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Constitutional psychology is a theory, developed in the 1940s by American psychologist William Herbert Sheldon, associating body types with human temperament types. Sheldon proposed that the human physique be classed according to the relative contribution of three fundamental elements, somatotypes, named after the three germ layers of embryonic development: the endoderm, (develops into the digestive tract), the mesoderm, (becomes muscle, heart and blood vessels), and the ectoderm (forms the skin and nervous system).

In his 1954 book, Atlas of Men, Sheldon categorised all possible body types according to a scale ranging from 1 to 7 for each of the three "somatotypes", where the pure "endomorph" is 7–1–1, the pure "mesomorph" 1–7–1 and the pure "ectomorph" scores 1–1–7. From type number, an individual's mental characteristics could supposedly be predicted.

The three types

Sheldon came to the conclusion that an individual's somatotype determines not the quantity but the quality of the individual's emotional energy:

The phenomenon of emotionality as such seems to be a variable nearly independent of what we have called the primary components of temperament. Differences lie in the manner of expressing emotion, and perhaps also in the kind or quality of emotion. Since this last variable refers really to a quality of consciousness itself, we have no way of comparing it in different individuals, except by inference drawn from outward behavior. Cerebrotonic people seem to feel emotion more intensely, or more acutely, than do either viscerotonic or somatotonic people. Their sensory responses in general seem to be sharper and more discriminative. If this is actually the case, then in one sense they have more emotion, or are more emotional.

—Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 82

File:Sheldonian somatotypes.png

The extreme endomorphic, mesomorphic, and ectomorphic somatotypes.

Viscerotonia	Somatotonia	Cerebrotonia
Endomorphy (sphericity^[1])	Mesomorphy (squareness^[2])	Ectomorphy (linearity^[3])
Mongoloids^[4]^[5]	Nordics^[6]	Jews
Psychosomatic infantility^[7]	Psychosomatic prime of life^[8]	Psychosomatic old age^[9]
Good sleep. Nonresistance and addiction to alcohol and other relaxants		Poor sleep. Resistance and aversion to alcohol and other relaxants^[10]
The high disgregation of emotions results in a low sensitivity^[11] and an Epimethean resistance to macrostate changes or, in plain language, to revolutionary, qualitative changes.		The low disgregation of emotions results in a high sensitivity^[11] and a Promethean propensity to macrostate changes or, in plain language, to revolutionary, qualitative changes.
In contrast to the concentrated emotional energy of the cerebrotonic, the emotional energy of the viscerotonic is rarefied and exerts a negative pressure—suction (the oral Freudian stage).^[12] This emotional suction accounts for the attractiveness (cuteness) and amiability^[13] of viscerotonic individuals, such as aquatic mammals,^[14] children, women, and the Mongoloids (see Cuteness in Japanese culture)	The genital Freudian stage^[15]	Since the emotional energy of the cerebrotonic is pent up like the energy of a volcano,^[16] it exerts a positive pressure (repulsion) and finds vent in "volcanic eruptions" (the anal Freudian stage^[15]). This emotional repulsion accounts for the unatractiveness (uncuteness) of the cerebrotonic (cf. the repulsive appearance of Hephaestus, the god of volcanoes)

Viscerotonia

There is the strong suggestion of a certain flabbiness ot lack of intensity in the mental and moral outlook. It is a personality without fire, and it gives off no sparks. There is a dull, vegetable-like quality, as if the fires of life burned slowly, without concentration of heat. The personality suggests lack of purpose beyond the elementary biological purposes. The relaxed protrusion of the lips (V-1) often brings to mind the picture of infantilism. There is relatively poor circulation in the hands and feet, which tend to be cold, weak, flabby and atonic.

—Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 43

Due to their spiritual vacuity (suction), viscerotonics are prone to "sucking up to each other" or "agglutinating" into a single totalitarian aggregate:

Viscerotonic people are extremely agglutinative. They tend to club together and to seek their satisfactions by supporting the group against the variant individual, or against individuality. They are Epimethean, as contrasted with Promethean. This tendency is perhaps a natural outcome of the combination of strong biological appetite and individual muscular weakness. Cerebrotonic people, lovers of solitude, represent an exactly antithetical tendency, and when they have a fairly strong supporting somatotonia they tend to become individualists, and haters of viscerotonic propriety. Along this cleavage line, many of the generalized hostilities seen in human life appear to take their origin.

—Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 36

Modern assessments

Sheldon's research led to the strong confirmation of the constitutional psychologist's expectation that there is a noteworthy continuity between the structural/physical aspects of the person and his or her functional/behavioral qualities. Although Sheldon was successful in isolating and measuring dimensions for describing physique and temperament, he cautioned that the dimensions should not be examined in isolation one by one, but, rather, the pattern of relations between the variables should be studied.

—Roeckelein, Jon E. Dictionary of Theories, Laws, and Concepts in Psychology Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998, p. 428

Sheldon maintained that the person's somatotype is genetically determined and causes people to develop and express personality traits consistent with their body builds. For example, he hypothesized that endomorphs (high in fatty tissue) would be sociable, complacent, and capable of easy communication of feelings. He thought mesomorphs (high in muscle tissue) would be adventurous, bold, competitive, aggressive, and energetic, whereas ectomorphs (low in fatty and muscle tissue) would be inhibited, introverted, hypersensitive to pain, and secretive. He tested these hypotheses by having observers rate individuals on these trait dimensions and found empirical support for his ideas (Sheldon, Hartl, & McDermott, 1949, pp. 26–27). Although this study has been strongly criticized on methodological grounds (Sheldon himself made both the physical and psychological ratings), more methodologically sound studies—in which investigator bias was minimized by having one investigator rate the somatotypes and having the study participants independently rate their own personality traits—have also produced supportive evidence for Sheldon's position (Child, 1950; Cortes & Gatti, 1965; Yates & Taylor, 1978).

—Ryckman, Richard M. Theories of Personality Ninth edition, Cengage Learning, 2007, p. 260

Applications

The Sheldonian somatotypes are used in the following fields:

The assessment and selection of special-force soldiers.^[17]

