Temperament. Character

In his best-known work,

Physique and Character (1921),

he attempted to correlate body

build and physical constitution

with temperament and mental illness, identifying three physical types — the pyknic (rotund), the athletic (muscular), and the asthenic (tall and thin) — and claiming that different psychiatric disorders were associated with each of them.

Sheldon’s theory of temperament

Kretschmer’s system was later

adapted by the American psychologist

William H. Sheldon (1899 – 1977),

who renamed the types endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph and focused on their associated personality traits. Both theorists' work entered into popular culture and generated further research.

I.Pavlov’s views of temperament

I.Pavlov laid the foundations of the contemporary temperament theory. He extended the definitions of the four temperament types under study at the time, updating the names to:

• "the strong and impetuous type (choleric),
• the strong equilibrated and quiet type (phlegmatic),
• the strong equilibrated and lively type (sanguine),
• the weak type (melancholic)“.

I.Pavlov’s views of temperament (continuation)

According to Pavlov, all temperament types responded to the stimuli the same way, but different temperaments move through the responses at different times. He commented "that the most basic inherited difference. .. was how soon they reached this shutdown point and that the quick-to-shut-down have a fundamentally different type of nervous system."

3. Nine temperament characteristics (A. Thomas and S. Chess, 1977)

• Activity refers to the person’s physical energy. This trait can also refer to mental activity, such as deep thinking or reading – activities which become more significant as the person matures.
• Regularity, also known as Rhythmicity, refers to the level of predictability in a person’s biological functions, such as waking, becoming tired, hunger, and bowel movements.