​Character: Definition and Traits That Make it up

We often hear someone say “X guy has a bad character” or “Y girl has a 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 important 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 typical of a thing, a person or a community, which distinguishes them, by their way of being or acting, from the others”, and proposes some examples of its use: “The Spanish character. “The insufferable character of So-and-So.”

This explanation, however, serves to get an idea about the popular use of the term character (which is fine and falls within the objectives of the RAE), but if we want to understand what it is in a more Globally, we have to know what the psychologists who dedicate themselves to research based on this idea say about character. And character is one of the most used concepts in the psychology of individual differences to categorize the differences between individuals; In fact, it is closely related to other concepts, such as personality or temperament.

Different ways of approaching the concept

There are many psychologists and psychiatrists who still They 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 topic, is the idea that a person’s character summarizes the way in which this person usually reacts to a situation. specific situation, circumstance or action. In other words, character is not something that is produced by our body, but is based on the interaction

Ernest Kretschmer, an important German researcher on the constitution of character, well recognized for his biotypological studies, states that character “results from the set of fundamental biological characteristics based on the anatomical-physiological substrates of the individual constitution and the characteristics that develop. under the influence of the environment and special individual experiences. As far as we know of the 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 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 that interacts with other elements. Neither in the brain nor in any part of our nervous system is there a structure that produces one’s “character.”

The factors that constitute character

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

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

1. Emotionality

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

2. Activity

The activity It involves two aspects. On the one hand, the gratuitous need to act due to a congenital need (eat, sleep, etc.). For other, the need to eliminate all obstacles that try to oppose the direction of the subject It is evident that our character varies significantly depending on the degree to which we are managing to satisfy these needs.

3. Resonance

The resonance refers to the impression time that an event gives us and the time necessary for the reconstitution of normality in the face of said act. Depending on this time, the subjects can be primary (characterized by their impulsiveness, mobility, the fact of quickly consoling or reconciling, etc.) or secondary (those who are affected for long periods of time by some impression, cannot console themselves, have persistent grudges, etc.)

In addition to these constitutive factors, Le Senne adds other supplementary properties, including egocentrism, analytical intelligence, allocentrism, etc. and whose joint interaction with the primaries 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 character types and how this trait is related to criminal behavior:

“The 8 character types (and their relationship with criminal behavior)”