References

^ Endomorph Britannica
^ Mesomorph Britannica
^ Ectomorph Britannica
^ Encyclopaedia Britannica University of Chicago, 1951, p. 900 ♦ "Among the Mongoloid majority, obesity is relatively rare, but the bone-fat index (proportion of osseous to adipose tissues) is high"
^ Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, pp. 255, 256 ♦ "As another alternative, it is possible to rationalize a general orientational schema for life on essentially viscerotonic grounds. Buddhism has done so, and Buddha is rarely pictured as less than 5 in the first component, both morphologically and motivationally. In Buddhist doctrines we find a fairly consistent exposition of viscerotonia. We find relaxation, deliberateness, love of comfort, pleasure in digestion, ceremoniousness, tolerance, complacency, love of sleep, orientation toward family, in short, viscerotonia. And for an honest rationalization of viscerotonia, read Lin Yutang's book, The Importance of Living."
^ Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 255 ♦ "But for some time now, as is especially obvious in Germany, a vigorous religious movement has been afoot which is based squarely on unsublimated somatotonia."
^ Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 47 ♦ "V-20. Orientation toward Infancy, and toward Family Relationships. There is deep love of the period of infancy and of the idea of being a child."
^ Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 67 ♦ "S-20. Orientation toward the Goals and Activities of Youth. There is a deep love of the activities of the strenuous period of youth."
^ Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 67 ♦ "C-20. Orientation toward the Later Periods of Life. There is a primary longing for a later period of life, and a persistent conviction that greater happiness lies in the later decades, when the individual will be (he believes) relatively free from the inhibitory tenseness and emotional insecurity which seem so fearfully to thwart him in youth. Also, among academic or intellectually ambitious cerebrotonics there is a strong feeling that the best fulfillments of life lie in the intellectual maturation, and in the richer understanding and insight of later years."
^ Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 91 ♦ "C-18. Resistance to Alcohol, and to other Depressant Drugs. The effect of alcohol is essentially unpleasant. The cerebrotonic sense of strain increases, and after a short time there is a feeling of dizziness and of increased fatigue. The euphoria and sense of expansive freedom which follow moderate alcoholizing in viscerotonia and in somatotonia, are absent in cerebrotonia. Alcohol, a cerebral depressant, produces general depression when the third component is predominant. In cerebrotonia, therefore, there appears to be general physiological resistance to the depressive action of this drug, in contrast to the grateful yielding to it that is seen in viscerotonia and somatotonia. The same phenomenon is seen in the reaction of cerebrotonic people both to anaesthesia and to the hypnotic (sleep-producing) drugs commonly used to combat insomnia or restlessness. When cerebrotonia is predominant the common hypnotics in ordinary dosage have little effect except that of rendering the patient more tired the next day, as if he had been through a battle the night before. One of our own earliest clinical observations was the fact that certain patients require from two to three times as large a dosage of general anaesthetic as the normal prescription, to put them to sleep. These patients turned out to be what we have later called the cerebrotonics."
^ ^a ^b Disgregation or entropy, understood as the number of internal degrees of freedom, is a measure of insensitivity.
^ Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 35 ♦ "Persons high in the V-6 trait are great kissers, chewers and suckers. They are sometimes called 'oral-erotic' by the Freudians. They tend to carry their usually heavy, flaccid lips in a permanent sucking position, in sharp contrast with the compressed lips of cerebrotonia."
^ Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 38 "V-9. Indiscriminate Amiability. General, or promiscuous amiability. The individual is conspicuously demonstrative of good will. There is a constant, effortless emanation of amiable intent, the sincerity of which cannot be, and never is questioned. … It is as if he were continuously spraying the world with a pot of rose water."
^ Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 31 ♦ "V-1. ... The arms often show a limp relaxation like that of a seal's flipper, and the hands are likely to be soft and flaccid."
^ ^a ^b Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 48 ♦ "The 'oral-erotic' viscerotonic loves to make a fuss over children, and he loves the intimate physical contact of family life. The pronounced cerebrotonic suggests the Freudian 'anal-erotic' type, and the somatotonic has some of the characteristics of the Freudian 'urethral-erotic' picture."
^ Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, pp. 75, 82 ♦ "C-6. Secretiveness of Feeling, Emotional Restraint. This is the tight-lipped characteristic. The individual does his mental suffering in silence. He will not 'let go' and reveal his emotions or feelings in the presence of others. External expression of feeling is powerfully inhibited, although there may be great intensity of feeling. <...> Yet it should be remembered that the C-12 trait does not indicate lack of emotion. Cerebrotonic people are often highly emotional."
^ Burdukiewicz, Anna et al. ♦ The differentiations of body build of soldiers with different specialities Morphofunctional Aspects of Selection of Soldiers for Realisation of Tasks in the Army Formations, v. 11, Warsaw, 2007

Sources

Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Human Physique (An Introduction to Constitutional Psychology) ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1940
Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942
Sheldon, William H. ♦ Varieties of Delinquent Youth (An Introduction to Constitutional Psychiatry) ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1949
Sheldon, William H. ♦ Atlas of Men (A Guide for Somatotyping the Adult Male at All Ages) ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1954
Hartl, Emil M.; Monnelly, Edward P.; Elderkin, Roland D. ♦ Physique and Delinquent Behavior (A Thirty-year Follow-up of William H. Sheldon’s Varieties of Delinquent Youth) ♦ Academic Press, 1982
Gerrig, Richard; Zimbardo, Phillip G. ♦ Psychology and Life ♦ 7th ed.

External links

Ectomorph Britannica

[1] Endomorph Britannica

[2] Mesomorph Britannica

[3] Ectomorph Britannica

[4] Encyclopaedia Britannica University of Chicago, 1951, p. 900 ♦ "Among the Mongoloid majority, obesity is relatively rare, but the bone-fat index (proportion of osseous to adipose tissues) is high"

[5] Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, pp. 255, 256 ♦ "As another alternative, it is possible to rationalize a general orientational schema for life on essentially viscerotonic grounds. Buddhism has done so, and Buddha is rarely pictured as less than 5 in the first component, both morphologically and motivationally. In Buddhist doctrines we find a fairly consistent exposition of viscerotonia. We find relaxation, deliberateness, love of comfort, pleasure in digestion, ceremoniousness, tolerance, complacency, love of sleep, orientation toward family, in short, viscerotonia. And for an honest rationalization of viscerotonia, read Lin Yutang's book, The Importance of Living."

