Character in psychology is interpreted ambiguously. It is difficult to distinguish it from temperament. It is too connected with the concept of "personality". In the specialized literature on psychology, these terms are used as synonyms. Character depends on personality, and personality affects character. But these concepts should not be confused.
Character in psychology has a narrower definition. This is a set of human properties, which reflect the ways of behavior and response to various situations. We can say that these are the traits of an individual that determine his attitude to other people or to work. And if an assessment is made of the character of a person and his personality, then it may not be the same for these concepts, and in some cases be directly opposite. Everyday terminology suggests that these are completely different entities.
As an example, you can take outstanding personalities who had a "heavy" or "cool" character. But this did not prevent them from becoming "creative" and "outstanding" people. And this proves that these two concepts are not the same. They say that the results of the creation of the personality are used by descendants, and the people who surround the person face the character.
Authors who study character in psychology emphasize that it can be less or more pronounced.
There are three kinds of intensity of human behavior. This forms the following character types in psychology:
- "normal";
- pronounced (accentuation);
- severe deviations (psychopathy).
The first two definitions refer to the norm. Accentuation can be explicit and hidden. Such character traits are not constantly revealed, but only in a certain situation, in the current situation, and under normal conditions they do not appear. The third type is pathology. Of course, these boundaries are blurred, but still there are criteria that allow you to determine belonging to a particular intensity.
Regarding psychopathy, a character in psychology can be considered a pathology if it is stable throughout life, changes little over time. The second sign is that the same manifestations of behavior are found everywhere: at home, at work, among friends, in any circumstances. If a person is alone at home, and in public - another, then he cannot be considered a psychopath. An important sign of this pathology is social maladaptation. A person constantly finds himself in difficult situations, he has problems, he experiences difficulties that can affect the people around him.
In the history of psychology, there have been repeated attempts to create typologies of characters. One of the first scientists in this field was the German scientist E. Kretschmer. Among our domestic colleagues, the classification of behaviorA. Lichko de alt with a person. His field of study was psychology, the subject of "Teenager Character".
Intensification of some behavioral traits that do not go beyond the norm, but border on pathology, can most often be observed in adolescence and adolescence. Such manifestations reveal weaknesses and allow timely appointment of preventive measures. Accentuation develops mainly during the formation of character and smoothes out when a person grows up.
