What are the human traits? List of positive and negative human qualities

Character is the manifestation of an emotional reaction in a person’s behavior in various relationships and specific situations. The character of a certain person and all his particular manifestations of qualities are a consequence of upbringing and living conditions in a social society.

Of course, individual adjustments and various life circumstances influence human psychology, but the formation and development of higher mental functions and genetic characteristics are laid down and formed in the womb, so when a person is born, he shows his individual characteristics almost from the first days. Any person can be characterized and assigned a certain personality type.

Also, you can pay attention to the manifestation of characteristic typical features of different peoples, i.e. There are general definitions of specific nationalities. For example, the character of the Russian is clearly different from other national mentalities.

Temperament of a Russian person:

  • “Breadth and generosity of soul”, which is absent among most peoples.
  • Patience, perseverance and endurance.
  • Craving for justice and compassion.
  • Among the negative ones: laziness, pessimism, hypocrisy and foul language.

It is easy to identify a Russian person by temperament; foreign nations associate a Russian person as someone who loves to go out in a big way; they have always been amazed by the generosity, resilience and dedication of the Russian people. Only a Russian person has an original sense of humor, which bewilders his foreign brothers. Many foreign men believe that a Russian woman is the best companion for life, as she is responsive, humane, faithful and compassionate.

Also, a significant barrier for foreigners is learning the Russian language; it is considered the most difficult due to excessive emotionality and double meaning of the same words. The qualities in people of the Russian type, their attitude towards other people in the social environment, are more inclined to honor religious traditions. The attitude towards Christianity and the observance of religious rituals begin with the origins of the formation of the Slavic race.

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Individual characteristics in people, identifying their signs are an indicator of the true face of a Russian person, what qualities and abilities can manifest themselves in non-standard situations in social society. The psychology of the Russian person, flexibility of mind, extraordinary endurance, selflessness, love for the fatherland, and manifestation of compassion have more than once convinced opponents of their strength and steadfastness.

Classification of character traits

Character traits
Emotional Strong-willed Moral Intelligent
Emotionality Perseverance Honesty Curiosity
Cheerfulness Independence Responsiveness Quick wits
Impressionability Uncertainty Kindness Resourcefulness
Determination Cruelty frivolity
Courage Thoughtfulness

The psychology of varying degrees of manifestation of the character of each person is individual and is formed throughout life, changing depending on the social environment. There is a certain classification into which a particular person can be classified.

List of manifestations in human behavior and assessment of qualities in social situations.

  1. Volitional qualities are features of the properties of a particular person that manifest themselves in non-standard situations (restraint, patience, stubbornness, courage, cowardice, courage, discipline, etc.)
  2. Emotional manifestations are the duration of mental processes in a certain person in specific situations (negative, positive, dynamic, neutral, statistical, unconventional).
  3. Intellectual characteristics of an individual person, the quality of a person’s thinking (breadth, depth, flexibility, criticality, stupidity, etc.)

List of manifestations of human qualities

Attitude to the surrounding world is divided into four types:

  • I am good - everyone is good.
  • I am good - everyone is bad.
  • I'm bad - everyone is good.
  • I am bad - everyone is bad.
  • Attitude towards one’s personality (self-respect, self-criticism, arrogance, self-esteem, etc.).
  • Attitude to work (laziness, hard work, accuracy, tolerance, negligence, punctuality, responsibility, etc.).
  • Attitudes in groups of the social environment (sociability, isolation, truthfulness, deceitfulness, politeness, rudeness, etc.).

Types of human temperament

Temperament is the constant characteristics of the individual behavior of a particular person, which are equally manifested in various activities. There are four types whose definitions are:

  1. A sanguine person is distinguished by increased mobility, efficiency, pronounced facial emotional manifestations in facial expression, responsiveness, sociability, poise, optimism, cheerful disposition, rapid fatigue from hard work, carelessness.
  2. Choleric – sudden changes in mood, short temper, hysteria, quick response, impetuosity, outbursts of anger.
  3. Melancholic – anxiety, pessimism, vulnerability, excessive worries about any reason, restraint, self-control, lack of trust in others.
  4. Phlegmatic - cold-blooded, low activity, prudence, creates the impression of a wise person, always gets things done.

Human temperaments. 4 types of temperament: choleric, sanguine, melancholic, phlegmatic

Manifestations of character traits in men and women

Manifestation of character traits in men

The same character trait in men and women, their attitude to actions manifests itself in different emotional reactions, causing completely different feelings.

For example, a woman’s touchiness manifests itself in a man in the form of angry outbursts.

  • Women are characterized by manifestations of excessive emotionality, sensitivity, understanding and compassion; practicality, they are more susceptible to sudden changes in mood. The psychology of men, their attitude to values, is based on restraint and the desire for power and leadership. Each period of an era is characterized by the presence of certain qualities in men and women.