[6] Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 255 ♦ "But for some time now, as is especially obvious in Germany, a vigorous religious movement has been afoot which is based squarely on unsublimated somatotonia."

[7] Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 47 ♦ "V-20. Orientation toward Infancy, and toward Family Relationships. There is deep love of the period of infancy and of the idea of being a child."

[8] Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 67 ♦ "S-20. Orientation toward the Goals and Activities of Youth. There is a deep love of the activities of the strenuous period of youth."

[9] Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 67 ♦ "C-20. Orientation toward the Later Periods of Life. There is a primary longing for a later period of life, and a persistent conviction that greater happiness lies in the later decades, when the individual will be (he believes) relatively free from the inhibitory tenseness and emotional insecurity which seem so fearfully to thwart him in youth. Also, among academic or intellectually ambitious cerebrotonics there is a strong feeling that the best fulfillments of life lie in the intellectual maturation, and in the richer understanding and insight of later years."

[10] Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 91 ♦ "C-18. Resistance to Alcohol, and to other Depressant Drugs. The effect of alcohol is essentially unpleasant. The cerebrotonic sense of strain increases, and after a short time there is a feeling of dizziness and of increased fatigue. The euphoria and sense of expansive freedom which follow moderate alcoholizing in viscerotonia and in somatotonia, are absent in cerebrotonia. Alcohol, a cerebral depressant, produces general depression when the third component is predominant. In cerebrotonia, therefore, there appears to be general physiological resistance to the depressive action of this drug, in contrast to the grateful yielding to it that is seen in viscerotonia and somatotonia. The same phenomenon is seen in the reaction of cerebrotonic people both to anaesthesia and to the hypnotic (sleep-producing) drugs commonly used to combat insomnia or restlessness. When cerebrotonia is predominant the common hypnotics in ordinary dosage have little effect except that of rendering the patient more tired the next day, as if he had been through a battle the night before. One of our own earliest clinical observations was the fact that certain patients require from two to three times as large a dosage of general anaesthetic as the normal prescription, to put them to sleep. These patients turned out to be what we have later called the cerebrotonics."

[Neuronal_disgregation-11] Disgregation or entropy, understood as the number of internal degrees of freedom, is a measure of insensitivity.

[12] Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 35 ♦ "Persons high in the V-6 trait are great kissers, chewers and suckers. They are sometimes called 'oral-erotic' by the Freudians. They tend to carry their usually heavy, flaccid lips in a permanent sucking position, in sharp contrast with the compressed lips of cerebrotonia."

[13] Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 38 "V-9. Indiscriminate Amiability. General, or promiscuous amiability. The individual is conspicuously demonstrative of good will. There is a constant, effortless emanation of amiable intent, the sincerity of which cannot be, and never is questioned. … It is as if he were continuously spraying the world with a pot of rose water."

[14] Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 31 ♦ "V-1. ... The arms often show a limp relaxation like that of a seal's flipper, and the hands are likely to be soft and flaccid."

[Freudian_stages-15] Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 48 ♦ "The 'oral-erotic' viscerotonic loves to make a fuss over children, and he loves the intimate physical contact of family life. The pronounced cerebrotonic suggests the Freudian 'anal-erotic' type, and the somatotonic has some of the characteristics of the Freudian 'urethral-erotic' picture."

[Condensed_emotions-16] Sheldon, William H. ♦ The Varieties of Temperament ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, pp. 75, 82 ♦ "C-6. Secretiveness of Feeling, Emotional Restraint. This is the tight-lipped characteristic. The individual does his mental suffering in silence. He will not 'let go' and reveal his emotions or feelings in the presence of others. External expression of feeling is powerfully inhibited, although there may be great intensity of feeling. <...> Yet it should be remembered that the C-12 trait does not indicate lack of emotion. Cerebrotonic people are often highly emotional."

