Character: definition and traits that make it up

We often hear someone say "X guy has a bad temper" or "Y girl is strong character." It is not strange, if we take into account how much we like to classify people according to their way of being and how little it costs us to label people according to their way of behaving. But Do we know exactly what “character” means, what it encompasses and what are the factors that constitute it?

The following paragraphs are dedicated to answering the above questions.

Defining the concept of character

First of all, it is convenient to clarify and properly define the concepts. What is character?

According to Royal Spanish Academy, meaning number six in the entry dedicated to the word, defines character as “The set of qualities or circumstances proper to a thing, of a person or a community, which distinguishes them, by their way of being or acting, from others ", and proposes some examples of their use:" The character Spanish. The insufferable character of So-and-so ”.

This explanation, however, serves to get an idea of ​​the popular use of the term character (which is fine and falls within the scope of RAE), but if we want to understand what it is in a more global way, we have to know what the psychologists who are dedicated to researching from this point of view say about character. idea. And it is that the character is one of the most used concepts in the psychology of the individual differences to categorize the differences between individuals; in fact, it is closely related to other concepts, such as

personality or that of temperament.

Different ways of approaching the concept

There are many psychologists and psychiatrists who still express disagreements about the specific meaning they give to the concept of "character". Despite this, among the similarities that we can find in the explanations of those researchers who work to extract knowledge related to the subject, finds the idea that the character of a person summarizes the way in which this person usually reacts to a situation, circumstance or action determined. In other words, character is not something that is produced by our body, but is based on interaction

Ernest Kretschmer, leading German researcher on the constitution of character, well recognized on the biotypological studies of him, states that the character “results from the set of fundamental biological characteristics based on the anatomical-physiological substrates of the individual constitution and of the characteristics that develop under the influence of the environment and of special experiences individual ”. As far as we know of character today, this is developed through the fusion of the constitution of temperament (inherited from our parents) and instinct with the environment that surrounds us, or by external factors that permanently act on our individuality, modifying it more or less strongly and importantly but without ever transforming it.

This means that the character is part of a process. Specifically, it is in our way of relating to the environment and to the internal phenomena of our mind (memories), and therefore it is not a thing, something that remains fixed and interacts with others elements. Neither in the brain nor in any part of our nervous system is there a structure that produces the "character" of each one.

The factors that constitute the character

Various scholars of character have agreed to point out several fundamental characteristics of it. As always, there are many points where there is no general agreement, but among all the schools, one of the most widely accepted in the Today is the characterological school of Groningen, among whose members we can find Renne Le Senne, Gastón Berger, André le Gall, and Heymans, among others.

Their work together provides a conception of character according to which it has three constitutive factors: emotion, activity and resonance.

1. Emotionality

The emotionality it is usually defined as the "state of psychosomatic shock suffered by certain individuals under the influence of events that objectively have the same importance." This trait serves as the basis for the classification of emotional and unemotional individuals. If a subject involves his feelings first (or not) before a stimulus and we can recognize it through of some behavioral traits such as mobility of humor, demonstrativeness, compassion, fervor, etc.

2. Activity

The activity It implies two aspects. On the one hand, the gratuitous need to act because of a congenital need (to eat, sleep, etc.). For other, the need to remove any obstacle that tries to oppose the subject's direction. It is evident that our character varies significantly according to the degree to which we are managing to satisfy these needs.

3. Resonance

The resonance refers to printing time given by an event and the time necessary for the restoration of normality before said act. According to this time, the subjects can be primary (characterized by their impulsiveness, mobility, the fact of consolation or reconciliation quickly, etc.) or secondary (who are for long periods affected by some impression, cannot console themselves, have grudges persistent, etc.)

In addition to these constitutive factors, Le Senne adds other supplementary properties, including the egocentrism, analytical intelligence, allocentrism, etc. and whose joint interaction with the primary schools and environment would result in the personality of each individual.

Character types and their relevance in the field of criminology

In this link that I provide below, you have more information about the types of character and how this trait is related to criminal behavior:

"The 8 types of character (and their relation to criminal conduct)"