Why is it that some people light up a room the moment they walk in, while others quietly hold the whole thing together from the corner? Why does one colleague chase the deadline like a finish line, while another wants to talk through everyone’s feelings first?
These are not random differences. They follow a pattern, and once you can see the pattern, a lot of things start to make sense.
That is the gift of Personality Plus.
What Is Personality Plus?
Personality Plus is a personality framework popularised by Florence Littauer in her book of the same name, building on the four temperaments first described by the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates. Hippocrates believed that human behaviour was shaped by four bodily humours. The science has long moved on, but the four temperaments he named have stayed with us for over two thousand years because they describe something true about people.
The four types are Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic.
Most of us are a blend of two, with one dominant type and a secondary type that supports it. Very few people sit cleanly in just one box. That is part of why the framework is so useful. It gives you a language to describe your strengths, your blind spots, and the people around you, without flattening anyone into a single label.
In my work as a hypnotherapist and trainer, I find Personality Plus especially helpful for clients who want to understand themselves before they try to change. You cannot rewrite a pattern you cannot see. Knowing your type is often the first honest mirror.
1. The Sanguine: The Popular One
Sanguines are the storytellers, the entertainers, the people who turn a quiet dinner into a memorable evening. They are warm, expressive, and genuinely love being around others.
Strengths: Enthusiastic, charming, optimistic, great at making people feel welcome. They bring energy into a room without trying.
Struggles: Easily distracted, sometimes forgetful, can talk more than they listen. They start a hundred things and finish a few. Routine feels like a slow death to them.
At work: They thrive in roles that involve people, presentation, and variety. Sales, hospitality, teaching, creative work.
In relationships: They love openly and need to feel adored. They want their partner to enjoy life with them, not just live alongside them.
If you have ever wondered why one friend can make even a trip to the supermarket feel like an adventure, you have probably met a Sanguine.
2. The Choleric: The Powerful One
Cholerics are the doers. They see what needs to happen, decide quickly, and move. They are natural leaders, often the first to take charge when no one else will.
Strengths: Decisive, goal-oriented, confident, productive. They get things done when others are still discussing the agenda.
Struggles: Can come across as bossy or impatient. They sometimes run people over without realising it. They struggle to slow down, rest, or let others lead.
At work: They excel in leadership, entrepreneurship, project management, and any role where results matter more than process.
In relationships: They love through action. They show care by solving, providing, and protecting. Words of affection do not come as easily as decisions and plans.
If you know someone who finishes other people’s sentences and has already booked the restaurant before you finished suggesting it, you are looking at a Choleric.
3. The Melancholic: The Perfect One
Melancholics are the deep thinkers, the planners, the quiet artists. They feel things at a level most others rarely reach. Their inner world is rich, detailed, and often beautiful.
Strengths: Analytical, loyal, organised, sensitive to beauty and meaning. They are the people who notice what others miss.
Struggles: Perfectionism, self-criticism, and a tendency toward melancholy when life feels chaotic or shallow. They can withdraw when overwhelmed.
At work: They are drawn to roles that demand precision, depth, and care. Research, writing, design, music, accounting, therapy.
In relationships: They love deeply but cautiously. They need a partner who values quality time, emotional honesty, and a quiet kind of intimacy.
If you have a friend who remembers everyone’s birthdays, plans the trip down to the last detail, and overthinks the wording of every text, you have a Melancholic in your life.
4. The Phlegmatic: The Peaceful One
Phlegmatics are the calm anchors. They are easy to be around, slow to anger, and steady in a storm. The world tends to feel a little safer when they are in it.
Strengths: Patient, agreeable, diplomatic, dependable. They are excellent listeners and natural mediators.
Struggles: Avoid conflict, struggle with motivation, can drift through life without setting clear goals. Their kindness sometimes hides their own needs from themselves.
At work: They do well in roles that require steadiness and care. Counselling, administration, customer service, teaching, healthcare.
In relationships: They love through presence. They will not chase or perform, but they will be there, consistently, for years.
If you know someone who has never raised their voice and somehow holds the family together without anyone noticing, you have probably been blessed with a Phlegmatic.
Why Knowing Your Type Matters
A lot of personal struggle comes from trying to live as someone we are not. The Sanguine who forces herself into a rigid routine because someone told her discipline was the answer. The Melancholic who keeps trying to be more outgoing because the world rewards confidence. The Choleric who cannot understand why his partner needs him to slow down. The Phlegmatic who agrees to everything and quietly resents most of it.
When you know your type, three things shift.
First, you stop apologising for who you are. Your strengths are real strengths, even when they are not the ones currently in fashion.
Second, you start working with your wiring instead of against it. A Sanguine does not need to become a Melancholic to be productive. She just needs systems that suit her. A Phlegmatic does not need to become a Choleric to lead. He just needs to lead in his own way.
Third, you understand the people around you. Your partner is not being difficult. They are being themselves. Your boss is not trying to hurt you. They are operating from a different set of defaults. This one shift can save a marriage, a friendship, or a working relationship.
Take the Test
If you want to find out your own type, you can take the Personality Plus profile test on our site. It is free, takes about ten minutes, and gives you a clear breakdown of your dominant and secondary type along with practical insights for daily life, work, and relationships.
I recommend doing it when you have a quiet moment. Answer honestly, the way you actually are, not the way you wish you were. The test only works if you let it tell you the truth. And once you know your type, share it with someone close to you. Ask them to take it too. The conversations that follow are often the most useful part of the whole exercise.