[17] Burdukiewicz, Anna et al. ♦ The differentiations of body build of soldiers with different specialities Morphofunctional Aspects of Selection of Soldiers for Realisation of Tasks in the Army Formations, v. 11, Warsaw, 2007

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@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 In his 1954 book, ''Atlas of Men'', Sheldon categorised all possible body types according to a scale ranging from 1 to 7 for each of the three "somatotypes", where the pure "endomorph" is 7–1–1, the pure "mesomorph" 1–7–1 and the pure "ectomorph" scores 1–1–7. From type number, an individual's mental characteristics could supposedly be predicted.
-Sheldon's hypotheses enjoyed a period of popularity in the 1950s and 1960s, which Sheldon leveraged to [[Ivy League nude posture photos|collect thousands of nude photographs of Ivy League college students]] in hopes of substantiating his hypothesis. However, his claims subsequently lost favor and credibility, and his work is generally dismissed by modern researchers as outdated, if not outright [[quackery]].<ref name="nyt-rosenbaum"/><ref name="nyt-sealed"/>
 ==The three types==
+Sheldon came to the conclusion that an individual's somatotype determines not the ''quantity'' but the ''quality'' of the individual's emotional energy:
-Sheldon's "somatotypes" and their supposed associated physical traits can be summarized as follows:
+<blockquote>
-*Ectomorphic: characterized by long and thin muscles/limbs and low fat storage; usually referred to as slim. Ectomorphs are not predisposed to store fat or build muscle.
+The phenomenon of emotionality as such seems to be a variable nearly independent of what we have called the primary components of temperament. Differences lie in the manner of expressing emotion, and perhaps also in the kind or quality of emotion. Since this last variable refers really to a quality of consciousness itself, we have no way of comparing it in different individuals, except by inference drawn from outward behavior. Cerebrotonic people seem to feel emotion more intensely, or more acutely, than do either viscerotonic or somatotonic people. Their sensory responses in general seem to be sharper and more discriminative. If this is actually the case, then in one sense they have more emotion, or are more emotional.
-*Mesomorphic: characterized by medium bones, solid torso, low fat levels, wide [[shoulders]] with a narrow [[waist]]; usually referred to as muscular. Mesomorphs are predisposed to build muscle but not store fat.
+:—Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 82
-*Endomorphic: characterized by increased fat storage, a wide waist and a large bone structure, usually referred to as fat. Endomorphs are predisposed to storing fat.
+</blockquote>
+[[File:Sheldonian_somatotypes.png|thumb|The extreme endomorphic, mesomorphic, and ectomorphic somatotypes.]]
+{| class="wikitable"
+|-
+! Viscerotonia !! Somatotonia !! Cerebrotonia
+|-
+| Endomorphy (sphericity<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/187001/endomorph Endomorph] Britannica</ref>) || Mesomorphy (squareness<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/376778/mesomorph Mesomorph] Britannica</ref>) || Ectomorphy (linearity<ref>[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/178685/ectomorph Ectomorph] Britannica</ref>)
+|-
+| Mongoloids<ref>[https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&tbo=1&tbm=bks&q=%22Among+the+Mongoloid+majority%2C+obesity+is+relatively+rare%2C+but+the+bone-fat+index+(proportion+of+osseous+to+adipose+tissues)+is+high%22&oq=%22Among+the+Mongoloid+majority%2C+obesity+is+relatively+rare%2C+but+the+bone-fat+index+(proportion+of+osseous+to+adipose+tissues)+is+high%22 Encyclopaedia Britannica] University of Chicago, 1951, p. 900 ♦ ''"Among the Mongoloid majority, obesity is relatively rare, but the bone-fat index (proportion of osseous to adipose tissues) is high"''</ref><ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, pp. 255, 256 ♦ ''"As another alternative, it is possible to rationalize a general orientational schema for life on essentially viscerotonic grounds. Buddhism has done so, and Buddha is rarely pictured as less than 5 in the first component, both morphologically and motivationally. In Buddhist doctrines we find a fairly consistent exposition of viscerotonia. We find relaxation, deliberateness, love of comfort, pleasure in digestion, ceremoniousness, tolerance, complacency, love of sleep, orientation toward family, in short, viscerotonia. And for an honest rationalization of viscerotonia, read Lin Yutang's book, The Importance of Living."''</ref> || [[Nordic race|Nordics]]<ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 255 ♦ ''"But for some time now, as is especially obvious in Germany, a vigorous religious movement has been afoot which is based squarely on unsublimated somatotonia."''</ref> || Jews
