Type Approaches
As we explained above, personality types
are used to represent and communicate a
set of expected behaviours based on
similarities. Efforts to categorise people
into personality types have been made
since ancient times. The Greek physician
Hippocrates had proposed a typology of
personality based on fluid or humour. He
classified people into four types (i.e.,
sanguine, phlegmatic, melancholic and
choleric); each characterised by specific
behavioural features.
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
In India also, Charak Samhita, a
famous treatise on Ayurveda, classifies
people into the categories of vata, pitta and
kapha on the basis of three humoural
elements called tridosha. Each refers to a
type of temperament, called prakriti (basic
nature) of a person. Apart from this, there
is also a typology of personality based on
the trigunas, i.e. sattva, rajas, and tamas.
Sattva guna includes attributes like
cleanliness, truthfulness, dutifulness,
detachment, discipline, etc. Rajas guna
includes intensive activity, desire for sense
gratification, dissatisfaction, envy for
others, and a materialistic mentality, etc.
Tamas guna characterises anger,
arrogance, depression, laziness, feeling of
helplessness, etc. All the three gunas are
present in each and every person in
different degrees. The dominance of one or
the other guna may lead to a particular
type of behaviour.
Within psychology, the personality
types given by Sheldon are fairly wellknown.
Using body build and temperament
as the main basis, Sheldon proposed the
Endomorphic, Mesomorphic, and
Ectomorphic typology. The endomorphs
are fat, soft and round. By temperament
they are relaxed and sociable. The
mesomorphs have strong musculature, are
rectangular with a strong body build. They
are energetic and courageous. The
ectomorphs are thin, long and fragile in
body build. They are brainy, artistic and
introvert.
Let us remember that these body
typologies are simple, and have limited use
in predicting behaviour of individuals. They
are more like stereotypes which people
hold.
Jung has proposed another important
typology by grouping people into introverts
and extraverts. This is widely recognised.
According to this typology, introverts are
people who prefer to be alone, tend to avoid
others, withdraw themselves in the face of
emotional conflicts, and are shy.
Extraverts, on the other hand, are sociable,
outgoing, drawn to occupations that allow
dealing directly with people, and react to
stress by trying to lose themselves among
people and social activity.
In recent years, Friedman and
Rosenman have classified individuals into
Type-A and Type-B personalities. The two
researchers were trying to identify
psychosocial risk factors when they
discovered these types. People
characterised by Type-A personality seem
to possess high motivation, lack patience,
feel short of time, be in a great hurry, and
feel like being always burdened with work.
Such people find it difficult to slow down
and relax. People with Type-A personality
are more susceptible to problems like
hypertension and coronary heart disease
(CHD). The risk of developing CHD with
Type-A personality is sometimes even
greater than the risks caused by high blood
pressure, high cholesterol levels, or
smoking. Opposite to this is the Type-B
personality, which can be understood as
the absence of Type-A traits. This typology
has been further extended. Morris has
suggested a Type-C personality, which is
prone to cancer. Individuals characterised
by this personality are cooperative,
unassertive and patient. They suppress
their negative emotions (e.g., anger), and
show compliance to authority. More
recently, a Type-D personality has been
suggested, which is characterised by
proneness to depression.
Personality typologies are usually very
appealing, but are too simplistic. Human
behaviour is highly complex and variable.
Assigning people to a particular personality
type is difficult. People do not fit into such
simple categorisation schemes so neatly.
Trait Approaches
These theories are mainly concerned with
the description or characterisation of basic
components of personality. They try to
discover the �building blocks� of
personality. Human beings display a wide
range of variations in psychological
attributes, yet it is possible to club them
into smaller number of personality traits.
Trait approach is very similar to our
common experience in everyday life. For
example, when we come to know that a
person is sociable, we assume that s/he
will not only be cooperative, friendly and
helping, but also engage in behaviours that
involve other social components. Thus,
trait approach attempts to identify primary
characteristics of people. A trait is
considered as a relatively enduring
attribute or quality on which one
individual differs from another. They
include a range of possible behaviours
that are activated according to the
demands of the situation.
To summarise, (a) traits are relatively
stable over time, (b) they are generally
consistent across situations, and (c) their
strengths and combinations vary across
individuals leading to individual differences
in personality.
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AKHAND PRATAP SINGH