Manifestation of character traits in women

  • So, for example, the qualities in modern people have minor differences; associations of male and female professions are increasingly being formed. Today it is not uncommon to find the fair half of humanity driving, and a man being a stylist, hairdresser or conductor, which several decades ago would have greatly surprised them.

The main character traits of a person are the prevailing stable, innate or acquired qualities that are constantly manifested in the behavior of an individual. Having found out what signs correspond to a certain person, you can create a psychological portrait, attitude and opinion about him, as well as assign a type of temperament (choleric, sanguine, melancholic, phlegmatic).

Classify which individual qualities are characteristic in order to determine positive and negative character traits and draw general conclusions. This will help, for example, when applying for a job, in choosing a position, and sometimes in choosing a life partner, by determining the criteria that you value.

Negative and positive human character traits

The psychology of any person is the continuous formation of character qualities, depending on what conditions, therefore it is common for him to exhibit negative traits, they can change depending on what conditions, for the worse or for the better.

There are also constant negative qualities that appear in an individual person, which do not change throughout life.

Negative character traits cannot always be regarded as negative; their characteristics and qualities can emphasize advantages:

  1. Self-confidence - self-satisfaction, can provoke a craving for performance and improved performance, to realize self-satisfaction.
  2. Stubbornness provokes the achievement of the goals set for oneself.
  3. Selfishness - ignoring others is bad, but trying to please others is not always beneficial. Sometimes you need to think about yourself in order to be able to help others.
  4. Envy, for some people, can provoke them to want to achieve a better result than others.

There are such character traits in people as cruelty, deceit, hypocrisy, laziness, stinginess, rudeness, gloominess, etc., which will never provoke them to good deeds.

Positive and negative character traits are present to a greater or lesser extent in every person. Positive ones can cover up negative character traits of an individual. For example, people can be lazy, but good-natured, or selfish, but neat and hardworking, rude, but sympathetic and generous, etc.

List of positive qualities and their signs:

  1. Endurance and patience.
  2. Gratitude and morality.
  3. Initiative and originality.
  4. Cheerfulness and talent.
  5. Sensitivity and optimism, etc.

The main character traits of women

List of predominant qualities and their distinctive properties:

The main character traits in men

List of predominant qualities and their properties:

4 main psychotypes of personality. How to determine and recognize a person’s character?

Personality is a qualitative individual characteristic that combines stable and permanent mental properties that determine a person’s behavior and attitude. Literally, translated from Greek, character means a sign, a trait. Character in the structure of personality combines the totality of its various qualities and properties that leave an imprint on behavior, activity and individual manifestation. A set of essential, and most importantly, stable properties and qualities determine a person’s entire lifestyle and his ways of reacting in a given situation.

The character of an individual is formed, determined and formed throughout his entire life journey. The relationship between character and personality is manifested in activity and communication, thereby determining typical modes of behavior.

Personality Traits

Any trait is some stable and unchangeable stereotype of behavior.

Characteristic personality traits in a general sense can be divided into those that set the general direction for the development of character manifestations in the complex (leading), and those that are determined by the main directions (minor). Leading traits allow you to reflect the very essence of character and show its main important manifestations. We must understand that any character trait of a person will reflect the manifestation of his attitude to reality, but this does not mean that any of his attitudes will directly be a character trait. Depending on the individual’s living environment and certain conditions, only some manifestations of relationships will become defining character traits. Those. a person may react aggressively to a particular irritant of the internal or external environment, but this will not mean that the person is evil by nature.

In the character structure of each person, there are 4 groups. The first group includes traits that determine the basis of personality, its core. These include: honesty and insincerity, integrity and cowardice, courage and cowardice, and many others. The second includes traits that demonstrate an individual’s attitude directly towards other people. For example, respect and contempt, kindness and anger, and others. The third group is characterized by the individual’s attitude towards himself. It includes: pride, modesty, arrogance, vanity, self-criticism and others. The fourth group is the attitude towards work, activity or work performed. And it is characterized by such traits as hard work and laziness, responsibility and irresponsibility, activity and passivity, and others.

Some scientists additionally identify another group that characterizes a person’s attitude towards things, for example, neatness and sloppiness.

They also distinguish such typological properties of character traits as abnormal and normal. Normal traits are characteristic of people who have a healthy psyche, while abnormal traits include people with a variety of mental illnesses. It should be noted that similar personality traits can be considered both abnormal and normal. It all depends on the degree of expression or whether it is an accentuation of character. An example of this could be healthy suspicion, but when it goes off scale, it leads to...

The determining role in the formation of personality traits is played by society and a person’s attitude towards it. It is impossible to judge a person without seeing how he interacts with the team, without taking into account his attachments, dislikes, comradely or friendly relations in society.

