On the one hand, temperament as a propensity for a person is set genetically, from birth. On the other hand, in different situations, any person can manifest himself in a very diverse way, without limiting himself to the framework of his usual temperament. Under a cold shower, the saddest melancholic (if he is a healthy melancholic, and not depressed), albeit not for long, but becomes a choleric.
When they write that temperament cannot be changed, this is not entirely true: it is quite possible to change it for a short time, and talented people can, in principle, choose their temperament. It is possible to change your temperament, the only thing is that such a task is rarely set and this task is not easy. Nevertheless, the task is quite solvable. Through study and training, most people can develop all kinds of temperaments and use them comfortably throughout life.
As a background of life, it is most useful to develop a sanguine temperament in yourself, having learned to flexibly, according to the situation, change your nature of response. When you need calmness and endurance, it is worth turning into a phlegmatic person, when you need explosive energy and a riot of feelings — a choleric person is at your service. For composing poetic works that affect subtle feelings, melancholy moods will be useful …
The temperament of a choleric person is largely innate, but if desired, this way of life can be acquired — to become a choleric person. If you are not a choleric, but the choleric energy attracts you, reveal this side of your personality in yourself, especially since this way of life provides many advantages.
From Andrey K.’s report: “I did the Choleric exercise for a week. The results were impressive — I did twice as many cases as usual, although, I must admit, there were more mistakes: at high speed it is difficult to monitor the quality. But something else struck me: in the state of Choleric, I practically did not get tired — well, let’s say, doing twice as much, I got tired one and a half times less. I liked it, now I will live in this mode more often!
In general, one of the promising areas of development is to master intensive as a way of life: life in a high load mode, with short, well-organized time troubles. Oddly enough, this does not exhaust at all, but gives additional energy.
The story of N.I. Kozlova: When I was a student at the Faculty of Psychology of Moscow State University, I set myself the task of mastering AT (auto-training). It was difficult, for this I went to the experimental laboratory of the Institute of Psychology of the USSR Academy of Sciences (on Yaroslavskaya Street). In that laboratory, electrodes were attached to my head, the wave activity of (my) brain was displayed on the oscilloscope screen and they offered to control these pulsating greenish-blue waves. It’s not clear how, but it’s interesting that soon I (like other participants in this biofeedback experiment) began to succeed. Great. And the joke was that in the same building of the Institute, only not in the left, but already in the right wing, there was another laboratory (Nebylitsyn’s laboratory), where they found out what my temperament was on the same oscilloscopes with the same electrodes !Not understood? The researchers of Nebylitsyn’s laboratory were convinced that temperament is an innate and unchangeable characteristic, and the simplest and most reliable thing is to grasp temperament by the nature of brain activity. Here are the electrodes attached. Only I have already learned how to control this brain activity. And when they wanted to «catch» my temperament, I asked: «What do you like?» And he did it differently.
Temperament Development
Temperament can and should be developed. See Development of temperament