Four
temperaments is a proto-psychological interpretation of the ancient medical concept of humorism
and suggest that four bodily felids affect human personality traits and
behaviors. The temperaments are sanguine
(pleasure –seeking and sociable), Choleric (ambitious and leader –like),
melancholic (introverted and thoughtful,) and phlegmatic (relaxed and quiet).
The
Greek physician Hypocrites (460-370 BC) incorporated the four temperaments into
his medical theoretical theories. From then through modern times, they or
modifications of them, have been part of many theories of medicine and
psychology, and literature.
HISTORY
AND DEVELOPMENT
Temperament theory has its roots in the
ancient four humors theory. It may have origins in ancient Egypt (1)
or Mesopotamia, (2) but id was the Greek physician Hippocrates
(460-370 BC) who developed it into a medical theory. He believed certain human
moods, emotions and behaviours were caused by body fluids (called “humors”):
blood, yellow bile, and phlegm. Next, Galen (AD 131-200) developed the first
typology of temperament in his dissertation De temperaments, and searched for
physiological reasons for different behaviours in humans. He mapped them to a
matrix of hot/cold and dry/wet taken from the four elements. (3)
There could also be “balance” between the qualities, yielding a total of nine
temperaments. The word “temperament” itself from Latin “tempare”, to mix”. In
the ideal personality, the complementary characteristics or warm-cool and dry-moist
were exquisitely balanced. In four less ideal types, one of the four qualifies
dominated the complemental pair; for example; warm and moist dominated cool and
dry. These latter four were the temperamental categories Galen named
“sanguine”, “choleric” “melancholic” and “phlegmatic” after the bodily humors,
respectively. Each was the result of an excess of one of the homours that
produced, in turn, the imbalance in paired qualities. (4)(5)(6)
“Sanguine”, “choleric” “melancholic” and “phlegmatic” after the bodily humours,
respectively. Each was the result of an excess of one the humors that produced,
in turn, the imbalance in paired qualities. (4)(5)(6)
In his canon of medicine (a standard
medical text at many medieval universities), Avicenna a Persian polymath
(980-1037 AD) then extended the theory of temperaments to encompass “emotional
aspects, mental capacity, moral attitudes, self-awareness, movements and
dreams.” (7)
Nicholas
curlpaper (1616-1654). Made great use of humors as a philosophical
concept which found expression in astrological correspondences. He published a
discourse on how they acted as governing principles in bodily health in his
English physician and family dispensary (8) and explaining their
influences upon physiognomy and personality in his semeiotic Uremia. (9)
Immanuel Kant (1724-1808), Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), Alfred Adler (1879)
Erich Adickes (1866-1925), Eduard Spranger (1914), Ernst Kretschmer (1920), and
Erich Fromm (1947) all theorized on the four temperaments (with different
names) and greatly shaped our modern theories of temperament. Hans Eysenck
(1916-1997) was one of the first psychologists to analyze personality
differences using a psycho-statistical method (factor analysis), and his
research led him to believe that temperament is biologically based. The factors
he proposed in his book Dimensions of personality were Neuroticism (N) which was the tendency to experience
negative emotions, and the second was extraversion (E) which was 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.
Other researchers developed similar systems, many of
which did not use the ancient temperament names, and several paird extroversion
with a different factor, which would determine relationship/task-orientation.
Example are DISC assessment, social styles, and a theory that add a fifth
temperament. One of the most popular today is the Keirsey temperament Sorter,
whose four temperament 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). Rather than using extroversion and
introversion (E/I) and task/people focus, like other theories, KTS mapped the
temperaments to “sensing” and “Intuition” (S/N, renamed “concrete” and
“abstract”) with a new pair category, “cooperative” and “pragmatic”. When “Role-informative”
and “Role-Directive” (corresponding to orientation to people or to task), and
finally E/I are factored in, you attain the 16 types. Finally, the interaction
styles of Linda V. Berens combines Directing and informing with E/I to form
another group of “styles” which greatly resemble the ancient temperament, and
these are mapped together with the temperaments onto the 16 types