INTEREST, TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTER

Very broadly speaking, the matter of recall is mainly a question of interest, while the manner of recall is chiefly one of temperament and character. The first part of this book has repeatedly demonstrated that interests, regarded as a development of individual mental life, may decide what it is that a person remembers. We have now seen that interests themselves very often have a direct social origin. Similarly temperament may be considered from the point of view of the individual or of the group. There is, unfortunately, no settled terminology in this field. Often the terms ‘temperament’ and ‘character’ are used interchangeably. This seems to me to be inconvenient, from the standpoint of general psychology. It is better to adopt the usage, already sanctioned in some quarters, according to which ‘temperament’ is regarded as a group of innate tendencies, peculiar to a given individual, and organised in some manner; these organised innate tendencies being the most important of all the inner, psychological conditions which determine how an individual reacts to any situation with which he is confronted. Thus a person may be temperamentally cautious, or confident, optimistic, or dubious, timid, or decisive. These modes of reaction are liable to appear so early that it seems impossible to believe that they are built up solely on a basis of accumulated experience, and they are remarkably persistent. They have a close relationship to the ‘attitudes’ which, however, are far more limited in a temporal sense, and which may be set up by some passing incident.