An individual's attitude towards any type of activity is determined by his relationships with other persons. Interaction with other people can encourage a person to be active and rationalize, or keep him in tension and give rise to his lack of initiative. An individual's idea of ​​himself is determined by his relationships with people and his attitude to activity. The basis in the formation of personality consciousness is the direct relationship to other individuals. A correct assessment of another person’s personality traits is a fundamental factor in the formation of self-esteem. Also, it should be noted that when a person’s activity changes, not only the methods, methods and subject of this activity change, but also the person’s attitude towards himself in the new role of an actor changes.

Personality traits

The main feature of character in the personality structure is its certainty. But this does not mean dominance of one trait. Several traits, contradicting or not contradicting each other, can dominate a character. Character can lose its definition in the absence of clearly defined traits. The system of moral values ​​and beliefs of an individual is also a leading and determining factor in the formation of character traits. They establish the long-term direction of individual behavior.

The character traits of an individual are inextricably linked with his stable and deep interests. The lack of integrity, self-sufficiency and independence of the individual is closely related to the instability and superficiality of the individual’s interests. And, conversely, a person’s integrity and purposefulness and perseverance directly depend on the content and depth of his interests. However, similarity of interests does not yet imply similarity of characteristic personality traits. For example, among scientists you can meet both cheerful and sad people, both good and evil.

To understand the characteristics of a person’s character, one should also pay attention to his affections and leisure time. This can reveal new facets and characteristics of character. It is also important to pay attention to the compliance of a person’s actions with his established goals, because an individual is characterized not only by actions, but also by how exactly he produces them. The direction of activity and the actions themselves form the dominant spiritual or material needs and interests of the individual. Therefore, character should be understood only as the unity of the image of actions and their direction. It is on the combination of personality traits and his properties that a person’s real achievements depend, and not on the presence of mental capabilities.

Temperament and personality

The relationship between character and personality is also determined by the individual’s temperament, abilities and other aspects. And the concepts of temperament and personality form its structure. Character is a set of qualitative properties of an individual that determine his actions, manifested in relation to other people, actions, and things. Whereas temperament is a set of mental properties of an individual that influence his behavioral reactions. The nervous system is responsible for the manifestation of temperament. Character is also inextricably linked with the individual’s psyche, but its traits develop throughout life under the influence of the external environment. And temperament is an innate parameter that cannot be changed, you can only restrain its negative manifestations.

The prerequisite for character is temperament. Temperament and character in the personality structure are closely interrelated with each other, but at the same time they are different from each other.

Temperament embodies mental differences between people. It varies in depth and strength of manifestations of emotions, activity of actions, impressionability and other individual, stable, dynamic characteristics of the psyche.

We can conclude that temperament is the innate foundation and basis on which the personality is formed as a member of society. Therefore, the most stable and permanent personality traits are temperament. It manifests itself equally in any activity, regardless of its focus or content. Remains unchanged in adulthood.

So, temperament is the personal characteristics of an individual, which determine the dynamism of his behavior and mental processes. Those. The concept of temperament characterizes the pace, intensity, duration of mental processes, external behavioral reaction (activity, slowness), but not conviction in views and interests. It also does not determine the value of an individual and does not determine its potential.

There are three important components of temperament that relate to the general mobility (activity) of a person, his emotionality and motor skills. In turn, each of the components has a rather complex structure and is distinguished by various forms of psychological manifestation.

The essence of activity lies in the individual’s desire for self-expression and transformation of the external component of reality. At the same time, the very direction, the quality of implementation of these trends is determined precisely by the characterological characteristics of the individual and not only. The degree of such activity can range from lethargy to the highest manifestation of mobility - constant rise.

The emotional component of a person’s temperament is a set of properties that characterize the characteristics of the course of various feelings and moods. This component is the most complex in its structure compared to the others. Its main characteristics are lability, impressionability and impulsiveness. Emotional lability is the speed with which one emotional state is replaced by another or ceases. Sensibility is understood as the subject’s susceptibility to emotional influences. Impulsivity is the speed with which emotion turns into the motivating reason and force of actions and deeds without first thinking them through and making a conscious decision to carry them out.

The character and temperament of a person are inextricably linked. The dominance of one type of temperament can help determine the character of subjects as a whole.

Personality types

Today in the specific literature there are many criteria by which personality types are determined.

The typology proposed by E. Kretschmer is now the most popular. It consists of dividing people into three groups depending on their physique.

Picnic people are people who tend to be overweight or slightly overweight, short in stature, but with a large head, wide face and short neck. Their character type corresponds to cyclothymics. They are emotional, sociable, and easily adapt to a variety of conditions.

