The four temperament theory is a proto-psychological theory which suggests that there are four fundamental personality types: sanguine, choleric, melancholic , and phlegmatic. [2] [3] Most formulations include the possibility of mixtures among the types where an individual's personality types overlap and they share two or more temperaments. Greek physician Hippocrates (c. 460 – c. 370 BC) described the four temperaments as part of the ancient medical concept of humourism, that four bodily fluids affect human personality traits and behaviours. Modern medical science does not define a fixed relationship between internal secretions and personality, although some psychological personality type systems use categories similar to the Greek temperaments.
Temperament theory has its roots in the ancient theory of humourism. It may have originated in Mesopotamia, [4] but it was Greek physician Hippocrates (460–370 BC) (and later Galen) who developed it into a medical theory. He believed that certain human moods, emotions, and behaviours were caused by an excess or lack of body fluids (called "humours"), which he classified as blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. [3] Each of which was responsible for different patterns in personalities, as well as how susceptible you were to getting a disease. Galen (AD 129 – c. 200) developed the first typology of temperament in his dissertation De temperamentis, and searched for physiological reasons for different behaviours in humans. He classified them as hot/cold and dry/wet taken from the four elements. [5] There could also be balance between the qualities, yielding a total of nine temperaments. The word "temperament" itself comes from Latin "temperare", "to mix". In the ideal personality, the complementary characteristics were exquisitely balanced among warm-cool and dry-moist. In four less-ideal types, one of the four qualities was dominant over all the others. In the remaining four types, one pair of qualities dominated the complementary pair; for example, warm and moist dominated cool and dry. These last four were the temperamental categories which Galen named "sanguine", "choleric", "melancholic", and "phlegmatic" after the bodily humours. Each was the result of an excess of one of the humours which produced the imbalance in paired qualities. [3] [6] [7] [8]
For example, if a person tends to be too happy or "sanguine", one can assume they have too much blood in proportion to the other humours, and can medically act accordingly. Likewise for being too calm and reserved or "phlegmatic" from too much phlegm; excessively sad or "melancholic" from too much black bile; and too angry or "choleric" from excess yellow bile. [9]
The properties of these humours also corresponded to the four seasons. Thus blood, which was considered hot and wet, corresponded to spring. Yellow bile, considered hot and dry, corresponded to summer. Black bile, cold and dry, corresponded to autumn. And finally, phlegm, cold and wet, corresponded to winter. [10]
These properties were considered the basis of health and disease. This meant that having a balance and good mixture of the humours defined good health, while an imbalance or separation of the humours led to disease. [10] Because the humours corresponded to certain seasons, one way to avoid an imbalance or disease was to change health-related habits depending on the season. Some physicians did this by regulating a patient's diet, while some used remedies such as phlebotomy and purges to get rid of excess blood. Even Galen proposed a theory of the importance of proper digestion in forming healthy blood. The idea was that the two most important factors when digesting are the types of food and the person's body temperature. This meant that if too much heat were involved, then the blood would become "overcooked." This meant that it would contain too much of the yellow bile, and the patient would become feverish. [11] If there were not enough heat involved, this would cause there to be too much phlegm.
Persian [12] polymath Avicenna (980–1037 AD) extended the theory of temperaments in his Canon of Medicine , which was a standard medical text at many medieval universities. He applied them to "emotional aspects, mental capacity, moral attitudes, self-awareness, movements and dreams." [13] Nicholas Culpeper (1616–1654) suggested that the humors acted as governing principles in bodily health, with astrological correspondences, [14] and explained their influence upon physiognomy and personality. [15] He proposed that some people had a single temperament, while others had an admixture of two, a primary and secondary temperament. [16]
Modern medical science has rejected the theories of the four temperaments, though their use persists as a metaphor within certain psychological fields. [17] Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), Erich Adickes (1866–1925), Alfred Adler (1879–1937), Eduard Spranger (1914), Ernst Kretschmer (1920), and Erich Fromm (1947) all theorised on the four temperaments (with different names) and greatly shaped modern theories of temperament. Hans Eysenck (1916–1997) was one of the first psychologists to analyse personality differences using a psycho-statistical method called factor analysis, and his research led him to believe that temperament is biologically based. The factors that he proposed in his book Dimensions of Personality were neuroticism (N), the tendency to experience negative emotions, and extraversion (E), the tendency to enjoy positive events, especially social ones. By pairing the two dimensions, Eysenck noted how the results were similar to the four ancient temperaments.[ citation needed ]
In the field of physiology, Ivan Pavlov studied on the types and properties of the nervous system, where three main properties were identified: (1) strength, (2) mobility of nervous processes and (3) balance between excitation and inhibition and derived four types based on these three properties. [18]
Other researchers developed similar systems, many of which did not use the ancient temperament names, and several paired extraversion with a different factor which would determine relationship and task-orientation. Examples are DISC assessment and social styles. One of the most popular today is the Keirsey Temperament Sorter, whose four temperaments were based largely on the Greek gods Apollo, Dionysus, Epimetheus, and Prometheus, and were mapped to the 16 types of the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). They were renamed as Artisan (SP), Guardian (SJ), Idealist (NF), and Rational (NT).[ citation needed ]. C.G. Jung's Psychological Types surveys the historical literature of the 'four humors' and related discussions extensively and in depth and proposes a psychoanalytic integration of the material.
