Video Transcript: Phlegmatic Temperament

Are you or someone you know characterized as a phlegmatic temperament? This teaching video we're going to talk about the general characteristics, the strengths and the weaknesses of that particular temperament is one of the five temperaments of the Arno profile system. It's a temperament analysis tool developed by doctors Richard and Phyllis Arno oven NCCA. Understand, it is not a personality profile; we see personalities as masks that people can put on. But it's really looking at the way God made you. And this model, this tool, if you like, is used by Christian counselors all over the world. And basically, it looks at a person's needs in three different areas. One is the need for inclusion, or social orientation, how social are we; the second is in the area of control, our need to maintain an established deep relationship for other with respect to power and control. Basically, we women like to be in charge of relationships, or are we much more dependent. The third area is in the need for affection or need for love and affection in need to establish and maintain deep personal relationships.

There's much more information on this on our website, and certainly other places on the internet. But just to help you understand a bit about the Arno profile system, it really measures inborn temperament. Not a personality, as I mentioned. And what it does is helpful alerts us to tendencies that people can have, strengths, weaknesses, and general characteristics. It's not an excuse for sin or bad behavior. We just can't say, Well, gee, that's just how God made me. There are no better or worse temperament types. They're just different, and associated strengths and weaknesses. And in the areas of weaknesses, there are areas where we can be working in cooperation with the Holy Spirit for the Lord to changes and transform us. And the idea is that these needs must be met in godly ways, or sinful and personal problems, rather, and sinful behaviors are going to result.

Just briefly, here are the five temperament types characterized by the responsive needs, and the express needs are given in each area. Once again, much more information on this on the website. But you can see the five temperaments there, and today we're talking about the phlegmatic temperament, kind of the one there that's in the middle. And generally, this type of temperament type is characterized as peacemakers. dogmatics in general, are peacemakers and low energy, folks, and you can see the characteristics or the other temperament types and there's certainly other videos, other teachings available on those.

Okay. What are the key traits are typical traits of somebody who has a phlegmatic temperament, or at least in one of the three areas? And it's important to emphasize that when we see somebody phlegmatic, it can be phlegmatic at all three areas, or maybe just one. And that's the depth of this tool. You see, we can look at a person on three different levels, not just one blanket term. So, somebody can be like manic in a general area. The typical traits are characterized as someone who has low energy, gets tired easily, very stubborn, very stable people, and tend to be observers not participants, are better at standing back and watching what's going on, not typically getting involved heavily. And kind of the key phrases that they would use is they're really looking for peace at any price.

Some of the strengths of the phlegmatic temperament are that they're very task oriented and people oriented. They do well performing tasks, but they can handle being around people as well. Tend to handle rejection well; don't typically let that bother them too much. Very stable, peaceful, emotionally stable people for the most part, as you might expect; very good at negotiators and bringing peace of situation, so make good, very diplomatic negotiators and tend to be easygoing, non-demanding in terms of needs for love and affection. So pretty much an even keel describes them.

What are the weaknesses of this temperament? Well, because they are observers, many times there's an unwillingness to get involved; they can just kind of let life pass them by and frustrate their loved ones many times, because they don't get involved. Sometimes in situations that require attention, they will use a very dry or wry sense of humor, many times to keep people at a distance; kind of helps them maintain their energy level, keeps them from draining their energy. So, they'll use that verbal wit, if you like, as a kind of a defensive tool; they can tend to be very indecisive and procrastinate and can take a lot of time to make decisions. Once again, very difficult to motivate, tend to be pretty stubborn, and once again part of it is because of the low energy that they typically have. And once again that stability comes at a price; they're very typically unemotional, very rarely self-sacrificing. So just kind of go with the flow observers of life and that's characterize some of the weaknesses of that temperament.

If you've never had your temperament analysis done, you should find a counseling center or somebody that does that. You'll find it very, very helpful. You can look at our website for more information on this temperament and others, we do them as well. We do them over the internet online. We can get your profile done with us involves a counseling session and your own personal profile report. So I encourage you to get your temperament analysis done. It's very helpful for you and helping you grow with the Lord. Thank you for watching this video.