+|-
+| Psychosomatic infantility<ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 47 ♦ ''"V-20. Orientation toward Infancy, and toward Family Relationships. There is deep love of the period of infancy and of the idea of being a child."''</ref> || Psychosomatic prime of life<ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 67 ♦ ''"S-20. Orientation toward the Goals and Activities of Youth. There is a deep love of the activities of the strenuous period of youth."''</ref> || Psychosomatic old age<ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 67 ♦ ''"C-20. Orientation toward the Later Periods of Life. There is a primary longing for a later period of life, and a persistent conviction that greater happiness lies in the later decades, when the individual will be (he believes) relatively free from the inhibitory tenseness and emotional insecurity which seem so fearfully to thwart him in youth. Also, among academic or intellectually ambitious cerebrotonics there is a strong feeling that the best fulfillments of life lie in the intellectual maturation, and in the richer understanding and insight of later years."''</ref>
+|-
+| Good sleep. Nonresistance and addiction to alcohol and other relaxants ||  || Poor sleep. Resistance and aversion to alcohol and other relaxants<ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 91 ♦ ''"C-18. Resistance to Alcohol, and to other Depressant Drugs. The effect of alcohol is essentially unpleasant. The cerebrotonic sense of strain increases, and after a short time there is a feeling of dizziness and of increased fatigue. The euphoria and sense of expansive freedom which follow moderate alcoholizing in viscerotonia and in somatotonia, are absent in cerebrotonia. Alcohol, a cerebral depressant, produces general depression when the third component is predominant. In cerebrotonia, therefore, there appears to be general physiological resistance to the depressive action of this drug, in contrast to the grateful yielding to it that is seen in viscerotonia and somatotonia. The same phenomenon is seen in the reaction of cerebrotonic people both to anaesthesia and to the hypnotic (sleep-producing) drugs commonly used to combat insomnia or restlessness. When cerebrotonia is predominant the common hypnotics in ordinary dosage have little effect except that of rendering the patient more tired the next day, as if he had been through a battle the night before. One of our own earliest clinical observations was the fact that certain patients require from two to three times as large a dosage of general anaesthetic as the normal prescription, to put them to sleep. These patients turned out to be what we have later called the cerebrotonics."''</ref>
+|-
+| The high [[disgregation]] of emotions results in a low sensitivity<ref name="Neuronal disgregation">[[Disgregation]] or [[Entropy_(statistical_thermodynamics)#Boltzmann.27s_principle|entropy]], understood as the number of internal degrees of freedom, is a measure of insensitivity.</ref> and an Epimethean resistance to [[Entropy_(statistical_thermodynamics)#Boltzmann.27s_principle|macrostate changes]] or, in plain language, to revolutionary, qualitative changes. ||  || The low [[disgregation]] of emotions results in a high sensitivity<ref name="Neuronal disgregation"/> and a Promethean propensity to [[Entropy_(statistical_thermodynamics)#Boltzmann.27s_principle|macrostate changes]] or, in plain language, to revolutionary, qualitative changes.
+|-
+| In contrast to the ''concentrated'' emotional energy of the cerebrotonic, the emotional energy of the viscerotonic is ''rarefied'' and exerts a negative pressure—suction (the oral Freudian stage).<ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 35 ♦ ''"Persons high in the V-6 trait are great kissers, chewers and suckers. They are sometimes called 'oral-erotic' by the Freudians. They tend to carry their usually heavy, flaccid lips in a permanent sucking position, in sharp contrast with the compressed lips of cerebrotonia."''