Classical | Element [5] | Adler [19] | Riemann [20] | DISC [21] (Different publishers use different names) | Physical manifestation | Source |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Melancholic | Earth | Leaning | Depressed | Steadiness/Supportive | Black bile | Spleen |
Phlegmatic | Water | Avoiding | Schizoid | Conscientiousness/Cautious | Phlegm | Lungs |
Sanguine | Air | Socially Useful | Hysterical | Influence/Inspiring | Blood | Marrow |
Choleric | Fire | Ruling | Obsessive | Dominance/Direct | Yellow bile | Liver/Gall Bladder |
Waldorf education and anthroposophy believe that the temperaments help to understand personality. They also believe that they are useful for education, helping teachers understand how children learn. Christian writer Tim LaHaye has attempted to repopularize the ancient temperaments through his books. [22] [23] [24]
James David Barber developed The Presidential Character, wherein active relates to hot, passive relates to cold, positive relates to moist, and negative relates to dry. If one were to make a Punnett square of these characters, one can find an Active–Positive, Passive–Positive, Active–Negative, or Passive–Negative individual. This diagram was made after an influential study of the U.S. presidency, hence the name. [25]
Robert R. Blake created The Managerial Grid, wherein high concern for production relates to hot, low concern for production relates to cold, high concern for people relates to moist, and low concern for people relates to dry. If one were to make the same Punnett square of these characters, one can find a Team Management, a Country Club Management, a Task Management, or an Ineffective Management individual. [25]
Date (c.) | Author | Choleric temperament | Phlegmatic temperament | Sanguine temperament | Melancholic temperament |
2015 | Octopus Temperament (Sy Montgomery) | Assertive | Curious | Joyful | Gentle |
2014 | HUCMI | Controlling | Analytical | Experimental | Relational |
2006 | Berens | Stabilizer (SJ) | Theorists (NT) | Improvisor (SP) | Catalyst (NF) |
1999/2001 | Linda V. Berens' four Interaction Styles | In Charge | Chart the Course | Get Things Going | Behind the Scenes |
1999 | StrengthsFinder | Striving (Executing) | Thinking (Strategic Thinking) | Impacting (Influencing) | Relating (Relationships) |
1998 (Erikson's behavior types are a 2014 revision) | Hartman Personality Profile | Red (Leaders; Bold & Brash) | Blue (Keen Minds; Analytical & Detail-oriented) | Yellow (Social Butterflies; Creative & Optimistic) | White > Green (Most Selfless; Relaxed, Friendly, & Loyal) |
1996 | Tony Alessandra Personality Styles | Director | Thinker | Socializer | Relater |
1989 | Benziger | Logic & Results | Process & Routine | Vision & Creativity | Intuition & Empathy |
1978, 1988 | Keirsey/Bates four temperaments (old), Keirsey's four temperaments | Epimethean (Dutiful) > Guardian (SF) | Promethean (Technological) > Rational (NT) | Dionysian (Artful) > Artisan (SP) | Apollonian (Soulful) > Idealist (NF) |
1973/74 | Conflict | Competing | Accommodating | Collaborating | Avoiding |
1967 | Dreikurs' four mistaken goals | Power or Defiance | Revenge or Retaliation | Undue Attention or Service | Inadequacy or Deficiency |
1960s | Fritz Riemann | Obsessive | Schizoid | Hysterical | Depressed |
Stuart Atkins LIFO's four Orientations to Life | Controlling-Taking | Conserving-Holding | Adapting-Dealing | Supporting-Giving | |
David Merrill, "Social Styles" | Driving | Analytical | Expressive | Amiable | |
1958 | Myers' Jungian types | Judging (J); "Practical & Matter of Fact" | Thinking (T); "Logical & Ingenious" | Perceiving (P); "Enthusiastic & Insightful" | Feeling (F); "Sympathetic & Friendly" |
1948, 1957, 1987 | California Psychological Inventory CPI 260 | Leader/Implementer (Alphas) | Supporter (Betas) | Innovator (Gammas) | Visualizer (Deltas) |
1947 | Eysenck | High Extraversion, High Neuroticism (Unstable-Extraverted) | Low Extraversion, Low Neuroticism (Stable-Introverted) | High Extraversion, Low Neuroticism (Stable-Extraverted) | Low Extraversion, High Neuroticism (Unstable-Introverted) |