Athletic people are tall and broad-shouldered people, with well-developed muscles, a resilient skeleton and a powerful chest. They correspond to the ixothymic type of character. These people are powerful and quite practical, calm and unimpressive. Ixothymic people are restrained in their gestures and facial expressions and do not adapt well to changes.

Asthenic people are people who are prone to thinness, their muscles are poorly developed, their chest is flat, their arms and legs are long, and they have an elongated face. Corresponds to the schizothymic character type. Such people are very serious and prone to stubbornness, and have difficulty adapting to change. Characterized by isolation.

K.G. Jung developed a different typology. It is based on the predominant functions of the psyche (thinking, intuition). His classification divides subjects into introverts and extroverts depending on the dominance of the external or internal world.

An extrovert is characterized by directness and openness. Such a person is extremely sociable, active and has many friends, comrades and just acquaintances. Extroverts love to travel and get everything out of life. An extrovert often becomes the initiator of parties; in companies, he becomes their soul. In ordinary life, he focuses only on circumstances, and not on the subjective opinion of others.

An introvert, on the contrary, is characterized by isolation and turning inward. Such a person isolates himself from the environment and carefully analyzes all events. An introvert has a hard time making contact with people, so he has few friends and acquaintances. Introverts prefer solitude to noisy companies. These people have an increased degree of anxiety.

There is also a typology based on the relationship between character and temperament, which divides people into 4 psychotypes.

A choleric person is a rather impetuous, fast, passionate and at the same time unbalanced person. Such people are subject to sudden mood swings and emotional outbursts. Cholerics do not have a balance of nervous processes, so they quickly become exhausted, thoughtlessly wasting their strength.

Phlegmatic people are distinguished by equanimity, unhurriedness, stability of moods and aspirations. Outwardly, they practically do not show emotions and feelings. Such people are quite persistent and persistent in their work, while always remaining balanced and calm. The phlegmatic person compensates for his slowness in work with diligence.

A melancholic person is a very vulnerable person, prone to stable experiences of various events. A melancholic person reacts sharply to any external factors or manifestations. Such people are very impressionable.

A sanguine person is a mobile, active person with a lively character. He is subject to frequent changes of impressions and is characterized by rapid reactions to any events. We can easily relate to the failures or troubles that befell him. When a sanguine person is interested in his work, he will be quite productive.

Also, K. Leonhard identified 12 types, often found in people with neuroses, accentuated characters. And E. Fromm described three social types of characters.

Psychological character of personality

Everyone has long known that significant changes occur in the psychological character of an individual in the process of its development and life activity. Such changes are subject to typical (natural) and atypical (individual) trends.

Typical trends include changes that occur in psychological character as a person grows older. This happens because the older an individual becomes, the faster he gets rid of childish manifestations in character, which distinguish childish behavior from adult behavior. Childhood personality traits include capriciousness, tearfulness, fears, and irresponsibility. Adult traits that come with age include tolerance, life experience, rationality, wisdom, prudence, etc.

As an individual moves along the path of life and gains life experience, changes occur in their views on events, and their attitudes towards them change. Which together also influences the final formation of character. Therefore, there are certain differences between people of different age groups.

For example, people between the ages of approximately 30 and 40 live mainly in the future; they live in ideas and plans. All their thoughts, their activities are aimed at realizing the future. And people who have reached 50 years of age have approached the point where their present life meets simultaneously with their past life and their future. And therefore, their character is modified in such a way as to correspond to the present. This is the age when people completely say goodbye to their dreams, but are not yet ready to be nostalgic for the years they have lived. People who have passed the 60-year mark practically no longer think about the future; they are much more concerned about the present, and they have memories of the past. Also, due to physical ailments, the previously taken pace and rhythm of life is no longer available to them. This leads to the appearance of such character traits as slowness, measuredness, and tranquility.

Atypical, specific tendencies are directly related to events experienced by a person, i.e. conditioned by past life.

As a rule, character traits that are similar to existing ones are consolidated much faster and appear much faster.

You should always remember that character is not an immutable quantity; it is formed throughout a person’s entire life cycle.

Social character of personality

Individuals of any society, despite their individual personal characteristics and differences, have common psychological manifestations and properties, and therefore act as ordinary representatives of a given society.

The social character of a person is a general way of adapting a person to the influence of society. It is created by religion, culture, education system and family upbringing. It should also be taken into account that even in a family, a child receives an upbringing that is approved in a given society and corresponds to the culture, which is considered normal, ordinary and natural.

According to E. Fromm, social character means the result of a person’s adaptation to a particular way of organizing society, to the culture in which he is brought up. He believes that none of the known developed societies in the world will allow the individual to fully realize himself. From this it turns out that the individual from birth is in conflict with society. Therefore, we can conclude that the social character of an individual is a kind of mechanism that allows an individual to exist freely and with impunity in any society.

