Typology of personality

One of the fundamental problems of psychology is the typology of personality. Pioneer in the analysis of this issue was K. Jung. He tried to trace and identify various types of people, carefully examining this problem in his book "Psychological Types", which became a classic in psychology. Many other scientists also have their own view on the classification of people, depending on certain characteristics.

In most cases, a person is viewed as a single entity that differs from others not only in terms of individual characteristics such as temperament or character, but also the specific way of life and perception of the environment, as well as the worldview, the value system, and so on.

Jung associated typological differences with such factors as the predominance of any mental function and the dominance of one of the attitudes of consciousness in the activities of the psyche of the individual. So, he singled out extraverted and introverted people. The first type is individuals who focus mainly on external factors and events. Introverts, on the contrary, are directed to their inner world, experiences, emotions. At the same time, Jung's understanding of these characteristics differs from the way Eysenck interpreted them, who distinguished the types of temperaments. The scientist, like his followers, believes that the phases of extraversion and introversion can change over a lifetime. In Jung's understanding, this is only the main thrust of consciousness. These characteristics are studied in more detail by such types of psychology as the differentiated and the social.

The next factor, according to Jung, which influences typologization of personality, is the maximum manifestation of one of the basic mental functions (thinking, intuition, feeling, sensation). The scientist suggested that in the life of a person one of them can become the main one, the other an auxiliary one, and the two remaining ones can be undeveloped and act only at the level of unconsciousness. On the basis of this criterion, the following typology of personality is distinguished. The thoughtful view, first of all, in the perception of the world, rests on rational judgments. For the emotional type, the ethical evaluation of the environment is characteristic. The intuitive personality will rely on the fully realized, but holistic understanding that has arisen in her. Sensory individuals are important facts and their own impressions. Since each of these types can be an extrovert or introvert, the personality typology of Jung distinguishes and characterizes 8 groups of people.

At one time, Pavlov made an attempt to divide people according to their psychological traits. He in his studies relied on the types of nervous activity that he had singled out. In his classification, a person can be cogitative, average and artistic. The basis is the features of the perception of the world and the organization of human activity. Such a typology of personality distinguishes a thinking person, for whom discernment, detailed analysis of what happened to him is characteristic, abstract-logical thinking prevails .

The artistic person has very bright emotions, she has developed imagination. Such people are characterized by spontaneity and following their feelings. The average type (such people are the majority) is slightly dominated by this or that kind of perception of the world. In the latter case, the education and social environment of the individual play an important role. Typically, the features begin to appear in adolescence, when it is possible to define with the choice of a further profession.

Theories describing groups of people with common characteristics are widely studied by students not only in humanitarian orientations, but also in economic, and legal, etc. For example, the psychology of the criminal's personality is based on the typology of individuals.