1947 | Fromm's four orientations | Exploitative (Taking) | Hoarding (Preserving) | Marketing (Exchanging) | Receptive (Accepting) |
1935, 1966 | Alfred Adler's four Styles of Life, Temperament by LaHaye | Ruling/Dominant (Choleric) | Getting/Leaning (Phlegmatic) | Socially Useful (Sanguine) | Avoiding (melancholic) |
1928, 1970s | William Marston and John G. Geier DiSC assessment | Dominance (D); Red | Conscientiousness (C); Yellow | Influence (I); Green | Steadiness (S); Blue |
1921 | Jung | Intuition | Thinking | Sensation | Feeling |
1920s | Pavlov | Angry Dogs (High Excitation, Low Inhibition) | "Accepting" Dogs (feel asleep) (Low Excitation, High Inhibition) | High-spirited Dogs (High Excitation, High Inhibition) | "Weak" Dogs (whiny) (Low Excitation, Low Inhibition) |
1920 | Kretschmer's four character styles | Depressive | Anesthetic (insensitive) | Hypomanic | Hyperesthetic (oversensitive) |
1914 | Spranger's four* value attitudes | Economic/Political | Theoretical | Aesthetic | Religious/Social |
1905 | Adickes' four world views | Traditional | Agnostic (Skeptical) | Innovative | Dogmatic (Doctrinaire) |
1894 | Sasang | So-Yang (SY; Little Yang); Active (Unstable & Active) | Tae-Eum (TE; Big Yin); Organized (Stable & Passive) | Tae-Yang (TY; Big Yang); Originative (Stable & Active) | So-Eum (SE; Little Yang); Conservative (Unstable & Passive) |
1798 | Kant's four temperaments | Energetic & Emotional (Choleric) | Weak & Balanced (Phlegmatic) | Energetic & Balanced (Sanguine) | Weak & Emotional (Melancholic) |
1550 | Paracelsus' four totem spirits | Gnomes (Industrious & Guarded) | Sylphs (Curious & Calm) | salamanders (Impulsive & Changeable) | Nymphs (Inspiring & Passionate) |
185 AD | Irenaeus' four temperaments | Historical | Scholarly | Spontaneous | Spiritual |
325 BC | Aristotle's four sources of happiness | Propraieteri (Acquiring Assets) | Dialogike (Logical Investigation) | Hedone (Sensual Pleasure) | Ethikos (Moral Value) |
325 BC | Aristotle's social order | Pistic (Common sense & Care-taking) | Dianoetic (Reasoning & Logical Investigator) | Iconic (Artistic & Art-making) | Noetic (Intuitive, Sensibility, Morality) |
340 BC | Plato's four characters | Sensible | Reasoning | Artistic | Intuitive |
307 BC | Hippocrates' four humours | Yellow Bile (Hot and Dry) | Phlegm (Cold and Wet) | Blood (Hot and Wet) | Black Bile (Cold and Dry) |
450 BC | Empedocles | Fire (Zeus) | Water (Pluto/Nestis) | Air (Hera) | Earth (Persephone/Aidoneus) |
590 BC | Ezekiel's four living creatures | Lion (Bold) | Ox (Sturdy) | Eagle (Far-seeing) | Man (Spiritual) |
Adapted and modified from: Montgomery, Stephen (2002). People Patterns: A Modern Guide to the Four Temperaments (1st ed.). Archer Publications. p. 20. ISBN 1-885705-03-4.; Keirsey, David (May 1, 1998) [1978]. Please Understand Me II: Temperament, Character, Intelligence (1st ed.). Prometheus Nemesis Book Co. ISBN 1-885705-02-6. | |||||
The 18th-century classical composer Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach composed a trio sonata in C minor known as Sanguineus et Melancholicus (Wq 161/1). In the 20th century, Carl Nielsen's Symphony No. 2 (Op.16) is subtitled "The Four Temperaments", each of the four movements being inspired by a sketch of a particular temperament. [26] Paul Hindemith's Theme and Four Variations for string orchestra and piano is also known as The Four Temperaments : although originally conceived as a ballet for Léonide Massine, [27] [28] the score was ultimately completed as a commission for George Balanchine, who subsequently choreographed it as a neoclassical ballet, using the theory of the temperaments as a point of departure. [29] [30] : 253
The 19th-century French author Émile Zola used the four temperaments as a basis for his novel Thérèse Raquin . [31]