</ref> This emotional suction accounts for the attractiveness ([[cuteness]]) and amiability<ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 38 ''"V-9. Indiscriminate Amiability. General, or promiscuous amiability. The individual is conspicuously demonstrative of good will. There is a constant, effortless emanation of amiable intent, the sincerity of which cannot be, and never is questioned. … It is as if he were continuously spraying the world with a pot of rose water."''</ref> of viscerotonic individuals, such as aquatic mammals,<ref>Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 31 ♦ ''"V-1. ... The arms often show a limp relaxation like that of a seal's flipper, and the hands are likely to be soft and flaccid."''</ref> children, women, and the Mongoloids (see ''[[Cuteness in Japanese culture]]'') || The genital Freudian stage<ref name="Freudian stages">Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 48 ♦ ''"The 'oral-erotic' viscerotonic loves to make a fuss over children, and he loves the intimate physical contact of family life. The pronounced cerebrotonic suggests the Freudian 'anal-erotic' type, and the somatotonic has some of the characteristics of the Freudian 'urethral-erotic' picture."''</ref>|| Since the emotional energy of the cerebrotonic is pent up like the energy of a volcano,<ref name="Condensed emotions">Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, pp. 75, 82 ♦ ''"C-6. Secretiveness of Feeling, Emotional Restraint. This is the tight-lipped characteristic. The individual does his mental suffering in silence. He will not 'let go' and reveal his emotions or feelings in the presence of others. External expression of feeling is powerfully inhibited, although there may be great intensity of feeling. <...> Yet it should be remembered that the C-12 trait does not indicate lack of emotion. Cerebrotonic people are often highly emotional."''</ref> it exerts a positive pressure (repulsion) and finds vent in "volcanic eruptions" (the anal Freudian stage<ref name="Freudian stages"/>). This emotional repulsion accounts for the unatractiveness ([[Cuteness|uncuteness]]) of the cerebrotonic (cf. the repulsive appearance of [[Hephaestus#Consorts_and_children|Hephaestus]], the god of volcanoes)
+|-
+|}
+===Viscerotonia===
+<blockquote>
+There is the strong suggestion of a certain flabbiness ot lack of intensity in the mental and moral outlook. It is a personality without fire, and it gives off no sparks. There is a dull, vegetable-like quality, as if the fires of life burned slowly, without concentration of heat. The personality suggests lack of purpose beyond the elementary biological purposes. The relaxed protrusion of the lips (V-1) often brings to mind the picture of infantilism. There is relatively poor circulation in the hands and feet, which tend to be cold, weak, flabby and atonic.
+:—Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 43
+</blockquote>
+Due to their spiritual vacuity (suction), viscerotonics are prone to "sucking up to each other" or "agglutinating" into a single totalitarian aggregate:
+<blockquote>
+Viscerotonic people are extremely agglutinative. They tend to club together and to seek their satisfactions by supporting the group against the variant individual, or against individuality. They are Epimethean, as contrasted with Promethean. This tendency is perhaps a natural outcome of the combination of strong biological appetite and individual muscular weakness. Cerebrotonic people, lovers of solitude, represent an exactly antithetical tendency, and when they have a fairly strong supporting somatotonia they tend to become individualists, and haters of viscerotonic propriety. Along this cleavage line, many of the generalized hostilities seen in human life appear to take their origin.
+:—Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942, p. 36
+</blockquote>
 ==Modern assessments==
+<blockquote>
+Sheldon's research led to the strong confirmation of the constitutional psychologist's expectation that there is a noteworthy continuity between the structural/physical aspects of the person and his or her functional/behavioral qualities. Although Sheldon was successful in isolating and measuring dimensions for describing physique and temperament, he cautioned that the dimensions should not be examined in isolation one by one, but, rather, the pattern of relations between the variables should be studied.
+:—[http://site.spiritofobama.com/About.html Roeckelein, Jon E.] [http://books.google.com/books?id=6mu3DLkyGfUC&pg=PA428&dq=%22Sheldon%27s+research+led+to+the+strong+confirmation%22&hl=en&ei=SG_bTv6XO4-WOt6H6bUO&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 Dictionary of Theories, Laws, and Concepts in Psychology] Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998, p. 428
