Sometimes you have to hear such a phrase: "What can I do, my character is like that." Often unscrupulous, lazy or passive people tend to write off their shortcomings as "character that was inherited from birth." But can it be done? What is a character? Can it be changed to make your own life (or the lives of others) better?
The character of a person is a whole complex of relatively stable properties of the psyche that determine the originality of the personality, its behavior and relations with the outside world. It is the character that determines the image and style of life, behavior, relationships.
Character is based on personal qualities. They define the four main groups that form the character.
The first group includes such qualities of a person as attitude towards society, surrounding people. The concepts of collectivism-individualism, sensitivity-calleness, sociability-isolation not only name the qualities inherent in a particular person, but also largely determine the attitude of those around him.
The qualities that are combined into the second group show the attitude of a person (personality) to work. These include laziness, diligence, propensity for routine work or creative work, initiative or passivity, responsibility and conscientiousness.
In the third group, experts combine the qualities of a person, showing how he treats himself. This includes self-esteem, pride, self-criticism, modesty and their opposites: complacency, arrogance, self-centeredness or selfishness, shyness.
Finally, in the last, but no less important group, philosophers and psychologists combine the qualities that characterize a person's attitude to material goods and things. Sloppiness and neatness, negligence and frugality have a great influence on a person's life.
From this taxonomy it is clear that any quality of character can be changed. But it is impossible to change only one chosen quality: they are all interconnected. For example, one cannot get rid of one's own deceit or rudeness, ignoring the attitude towards others, obsessing over one's egocentrism.
The character of a person can be holistic and harmonious or impetuous and contradictory. These are the characteristics of people. But it is possible to change the character by systematically working on yourself.
In order to determine the character of a person, to compose its characteristics, philosophers divided the moral qualities of a person into several groups.
Positive moral character:
- Humanism, humanity - respect for human rights, his dignity,attitude to any person as the highest value.
- Honor, conscience, nobility and some other social concepts associated with a positive assessment of the individual.
- Justice is the ratio of rights and duties, deeds and rewards.
Negative moral character:
- Swaggering, cynicism, rudeness - placing one's qualities in the first place, a dismissive attitude towards others.
- Pasitism - the desire to live at the expense of others.
- Nihilism is the denial of spiritual or cultural values, the meaningfulness of human existence, the non-recognition of any authorities or rules.
Public Benefit Moral Characters:
- Will, determination - the ability to make decisions, act, manage your thoughts, deeds, aspirations.
- Wisdom is the ability to evaluate one's own qualities, correlate them with acquired experience and knowledge.
- Convictions, patriotism - the willingness to completely subordinate one's interests to the requirements of the Motherland, the willingness to sacrifice oneself for the Fatherland.
These and other qualities of a person make up his character. A person who works on himself is capable of cultivating character on his own.
