Character, temperament and personality, what is the difference

In everyday speech the three words are used almost interchangeably, and dictionaries partly agree. Psychology draws a distinction worth knowing. In short: temperament is the base, visible early in life; personality is the fairly stable way of feeling, thinking and acting that experience builds on that base; character is personality seen through a value judgment.

Temperament: what shows in early childhood

The American Psychological Association's dictionary describes temperament as the basic foundation of personality, usually assumed to be biological and present early in life: energy level, emotional responsiveness, mood, inhibition in new situations (APA).

Developmental psychologists study temperament in children through dimensions such as positive emotionality, fear, frustration and the capacity for self-control, and link them to adult traits (Rothbart, Ahadi and Evans, 2000). The link holds over time. In a New Zealand study of 1,000 children observed at age 3 and assessed again at 26, early behavioral style predicted adult personality, which the authors describe as the longest and strongest evidence of its kind (Caspi and colleagues, 2003).

Personality: the base plus experience

Personality is the broader idea. The APA defines it as the enduring configuration of a person's characteristics and behavior, shaped by heredity together with upbringing, culture and experience (APA). It is what the Big Five measure: five traits on which everyone has a position.

How much does biology contribute? A meta-analysis of 62 estimates covering more than 100,000 people puts the average heritability of personality traits at about 40%, with the rest of the differences between people coming from environment and experience (Vukasović and Bratko, 2015). Twin studies give somewhat higher estimates (47%), family and adoption studies lower ones (22%). Neither genes nor upbringing explains everything alone.

Character: personality judged

Character is the slipperiest of the three. The APA dictionary stresses moral and social attitudes and admits that the word is often used as a synonym for personality (APA). In everyday English, "a person of character" is a compliment, not a description.

Gordon Allport, one of the founders of personality psychology, settled the matter with a line that stuck: character is personality evaluated, and personality is character devaluated. In his 1937 book he stopped using the word, which he saw as an ethical concept rather than a psychological one (Allport, 1937, Personality: A psychological interpretation, p. 52).

Later research brought the term back with sharper meanings. In Cloninger's model, temperament covers heritable tendencies that appear early, such as novelty seeking and harm avoidance, while character covers dimensions that mature in adulthood, such as self-directedness and cooperativeness (Cloninger, Svrakic and Przybeck, 1993). Positive psychology speaks of "character strengths", morally valued traits such as kindness or honesty (Peterson and Seligman, 2004; VIA Institute).

Which word to use

Our position is simple. When you talk about how a person tends to feel, think and act, the precise word is personality, and it is the one we use on this site. Temperament is the right word for the early, partly inherited base, especially when talking about children. Character is fine in everyday speech as long as you remember it carries a judgment: saying someone "has a bad character" is a verdict, saying they score low on Agreeableness is a description.

Our test measures personality in this descriptive sense: five traits, with no judgment about which position is better. You can take it below in about 10 minutes.