A Look at Bodies!

Dr. William Sheldon (1898-1977) was an American psychologist who devoted his professional life to observing the range of human body types and what he came rightly to believe as human personality traits or temperament types.

Today, there are people who want to discredit Dr. Sheldon and say that he dehumanized people and pigeon holed them, but the truth is, he tried to explain why someone might be the way they are. Whys are important when you search for answers for children. I think his work is spectacular and right on target. It's also very funny.

Here is an article about William Sheldon’s work:

Through a meticulous examination of the carefully posed (front view, side view, and back view) photographs of some four thousand, decently but scantily clothed, college-age men, Sheldon became persuaded that there were three fundamental elements that, in various proportions, contributed to each person's actual physique or somatype.

He conjectured that there might well be some relationship between these elements and the three layers of the human embryo - the endoderm, the mesoderm and the ectoderm - and consequently gave the three elements that he held as contributing to ALL human physiques the names Endomorphy, Mesomorphy and Ectomorphy.

He devised ways of standardizing the measurement and numerical expression of the various degrees to which each of the three element was present in any individual person's physique.He came to see Endomorphy as being focused on the digestive system, particularly the stomach, Mesomorphy as being focused on musculature and the circulatory system, and Ectomorphy as being focused on the nervous system and the brain.

On this basis he came to recognize that individual human beings would all possess stomachs, muscles, and nervous systems, but would also differ, more or less, in the inherent focus of their bodies towards their stomachs, their muscles, or their nervous systems.He accepted that, in any population, there would be a few extreme Endomorphs, a few extreme Mesomorphs, and a few extreme Ectomorphs.

He saw extreme Endomorphic physiques as being rounded and tending towards fleshiness. He discovered that extreme Endomorphic body types are endowed with a far longer digestive tract than extreme Ectomorphic body types.He saw extreme Mesomorphic physiques as being large, bony, and tending towards a substantial and well-defined musculature.

He saw extreme Ectomorphic body types as being light-boned and tending towards a slightness of musculature. He also conducted a large number of surveys directed towards the investigation of whether there was any identifiable link between physique and temperament type. Sheldon's surveys led him consider that there were three basic temperament types or human personality traits that he labelled Viscerotonia, Somatotonia, and Cerebrotonia.

He saw extreme Viscerotonia as being associated with a love of relaxation and of comfort. Extreme Viscerotonics tend to be sociable "food and people" persons.

He saw extreme Somatonia as being associated with physical assertiveness. Extreme Somatotonics tend to be very keen on physical activity. Extreme Somatotonics also tend to be keen on competition in which they tend to expect to do well.

He saw extreme Cerebrotonia as being associated with a pronounced need for privacy. Extreme Cerebrotonics tend to be highly self-aware and socially restrained.

He considered that there was a strong correlation between body type and temperament type. According to this view, human personality traits are underwritten by human physical types. Extreme Endomorphs tend towards Viscerotonia, extreme Mesomorphs towards Somatotonia, and extreme Ectomorphs towards Cerebrotonia.

There may well be an association to be made between Dr. William Sheldon's work and the work of other psychologists - not least the work of Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas. Working in the area of child psychology in New York Chess and Alexander ultimately went on to classify the temperament types of their young charges as variously being "easy", "difficult", and "slow to warm up".

Sheldon wrote several books on the variety of human temperament types / human personality traits that are now out of print - a work by Chess and Alexander entitled Temperament: Theory and Practice is of more recent publication.