability to act expediently, think rationally, and function effectively in the environment (Wechsler).
The structure of intelligence depends on a number of factors: age, level of education, specifics of professional activity and individual characteristics.
In addition to cognitive intelligence, there is professional and social intelligence (the ability to solve problems of interpersonal relationships, find a rational way out of the current situation). It should be remembered that intelligence is cognition plus action. Therefore, it is necessary not only to develop all types of intelligence, but also to be able to implement rational decisions, show your intelligence both in words and in deeds, since only the result, specific actions determine the level of intelligence of an individual.
Emotionality
Since the time of Plato, all mental life has been divided into three relatively independent entities: mind, will and feelings, or emotions.
The mind and will are to some extent subordinate to us, but emotions always arise and act independently of our will and desire. They reflect the personal significance and assessment of external and internal situations for a person’s life in the form of experiences. This is the subjectivity and involuntary nature of emotions.
The ability to manage emotions most often means the ability to hide them. It’s a shame, but pretends to be indifferent; it hurts, but it is hidden; It’s offensive, but outwardly there’s only irritation or anger. We may not show our emotions, but this does not weaken them, but more often they become even more painful or take on a defensive form of aggression.
Managing emotions is simply necessary, firstly, for health, and secondly, out of ambition. All emotional phenomena are divided into affects, emotions themselves, feelings, moods and stress states.
The most powerful emotional reaction is affect. It captures a person entirely and subjugates his thoughts and actions. Affect is always situational, intense and relatively short-lived. It occurs as a result of some strong (objective or subjective) shock.
Emotions themselves are a longer-term reaction that arises not only as a reaction to accomplished events, but mainly to anticipated or remembered ones. Emotions reflect an event in the form of a generalized subjective assessment.
Feelings are stable emotional states that have a clearly defined objective character. These are relationships to specific events or people (possibly imaginary).
Moods are long-lasting emotional states. This is the background against which all other mental processes take place. Mood reflects a general attitude of acceptance or non-acceptance of the world. The prevailing moods of a given person may be related to his temperament.
Stress is a nonspecific reaction of the body in response to an unexpected and stressful situation. This is a physiological reaction, which is expressed in the mobilization of the body's reserve capabilities. The reaction is called nonspecific, since it occurs in response to any adverse effect - cold, fatigue, pain, humiliation, etc.
Ability to communicate
Communication is an extremely subtle and delicate process of interaction between people. In communication, the individual characteristics of all participants in this process are revealed in the most diverse way. Communication has its own functions, means, types, types, channels, phases.
The most obvious function of communication is the transmission of some information, some content and meaning. This is the semantic (notional) side of communication. This transmission affects a person’s behavior, actions and deeds, the state and organization of his inner world. In general, we can distinguish informational (obtaining information), cognitive, control and developmental functions of communication, the function of exchanging emotional and generally mental states.
Means of communication can be verbal (speech in different forms) and non-verbal (pantomime, facial expressions, gestures, etc.)
Types of communication: communication between two (dialogue), communication in a small group, in a large group, with the masses, anonymous communication, intergroup communication. The listed types relate to direct communication.
Communication channels: visual, auditory, tactile (touch), somatosensory (feelings of your body).
Types of communication: functional-role (boss - subordinate, teacher - student, seller - buyer), interpersonal, business, rapport (communication with one-sided trust - the patient trusts).
Phases of communication: planning, making contact, concentrating, motivational sounding, maintaining attention, argumentation, recording the result, completing communication.
Self-esteem
Based on self-knowledge, a person develops a certain emotional and value-based attitude towards himself, which is expressed in self-esteem. Self-esteem involves assessing your abilities, psychological qualities and actions, your life goals and opportunities to achieve them, as well as your place among other people.
Self-esteem can be underestimated, overestimated and adequate (normal).
Author: Rais Akhmetovich Fatkhutdinov, Doctor of Economics, Professor of RAGS and Russian State University of Innovative Technologies and Entrepreneurship.
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