http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FourTemperamentEnsemble

Clockwise from top left: Phlegmatic, Sanguine, Choleric, and Melancholic.

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There are many ways to make a group of people diverse without giving them overly specialized roles within an ensemble. One way is through matching personality types according to a wacky ancient pseudoscience. The Four Temperaments (also called the "four humors") was a theory that behavior was caused by concentrations of body fluids — the "humors" of classical medicine: blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm.

A temporary imbalance would create an illness: too much blood caused a fever, too much yellow bile caused a cough, too much black bile caused depression, and too much phlegm caused a cold. A permanent imbalance led to a person having a certain type of intentions, behavior, and personality. Though this has been a theory long-since discredited from a scientific standpoint, the general idea still remains and the theory is still used for personality profiling. An ensemble based on these four humors can make the cast diverse without actually changing the roles of the characters in the story.

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One of the interesting factors in the Four Temperaments, is that there is no Leader - any one of them could be The Leader in the piece and defines the approach the team takes to the problem, while in a series the focus can switch back and forth to develop characters separately - see A Day in the Limelight. Rather than meeting through coincidence or brought together in the first episode, these four are more likely to be long-term friends or family from the start. There may be a fifth person hanging around occasionally but they're not really part of the team; they just add flavour or play the part of The Mentor.

Along with a list of characteristics, the four temperaments are:

Sanguine (blood)

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Choleric (yellow bile)

Melancholic (black bile)

Phlegmatic (phlegm)

The four temperament system, while interesting, was seen as flawed even back then as some people did not fit with any of the presented humors, so a neutral temperament has been used, labeled sometimes as the Leukine, other times the Supine/Eclectic, although in fiction this has been mostly reserved either for the lead character or more commonly for secondary characters (as for Four-Philosophy Ensemble, usually the Realist or Apathetic).

A fifth temperament was originally derived in modern temperament theory from the once popular FIRO-B psychometric instrument, which included moderate scales. When the temperaments were mapped to it, the traditional Phlegmatic ended up moderate in both "expressive" (classic "extrovert" and "introvert") and "responsive" (classic "people vs task" focus) scales, and the low expressive high responsive area was labeled "Supine". In some versions of the theory, this is reversed, with the Phlegmatic kept in its old place, and the new temperament considered the moderate one.

This "fifth humour" often shares many common elements with the Phlegmatic. The difference is that the Phlegmatic is this way from a lower energy reserve which leads him to take the path of least resistance (to either go with the flow and be agreeable, or to be stubborn and slow), while the Supine has an emotional energy that drives him to be reserved, but wanting of acceptance from others.

Historically in plays, there was a whole genre: Comedy of Humors, where the impetus of the story is the sudden banding of these opposing types. This is in contrast to the Comedy of Errors, where the story is driven by the events and situations.

They are similar to the four Personality Blood Types, and are sometimes also a Four-Element Ensemble.

See also Cast Calculus for the overarching archetypes in this and differently numbered ensembles. Here is an Image Archive for this trope. Additionally, Pseudolonewolf (of MARDEK fame) has a page that goes into great detail on the four temperaments, here (older version with blends here ), Eric B has a page that explains the five temperaments here, and The Other Wiki offers its information here. For another way to split up a group of four, see Four-Philosophy Ensemble. If you want to write such a group, see Write a Four-Temperament Ensemble.

Examples:

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Asian Animation

Sab Jholmaal Hai: Bunny (Sanguine), Popat (Choleric), Zordaar (Melancholic), and Honey (Phlegmatic).

Space Jungle: Okki (Sanguine), Kao (Choleric), Roo (Melancholic), and Mo (Phlegmatic).

Zelly Go: Roro (Sanguine), Popo (Cholreric), Jojo (Melancolic), and Gogo (Supine).

Fan Fiction

Miscellaneous

The Japanese zoological fortune-telling Doubutsu Uranai: Earth group is Sanguine (self-centered, objective orientated); includes the Tiger, Wolf, Monkey, and Koala. Sun group is Choleric (self-centered, situation orientated); includes the Pegasus, Elephant, Lion, and Cheetah. Full Moon group is Melancholic (mindful of others, objective orientated); includes the Sheep and Panther. New Moon group is Phlegmatic (mindful of others, situation orientated); includes the Fawn and Tanuki.

The four species of hyenas: Spotted Hyenas are Sanguine as they're the most social and pack oriented. Striped Hyenas are Choleric as they can be rather aggressive. Brown Hyenas are Melancholic as they're the most mysterious and endangered of the hyena family. Aardwolves are Phlegmatic as they're shy and peaceful insectivores.



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