Coherence of character and temperament drives personality change toward well being in person-centered therapy

Abstract

Purpose of reviewPeople and communities around the world face many crises, including increasing burdens from disease, psychopathology, burn-out, social distrust, and acts of hate and terrorism. Personality disorder is arguably both a root cause and a consequence of these problems, creating a vicious cycle of suffering caused by fears, immoderate desires, and social distrust that are inconsistent with rational goals and prosocial values. Fortunately, recent advances in understanding the biopsychosocial basis and dynamics of development in personality and its disorders offer insights to address these problems in effective person-centered ways. Recent findingsFundamental advances have been made recently in the understanding of the psychobiology and sociology of personality in relationship to health, and in basic mechanisms of personality change as a complex process of learning and memory. Promotion of self-awareness and intentional self-control releases a strong tendency for people to seek coherence of their emotions and habits with what gives their life meaning and value.

Disentangling the personality pathways to well-being

“…Detailed descriptions of the identification and replication of these networks and their evolution are presented in various articles [22][23][24][25]32 . The application of these findings in person-centered psychotherapy has been described using Plato's Allegory of the Cave and his metaphors for rational self-government elsewhere [58][59][60][61] www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Prior work has shown that the three temperament-character networks-reflecting different integrated configurations of brain circuits for associative conditioning, intentionality and self-awareness-are highly correlated with indicators of well-being. For example, Zwir et al found that the creative-reliable network was associated with the highest probability well-being, followed by the organized-reliable network and finally the emotional-unreliable network 25 .…”

“…Detailed descriptions of the identification and replication of these networks and their evolution are presented in various articles 22 – 25 , 32 . The application of these findings in person-centered psychotherapy has been described using Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and his metaphors for rational self-government elsewhere 58 – 61 .…”

Nursing students' personality (Temperament and Character), burnout symptoms, and health and well-being

“…Such activities might, for example, involve pedagogical health promotion strategies ( Bispo et al, 2023 ) and well-being interventions. Our research network has for example conducted psychoeducative coaching interventions that include recovery and stress-reducing activities that show positive and promising results among students and other populations by promoting positive development of the human condition, that is, higher levels of Self-Directedness, Cooperativeness, and Self-Transcendence ( Cloninger and Cloninger, 2011 ; Garcia et al, 2023a , 2019a , n.d.) —see also ( del Val-et al, 2024 ). In this endavor we need to take into consideration that university teachers with less than eleven years of teaching experience, for example, report lower levels of self-esteem compared to older teachers with more experience ( Capelo et al, 2022 ).…”

The ABC of happiness: Validation of the tridimensional model of subjective well-being (affect, cognition, and behavior) using Bifactor Polytomous Multidimensional Item Response Theory

“…The knowledge and awareness of this compensatory nature between dimensions within subjective well-being is important for the conceptualization, operationalization, and understanding of the cognitive mechanisms and processes behind people's evaluations and judgements of their subjective well-being and each of its constructs. Consequentially, due to this interconnection, interventions aiming to promote well-being, need to be ternary in nature, that is, promoting aspects of being that not only increase positive emotions, but also increase life satisfaction and harmony in life and decrease negative emotions, see for example [ [90] , [91] , [92] , [93] , [94] , [95] , [96] , [97] , [98] ]. By simultaneously influencing emotions, cognitions, and behaviors, or factors that lay at the core and regulate these dimensions, such as character; [ 7 , [99] , [100] , [101] , [102] , [103] , [104] , [105] , [106] , [107] , [108] ], we might be able to help people to develop sustainable happiness, resilience, virtues, and an outlook of unity to adapt to the current and future challenges of the 21st century [ 91 , 92 , 101 , 108 ].…”