Character orientation is how people relate to the world by acquiring and using things (assimilation) and by relating to self and others (socialization), and they can do so either nonproductively or productively.

Erich Fromm Erich Seligmann Fromm (; ; March 23, 1900 – March 18, 1980) was a German social psychologist, psychoanalyst, sociologist, humanistic philosopher, and democratic socialist. He was a German Jew who fled the Nazi regime and settled in the U ...

is a theorist who came up with five different character orientations: Receptive, Exploitative, Hoarding, Marketing, and Productive.

History

German-American psychoanalyst

was influenced by Freudian ideologies when coming up with the theory of character orientation. The basis of character orientation comes from

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts ...

who said that character traits underlie behavior and that they must be inferred from it. These character traits can be powerful forces which are totally unconscious to the person. Fromm along with Freud believed that the most important aspect in one's character was not a single character trait, but rather, the total character organization from where many single character traits follow. These character traits can be understood as a syndrome resulting from a particular character orientation. In other words, the character of any given person is a blend of all, or some of the orientations, but where one is more predominant.

Nonproductive orientation

Receptive orientation

They receive satisfaction from outside factors, and thus they passively wait for others to provide them with things that they need. For example, they want someone to provide them with love and attention. They are not the ones to give these things away and often lose loved ones who are close to them because of their inabilities to talk about their feelings or troubles. They find it hard to let go of past issues, often trivial, and develop a feeling of a secure present and future. They tend to see minor, innocent things as a threat to their security with a spouse or loved one. A receptive person is known for their huge lack of creativity. Thursday, 4 May 2017

Exploitative orientation

Exploitative-oriented people aggressively take what they want rather than passively receiving it. These types of people do whatever they can to get what they want; even if it includes stealing, or snatching something away from somebody else just to get it.

Hoarding orientation

Hoarding-oriented people save what they already have obtained, including their opinions, feelings, and material possessions. It may be

love Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states, from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest Interpersonal relationship, interpersonal affection, to the simplest pleasure. An example of this range of ...

power Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may ...

, or someone’s time.

Marketing orientation

People who are marketing orientated see themselves as commodities and value themselves against the criterion of their ability to sell themselves. They have fewer positive qualities than the other orientations because they are essentially empty.

Productive orientation

There is a healthy personality as well, which

occasionally refers to as "the person without a mask".Boeree, C. George. "Erich Fromm." Personality Theories: My Webspace files. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. . This is the type of person who, without disavowing his or her biological and social nature, does not avoid freedom and responsibility. This person most likely comes out of a family that loves, which prefers reason to rules, and freedom to conformity.

References

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External links

*Boeree, C. George
Personality Theories: Erich Fromm
1997, 2006. *Fromm, E. (1947). Man For Himself. Canada:Holt, Rinehart, and Winston of Canada Limited.

(Fromm online) Personality traits