+Sheldon maintained that the person's somatotype is genetically determined and causes people to develop and express personality traits consistent with their body builds. For example, he hypothesized that endomorphs (high in fatty tissue) would be sociable, complacent, and capable of easy communication of feelings. He thought mesomorphs (high in muscle tissue) would be adventurous, bold, competitive, aggressive, and energetic, whereas ectomorphs (low in fatty and muscle tissue) would be inhibited, introverted, hypersensitive to pain, and secretive. He tested these hypotheses by having observers rate individuals on these trait dimensions and found empirical support for his ideas (Sheldon, Hartl, & McDermott, 1949, pp.&nbsp;26–27). Although this study has been strongly criticized on methodological grounds (Sheldon himself made both the physical and psychological ratings), more methodologically sound studies—in which investigator bias was minimized by having one investigator rate the somatotypes and having the study participants independently rate their own personality traits—have also produced supportive evidence for Sheldon's position (Child, 1950; Cortes & Gatti, 1965; Yates & Taylor, 1978).
-Sheldon's theories enjoyed a vogue as the "pop-psych flavor of the month" through the 1950s, influencing [[Abraham Maslow]], [[Aldous Huxley]], and [[Robert S de Ropp]].<ref name="nyt-rosenbaum">{{cite news | work = [[New York Times]] | first = Ron | last = Rosenbaum | title = The Great Ivy League Nude Posture Photo Scandal| date = January 15, 1995 | accessdate= December 2, 2011 | url = http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/15/magazine/the-great-ivy-league-nude-posture-photo-scandal.html}}</ref> Modern scientists, however, generally dismiss his claims as outdated, if not outright [[quackery]].<ref name="nyt-sealed">{{cite news | work = [[New York Times]] | url = http://www.nytimes.com/1995/01/21/us/nude-photos-are-sealed-at-smithsonian.html | date = January 21, 1995 | accessdate = December 2, 2011 | title= Nude Photos Are Sealed At Smithsonian}}</ref> Some{{who|date=November 2010}} found the idea of somatotypes reminiscent of [[eugenics]] and [[racial hygiene]]; they went against the fashionable emphasis on nurture, presenting a ready-made paradigm that had strong resonances with mystical thought.
+:—[http://umaine.edu/psychology/faculty/ Ryckman, Richard M.] [http://books.google.com/books?id=_1mQhvUfYFwC&pg=PA260 Theories of Personality] Ninth edition, Cengage Learning, 2007, p. 260
+</blockquote>
-Sheldon's [[Ivy League nude posture photos|photographs of naked Ivy League undergraduates]], numbered in the thousands, were taken under the umbrella of a pre-existing program ostensibly evaluating student posture. The photos were in fact collected by Sheldon to provide data for his ideas about somatotypes, although as "part of a facade or cover-up" the students and schools were told that the photos were taken to evaluate posture.<ref name="nyt-rosenbaum"/>
+==Applications==
-The words endomorphic, mesomorphic and ectomorphic are still sometimes used to describe body types, as, for example, in association with [[weight training]] aimed at gaining muscle.
+The Sheldonian somatotypes are used in the following fields:
+*The assessment and selection of special-force soldiers.<ref>Burdukiewicz, Anna ''et al.'' ♦ [http://books.google.com/books?id=JQc5WPU1YSkC&pg=PA33  The differentiations of body build of soldiers with different specialities] ''Morphofunctional Aspects of Selection of Soldiers for Realisation of Tasks in the Army Formations'', v. 11, Warsaw, 2007</ref>
 ==See also==
@@ Line 30: / Line 63: @@
 *Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''The Varieties of Temperament'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1942
 *Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''Varieties of Delinquent Youth (An Introduction to Constitutional Psychiatry)'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1949
-*''Atlas of Men (A Guide for Somatotyping the Adult Male at All Ages)'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1954
+*Sheldon, William H. ♦ ''Atlas of Men (A Guide for Somatotyping the Adult Male at All Ages)'' ♦ Harper & Brothers, 1954
 *Hartl, Emil M.; Monnelly, Edward P.; Elderkin, Roland D. ♦ ''Physique and Delinquent Behavior (A Thirty-year Follow-up of William H. Sheldon’s Varieties of Delinquent Youth)'' ♦ Academic Press, 1982
 *Gerrig, Richard; Zimbardo, Phillip G. ♦ ''Psychology and Life'' ♦ 7th ed.