In This Article:
Temperament, personality and character are the trinity of traits within us which determine who we are and how we behave in the world.
Temperament is our basic orientation to the world.
Personality is the style we adopt in dealing with the world.
Character is our inner beliefs that dictate how we behave in the world.
Temperament decides our basic orientation to the world. It determines the angle at which we attack the world (or defend ourselves against it.)
It is biologically or genetically based; we cannot change it. We are born with it.
One father described being present at the birth of both of his daughters. The first came up smiling, looked around, and said, “Hello Dad! Hello world!”
The second came out scowling, looked around, and said, “Hey, you with the face, what do you want?”
Temperament
There are a number of models describing temperament – some of which identify four temperaments. I’m sure they are all useful, but I personally think four is too few and a bit restrictive and prescriptive.
I prefer descriptions of temperament based on continuums. For example we are all somewhere on the continuum between introvert and extrovert.
An extreme extrovert is like the child, who, when you arrive at a campsite, already knows the names of everyone within a hundred metres before you’ve finished setting up the tent. An extreme introvert would be like the man who decided to become an actuary because he found accountancy too exciting! If you are an introvert, it does not mean that you are unable to conduct excellent relationships with other people. What it does mean is that time spent with other people tends to deplete you, and you need to get alone for a while to recharge your batteries. There is nothing wrong with this. An extrovert is the opposite – they tend to be energised by time spent with other people; they easily avoid spending time alone, but they really need to in order to keep in touch with their inner values and beliefs.
Similarly we are all somewhere on the continuum between passive and aggressive – someone extremely passive we call a tortoise – pulling their head in the first sign of trouble; someone extremely aggressive, we call a landmine – exploding in your face at the slightest provocation.
We all fit somewhere on the continuum between feeling and thinking – sense and sensibility. At one extreme, people act on their feelings without giving any thought to the consequences; at the other extreme people think so much that they never get to action.
There is also a continuum between low-energy and high-energy. I must be somewhat on the low-energy side – I always need my afternoon sleep. I guess I will end up like Bob Hope who, on his hundredth birthday, said, “I sleep until noon, then it’s time for my nap.”
I cannot change my temperament, I can only learn to live positively with it. Choose a career which suits your temperament. For example, if you really want to be a doctor, and you are an extrovert, become a heart surgeon – they have to spend a lot of time persuading people to undergo their terrible operations! If you’re an introvert, become an anaesthetist – they spend all their time with people who are unconscious!
Personality
Personality is the particular style of behaviour we adopt when we engage the world. It is our modus operandum.
Personality sometimes climbs on the back of temperament. For example, if you have an introverted temperament, and you feel that relationships are difficult to control, you might adopt a perfectionist personality as a way of controlling the world. If you have a very non-aggressive temperament, you might adopt a peace-making personality – always trying to resolve or avoid conflict.
You notice I have said that that we adopt a particular style of behaviour. We choose our personality, albeit very early in life – possibly by the age of four, certainly by the age of seven. This is a completely unconscious process, and by the time it is formed, we have no further choice in the matter. After that it remains constant throughout life.
Personality involves a distinctive set of behaviours, ways of thinking, and emotional patterns that make me a recognisable individual. If it were possible for me to take over someone else’s body so that you could not recognise me, within a short time you would say, “He is behaving just like Andrew Luke.” This would apply even if you hadn’t seen me for 30 years.
We cannot change our basic personality, but we can redeem it so that instead of being sinful and destructive, it becomes constructive and honouring to God.
Personality is an extremely complex thing. I remember reading during my early studies a paper which had identified no fewer than 74 theories of personality in psychology. The writer of the article was actually attempting to belittle the value of psychology, but he actually did the opposite for me. He left me impressed with the science of psychology which was willing to acknowledge the complexity of human personality, and he left me amazed at the complexity of this thing called a human being that could require so many theories to try and explain it. It reminded me of Hamlet’s description:
“What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason!
how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how
express and admirable! in action how like an angel!
in apprehension how like a god!”
Or, as the Psalm put it:
… A little lower than the angels.”
The model of personality types that I like very much is the Enneagram –“Ennea” meaning nine, and “Gram” meaning drawing.
It identifies nine personality types parallel to the nine deadly sins. It is uncannily perceptive and can be clearly seen in many characters in the Bible. The reason I like this so much is that it is spiritual not just psychological. Unlike temperament, personality has a sin-element to it, and unless Christ gets involved, we will not be cured of that. I also like the Enneagram because it is very redemptive – it reveals our besetting sins, and gives us a way of redeeming them.
