Student Dialogues - Temperaments

I made some comments on a student's test about the temperaments I wanted to share with all of you who are studying that unit. I am always learning more about the temperaments and the more I learn the more fascinating they become. I wanted to share the following tips/comments with all students in the hopes that you can gain some more insight into the temperaments. Insight and depth of understanding is what will help you create temperament profiles for clients, friends and family members. That insight and depth will increase over time.

My Comments are in BLUE:

I am going to insert some comments into the below. These comments do not indicate that your answer is wrong, because I do not know and have not met the woman. I am simply giving you some more ideas so you can gain some more insight into each temperament and find new ways to “read” people by asking in-depth questions about “why” or “how often” they do certain behaviours. Another tip is to ask them, “have you been like this your entire life?” How they acted as a child after the age of 7 is a good indication of their core temperament”

Choleric attributes:

§ She is very ambitious, and when she is energetic she tries to instill it upon others.

This can also be sanguine. It depends on HOW the person does this. Does she do this all the time or only when she is energetic and feeling well? A Choleric person could be “on their deathbed” or ill and still pushing their desires and opinions on people. A Sanguine will do the same, but NOT when they are ill, or feeling low. Sanguines have very passive mood periods – they come and go and are of varying degrees, but a true Choleric has very few passive moments.

§ She is dominating, although she has learnt to be passive, although her desire is to take control and can get agitated if asked for her opinion and it is not taken.

This can also be a melancholic trait. Although usually melancholics and cholerics cannot learn to be passive. If they do they would most likely suffer great physical and emotional stress from this.

§ She gets extremely irritable if she asks someone to do something and they do not conform.

This can be an attribute of any of the temperaments. A melancholic typically does this. A phlegmatic will do this when pushed and a sanguine will do this a lot too because they feel a need to balance their own “butterfly-like existence” with the firm security of the things and people around them. So they can become VERY upset if people do not conform. Even if they do not always conform themselves, they feel most comfortable when other people do.

§ She has always started things and never completes them, recently she has been more organised and completing projects.

This is more of a sanguine trait. The phlegmatic is “slow and steady” and usually completes , the melancholic is “like a train on a track” in completing things and usually completes, the choleric is “like a fire sweeping through the forest” in completing chores and tasks and may stay up all night just to finish something. If a choleric is not completing their tasks it is because they have a hint of sanguine as well.

§ She has yellow/orange soles and palms, she has excess body hair (although not abnormal for Mediterranean ethnicity), she has a slim face (quite bony), is of a yellow complexion (although naturally a light olive complexion, she says it becomes brighter with exercise).
§ She has very lively eyes (however, due to depression they can look dim and lifeless)

This is a sanguine and choleric trait

§ She craves sugary, sour, hot spicy foods.

This can also be sanguine

§ She suffers from hypoglycemia, and has a circulatory problem (blood does not flow correctly in her left calf (medial)).

What you need to look for in a person is those one or two traits that make them unquestionably fall into one category or another. You cannot finish your evaluation of their temperament until you have at least two traits that you can say “no other temperament would do this” and “she does this all or most of the time”. Even better if you can trace the behaviour back to her childhood.