The process of adaptation of an individual in society occurs with a distortion of the character of the individual himself and his personality, to the detriment of it. According to Fromm, social character is a kind of defense, an individual’s response to a situation that causes frustration in the social environment, which does not allow the individual to freely express himself and fully develop, placing him obviously within limits and limitations. In society, a person will not be able to fully develop the inclinations and capabilities inherent in him by nature. As Fromm believed, social character is instilled in the individual and has a stabilizing character. From the moment an individual begins to have a social character, he becomes completely safe for the society in which he lives. Fromm identified several options of this nature.

Accentuation of personality character

Accentuation of a person’s character is a pronounced feature of character traits that is within the recognized norm. Depending on the severity of character traits, accentuation is divided into hidden and obvious.

Under the influence of specific environmental factors or circumstances, some weakly expressed or not manifested traits can be clearly expressed - this is called hidden accentuation.

Explicit accentuation is understood as an extreme manifestation of the norm. This type is characterized by constancy of traits for a certain character. Accentuations are dangerous because they can contribute to the development of mental disorders, situationally determined pathological behavioral disorders, neuroses, etc. However, one should not confuse and identify the accentuation of a person’s character with the concept of mental pathology.

K. Leongrad identified the main types and combinations of accentuations.

A feature of the hysteroid type is egocentrism, excessive thirst for attention, recognition of individual abilities, and the need for approval and honor.

People with the hyperthymic type are prone to a high degree of sociability, mobility, a tendency to mischief, and excessive independence.

Asthenoneurotic – characterized by high fatigue, irritability, and anxiety.

Psychosthenic - manifested by indecision, love of demagoguery, soul-searching and analysis, suspiciousness.

A distinctive feature of the schizoid type is isolation, detachment, and unsociability.

The sensitive type is manifested by increased touchiness, sensitivity, and shyness.

Excitable – characterized by a tendency to regularly recurring periods of sadness and accumulation of irritation.

Emotionally labile – characterized by very changeable mood.

Infantile-dependent - observed in people who play like children and avoid taking responsibility for their actions.

Unstable type - manifests itself in a constant craving for various kinds of entertainment, pleasure, idleness, idleness.

Trait - This is a stable form of behavior in connection with specific situations typical for a given type of behavior. A trait can be spoken of as a stable characteristic of a person if the probability of its manifestation in a certain situation is quite high. However, probability means that this trait does not always appear, otherwise it would simply be a matter of mechanical behavior. A character trait includes a certain way of thinking and understanding. In the most general form, character traits can be divided into basic, leading, setting the general direction for the development of the entire complex of its manifestations, and secondary, determined by the main ones.

Strong-willed human character traits. The group of volitional traits includes those character traits that are associated with manifestations of a person’s will. On the one hand, this includes such character traits as determination, perseverance, determination, confidence, perseverance, the desire to solve assigned problems and overcome obstacles - all these qualities relate to the character of a person with a strong will. On the other hand, character traits that correspond to people with a weak will are also included here. This is spinelessness, compliance, lack of life goals, lack of will, unpredictability, inconsistency, etc.

Business character traits of a person. Business character traits are manifested in the area where human activity is carried out. This could be an attitude towards work, towards one’s responsibilities, towards business or any other type of activity. These character traits can also be attributed to two poles: positive and negative. The positive pole of business traits will correspond to hard work, responsibility, conscientiousness, accuracy, dedication, etc. The negative pole includes: laziness, negligence, irresponsibility, dishonesty, sloppiness, etc.

Communicative character traits of a person. Communicative character traits are those human characteristics that manifest themselves in relationships with other people. The range of this type of human character traits is extremely wide. These are all those properties that are revealed when people communicate with each other. These are honesty and integrity, kindness and unselfishness, responsiveness and gentleness, sociability and attentiveness, modesty and restraint, calmness and rationality. At the same time, these are deceit and anger, callousness and selfishness, isolation and resentment, aggression and neglect, impulsiveness and cunning, rancor and contempt. All this manifests itself through the expression of emotions, through communication with others.

E. Kretschmer identified and described the three most common types of human body structure or constitution, each of which he associated with character types:


1. Asthenic type characterized by a small body thickness in profile with average or above average height. An asthenic person is usually a thin and thin person, who, because of his thinness, seems somewhat taller than he actually is. An asthenic person has thin skin of the face and body, narrow shoulders, thin arms, an elongated and flat chest with underdeveloped muscles and weak fat accumulations. This is basically the characteristic of asthenic men. Women of this type, in addition, are often short.

2. Athletic type characterized by a highly developed skeleton and muscles. Such a person is usually of medium or tall height, with broad shoulders and a powerful chest. He has a dense, high head.

