A study of relationships to somatotype.

Abstract

What relationships are there between physique and other aspects of the individual? This is an old and recurring question in human thought. Scientists from ancient to modern times have tried to relate physique with temperament, personality, and susceptibility to mental and physical disease without reaching any final conclusions. Probably one reason for the appeal of the theories about these relationships is that they would afford a pleasantly simple basis for the diagnosis and prediction of human behavior if they could be proved conclusively. Today, the question is not merely academic. With personnel workers constantly looking for convenient measures for predicting vocational adjustment, and with the armed services engaged in the largest selection and classification programs ever undertaken, every conceivable technique has been brought out for critical examination.Since the history of theories concerning psychological and physical types has been adequately presented by Cabot (4), Wertheimer and Hesketh (48), and Anastasi (1), it will not be discussed at length here. In addition to these histories, the experimental literature on this topic has been surveyed by Polen (35), Paterson (33), Wertham (47), Klineberg, Asch, and Block (23), Cabot (4), and Jones (18,19, 20). References will be made here only to studies which are directly relevant to problems under consideration.Kretschmer, both in his original statement of his thesis (25), and in his later summary of experimental work (with Enke (26)), claimed a high degree of association between his body types and schizophrenia vs. circular psychosis, but other research has cast doubt upon these findings. Wertheimer and Hesketh (48) and Garvey (9,10) have called attention to the effect of the age factor upon this apparent relationship. In studies of normal adults, we fail to find a clear-cut picture of relationship between physique and mental traits. For instance, after her survey of the litera-

Taxonomies and correlates of physique.

“…In practice, several different systems are commonly used, regardless of many reservations connected with typology. For example, differentiation among physiques, however dependent upon imper-feet taxonomic methodologies, has been studied and associated with age (Behnke, 1878;Clarke, Irving, & Heath, 1961;Hunt & Barton, 1959;Newman, 19S2;Sheldon, Stevens, & Tucker, 1940), climate (Newman & Munro,195S;Roberts,19S3), delinquency (Glueck & Glueck, 19SO;Sheldon, Hartl, & Mc-Dermott, 1949), disease (Damon, 1960(Damon, , 1962Damon, Fowler, & Sheldon, 19S5;Draper, Dunn, & Seegal, 1924;Pearl & Ciocco, 1934), endurance (Caldwell, 1964), maturation (Acheson & Dupertuis, 1957;Hunt & Barton, 1959;Karvonen & Kunnas, 1947;Krogman, 1956;Newman, 1952), motor ability and motor capacity (Bull, 1958;Caruth, 1953;Davies, 1957;Sills, 1950), nutrition (Jones, 1957;Keys, 1946;Lasker, 1947), occupation (Damon, 1955;Damon & McFarland, 1955;Garn & Gertler, 1950;Hannan, 1945;McFarland, Damon, & Stoudt, 1958), personality and behavior (Adcock, Mc-Creary, Ritchie, & Somerset, 1958;Bull, 1958;DiGiovanni, 1919;Eysenck, 1953;Fiske, 1944;…”

Inherited, constitutional influences in personality.

“…Among normals, appreciable and indubitable correlations are found between physical and psychological components, but these may nevertheless not be the best components in which to express the relationship. Fiske's study (20) indeed throws doubt on the Sheldon categories. A possible analysis of Sheldon's surface traits in terms of the basic source traits A, E, and F is given in Diagram 25.…”

The Morphological Level of Personality

“…Older work has related various physiological variables to Kretschmer types or to indices such as the Pignet or simple Weight-divided-by-Height [10 to 16]. In the psycho-physiological field simple reaction time has been positively related to endomorphy and negatively to ectomorphy [17], and component dominance to certain ink-blot responses [41], and in the sphere of pathology some relations between disease and somatotypes [18], and neurosis and body build factors [19] have been reported. This study of physiological differences between adults is one uncharted approach to the subject.…”