Core Character Traits (CCTs) form the foundation of our personality, influencing our thoughts, choices, and actions. Addressing people’s challenges involves delving deep into the core rather than merely addressing surface-level thoughts and behaviors. It’s akin to weeding your garden; if you rip off the top of the weeds, it may look good quickly, but the weeds will come back and often more substantial. However, if you take a little more time and strategically dig down, find the roots, and then tear them out, not only will the weeds go away, but they will not return.
The same is true in helping a person with a problem. You may suggest coping strategies or a cognitive-behavior solution that deals with the surface level of the problem (anxiety, depression, which decision to make, resolving a conflict with another person) and brings some relief. Still, it will only last a while because you still need to address the root problem. You may feel good that your suggestions helped the symptoms decrease or go away. And the person you helped may feel relief because the pain (i.e., weeds) is gone. However, it will not last because you did not deal with the root cause. And like a weed, it will be back in weeks or months.
This fundamental principle can also be found in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-30). The only seed that took hold and grew was the seed that fell on the “good soil.” It could develop deep roots in good soil and produce a crop that was “a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” However, the seed that fell on the “path” could not grow deep, so the birds ate it up. Then there were seeds that “fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants were scorched, withered when the sun came up because they had no root.” Finally, some seeds fell among the “thorns,” which grew up and choked the plants. Sources must be in good soil to take root, grow, and produce fruit. It cannot just remain on the surface. The same with problems we face. Only when the solution (“good seed”) is worked intensely into the good soil can it grow and produce healthy fruit. That will not happen with a quick, surface approach to planting.
Core Character Traits
New York Times bestselling author Donald Miller (2021) uses the term Core Character Traits (CCTs) as the deepest parts of your personality that have “proven to predict success.” He states, “Beyond integrity and a strong work ethic, how are successful people different from unsuccessful people? What is it that an individual of great economic value in the workplace [or in the family, church, or friendship] . . . that a person of lesser economic value does not. . . To add value wherever they went, they would need to embody a unique set of uncommon character traits. Who you are as a person is a foundation on which you will build the skills that will translate into” being one of the best in your profession, family, and friend, and give you a flourishing life. (pp. xvii, 3, 4).
New York Times bestselling authors Henry Cloud (1993) and John Townsend (1996) use a similar term, Character Structure, to describe the relational capacities that form the foundation of our personality that successfully meet the demands of living in the “real” world, They lead to whole-hearted spirituality in an intimate community of Christ followers who are “making things right” “on earth as it is in heaven” to restore this world as the “good” creation God originally intended.
We argue that there are four uncommon character traits that emotionally and relationally healthy, high-achieving people have developed. To discover these Core Character Traits, we utilized the Bible and the latest research from 54 disciplines in neuroscience, counseling, leadership, and theology.
The four Core Character Traits (CCTs) are:
- Attachment: Experience and enjoy the full range of emotions and needs. Aware of how they are experienced in the body. Manage multiple affective states without feeling engulfed or impinged. Trust relationships as a secure place to process emotions and have needs met.
- Separation: Know core self and enjoy being different from others. Maintain boundaries and can say “no.” Awareness of the aggressive part of self, expressing anger, and tolerating another person’s anger or rejection. Take initiative. Not passive nor play the victim role.
- Integration: Realize limitations and losses (e.g., mistakes, failure, sin, weakness, mediocrity, sadness) and still feel lovable, desired, good enough, and competent. See the “negative realities” in self, others, and the world (e.g., loss, imperfection, and negative impulses of sex, anger, and envy) alongside the good. Do not idealize others, nor be overly optimistic.
- Authority: Have authority over their life (i.e., being in charge) and feel confident and a sense of power to be stronger than what life throws at them or disapproval of others. Desire more responsibility and seek to obtain it. Have a strong “voice” to influence others, give commands, enforce obedience, express opinions to authority, take action, and make decisions without needing approval from authority or others. Submit to authority the accountability of others and serve others. Don’t control, feel better than, or rebel. Experience mutuality in having equal standing with other people, especially authority figures and institutions. There are three additional themes:
- Career: Have discovered passions in life and have competencies (i.e., skills) to accomplish them through a hard work ethic in a chosen vocation.
- Mutual Friendships and Comfortable with Their Sexuality: Desire and enjoy mutual friendships, not one-down (controlled) or one-up (controlling). Experience freedom and don’t need approval or control over the other. Pursue a lifetime partner and have a family or enjoy a single lifestyle. Experience and enjoy healthy sexuality and gender identity.
- Transcendence/Spirituality: Acknowledge there is something greater than themselves, work, and the world itself. Experience a meaningful and mature faith within a community (e.g., church)
Core Character Traits have three characteristics:
- Core: CCTs are prime (not reduceable to anything else), the foundation of one’s sense of self (i.e., personality structure, identity) that are cognitive-emotional-relational. They comprise core emotional learnings that are a composite of relational experiences. They are how the person feels about himself, others, God, relationships, and the world. CCTs drive the thoughts (i.e., schemas), secondary feelings (e.g., sadness, anger, fear, guilt, shame, joy, loneliness, confusion, satisfaction, confidence), and relational patterns of behaviors.
- Character: CCTs are made up of micro-abilities that integrate emotional, cognitive, and behavioral abilities and relational skills that meet the demands of living and drive success that leads to a flourishing and meaningful life.