3. Picnic type characterized by highly developed internal body cavities (head, chest, abdomen), a tendency to obesity with underdeveloped muscles and the musculoskeletal system. Such a person is of average height with a short neck sitting between the shoulders.

Asthenic and athletic types are distinguished by aristocracy, subtlety of feelings, aloofness, coldness, selfishness, authority, dryness, and lack of emotions.

The picnic type is characterized by cheerfulness, talkativeness, carelessness, sincerity, energy, and an easy perception of life.

Character types. As shown above, there are a large number of character traits, each of which, to one degree or another, may be present or absent in a person. Due to such diversity, it is clear that it is quite difficult to identify character types, since they are completely different for different people. Nevertheless, in psychology there are various typologies of characters, which are based on one fact: the set of traits that is included in the structure of a person’s character is not random. All human character traits form very specific combinations, which make it possible to distinguish the types of people’s characters.

One example of classifying characters by type is their division into extroverts and introverts. The basis for this classification of character types is the predominance of external or internal interests in a person’s life. Extraversion and introversion how character types are manifested through a person’s openness or closedness in relation to the world around him and the people around him.

Personality type: extrovert. The extrovert character type corresponds to sociable people who clearly show interest in the outside world, in everything that happens around them. Usually these people are active, energetic, and inquisitive. They live by what surrounds them, their world is connected with what is around them. The life of people with this type of character is determined by their external interests, by the events that occur in the outside world. For an extrovert, the external world is higher than his internal subjective state.

Personality type: introvert. The introvert character type is characteristic of closed people whose attention is directed to themselves, to their own internal mental experiences. Such a person usually sooner or later becomes the sole center of his own interests. People with an introverted personality type put their individual inner world above what is happening in the world around them. They often exhibit character traits such as aloofness, detachment, and anxiety. At the same time, these are usually independent and practical individuals, whose lives are based on the dynamics of their own internal mental state.

As mentioned above, there are many other options for distinguishing different types of characters. There is no single strict classification here - the variety of character traits, the formation of which begins in early childhood, is too great.

The second typology, the founder of which is C. Jung, connects characters with the orientation of the individual and identifies a number of psychosociotypes. A psychosociotype, from the point of view of K. Jung, is an innate mental structure that determines a specific type of information exchange between a person and the environment.

K. Jung identifies four types of character:

1. Extrovert - introvert;

2. Rationalistic - irrationalistic;

3. Thinking (logical) - emotional;

4. Sensing (sensory) - intuitive.

Each of these four types can be combined with any other, forming new character types.

Recently, a typology of character has become widespread, linking its characteristics with accentuation - the excessive expression of individual character traits and aggregates. (K. Leongard, A. E. Lichko, etc.)

Before proceeding with the classification and listing of human character traits, it is necessary to understand the meaning and concept of this term. Translated from Greek, “character” means difference, sign or sign. The personality of each person is multifaceted and in each there is an interweaving of a large number of personal properties that determine a person’s behavior in a given situation. What are there?

Classification of personality traits

Conventionally, the main character traits are divided into three main groups.

The first characterizes emotions, the second – will, and the third – intellect. There is also a division according to the direction of impact.

First of all, this is characterized by the attitude towards the external environment - society and the people around.

Secondly, by the attitude towards one’s own person, and thirdly, by the attitude towards activity, that is, work and training.

The emotional group, which includes such traits as aggressiveness, apathy, artistry, quick temper, impressionability, good nature, cheerfulness, isolation, impulsiveness, capriciousness, love of love, melancholicity and others, are formed in early childhood, when the child’s psyche undergoes a stage of formation under the influence of many various factors.


Strong-willed character traits are acquired throughout life - these are power, masculinity, assertiveness, resourcefulness, obsession, prudence, pedantry, devotion, etc. The intellectual group includes insight, rationality, prudence, independence, savvy, intelligence, intelligence, integrity, etc.

The decisive factor here is natural predisposition, which is influenced by hereditary genes and temperament.

However, the child’s environment cannot be discounted: it would be more correct to say that it plays the same role in the development of personality as what is inherent in nature.

The baby grows, gains experience in interacting with the outside world and a set of positive and negative personality traits. This process continues throughout life and the list of existing character traits is constantly updated with new personality traits. And if at first this process occurs unconsciously, reflexively, then later, when a person realizes his actions, he can already make a choice. This conscious choice opens up opportunities for character transformation, that is, personal growth.

Basic personality traits

Today, the list of character traits consists of several hundred different definitions.


Their very different combinations can be found in the same person. But in general, the personal qualities that exist today are divided into positive and negative.

However, it is impossible to say with one hundred percent certainty that this is a bad character trait and that is a good one.

For example, adventurism can be called both a negative and a positive trait, depending on the impact it has on a person’s behavior.

