Character and Personality - are they the same thing?
“ The line separating good and evil passes right through the heart”
-Solzhenitsyn
Even though these terms are frequently used interchangeably, to me, they describe different aspects of human nature. Before I try to define them, I would like to present two different persons’ behaviors, to make a point.
A taxicab driver finds a lost wallet, with thousands of dollars in it, in his cab. Without any hesitation, he immediately calls the person and returns the wallet. Is this honorable behavior a sign of his character or his personality?
A second person thinks of himself with an exaggerated sense of superiority that he knows everything and is better than everyone else; therefore he deserves and expects to be treated with deference. He constantly craves praise and admiration. He is extremely sensitive to criticism, He has no empathy towards other people. Is this person’ behaviors a sign of his character or personality?
I am sure, we all have encountered and recognize these type of people. The second person is not normal. He has a character and personality disorder, called “Narcissism”.
The point I wanted to make is that we are all genetically different and our personality trends are different too, and they could change, depending on the mood we are in. In addition, there are character and personality disorders. Sometimes, it is very difficult to tell which one is which.
I shall leave the details of this discussion to the expert psychologists and psychiatrists. I will simply try to define what is character and what is personality. As I see and understand it, there is no generally agreed upon definitions of these concepts. Most definitions focus on psychological interactions of a person with his/her environment with certain visible behavioral patterns.
Character could be defined as a set of our par moral, ethical and mental qualities that are inherited from our parents. They are coded in our genes; they are not visible, they are permanent. They do not change under any circumstance.
On the other hand, personality traits are acquired, learned behaviors. They are clearly visible. They are influenced by many factors such as parents, upbringing, education, poverty, childhood traumatic events (corporal punishment, sexual abuse), peer groups. Personality trends are not permanent; they can be changed or modified, depending on circumstances, especially when self-interests are involved. On the other hand, character traits remain as steady as a rock, under any circumstances.
Character can influence personality, but personality trends can’t influence the character traits. Then, it becomes very clear that the traits of a person’s character are much more important than his/her personality trends. But unfortunately, in real life, we judge people with their education and acquired skills, not by what they’re worth with their traits of character.