Aelius Galenus or Claudius Galenus, often anglicized as Galen or Galen of Pergamon, was a Roman and Greek physician, surgeon, and philosopher. Considered to be one of the most accomplished of all medical researchers of antiquity, Galen influenced the development of various scientific disciplines, including anatomy, physiology, pathology, pharmacology, and neurology, as well as philosophy and logic.
Physiology is the scientific study of functions and mechanisms in a living system. As a subdiscipline of biology, physiology focuses on how organisms, organ systems, individual organs, cells, and biomolecules carry out chemical and physical functions in a living system. According to the classes of organisms, the field can be divided into medical physiology, animal physiology, plant physiology, cell physiology, and comparative physiology.
In psychology, temperament broadly refers to consistent individual differences in behavior that are biologically based and are relatively independent of learning, system of values and attitudes.
The Canon of Medicine is an encyclopedia of medicine in five books compiled by Muslim Persian physician-philosopher Avicenna and completed in 1025. It is among the most influential works of its time. It presents an overview of the contemporary medical knowledge of the Islamic world, which had been influenced by earlier traditions including Greco-Roman medicine, Persian medicine, Chinese medicine and Indian medicine. Its translation from Arabic to Latin in 12th century Toledo greatly influenced the development of medieval medicine. It became the standard textbook for teaching in European universities into the early modern period.
Phlegm is mucus produced by the respiratory system, excluding that produced by the throat nasal passages. It often refers to respiratory mucus expelled by coughing, otherwise known as sputum. Phlegm, and mucus as a whole, is in essence a water-based gel consisting of glycoproteins, immunoglobulins, lipids and other substances. Its composition varies depending on climate, genetics, and state of the immune system. Its color can vary from transparent to pale or dark yellow and green, from light to dark brown, and even to dark grey depending on the contents. The body naturally produces about 1 quart of phlegm every day to capture and clear substances in the air and bacteria from the nose and throat.
Humorism, the humoral theory, or humoralism, was a system of medicine detailing a supposed makeup and workings of the human body, adopted by Ancient Greek and Roman physicians and philosophers.
In the Middle Ages, the medicine of Western Europe was composed of a mixture of existing ideas from antiquity. In the Early Middle Ages, following the fall of the Western Roman Empire, standard medical knowledge was based chiefly upon surviving Greek and Roman texts, preserved in monasteries and elsewhere. Medieval medicine is widely misunderstood, thought of as a uniform attitude composed of placing hopes in the church and God to heal all sicknesses, while sickness itself exists as a product of destiny, sin, and astral influences as physical causes. On the other hand, medieval medicine, especially in the second half of the medieval period, became a formal body of theoretical knowledge and was institutionalized in the universities. Medieval medicine attributed illnesses, and disease, not to sinful behavior, but to natural causes, and sin was connected to illness only in a more general sense of the view that disease manifested in humanity as a result of its fallen state from God. Medieval medicine also recognized that illnesses spread from person to person, that certain lifestyles may cause ill health, and some people have a greater predisposition towards bad health than others.
Arousal is the physiological and psychological state of being awoken or of sense organs stimulated to a point of perception. It involves activation of the ascending reticular activating system (ARAS) in the brain, which mediates wakefulness, the autonomic nervous system, and the endocrine system, leading to increased heart rate and blood pressure and a condition of sensory alertness, desire, mobility, and reactivity.
