Personality Plus

I recently read a book by Florence Littauer entitled Personality Plus - How to understand others by understanding yourself. I find this book very interesting and tells me a lot about my own personality helps me understand other temperaments better.

In her book, she mentioned about 4 types of personality:
Popular Sanguine: The Talker
Powerful Choleric: The Doer
Perfect Melancholy: The Thinker
Peaceful Phlegmatic: The Watcher

Basically, she described people with Popular Sanguine personality as the life of the party, always looking for audience to hear their latest stories and can't really keep their mouth shut. They are very enthusiastic about new ideas but that is almost always short lived as they get bored easily as well. They are terrible with people's names and places but have good memory for colours. Popular Sanguines have a good sense of humor and charismatic, which is why they are able to attract attention. Their emotions are controlled by the circumstances and can fluctuate drastically throughout the day.

Powerful Cholerics are born leaders. They have a high drive to succeed and always achieving goals. At some point, they might even feel guilty to rest and are always looking for new challenges. When they set their eyes on a goal, nothing can stop them from achieving. People with this personality are dynamic leaders, confident, independent and organises well. However, they might sometimes seem bossy and overwhelming as they constantly correct wrongs of others.  It is difficult for Powerful Cholerics to see their weaknesses since they think they are always right. They are also impatient towards others because they themselves are highly efficient. They are unemotional and find it difficult to by sympathetic towards others.

Perfect Melancholies are deep, thoughtful and analytical. A hundred thoughts go through their mind before they utter a single word. They are passive and pessimistic; usually having low self esteem and find it difficult to accept others' compliments (if they don't consider it an insult). They like to blend into the background rather than stand out in the crowd. Perfect Melancholies are very smart and they like to do things perfectly. However, this may delay the process of work as they are always trying to have the "perfect" plan. They pay attention to details, are orderly and organised. Since people with Perfect Melancholy personalities are usually perfectionist, they have very high standards towards others which they perceive as "normal". They seem unemotional because they suppress their feelings but once the "emotional bomb" is triggered, it will last for a very long time (unlike Popular Sanguines who can be happy one minute and depressed the next).

Peaceful Phlegmatics are the most balance of the the four personalities. They are not as talkative as Popular Sanguines but easy going. They listen well unlike Powerful Cholerics who are impatient. They are kind and sympathetic, usually avoiding conflicts with other temperaments. They don't get emotionally depressed for long period like Perfect Melancholies. However, they are indecisive and not motivated to do anything. If there is any work required, they try to avoid it as much as possible. In a party, they will find the most comfortable chair and sit, being amused by the other temperaments as they observe. They might even doze off! Peaceful Phlegmatics usually compromise with others but when they make up their mind, no one can change it.

When I took my personality test, I scored mostly Powerful Choleric and partially Perfect Melancholy.

Score    

Popular Sanguine: 2

Powerful Choleric: 22

Perfect Melancholy: 11

Peaceful Phlegmatic: 5