Sanguine

In-Depth Description

The Sanguine temperament is the one tradition associates with liveliness and sociability, among the four types that come from Greek medicine of the fifth century BC. In the medical tradition born of the Hippocratic corpus, the predominance of blood (sanguis in Latin) was later associated with a lively, sociable and enthusiastic nature. Six centuries later, Galen, a Greek physician of the second century AD, developed the doctrine of temperaments: his treatise De temperamentis actually describes nine mixtures, not just four types. This classification crossed the Middle Ages and fed Arab and then European medicine for more than a thousand years, and it was taken up in the twentieth century by authors such as Tim LaHaye (Spirit-Controlled Temperament, 1966), who applied it to popular psychology. A useful clarification: the theory of humors has been abandoned in medicine since the nineteenth century and rests on no data from current biology or psychology. This test keeps only a vocabulary from it: an adjective-choice questionnaire, which shows which words you picked more often than the others. It does not tell you who you are.

Your result puts the Sanguine first; adjectives like enthusiastic, spontaneous or sociable spoke to you more often than the others. One possible reading is that you like reaching out to people, thinking out loud and moving quickly from one idea to the next. If some traits do not sound like you, that is not a mistake: this text describes a tendency associated with a profile, not you.

One theme associated with this profile is the relationship to time and organization; starting with sincere enthusiasm, then finding it harder to sustain the effort once the novelty fades. That is not necessarily laziness: it is a tendency you can choose to work around. Rather than fighting it, you can ask yourself in which situations it serves you (a launch, an emergency, creating something) and in which it costs you.

Another theme is surface and depth in relationships; giving a lot, easily, and wondering what you let others see of your doubts as well as your bursts of laughter. It is up to you to say whether this question concerns you.

Strengths in Detail

If you recognized yourself in the Sanguine adjectives, a first possible strength is ease with people: taking an interest in them, asking a question because you care about the answer, quickly setting a relaxed tone. This ease can help wherever a conversation needs to open up: a presentation, a meeting, a first encounter. The test does not measure it, it only indicates that these words spoke to you.

A second possible strength is optimism; looking for a way out rather than describing the wall. This is not naivety, you can see the problems and choose to look at what works too. This tendency can help when the mood gets tense.

A third is spontaneous creativity; suggesting side paths, improvising when the plan changes. It benefits from being channeled, because an idea without constraints can stay just an idea. Pairing your momentum with a framework (a deadline, a more methodical person) can turn flashes into finished projects.

Areas to Watch

One possible area of vigilance is scattering; starting faster than you finish, piling up open projects and commitments made in the heat of the moment. This can give the people around you an impression of inconsistency, even when your intention is sincere. Rather than trying to become meticulous, you can look for outside support: a person who follows up with you, a simple tool, deadlines that you make public.

A second is impulsivity; words said too quickly, decisions made in the heat of the moment, commitments made without measuring their implications. Letting a night pass before an important decision is a simple way to tell the momentum of the moment from what still holds the next day.

Compatibility

If the other person got the Choleric profile on the test, here is a lead for tuning things, not a forecast: the test says neither what they think nor how they behave. On the Sanguine side, a tendency toward momentum and scattering can contrast with a tendency toward direction and goals. One possible adjustment: agree on a goal and a deadline, then leave freedom on the how, and say early on what frustrates each of you.

If the other person got the Melancholic profile on the test, here is a lead for tuning things, not a forecast. On the Sanguine side, spontaneity can contrast with a need for time and precision. One possible adjustment: present your ideas as avenues to explore rather than as decisions, and leave time to think before settling.

If the other person got the Phlegmatic profile on the test, here is a lead for tuning things, not a forecast. On the Sanguine side, speed can contrast with a need for calm and time. One possible adjustment: deliberately slow down in some exchanges, and ask the other person what they want rather than guessing.

If the other person also got the Sanguine profile on the test, here is a lead for tuning things, not a forecast. You share the same vocabulary; the theme to look at is what scattering or impulsivity, if they apply to you, can produce as a pair. One possible adjustment: consciously give yourselves a framework, for example deadlines and one person who follows up on each project.

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