Another way to understand your children is to know their personality type. Florence Littauer wrote a book called Personality Plus which discussed four types of personalities. I chose this book because it is written in easy and understandable terms and is very useful in understanding the people in our families.
She
discusses four basic types of personalities, the sanguine, the choleric, the
melancholy, and the phlegmatic. The first personality type is sanguine. These are people that like to
be the center of attention and can be the life of the party. Sanguine
personalities are great at being enthusiastic, in expressing thoughts with
excitement and being the point person for any activity. You may recognize this
person as they attempt to entertain everyone around them, including themselves.
They volunteer for everything. On the other hand, they tend to be disorganized,
have trouble getting things done, and constantly vie for attention. Do you know
anyone like this?
The
second personality type is the choleric.
These are the hard-driving people. They volunteer to run the project and then
they get it done. They are suited for jobs that demand quick decisions, need
strong control and authority, and tasks that need to be done on a timely basis.
The difficulty with a choleric personality is that they tend to run over people
to get it done and do not care about other people’s feelings.
Melancholy is the third personality
type. These are the people that excel in preparation and analysis. They are
best attending to details and deep thinking, in keeping records and charts and
graphs, and analyzing problems. They are good at planning a project or
evaluation of it at the end. The challenges that melancholies face is that they
tend to procrastinate until everything is perfect, which means they may wait
forever.
The
final personality type is the phlegmatic.
These people are low-key, easy-going and relaxed, patient and well-balanced,
easy to get along with and avoid confrontations. These are the people that
everyone likes and have many friends. These are the people who answer a
question as “Where do you want to go to eat” with a question “Where do you want
to go?” They have difficulty making a decision, can be stubborn, and don’t like
to be pushed.
This is
a quickie discussion of four basic types of personalities. People are usually
made up of more than one, but one tends to dominate. I hope this helps you to
understand each of your family members a little better. For more in-depth
information, just pick up one of Ms.Littauer’s books. I have found that
understanding another person’s strengths and weaknesses helps me to be more
understanding and patient with people. Maybe these concepts will help you also.
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