If he is excessively and thoughtlessly carried away by various adventures of an incomprehensible nature, then this most likely will not bring him any good.

The healthy adventurism inherent in a successful businessman allows him to move forward, invest money in promising projects and prosper. Or, for example, envy. Everyone will say that this trait is extremely negative.

But psychologists say that it is the engine of progress, forcing people to strive forward and achieve more than others have. In most cases, it is worth talking about certain sets of properties that, depending on the current situation, can have a greater impact on a person. But from a social and moral point of view, they can all be divided into positive and negative.

Negative character traits

Here are some of them:



Negative personality traits also include rudeness, boasting, familiarity, gloominess, vanity, obstinacy, bitchiness, arrogance, promiscuity, etc.

List of positive human character traits

Here are some of them:



Positive personality traits also include meekness, sincerity, caring, trustfulness, restraint, politeness, nobility, accuracy, etc.

“There are as many characters as there are people,” we often repeat. And this is true, no two people are identical, and even twins, so indistinguishable at first glance, turn out to be completely different people at second glance. People have different value systems, hobbies, principles and worldviews, and react differently to external stimuli. A person’s character determines his actions, which make up his life. MirSovetov invites you to explore together what character is made up of and whether it is possible to change it.

Scientists psychologists call character an individual combination of those personality traits that are manifested in a person’s actions and determine his attitude towards the environment.
Translated from Greek, the word “character” – Charakter – means “imprint”, “minting”. Already from the name itself it is clear that in all centuries character has been considered as a stable system of human personality traits, such a kind of internal core on which other properties are strung like rings.
Character is closely related to his abilities. To some extent, it is one of the constituent parts of the character, because... determines the form of manifestation of human reactions, the dynamics of his mental processes. The type of temperament cannot be changed, but a person with a strong will can control and correct its negative traits. The concept of abilities is also included in the definition of character. For example, by developing the ability to work, we simultaneously develop diligence as a character trait.
Temperament types are usually inherited by a child from one of the parents. But temperament is only the basis for developing various character traits. For example, you can cultivate perseverance in both a choleric person and a phlegmatic person, but it will manifest itself in vigorous activity in one and methodical work in the other. Character is not an innate and unchangeable property; it is formed under the influence of life experience, upbringing, and the environment.
There is a branch of psychology devoted to the study of human character. It's called characterology. Characterology became a separate discipline not so long ago, but already in ancient times attempts were made to study and predict human character. For example, studying the influence of a person’s name on his character, selecting favorable combinations of first and middle names. Physiognomy is the study of the connection between a person’s appearance and his character. Even graphology, a science that establishes the connection between a person’s handwriting and his character, can also be considered one of the forerunners of characterology.

Character traits

In the character of each person, common groups of traits can be distinguished. Different scientists propose different divisions of character traits into groups. There are many classifications, from highly specialized to popular science. One of the most visual ways of dividing into groups is the B.M. system. Teplova.
In the first group, this scientist identified common character traits, those that are the mental basis of personality. These are qualities such as integrity, honesty, courage and, naturally, their antipodes: cowardice, insincerity.
The second group includes those character traits in which a person’s attitude towards other people is manifested. Those. sociability and isolation, kindness and hostility, attentiveness and indifference.
The third group of character traits consists of those traits that express a person’s attitude towards himself. It is this group that includes pride and conceit, vanity, arrogance and self-esteem, adequate pride.
The fourth large group of traits reflects a person’s attitude towards work. Hard work and laziness, fear of difficulties and perseverance in overcoming them, activity and lack of initiative are included in this group.
In the typologies of character traits of other scientists, it is worth highlighting two very important groups of character traits, normal and abnormal. Normal are those traits that are inherent in mentally healthy people, and abnormal are those traits of people with mental illnesses.
It is interesting that the same character traits can apply to both normal and abnormal ones. The whole point is how much it is expressed in the character of a particular person. For example, suspicion can be absolutely healthy, but when it dominates, we can talk about paranoia.

Classification of human characters

Having dealt with the main distinguishable groups of character traits, it would be reasonable to move on to a typology of characters. But here in modern psychology there is no general classification. And how can one classify characters given the richness of the compatibility of their traits in different people? However, such attempts have been made by scientists for a very long time.
For example, there is a division of characters according to their dominant volitional and emotional qualities. As a result, a strong-willed type of character is distinguished (active, with a dominant will), an emotional type (guided by an emotional background) and a rational type (sober-minded, based on the arguments of reason).
At one time, the German psychiatrist Kretschmer classified people according to their build and hypothesized that people of a certain constitution also have certain character traits.
Thus, asthenics, people of thin build, with thin bones and weak muscles, are characterized by weak emotionality, a love of philosophy and introspection, and a tendency to loneliness.
People of the athletic type (medium or tall height, wide chest, excellent muscles) are characterized by strong will, perseverance and even stubbornness.
The third type of constitution is picnic, it is distinguished by average height, well-developed adipose tissue, and weak muscles. People of this type are emotional and strive to enjoy life.
And although later this typology of characters was recognized as not one hundred percent correct, there is a grain of truth in it. People with a certain body structure are more likely to suffer from similar ones. The type of human constitution is innate, it is influenced by a genetic factor, which also causes some ailments. Which makes the hypothesis about common character traits probable. MirSovetov will once again emphasize that we are talking exclusively about some traits, and not about the entire character.

