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Personality and Brain Disorders pp 3–24Cite as

Personality and the Brain: Person-Centered Approaches

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Part of the book series: Contemporary Clinical Neuroscience ((CCNE))

Abstract

Human personality has been defined as the dynamic organization, within an individual, of psychobiological systems that modulate adaptation to a changing environment (Cloninger, Svrakic, & Przybeck, 1993). In this chapter, we briefly outline the ancestral lineage of human beings as five major transitions and then describe how human personality has evolved through three major systems of learning and memory in a long series of steps through evolution. The first one is the procedural system, which regulates different emotional responses such as anger, fear, disgust, and ambition, that is, the temperament dimensions of personality. The second system, the propositional system, is present in primates and helps the individual to be self-directed and cooperative in a social environment. The third system, the episodic system, exists only among humans and stands for humans’ capacity for self-awareness, which allows introspection and recollection of autobiographical memories. The second and third systems are responsible for the presence of the character dimensions of personality, which can be defined as individual differences in values, goals, and self-conscious emotions (e.g., hope, love, and faith). Importantly, character regulates the expression of temperament predispositions, so character is the regulator of well-being regardless of underlying temperament. But the person needs to learn to know and understand her whole being (i.e., temperament and character) to integrate them in order to promote resilience and well-being. Thus, we also present the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and also discuss how interactions between traits within the individual serve as a good description, measurement, and base for dialogue in person-centered approaches.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A clade (from Ancient Greek, κλάδος, klados, “branch”), also known as monophyletic group, is a group of organisms that consists of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants and represents a single “branch” on the “tree of life.” From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clade

  2. 2.

    Equifinality: high scores in each one of the character traits might have different antecedents, for example, individuals who are high in self-directedness might have different temperament basis. Multifinality: antecedent variables have different outcomes, for example, not all individuals who are high in novelty seeking end up scoring high in self-directedness (Cloninger & Zohar, 2011; Garcia & Rosenberg, 2016a, 2016b).

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that there are no competing interests. The views and ideas expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any agency of the Swedish government.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Blekinge Center for Competence, Region Blekinge, Karlskrona, Sweden

    Danilo Garcia, Nigel Lester, Kevin M. Cloninger & C. Robert Cloninger

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Danilo Garcia

  3. Anthropedia Foundation, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Nigel Lester, Kevin M. Cloninger & C. Robert Cloninger

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Center for Well-Being, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Nigel Lester & C. Robert Cloninger

  5. Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome, Italy

    Franco Lucchese

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  1. Blekinge Center for Competence, Region Blekinge, Karlskrona, Sweden

    Danilo Garcia

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Trevor Archer

  3. Department of Pharmacology, Quillen College of Medicine, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN, USA

    Richard M. Kostrzewa

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Garcia, D., Lester, N., Lucchese, F., Cloninger, K.M., Cloninger, C.R. (2019). Personality and the Brain: Person-Centered Approaches. In: Garcia, D., Archer, T., Kostrzewa, R.M. (eds) Personality and Brain Disorders. Contemporary Clinical Neuroscience. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90065-0_1

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