Structure of character

Each person has his own special style of behavior that distinguishes him from others. The totality of such stable features is called a character. Psychology has long and persistently studied this phenomenon, having even managed to single out an independent branch - characterology. Under her interest are traits of a person's character , its formation and structure, ways of diagnosing distinctive features and much more. Let us consider some of these questions in more detail.

Formation of character

Sometimes you can hear an expression describing the nature of the person "I was born so much and I can not otherwise". Perhaps it's true, but from the point of view of psychology it's not right. The fact is that the character is not given to us at birth, it is formed under the influence of various circumstances. The stabilization of character begins in the preschool age, and up to 15 years the person has an attitude towards others. The will in the structure of character begins to be fixed in adolescence, and the foundations of morality are formed even in early adolescence. By the age of 17, stability in views is acquired, the features that will be fundamental throughout life are consolidated. In psychology, it is believed that after 30 years of change in the structure of the character of the person is extremely difficult to make, believing that by this age the personality comes with already fully formed views.

Structure of personality in psychology

The main features of the personality have clear interrelations among themselves, forming the structure of the character. Knowledge of this scheme allows, having discovered one feature in a person, to assume the presence of others accompanying it, and the absence of parties that could conflict with the revealed character trait.

Among the character traits, secondary and primary, communicative, business, motivational and communication features are distinguished. Stand out are groups of features of character - normal and abnormal, as well as accentuated features that occupy the gap between these two poles.

The primary features include those that are manifested in character earlier than others, and the secondary ones are those that appeared later, and they are formed on the basis of earlier arisen. Basic (primary) traits are usually not amenable to change, staying with a person for life. And secondary - not so stable, undergoing changes under the influence of various events.

Motivational features characterize the activity of behavior and its direction. This includes the interests and motivations of a person, in general, all that makes him take any action. Instrumental features include those that help achieve goals in certain situations. That is, these features serve as a means of obtaining the desired. Having determined these features in a person, we can explain his behavior, as well as predict the subsequent actions.

With the definition of normal features, everything is much simpler, these are the features that are peculiar to people who are free from mental diseases. Accordingly, abnormal features are called peculiar to people with various diseases, for example, hysteria, schizophrenia, TIR or neurosis. In healthy people, such traits are either completely absent or manifest much less vividly than in a person suffering from diseases. But differentiating character traits on this basis, it should be understood that the same feature can be attributed to both normal and anomalous features. For example, anxiety , being weak or moderate, it does not make the character not normal. And with excessive or excessive anxiety, the behavior of a person will be severely disturbed, and therefore the trait will fall into the category of anomalies.