In medicine, both ancient and modern, a dyscrasia is any of various disorders. The word has ancient Greek roots meaning "bad mixture". The concept of dyscrasia was developed by the Greek physician Galen, who elaborated a model of health and disease as a structure of elements, qualities, humors, organs, and temperaments. Health was understood in this perspective to be a condition of harmony or balance among these basic components, called eucrasia. Disease was interpreted as the disproportion of bodily fluids or four humours: phlegm, blood, yellow bile, and black bile. The imbalance was called dyscrasia. In modern medicine, the term is still occasionally used in medical context for an unspecified disorder of the blood, such as a plasma cell dyscrasia.
Dosha is a central term in ayurveda originating from Sanskrit, which can be translated as "that which can cause problems", and which refers to three categories or types of substances that are believed to be present conceptually in a person's body and mind. These Dosha are assigned specific qualities and functions. These qualities and functions are affected by external and internal stimuli received by the body. Beginning with twentieth-century ayurvedic literature, the "three-dosha theory" has described how the quantities and qualities of three fundamental types of substances called wind, bile, and phlegm fluctuate in the body according to the seasons, time of day, process of digestion, and several other factors and thereby determine changing conditions of growth, aging, health, and disease.
Complexion in humans is the natural color, texture, and appearance of the skin, especially on the face.
Praxagoras was a figure of medicine in ancient Greece. He was born on the Greek island of Kos in about 340 BC. Both his father, Nicarchus, and his grandfather were physicians. Very little is known of Praxagoras' personal life, and none of his writings have survived.
Ancient Greek medicine was a compilation of theories and practices that were constantly expanding through new ideologies and trials. The Greek term for medicine was iatrikē. Many components were considered in ancient Greek medicine, intertwining the spiritual with the physical. Specifically, the ancient Greeks believed health was affected by the humors, geographic location, social class, diet, trauma, beliefs, and mindset. Early on the ancient Greeks believed that illnesses were "divine punishments" and that healing was a "gift from the Gods". As trials continued wherein theories were tested against symptoms and results, the pure spiritual beliefs regarding "punishments" and "gifts" were replaced with a foundation based in the physical, i.e., cause and effect.
In psychology, personality type refers to the psychological classification of individuals. In contrast to personality traits, the existence of personality types remains extremely controversial. Types are sometimes said to involve qualitative differences between people, whereas traits might be construed as quantitative differences. According to type theories, for example, introverts and extraverts are two fundamentally different categories of people. According to trait theories, introversion and extraversion are part of a continuous dimension, with many people in the middle.
The two-factor model of personality is a widely used psychological factor analysis measurement of personality, behavior and temperament. It most often consists of a matrix measuring the factor of introversion and extroversion with some form of people versus task orientation.
The Phlegmatics are a power pop band from Houston, Texas. They are distinguished by their songs about video games, sexual angst, ancient history, social ineptitude and other viewpoints of the societal outsider, set to a powerful, melodic and quirky sound. Sara Cress of The Houston Chronicle described The Phlegmatics music as "…a sound that's smarter than blink-182 and less slick than Weezer, but within the same family of rock."
The history of medical diagnosis began in earnest from the days of Imhotep in ancient Egypt and Hippocrates in ancient Greece but is far from perfect despite the enormous bounty of information made available by medical research including the sequencing of the human genome. The practice of diagnosis continues to be dominated by theories set down in the early 20th century.
On the Nature of Man is a work in the Hippocratic Corpus. On the Nature of Man is attributed to Polybus, the son in law and disciple of Hippocrates, through a testimony from Aristotle's History of Animals. However, as with the many other works of the Hippocratic Corpus, the authorship is regarded as dubious in origin.
Iranian traditional medicine (ITM), also known as Persian traditional medicine, is one of the most ancient forms of traditional medicine.
Modern understanding of disease is very different from the way it was understood in ancient Greece and Rome. The way modern physicians approach healing of the sick differs greatly from the methods used by early general healers or elite physicians like Hippocrates or Galen. In modern medicine, the understanding of disease stems from the "germ theory of disease", a concept that emerged in the second half of the 19th century, such that a disease is the result of an invasion of a micro-organism into a living host. Therefore, when a person becomes ill, modern treatments "target" the specific pathogen or bacterium in order to "beat" or "kill" the disease.
{{cite book}}
: |work=
ignored (help)