Character Formation

A person's character changes somewhat throughout his life. These changes most often occur unconsciously, but sometimes a person consciously changes some features. But the main, basic features are laid down in early childhood and we can confidently say that by the age of 5-6 the child already has his own character. Already by the second year of life, the child demonstrates strong-willed character traits, and by the age of 3-4 years, business traits are formed. Clear signs of communicative character traits appear by the age of 4-5, when the child begins to take an active part in group role-playing games.
During this age period, adults and the way parents treat the child have the strongest influence on the child’s character. If parents pay attention to the child, talk to him and are interested in his desires, then such a child is likely to develop trust in people, sociability and cheerfulness. Otherwise, traits such as isolation and closedness are likely to appear.
During the school years, the formation of the child’s character continues, but in the lower grades the opinion of parents and teachers is a priority, and in the middle grades peers have a greater influence on the character. In high school, the picture changes again: the opinion of adults again becomes more significant. But the influence of elders becomes more indirect, respect for the person as an individual and the self-esteem of the young person. Also during this period, the media acquire a greater influence on a person’s character.
In the future, changes in character will result from events in personal life, meetings with bright, charismatic personalities, as well as under the influence of age-related changes. The most noticeable of the latter are changes in personality in older age. At the age of 50, a person finds himself at the junction of the past and the future. He no longer has the habit of making plans and living in the future, but it is still too early to indulge in memories. After 60 years, a new stage in a person’s life begins, when the past and present acquire extraordinary value. Character traits such as slowness and measuredness appear. Also, the character and the onset of health problems change somewhat.

How to change your character

As a rule, new character traits manifest themselves most quickly and fully in a person if they are similar to existing ones. After the age of thirty, dramatic changes in character occur extremely rarely. And yet it is never too late to change.
A person can always change character traits that he does not like. There are many methods for this, but they are all based on one thing: the desire to change must be internal and conscious.
A systematic approach will be a good assistant in changing your character. Write down on a separate piece of paper the character traits that you want to get rid of. Next to each trait, write how it manifests itself. Knowing this, it will be easier for you to control yourself and prevent actions that are unpleasant to you. A person’s character takes a long time to develop; it is difficult to get rid of unpleasant traits; it requires painstaking and lengthy work. But this is not impossible, and literally the first week is especially difficult. When control over the manifestation of the “dark” side of your character becomes a habit, monitoring your behavior will become much easier. And very soon, what you didn’t like about your character will no longer complicate your life and communication with loved ones.
For example, your negative trait is anger. It manifests itself in the fact that, without listening to your interlocutor, you manage to be rude to him. You should start to control your actions: try to listen to your interlocutor to the end, count to five or ten before speaking harshly.
A role model also gives good results in changing your character. Having chosen a model (it can be either a real or a fictitious person), you begin to look up to him. And you ask yourself what he would do if he were in your place. By copying the desired behavior, you will also develop the correct ones and minimize the manifestations of negative character traits. Here MirSovetov will make only this remark: do not try to copy someone’s behavior exactly as it is, superficially. And it’s unlikely that you will succeed. You need to understand that you are individual in your own way, and therefore some trait will manifest itself with its own nuance that is unique to you.
For example, you want to be as firm in dealing with clients as your work colleague. This does not mean that you should copy his actions exactly. Those. If you see from the outside how your colleague calmly and confidently communicates with each of the clients, then, following him, it is somewhat wrong to put on a “mask of equanimity and confidence”, completely imitating his facial expressions and intonation. Or rather, this alone will not be enough. It’s better if you also try to figure out why he manages to be like this. Surely, your colleague is well versed in his subject, has a lot of knowledge, and this gives him confidence in the conversation. Perhaps he is more, filtering out personal, any unfounded claims and highlighting only truly problematic issues, thereby avoiding unnecessary disputes and conflicts. Those. you must sort out the character of the person who serves as a role model for you, and try to develop these qualities in yourself.
It doesn't matter what self-correction system you use. It is important that you sincerely want to change for the better, then nothing will be impossible for you. Remember that there is no limit to perfection, develop the best in yourself, and MirSovetov wishes you good luck in this!
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