- Trait: They have been part of an individual’s personality for a long time. Brené Brown (2021, p. 10) describes a trait as “a characteristic, feature, or quality of an individual” expressed through relational behaviors, cognition, and feelings. They are how the world and others are engaged and are reflected in unique, adaptive interpersonal coping styles (Theodore Millon, 1969; Karen Horney, 1945).
Micro-Abilities
Micro-abilities comprise the larger, more comprehensive macro-abilities of the CCTs. There are four levels, and they are arranged developmentally because everyone has progressed through a “set of invariant stages or phases that are unique and occur in a given sequence” with “a succession of potentialities, each hierarchically having its time of ascendency, builds upon prior ones to assemble the . . . [core character trait] structures of the person” (Polumbo, Bendicsen, & Koch., 2009, pp. xviii, 207). The potentialities for growth and maturation usually evolve out of a developmental task (e.g., the need to attach, the need to separate), which, if resolved through positive relational experiences (especially with primary caretakers and significant early relationships and events), create this relational micro-ability in the person. As a result, the person will be emotionally healthy and thriving at work and in their personal life. However, many people have upbringings with dysfunctional relational experiences that arrest the development of these micro-abilities and potentialities, which results in deficits in the CCTs. These deficits drive the symptoms (Castonguay & Hill, 2012, p. 17).
The micro-abilities can be used as a general road map of the prescriptive elements (i.e., what you focus on to change and heal) for developing and strengthening these CCTs in your life or another’s.
The Problem is Not the Problem
The above way of viewing the dynamics of personality structure confirms the Biblical and neurological principles that the problem (i.e., symptoms) is not the problem. It is the underlying deficits in the CCTs that are driving them.
Henry Cloud (1993) and John Townsend (1996) discuss the 3Ps. This is where we live our lives and the demands of life meet us. These are exterior and mainly experienced on the conscious level.
- Personal: those aspects which pertain to the individual. This would include the effects (e.g., sadness, fear, anger, guilt/shame, disgust, joy, trust, surprise, anticipation, interest), thoughts (e.g., view of self and others, purpose, values), and behaviors.
- People: relational styles in the context of marriages, parenting, work, or friendships.
- Performance: the “doing” aspects of life, as opposed to the “relating” factors. These include the individual’s career, finances, managing life’s demands, and adult responsibilities such as securing a place to live, transportation, and employment.
When a person’s CCTs are solid and adaptive, the three P’s do not tend to cross a threshold of mental health symptoms (anxiety or depression, eating disorder, delusions, violence) or ineffective leadership performance. Symptoms are God’s designed system to signal that work is to be done at these more profound levels of the CCTs. So, we don’t start helping ourselves or people by trying to fix exterior behaviors, thoughts, or overwhelming feelings. The goal is not to help the person immediately reduce the symptoms, “but to help him or her rework developmental issues through an authentic engagement with” a person who attunes and facilitates Corrective Emotional Learnings (you will soon learn what these are and how to do this) that strengthen or build new intrapsychic structure into the deficit CCTs. This results in fresh, healthy cognitive-emotional-relational patterns, which have a greater capacity to meet the demands of living, decreasing the symptoms.
The Way Jesus Worked
Jesus often took the same approach with the people he was helping.
- This is first evidenced by this parable Jesus told. “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. So, he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now, I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’ Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’” (Luke 6:6-9). The digging around the soil and fertilizing the roots represents working on the core character trait deficits instead of trying to fix the fruit directly.
- Jesus, in interacting with the Pharisees, reinforced this above model of personality structure when he explained to his disciples that out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, and slander (Matthew 15:19). The outward symptoms flow from the deepest parts of our personality—the CCTs.
- Jesus further emphasizes this approach when he suggests a way to deal with our problems and grow in our faith. He said first clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside will become clean (Matthew 23:26). Again, you don’t focus on the outside symptoms, but you start internally by strengthening the internal (in this case, that is the CCTs).
- This is consistent with what Jesus referred to at the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:24-27). He said the difference between a person whose house gets smashed by the rains and winds and one who doesn’t is because the latter person built his house on a rock, a deep foundation. He did not make it on the surface, like the sand. So likewise, the foundation, the internal, is the most vital part of our personality. As it is strengthened then, there are fewer symptoms.
This understanding of human personality acknowledges that all thoughts, feelings, and behaviors will come from one or a combination of these 4 CCTs. A fun way to remember this concept is to watch this humorous video on how all hit songs come from different arrangements of four chords. The same applies to all the distressing symptoms and daily challenges we face. They all come from one of the 4 CCTs being in deficit. As you build strength into deficit CCTs, the symptoms and challenges decrease.
Interested in peeking below the surface and gaining insights into your areas of strength and deficits in the core character traits? You can take a quick assessment today.
References
Brown, B. (2021). Atlas of the heart: Mapping meaningful connection and the language of human experience. Random.
Castonguay, L. G. (Ed); Hill, C. E. (Ed). (2012). Transformation in psychotherapy: Corrective experiences across cognitive behavioral, humanistic, and psychodynamic approaches. American Psychological Association.
Cloud, H. (1993). Changes that heal. Grand Rapids, Zondervan.
Horney, K. (1945). Our inner conflicts. Norton.
Miller, D. (2021). Business made simple: 60 days to master leadership, sales, marketing, execution, management, personal productivity and more. Harper Collins.
Millon, T. (1969). Modern psychopathology: A biosocial approach to maladaptive learning and functioning. Saunders.
Polombo, J.; Bendicsen, H.K. & Koch, B.J. (2009). Guide to psychoanalytic developmental theories. New York: Springer Business + Science Media.
Townsend, J. (1996). Hiding from Love. Zondervan.