The theoretical analysis and empirical verification of the classification systems of the psyche have been undertaken by a number of authors in the 20th century (C. Jung, H. Eysenck, R. Meily, V.S. Merlin, L.N. Sobchik, L.Ja. Dorfman, E.P. Ilyin, N.L. Nagibina and others).
Bodily and formal-dynamic characteristics as grounds for classification These classifications are more often used by the clinical psychologists and the psychiatrists.
Example: The Hippocratic school held that four humors: blood, black bile, yellow bile and phlegm consists the basis for the four types of temperaments.
Example: Kretschmer's classification system was based on three main body types: asthenic/leptosomic (thin, small, weak), athletic (muscular, large–boned), and pyknic (stocky, fat). (The athletic category was later combined into the category asthenic/leptosomic.) Each of these body types was associated with certain personality traits and, in a more extreme form, psychopathologies.
Example: American psychologist
William Herbert Sheldon associates body types with human temperament types.Sheldon proposed that the human physique be classed according to the relative contribution of three fundamental elements,
somatotypes, named after the three germ layers of embryonic development: the
endoderm, (develops into the digestive tract), the mesoderm, (becomes muscle, heart and blood vessels), and the
ectoderm (forms the skin and nervous system). Sheldon's "somatotypes" and their supposed associated physical traits can be summarized as follows:
Ectomorphic: characterized by long and thin muscles/limbs and low fat storage; receding chin, usually referred to as slim.
Mesomorphic: characterized by medium bones, solid torso, low fat levels, wide shoulders with a narrow waist; usually referred to as muscular.
Endomorphic: characterized by increased fat storage, a wide waist and a large bone structure, usually referred to as fat.
Cognitive characteristics as a basis for classification Cognitive characteristics as a basis for classification become popular in the 20th century. Table 1. Some
examples of classifications based on concrete methods of receiving and processing information.
Values and motivational characteristics as grounds for personality classifications The sphere of personality values and senses is situated at the crossing point of two large areas of psychic:
motivation on one side and the world outlooking structure on the other. The sphere of
values and senses with its unique picture of the world is the core of personality. Most bright psychological ideas concerning the sphere values and senses are presented in the work of
Erich Fromm, M.
Rokeach,
Abraham Maslow and others. For example, Rokeach treats the values as a kind of steady conviction that a certain goal or way of living is preferable to some other. The human values are characterized by the following main properties: • The whole number of values of a person is relatively small. • All people have the same values, although in different degrees. • The values are organized in systems. • The sources of human values can be tracked down in culture, society and its institutions etc. • The influence of the values can be traced practically in all social phenomena, deserving studying. Rokeach distinguishes two classes of values – terminal and instrumental. He defines the terminal values as convictions that a certain final goal in individual life (for instance, happy family life, peace in the whole world) from the personal and the social point of view is worth to be pursued. The instrumental values are beliefs that a certain way of performance (for instant, honesty, rationalism) is from personal and social points of view preferable in any situations. In fact, the distinction between the terminal and instrumental values coincides with already existing, rather traditional differentiations of values-goals and values means. The system of personality values orientation as well as any psychological system can be represented as "multidimensional dynamic space".
Example: Erich Fromm describes the ways an individual relates to the world and constitutes his general character, and develops from two specific kinds of relatedness to the world: acquiring and assimilating things ("
assimilation"), and reacting to people ("
socialization"). These orientations describe how a person has developed in regard to how he responds to conflicts in his or her life; he also considered that people were never pure in any such orientation. These two factors form four types of malignant character, which he calls Receptive, Exploitative, Hoarding and Marketing. He also described a positive character, which he called Productive.
Example: N.Losski picked out three types of characters. • Hedonistic type with domination of lower, sensual drives suppressing all higher aspirations. The people of this type are completely under the influence of the biological nature. Their self is not yet mature. • Egoistic type. Their self is quite mature and decorates all the striving deeds and feelings. The Self (I) prevails in their consciousness and they are striving to broadly expose it in their activities. • Superpersonal type. Their aspirations similarly to those of the first type, are as if given outside, but their source is not in the physical needs of the body, but in the factors of higher order, namely: in higher religious, scientific and aesthetic strivings. Such people act as if not on behalf of themselves, but on behalf of the higher will, which they recognize as the rules of their deeds. Losski points out that it is impossible the sharp boundary between the three types, as there are intermediate types, that are transitional from one category to the other.
Bounded complexes of cognitive characteristics, values and motives as ground for personality classifications Example: E. Spranger distinguishes six types of personality, which connect cognition and values correlating the personality type with cognition of the world. • The Theoretical, whose dominant interest is the discovery of truth. A passion to discover, systematize and analyze; a search for knowledge. • The Economic, who is interested in what is useful. A passion to gain a return on all investments involving time, money and resources. • The Aesthetic, whose highest value is form and harmony. A passion to experience impressions of the world and achieve form and harmony in life; self-actualization. • The Social, whose highest value is love of people. A passion to invest myself, my time, and my resources into helping others achieve their potential. • The Political, whose interest is primarily in power. A passion to achieve position and to use that position to affect and influence others. • The Religious, whose highest value is unity. A passion to seek out and pursue the highest meaning in life, in the divine or the ideal, and achieve a system for living. One dominating value corresponding to every type. == Contemporary problems of psychological classifications ==