Interpersonal Relations

Choleric

Who would you most want to have around in an emergency? Maybe you think, a doctor, or maybe it would be the person you love most. Well, in terms of the temperaments, the best person in an emergency is often a choleric. People of this temperament are usually confident, quick thinking, and quick-acting. They know they can help you and they want to do it. If they don't know what they're doing, they'll think of something anyway, or they'll fake it so well that you'll feel confident and think of something appropriate to do yourself. Generally speaking, panic is not in their vocabulary. Further, they are optimists.

Cholerics are natural-born leaders who are always willing to be in charge, usually anxious to take charge of a situation, or even of a person. They are often - perhaps usually - very competent. As one writer pointed out, if you have a child whose temperament is largely that of a choleric, you will want to make sure he IS very competent.

We desperately need the person with the choleric temperament. Sometimes we're not so sure about that, though, when the choleric person we know doesn't understand his own temperament and lets his authoritative tendencies get out of hand at times. The word "choleric" means angry and people of this temperament can get angry quickly and strongly. Sometimes they yell but sometimes they control this tendency but give you a look or a voice that makes you feel very small: How could you do that? Or: How could you think such a thing? If you recognize yourself as being part choleric, you might want to use this ability to "shrivel" someone on rare occasions of great importance, but we of other temperaments like it best if it is used very judiciously (and preferably not on US).

Emotionally, the person of a choleric tmeperament is up and down, usually between excited about a project and mad. As one speaker said, the choleric reacts very strongly to everything that goes on around him or her. Sometimes the anger turns to sadness if there is nothing they can do about a situation, if their anger can't be channeled usefully to improve things. And again, that is one of the beauties of the choleric personality. They have the drive and determination, perhaps more than any other temperament, to change things for the better, to make a better world.

DISCLAIMER: Please note again, as I said in the introduction to the temperaments, that most people are a combination of two or even three temperaments, and also that there are many other factors that go into the making of our personalities.

More info: Choleric - Sanguine - Melancholy - Phlegmatic

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