PERSONALITY AND TEMPERAMENTS. THE SANGUINE

“Galatians 5:19-23. The Acts of the flesh are obvious; Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self -control. Against such things there is no law.”

What are temperaments and what is a personality?

Temperament: The characteristics and aspects of personality that we are born with and influence who we are.

Personality: Dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his/her cognition, motivations and behaviors in various situations.

 

According to Hippocrates the Father of modern Medicine, he divided humanity into four basic temperaments . In his view, each temperament root is derived from the dominant humor in an individuals body. These are;

Blood– Sanguine

Bile from the liver– Choleric

Phlegm– Phlegmatic

Bile from the kidney– Melancholic

They are further divided into two;

Introverts – Phlegmatic and Melancholic

Extroverts– Sanguine and choleric

 

Each temperament has strengths and weakness. The strengths are the sources of our talents , and the weakness is where the problem tends to originate from. Each individual has a combination of two temperaments; meaning will have one more predominant and other less but still visible and have an impact on the person.

THE SANGUINE

This is typical me. I can talk about my temperament until the cattle come back home in the evening. Sanguine are a unique blend of a happy confidence. They are boisterous, bubbly, chatty, openly emotional, social extroverts. They will talk about weather, friends and a hundred other things before facing the real problem (now this is me).

They find social interactions with faces both familiar and unfamiliar invigorating. The more people they are surrounded by, the better they feel (my brother can ascertain this). They really enjoy having many, many, many friends (my greatest achievement). They talk more and listen less (at times I tend to). They may move away from friends they consider to be boring or dull.They love wild night outs. They make friends easily, and will cheerily talk to strangers. They enjoy social situations and believe that everyone else would too.

They are likely to convince people to come along with things like come-on-you-will-enjoy-it, or you-do-not-know-what-you-are-missing.  Being friends with a sanguine  is often as simple as knowing each others face and name. They are not particularly trustworthy…as they will be too eager to spill secrets with others, and their general flightiness can make them unreliable as they are likely to get easily distracted by other things.

They are talkative, and speak in a friendly, energetic, playful kind of way.They are often charismatic, and when interacting with them, you can feel like you have known them all your life. They are very emotional, and their emotions can be extreme but fleeting. They are the fellows who be like i-hate-you-i-hate-you-i-hate-you, one day, then mere hours later, they will be profusely apologizing about it, then expecting everything to all be water under the bridge after that. Drama queens.

They always live in the moment and are always quick to forgive-and-forget, and highly expect others to do the same. They have an open sense of humor (rather than dry or subtle humor) and laugh and smile often and clearly. They are very show-offy and have a high self-esteem. Are prone to bragging in a look-how-amazing-I-am kind of way rather than I-am-better-than-you (that is more of a choleric). They are natural physical with others, very touchy-feely; openly expressing their affection through hugs and stroking and grabbing shoulders etc. They may not be said to be neat and tidy (how i always struggle working on this aspect). They live in the moment which can lead to poor planning or disorganization, messiness.

real sanguine

They really love attention. Desires to be in the spotlight, and for people to complement and praise them. Who doesn’t love complements anyway? But a sanguine will go out of their way to get them. They will go extraordinary lengths to add the life they feel is missing from any party, such as dancing on tables, eating food off the table etc. Party animals. They require constant entertainment, and will complain about being bored if they are not sufficiently entertained. They will show off their abilities to others in-order to get praise. They are dramatic, and will exaggerate to make things seem more extreme than they are.

If nobody is paying attention to the, they will barge into a conversation or say something in-order to attract some attention. They are very uncomfortable being left out. They tend to exaggerate issues, restless, likes to be up and down, forgetful of obligations, waste time chatting aimlessly, many incomplete projects, easily distracted and bored, disorganized and unreliable, unpredictable mood swings, makes thoughtless utterances, repeats the same acts for which they equally apologize for.

yea-aah

I told you that sanguine characteristics are up-to infinity.

Other identifying traits

Eating habits; They eat everything in sight. Rarely look at the menu until the waitress arrives. The least picky of all temperaments.

Driving; Are erratic drivers. Sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Like to look people in the face while driving and talking.

Shopping; Are not price conscious, are drawn to color and display. Usually have overloaded carts.

Yard care; They have all the tools but before they can get started they get side-tracked and later end up putting the tools away.

Study habits; Are not usually good students but can be, if motivated. Bright but restless and usually undisciplined. Short interest span and easily distracted. Hard to stay focused for a long time. They have expressive and flamboyant handwriting (just look at mine)

Speaking; Are intuitive speakers. Overly expressive and use exaggeration freely

Bill paying; Are usually terrible record-keepers. May take several reminders. Hate details. May hate their overspending, but rarely cut down.

Discipline; Usually take time to comfort and love children after disciplining them. Can be very loud and expressive. Can be screamers. May not carry out threats. Children may not respond until they think they have to. Should discipline immediately otherwise they may change their mind and be too forgiving , which may lead to permissiveness.

How they are

At home; Disappoints family, since forgets a lot as they also get late. Are easily forgiven due to their good heart.

In ministry; Best placed where a cheerful disposition is most needed. Eg ushering, choir

At work; Keeps the office lively, go far in life and enjoy the journey.

Allow me take my usual cup of coffee, I will be back shortly with Choleric. See you shortly