Medical The Four Temperaments: Is san-mel possible?

[Eus]

Hi Ho!

Referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Temperaments under "Temperament Blends", I would like to discuss whether it is possible for a person to have a blend of sanguine and melancholic at the same time.

AFAIK, a sanguine tends to be sloppy while a melancholic tends to be perfectionist. How then can one person be sloppy and neat at the same time?

If I am not in the right forum to discuss this, please give me a pointer to a better one. Thanks.


Eus

 

[Moonbear]

Such concepts as the four temperaments are VERY outdated. Modern psychology would only teach them from an historical perspective to show how far we've come since then, not because there is any validity to the ideas.

 

[alxm]

Um.. original poster - you're joking, right? This is like asking an alchemy question under 'chemistry'.

 

[Eus]

Hi Ho!

Moonbear:
What is the most recent concept accepted among modern psychology scholars?

alxm:
No, I'm not joking. I am not a psychology guy and trying to find the truth out :-)
"alchemy" under "chemistry"? I didn't realize that it is the situation. In that case, what is the right concept?

No offense, but I'd like to be sure of this: you guys are modern psychology scholars, aren't you? I just want to be sure that it is not the blind leading another blind.

Thanks for helping :-)


Eus

 

[Moonbear]

Nowadays, we explain most behavior through neuroscience (or strive to). Accepted psychiatric disorders are defined in the DSM IV, which is a rather large volume. And, yes, the four temperaments is along the lines of alchemy in terms of how completely outdated it is.

 

[symbolipoint]

Eus,
We here are not all psycology scholars. Look for a modern introductory psychology textbook. As other members have commented, psychology today has advanced from what it was 50 years ago. I would best guess that psychology textbooks from the 1950's would have nearly nothing to say about Autism or Asperger's Syndrome, or the Silicon Valley effect (frequency of Autism spectrum resulting individuals in the Silicon Valley area).

 

[Math Is Hard]

Personality psychology is still an active area of study. There are quite a few theories you can read about here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_psychology

I am inclined to agree with the others that the Four Temperament theory is archaic, but good to know about to understand historical foundations of this branch of psychology.

(I have a psych degree, but only a BS, and in the cognitive area. )