Personality is a relatively stable psychological pattern, shaped both by inherited characteristics and by the environment. It has several components, which we will explore here.
What is personality?
In Latin, persona means a mask. The word is also associated with personare, meaning to speak through.
Personality is what everyday language often calls character. It is a relatively stable psychological pattern that tends to recur across time and situations.
We often notice other people’s personality characteristics much more easily than our own.
Personality characteristics are often described with adjectives: authoritarian, sociable, proud, conceited, altruistic, suspicious, serious, conscientious, flirtatious, selfish, perfectionistic…
Here, perhaps more than elsewhere, a problematic pattern can be an exaggeration of an ordinary characteristic.
The two major components of personality
Temperament refers to the innate component of personality. Personality therefore has a biological aspect: we are not born as a completely blank slate, but already have certain individual tendencies.
Character refers to the part of personality shaped by upbringing and educational influences. In this sense, it is acquired through experience.
Character and temperament interact and become intertwined. Each person develops through inherited characteristics from both parents and the influence of their social environment. We are at the meeting point of nature and nurture.
Two important distinctions in personality
A personality trait = a relatively stable, enduring characteristic.
A personality state = a characteristic expressed at a particular moment or in a particular situation.
If we observe someone who has just started a new job trying to get to know colleagues, that alone does not establish a sociable personality trait. They may be behaving sociably because they feel it is necessary to fit into the new role. We do not yet know whether they are sociable in other circumstances or whether this is their usual way of being. We are observing a sociable state, without knowing whether sociability is a trait. This is a distinction between a temporary state and a broader personality pattern.
When two people discuss someone they both know, they may unknowingly be debating the difference between a trait, an enduring characteristic, and a state, a temporary response to circumstances. For example:
“Michel is a real pessimist.” (A personality trait.)
“No, he is still shaken by his divorce.” (A temporary state.)
“But I have always known him to be like that.” (A trait.)
“Not at all. When he was a student, he was always making people laugh!” (A different state or period of life.)
This example raises another question: has Michel’s personality changed over time? Perhaps he was habitually light-hearted when young and later became more consistently pessimistic. Some personality traits do change over the course of a life.
Early attempts to classify personalities
People have long tried to classify one another according to psychological characteristics. These were effectively personality classifications, even when that word was not used, as in the work associated with Hippocrates.
Categorical approaches to personality
Categorical classifications place people into predefined groups, as in Hippocrates’ theory of the humours (French-language overview) or Kretschmer’s four broad personality types.
Hippocrates (4th century BCE)
Kretschmer’s four broad personality types (1925)
Categorical classifications offer memorable descriptions, but have a major limitation: real people are more varied and nuanced than fixed categories suggest. This helped encourage psychologists and psychiatrists to develop dimensional approaches alongside categorical descriptions.
The dimensional approach
One dimensional approach is R. B. Cattell’s 16PF, first published in 1949. The edition discussed here dates from 1993. Personality questionnaires are used, among other settings, in human resources to explore how a person functions individually and within a group. The Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (French-language overview) is another well-known personality tool, although its typological approach differs from a continuous dimensional model.
R. B. Cattell’s approach and the 16PF
reserved ………………………………. sociable
less intellectually able …………… more intellectually able
emotionally reactive ……………. emotionally stable
submissive ………………………….. dominant
restrained …………………………… enthusiastic
opportunistic ………………………. conscientious
shy ……………………………………… uninhibited
robust ………………………………… sensitive
confident ……………………………. suspicious
practical ……………………………… imaginative
forthright ……………………………. guarded
placid ………………………………….. apprehensive
conservative ……………………….. open to radical change
dependent ………………………….. independent
less self-controlled ………………. more self-controlled
relaxed ………………………………… tense
Another approach to assessment is the MMPI, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The historical versions discussed here explore ten broad clinical dimensions through several hundred true-or-false responses about oneself. The original inventory was published in 1943, and the MMPI-2 revision in 1989.
Cloninger’s dimensional model (late 1980s)
This model describes seven components of personality. It first distinguishes four dimensions of temperament, regarded as substantially innate because they appear early in life and have inherited influences. These dimensions shape early learning.
Cloninger’s four temperament dimensions are:
1: Novelty seeking. A high score describes a tendency to explore the environment actively, respond with interest to new experiences and try to avoid frustration.
2: Harm avoidance. A tendency to worry, keep a low profile to avoid unpleasant surprises, and hold back when uncertain because of possible adverse consequences.
3: Reward dependence. A need for approval, support and frequent reassurance or rewards from others.
4: Persistence. A tendency to continue an activity determinedly despite tiredness or frustration.
François Lelord et Christophe André illustrate these dimensions with a light-hearted restaurant example. In summary:
- The reward-oriented diner chooses a familiar favourite and looks forward to enjoying it.
- The novelty seeker is drawn to an unfamiliar dish.
- The harm-avoiding diner checks the menu carefully for foods that might disagree with them.
- The persistent diner keeps looking patiently for parking, despite being late and hungry.
Cloninger adds three dimensions that he describes as character. Compared with temperament, character is understood as more responsive to learning and educational experience.
Cloninger’s three character dimensions:
- Self-directedness. This component involves self-esteem, a sense of being able to influence one’s life and environment, and the ability to set goals.
- Cooperativeness. Acceptance and understanding of others, empathy and altruism.
- Self-transcendence. People scoring highly on this dimension may experience a strong sense of meaning and belonging to the world, often with a spiritual rather than a purely materialist outlook.
Personality disorders in the DSM
Clinicians often refer to the DSM when considering patterns of personality difficulty. This French-language overview of ten personality disorders introduces the categories commonly discussed in that framework.
What is a personality disorder?
This is a broad subject that deserves an article of its own. In general terms, a personality disorder involves persistent ways of relating to oneself and others that contribute to conflict, repeated difficulties and suffering, for oneself, for other people or both.
In their book, François Lelord and Christophe André prefer the expression “difficult personality”. Certain traits, such as suspiciousness, become overly rigid, pronounced or poorly suited to the situation. For example, distrust may persist even when there is little reason for it. Such patterns can cause distress for the person and those around them.
Feeling at odds with, or at ease with, a difficult personality pattern
When people recognise aspects of their behaviour as unwanted or inconsistent with how they wish to be, those experiences are described as ego-dystonic.
By contrast, patterns that feel acceptable, natural or consistent with one’s sense of self are described as ego-syntonic. Someone may not recognise their own contribution to recurring conflict, which can make relationship difficulties harder to address.
Many difficult personality patterns are experienced as ego-syntonic. Change may therefore meet resistance because the person does not recognise that some part of the difficulty comes from their own habitual responses.
Paul Valéry wrote about moving between self-dislike and self-admiration, then growing old alongside himself. Whether or not he had a difficult personality, the idea illustrates a movement from conflict with oneself towards greater acceptance.
Donald Duck’s familiar quick temper is a fictional illustration of a difficult personality trait.
This video offers an illuminating discussion of personality disorders, although it contains some coarse language from Pedro Sanchau. The recording is in French.
This article draws on François Lelord and Christophe André’s excellent book about difficult personalities. I thank them for the quality of their work. The linked book edition is in French.