Types of people: 13 basic personality characteristics

One of the most famous branches of psychology is the Psychology of individual differences, also known as Differential Psychology.

This is responsible for research on the psychological differences that exist between individuals and, in sometimes, about the way in which these are related to other individual characteristics of a type not psychological. In other words, allows us to distinguish between types of people attending to different characteristics of their body or their behavior.

Now, throughout the history of this psychological field, different criteria have been created with which to classify different types of people. In fact, there is not a single model or personality test, but several, which are used depending on the objective sought. For example, there is the 16 FP, the model of 5 great personality traits, etc.

The main types of people

In this article we will do a general review of the main types of person defined by several of the most commonly used personality dimensions. That means that every category that a portion of these types of people can live inside of oneself in certain quantities, although one of them will stand out more than the rest, depending on each case.

1. Extraverted

This type of person is defined by the constant need to look for sources of activation through interaction with the environment. In practice, this means that extroverts enjoy the company of others, because dialogue (verbal or non-verbal) is a source of constant stimulation. In the same way, they tend to prefer to move to stay in the same place.

2. Introverts

Although often confused, introverts are not technically shy, although they are very often both. What defines introverts is that do not need to be constantly exposed to external stimuli, and that if these are very intense or are prolonged in time, they tend to cause discomfort before the rest of the people.

Introverts live focused on their mental life, their imagination and their memories, that is, towards the actions that can be performed only by mental processes that do not produce movements of muscles.

3. Emotionally stable

This is one of the types of people with a greater capacity to manage difficult or stressful moments, since these types of experiences do not have such a noticeable impact on the way you think, feel, and act. However, this does not mean that they must necessarily be cheerful. In fact, in some cases they may seem the opposite and present emotional flattening.

4. Rebels

Although these days it seems that the word "rebel" is only used in advertising campaigns and strategies of marketing, is also part of one of the most used personality measurement instruments: the 16PF of Cattell. This type of person tends to be more receptive to ways of thinking and doing that are shocking and innovative, and shows much less respect for authority than the rest.

5. Conservative

Conservative people also make an appearance in the 16PF, and are the antithesis of the rebels. They tend to accept customs and ways of doing that have been practiced for a long time and they distrust the news.

6. Cyclothymics

Cyclothymia is a concept that is used to refer to high affectivity and great sensitivity in general. This type of persons are capable of experiencing the most intense emotions from the most ordinary and insignificant experiences. For example, they may cry easily when remembering a movie.

7. Schizothymic

These types of people are the opposite side of cyclothymics, and they experience emotions in a very weak way. In addition, they show a tendency to isolation, among other things because informal interaction with others does not give them as much sense of well-being.

This is a characteristic that, when very extreme, is linked to the schizophrenia, although not in all cases it is necessary to produce the passage to this disease.

8. Cunning

Shrewd people are characterized by having the ability to see things with a detachment that allows them to discover alternative explanations about what is happening and what can happen. In this way, they will not think from a mental frame that comes to them from other peopleInstead, they build their own.

9. Naive

Naive people are the opposite of cunning people. They are much more confident and they accept the ideas and proposals of others, thinking from this kind of discourses imposed from outside. This means that they can be manipulated relatively easily, or even apologize for what is not their fault. They are also sensitive to a type of deception called gaslighting.

10. Obsessive

Obsessive people tend to get stuck in thought loops that are hard to get out of, a phenomenon known as rumination. For that reason It is more difficult for them to make decisions and put their proposals into practice, or they become stagnant because of the analysis paralysis.

11. Hostile

Hostile people experience anger more easily than others, and your frustration tolerance threshold tends to be low. Consequently, they are especially prone to creating conflictive situations and expressing their disagreement with the opinions, intentions or attitudes of others. This is a personality characteristic that is usually high in people with disorders such as Intermittent Explosive Disorder, although this is a clearly pathological category.

12. Cynical

This is one of the types of people that could be related to pessimism, although they are not exactly the same. Cynical people tend to think that others have less than noble motivations that they want to hide, although without falling into the extreme of the persecutory mania, since they do not place themselves in the center of a specific narrative about what happens to their around.

13. Neurotic

Neuroticism is a broad concept that groups several psychological characteristics related to emotions and the way in which stress is experienced, some of which are already represented in the rest of the personality dimensions. Specifically, neurotic people are those who have a low tolerance for frustration, experience anger easily, are prone to depressive states and anxiety, they change their mood easily and often feel unpleasant emotions such as fear.