It is amazing how Jesus shows the strengths and avoids the weaknesses of all nine personality types. The prefect man.
I have written an article and recorded a set of ten videos describing the nine personality types of the Enneagram.
Character
We all have within us beliefs, value systems and paradigms. These inner beliefs determine who we are and how we behave in the world. They lead us to make choices in life – choices that lead to habits and patterns of behaviour. The combination of our beliefs and our patterns of behaviour is our character.
The word "character" is derived from the Ancient Greek word "charaktêr", referring to a mark impressed upon a coin. Character “stamps” what kind of human being we are and how much we are worth.
Character is formed throughout life and, for those who are willing, it is highly accessible for change.
But we can only change our character if we possess the two central ingredients in a human being: conscience and a sense of responsibility. People who lack conscience and sense of responsibility are called “personality disorders.” (Scott Peck calls them “character disorders” and I like that – I think that conscience and sense of responsibility are character issues.) They are a real problem in society. Because they lack conscience, they readily adopt antisocial behaviours. Their character is unscrupulous, irredeemable and dangerous. Not all of them are serial murderers, but all of them leave chaos and damage in their wake. They never change, because they lack sense of responsibility - everything is someone else’s fault. Unfortunately, one of the characteristics of these people is the ability to come across as harmless and believable. This makes them particularly dangerous and gives them the ability to win people’s trust and even get themselves elected to high office. We want at all times to avoid people with a personality disorder.
But the good news for the rest of us is that we are able to change our mind-set, paradigms and habits. Character is a result of a series of choices. We have control over these choices. Perhaps the central characteristic of the human being is our ability to make choices of our own free will. These, of course, can lead us into bad behaviour and ultimately bad character, but at the same time, our ability to choose also means that it is possible to reverse faulty beliefs and behaviours and to redeem our character.
It is possible, but a very difficult thing to do. Some people say that changing paradigms is one of the hardest things we will ever do. (A paradigms is a “map” of what we believe reality to be.) We hold onto them very tightly and always behave in a way which makes them come true.
I know of a training organisation that specialised in going into work situations and helping people to find better ways of doing things.
They thought they were doing well until they started going back to check on whether the changes they had identified were being implemented. They discovered that people had gone back to the old way of doing things even if they agreed that the new way was better. Such is the power of an old paradigm. As a result, the best training companies always provide follow-up programs to ensure that people are not slipping back into old habits. Once the new paradigms and habits have continued for three months, the change is much more likely to become permanent.
Alcoholics Anonymous have long acknowledged how difficult it is to change entrenched habits – especially when they have become addictions. As a result, the first of the twelve steps of AA is, “We admit that we are powerless over alcohol and that our lives have become unmanageable.” This admission is the starting point of the change of our character. Six of the remaining 11 steps refer to the need for the help of God.
But real change is fully possible, especially if we have Christ living in us and the power of the Spirit to help us. We have to “work out our own salvation,” but we do not do it on our own – “For God is working in us, giving us the desire and the power to do what pleases him.” (Phil 2:13.)
A story that encouraged me tremendously.
Paul, a member of my congregation, was in charge of computer security in a large company. He went to a three-day seminar on computer security, and was shown all of the most modern and powerful software available. At the end of the seminar (and this was a purely secular seminar – not Christian) the leader closed his files and gave his closing speech. It went something like this:
“I have been in computer security for many years, and I have discovered that, whatever sophisticated systems you may have in place, there is only one way to ensure true security in your business. and that is to have trustworthy people running the system. And the only way to ensure that you have trustworthy people is to check very carefully on their track record before employing them. Track record is indispensable, because I have found that leopards do not change their spots.”
Then he went on to say, “Except, I have noticed, in people who have undergone a Christian conversion experience.”
That is one of the most encouraging stories that I have heard as a pastor, and has given me courage and motivation to keep on preaching the gospel of Christ. “For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” (Rom 1:16.)
Conclusion
The cactus represents the temperament – primal and prickly, difficult to approach, and resistant to change.
The Arum Lily represents the personality – softer, more accessible, but always an Arum Lily.
The Rose represents the character – delicate, and infinitely accessible for development and cultivation.
These are on an ascending scale of our ability to change and modify them. As human beings we have a great ability to change our character. However this is a difficult thing to do and requires great maturity. In fact Scott Peck defines maturity as the willingness to revise our maps and paradigms regularly throughout our lives. Some change can be brought about by willpower alone, but some change can only be brought by the power of Christ living in our lives.
But change is indeed possible. It enables us to “become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13.)