9780198811398_Ch1

Chapter 1 Introduction to Personality Psychology 18

1 1.4 MORPHOLOGICAL THEORIES OF PERSONALITY

More recent theorizing and empirical research fol lowed the Ancient Greeks’ stress on the importance of bodily processes (humours) to temperament— what we would now call personality. Indeed, such was the influence of this school of thought that, in common parlance, we still speak of people being in ‘good humour’. These basic ideas rubbed off on the orists who sought similarly to find a physical basis to personality. One major school during the early–mid part of the twentieth century was morphological personality psychology. This development reflected the longer-term interest in the body shape and per sonality, for example, as seen in those attempts to relate criminal predisposition to physical features and, also, in relation to the brain phrenology (mea suring bumps on the skull to infer psychological faculties)—we will discuss both schools of thought in this section. The German psychiatrist Ernst Kretschmer pro posed an influential morphological theory of per sonality. In his 1921 book Physique and Character , he observed among his psychiatric patients that those diagnosed with schizophrenia tended to have a frail, rather weak (asthenic) physique or a mus cular (athletic) build. In contrast, a short, roundish physique (pyknic) seemed to be more often associ ated with manic depression—what we now call bi polar disorder. These apparent correlations piqued Kretschmer’s interest so much that he extended them to body build and personality. He suggested that a slim and petite physique is associated with introversion, while people with rounder, heavier, and shorter bodies tend to be cyclothymic, meaning they are moody but often extraverted and cheerful. Clearly, Kretschmer made an essential connection between normal personality variations and various 1.4.1 ERNST KRETSCHMER— PHYSIQUE, PSYCHIATRY, AND CHARACTER

forms of mental illness—an inspiration that led re searchers such as Hans Eysenck to see the structure of normal personality in the signs and symptoms of psychiatric patients (see Chapter 5). Perhaps unsurprisingly, given all the complexities it entails, there is little evidence to support Kretschmer’s specific theory. One immediate problem with all such studies is that the majority of psychiatric patients have a pre-morbid history, where their illness is developing, and this, by itself, might affect body type—either directly via chemical and hormonal processes, or indirectly via pro dromal health style (e.g. food consumption and exercise). What was more impressive about Kretschmer’s theory was the inspiration it provided to others to look for more robust, replicable, and scientifically defensive associa tions between body shape (morphology) and personality characteristics, and also related features (e.g. predisposi tion to antisocial and criminal behaviour). William Herbert Sheldon did much to advance the morphological approach to personality in the 1940s— he was both a physician and psychologist, so was well placed to pursue this line of research. Of relevance to the development of his theory, Sheldon joined the University of Oregon Medical School, where he was director of a constitution clinic, which examined the relationships between physical characteristics and disease. Like others before and after him, Sheldon ex tended physical characteristics to personality traits and their social expression (e.g. criminality). Sheldon came to believe that a person’s psychological makeup had biological origins. His ideas were outlined in var ious publications: The Varieties of Human Physique: An Introduction to Constitutional Psychology (Sheldon, Stevens, & Tucker, 1940), The Varieties of Temperament: A Psychology of Constitutional Differences (Sheldon & Stevens, 1942), and Atlas of Men: A Guide for Somatotyping the Adult Male at All Ages (Sheldon, 1954). 1.4.2 WILLIAM HERBERT SHELDON—CONSTITUTIONAL PERSONALITY

© Oxford University Press

© Oxford University Press