The word character has multiple meanings. In a certain context, talking about a man 's character allows us to mention his personality and temperament. It is a psychological scheme, with the dynamic particularities of an individual .
Character is not something that is brought from the mother's womb, but is strongly affected by the environment , culture and social environment where each person is formed.
The researcher Santos expresses that character is what differentiates us from our peers and that it is the result of social learning , which are related to the habits of each individual and the way in which they react to experiences . Character does not finish forming until the end of adolescence.
Its relationship with temperament
It is important to clarify that character is not exactly the same as temperament , the latter brings together the biological aspects of character and is linked to the physiological process and those genetic factors that significantly collaborate in the social behaviors of individuals. Character, for its part, is the set of psychological aspects that are shaped by education, the work of will and habits and allow the individual to react to experiences. It is important to note, however, that character is closely linked to temperament and that it acts as a consequence of it in most people .
For the creation of character, three components are necessary: emotionality (emotional impact of the individual towards events), activity (inclination of the individual to respond to a certain stimulus) and resonance (response towards events).
Character types
Those people who have a nervous character constantly change their interests, they get easily excited about new things but nothing manages to attract them enough. They have no order or discipline in their life. They tend to be weak-willed, sociable and affectionate.
Those with an apathetic character live closed in on themselves, they are melancholic, stubborn and lazy. They like routine and are indifferent to what surrounds them. They are apathetic and have little interest in doing new things.
Those who have a sentimental nature are very sensitive and pessimistic. They prefer to isolate themselves and become demoralized quickly. They tend to be spiteful, insecure and indecisive. On the other hand, they have trouble adapting to new things.
Those with a choleric character live busy lives, are daring and are moved by impulses and improvisation. They are extroverted but as soon as any problem arises, they run away. They get stressed easily.
Those who are passionate have a great memory and imagination and an innate capacity for work. They tend to focus on lost causes and are interested in learning; they are extremely methodical in this task.
Those with an amorphous character tend to be lazy, unoriginal and wasteful. They don't like to prevent, they are unpunctual and nothing excites them.
The concept in biology
With regard to the field of biology , each trait that is used to make descriptions of organisms is called character. Characters, experts say, can be morphological , anatomical in nature, or behavioral , biochemical , physiological , genetic , geographical , or of another nature. On the other hand, the characters can be approached with a qualitative or quantitative perspective.
The evolutionary transformation of a species is said to occur when one character is replaced by another. Thus, a set of characters is based on the consecutive stages of its evolution. This series is not necessarily linear, as sometimes an ancestor's character has expanded along various paths as his descendants evolved.
Character in music, design and computing
In the musical field, on the other hand, the character of a work is understood as the way in which a composer intends that the person conducting the orchestra and the musicians that make up it perform it. To give these indications, Italian expressions are used, such as agitato , giocoso or vivace .
Another use of the term character appears in industrial design : there, a piece is said to have a unique character when it inspires an overall impression different from any other design.
In computing and telecommunications , a character is interpreted as a unit of information that is equivalent to graphemes or symbols, as is the case with those of the written modality of the alphabet of a natural language. This definition arises from typography , where a character is equivalent to a letter , a number or another sign .
The notion in its broadest sense
To conclude, we will say that this term refers to the individualization of the components of a whole, so that it can be analyzed in detail and thus be understood in its most authentic sense.
Generally when using the concept character we refer to an innate quality of the subject or element that we are analyzing, something that is integrated into its structure and without which said entity would not have had the same development that we can see.