Strengths and Weaknesses of our Personality Types
Getting along with people can be tough. Sometimes we just cant understand how people can be different than we are. Understanding personality types can bring us closer to understanding the people we interact with. In this article I discuss the good and bad things about each personality type.
There are four personality types in the system I discuss here: Melancholy, Choleric, Sanguine and Phlegmatic. All of our personalities are actually a combination of these four. You might have Choleric as your primary, Melancholy as your secondary, Sanguine as your third and Phlegmatic as your fourth. Usually, we care mostly about the top two. These top two are the ones that really explain why you behave the way you do most of the time.
It should be clear that most things in life are a trade-off. Everyone has their good things and bad. See if you can find yourself, or others in one of these personality types.
Good things about phlegmatics: easy to get along with, good listeners, peaceful.
Bad things about phlegmatics: dont get excited about much, indifferent, lazy, dont like to get involved.
Good things about cholerics: natural leaders, are right most of the time, know how to get things done, optimistic.
Bad things about cholerics: bossy, think they are always right, sometimes dont care about other peoples feelings, stubborn, arrogant, wont admit when they dont know something.
Good things about melancholies: perfectionists, forsee problems before they occur, deep thinkers, care a lot about other peoples feelings.
Bad things about melancholies: pessimistic, easily depressed, sometimes put off doing something because they want it to be perfect.
Good things about sanguines: friendly, entertaining, always know what to say, good sales people, life of the party.
Bad things about sanguines: disorganized, dont finish what they start, they exaggerate to the point of lying, never on time, irresponsible, forgetful, most of the time come off as if they know what they are talking about but they have no clue, wont admit that they dont know something.
As you can see, we all have our good things and bad. Knowing peoples personality types helps us somewhat understand why they do certain things and it helps us appreciate their strengths while understanding their weaknesses. Its important to know, however, that having one of these strengths or weaknesses does not necessarily mean you belong to a certain personality type. Like, I said, our personalities are a combination of these four types. There are tests you can take to find your primary and secondary personality types.
Pedro Garcia is the founder of hangBase.com, a service that allows couples, married or not, to search for other couples in their area that they can hang out with. He started the website after realizing most couples dont have enough couple-friends to do things with.