Constitutional Psychology

The constitution psychology is concerned with the derivation of psychological characteristics or traits of people from whose outer appearance or constitution .

As a rule, prototypes of certain constitutions are set up. Individual people are then assigned to these according to their predominant external characteristics.

The ancient theory of temperament

→ Main article : Temperament theory

Even in ancient times, the Greek philosopher Aristotle dealt with the derivation of a person's character from their physical characteristics. His typology can be found in many of his writings, e.g. B. in De generatione et corruptione , in the Nicomachean Ethics (1150-1154) and the Eudemian Ethics . It was later taken up by the Roman doctor Galenus , who linked this typology with humoral pathology . In it he attributed certain psychological properties to four humors and derived the following four basic types of human character, which are called temperaments :

• Sanguine ( blood ): The temperament of a person whose predominant sap is blood can be described as powerful, energetic, energetic and active. Sanguine people are relatively cheerful people, not particularly resentful and more optimistic.
• Phlegmatic ( phlegm ): The phlegmatic is mainly characterized by indolence, inactivity and little energy. He often sticks to certain things, can only tackle a few things of his own accord and is not very flexible. In contrast to the melancholic, he is emotionally more stable, but often withdraws.
• Melancholic (black bile ): The mood of a melancholic is more pessimistic. Melancholics are very worried, think negatively, and assess themselves negatively. Melancholics are emotionally unstable and introverted. His temperament is often rather resigned and not very hopeful.
• Choleric (yellow bile): The choleric is prone to exaggerated reactions. His temperament is rather extroverted, but characterized by frequent outbursts of anger and feelings. He is usually easily irritable and difficult to satisfy.

Hans Jürgen Eysenck , who in the middle of the twentieth century identified two essential dimensions on which the human temperament can be described with the help of factor analysis with introversion and extraversion and neuroticism , classified the four basic types into its two dimensions as follows (introversion versus extraversion and emotional stability versus instability): The sanguine is extroverted and emotionally stable. The choleric is extroverted and emotionally unstable. The melancholic is introverted and emotionally unstable. The phlegmatic is introverted and emotionally stable.

Kretschmer's constitutional typology

In the first quarter of the twentieth century, the German psychiatrist Ernst Kretschmer developed three essential types of human character based on observations and examinations of patients. He tried to establish a connection between the physique and the respective character types. For each of these types he described typical properties and differentiated three levels of characteristic expression: the first level describes the psychological properties in healthy people, the second a transitional form between healthy and mentally ill and the third level the mentally ill person. Kretschmer was nominated for this division in 1929 for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine .

Basic types

The three main types and the names of the three temperaments listed one after the other from healthy to sick are as follows:

Constitution type	normal	Excessively	Morbid
Leptosome / asthenic	schizothyma	schizoid	schizophrenic
Pykniker	cyclothyma	cycloid	Manic depressive
Athlete	barykinetic	epileptoid	epileptic

There are also dysplastic patients who are characterized by misshapen or unusually shaped body parts or proportions. There are also mixed types that cannot be assigned to one of the types.

Characterization of the types

The leptosome is lean, sinewy, has relatively thin limbs, a rather small head, a flat stomach, and a flat chest. It looks rather bony, has little body fat and is rather wiry. The healthy leptosome is schizothyma , it tends to think abstractly, deals with details, thinks a lot - is more of a "head person". The sick leptosome is schizophrenic and exhibits, for example, delusions, depersonalization symptoms, inappropriate affects or bizarre patterns of ideas and movements.

The Pykniker is built round. He is usually equipped with a clear stomach and round face, has rather thin limbs and is more fat. A typical example would be Winston Churchill . The healthy Pykniker is cyclothyma . In general, it is considered to be rather cozy, sociable and tolerable. He likes to eat and lets things take their course. However, his moods also fluctuate, he is prone to mood swings. The mentally ill pyknic is manic-depressive ; phases of extreme energy and rash activity alternate with phases of severe depression and dejection.

The athlete is characterized by a strong, muscular and slightly stocky build. He is athletic and has good physical endurance. The healthy athlete is barykinetic . His temperament is rather clingy (he is said to have a tendency to “stick”), not very innovative, but strong and assertive. He is easy to take by surprise and thinks things through less intensively than a leptosomer, for example. The mentally ill athlete is epileptic , that is, he is prone to convulsions, phases of complete rigidity or absence.

criticism

Kretschmer's work was occasionally criticized as being methodologically inadequate. He bases his classification into types on an examination of several hundred test persons, which he had assessors assign to the body types and whose properties he recorded with questionnaires or concluded from their behavior. Thus he identified its characteristic forms and calculated the correlation between the types and these. On the one hand, however, its results are only based on relatively small samples. On the other hand, in most cases he assumed that people were mentally ill (for example, he found mainly athletic characteristics in epileptics and therefore concluded the characteristics of mentally healthy athletes). In addition, the correlation between the dysplastic type and epilepsy, for example, is higher than in athletes.

Sheldon's typology

Significantly influenced by Kretschmer's typology, William Sheldon developed his theory at the end of the first half of the twentieth century. He also distinguished three main types, which can be identified by their physical constitution. These essentially correspond to the three main types of Kretschmer. However, Sheldon proceeds more empirically than Kretschmer: He examines larger numbers of mentally healthy test subjects and develops a system for describing people, which is not just divided into three categories.

Types and traits

• Endomorph - Viscerotonia Endomorphs are essentially of the Pyknic type. They focus on the digestive tract (hence the name visceroton). They like to eat, are cozy and sociable. They are more of a “gut person”, so they decide more intuitively.
• Ectoderm - cerebrotonia This expression roughly corresponds to the leptosome type. With them, mental processes are more in the foreground (hence the name). They are less sociable, prefer to be alone and spend a lot of time thinking about things. They are more of a “head person”, so they proceed rationally in their decisions.
• Mesomorph - Somatotonia This character picture focuses on physical things. Somatotons correspond roughly to the athlete - they are often athletic, value their appearance and are particularly active in demanding physical and less in intellectual areas.

Classification system

Sheldon developed a system to describe people more precisely than just roughly classifying them into one of three categories. This system should help practitioners to grasp people with regard to their characters as precisely as possible based on their body image. To do this, Sheldon divided the human body into seven areas (head region, chest, limbs, etc.). For each of these areas, he provided a typical body description for each of the three types. The examiner should then estimate for each type on a seven-point scale how much this body region corresponded to the respective body type. For each of the three types, you ultimately had seven assessments - one per body region. The mean value was then formed over all seven body regions for each type. Each body type now had a number between 1 and 7, with one signifying none and seven signifying a very strong resemblance to the type. A person's physique could be described as follows, for example:

${\displaystyle V_{3}Z_{1}S_{5}\ \!}$,

V, Z and S each stand for the three types, the subscript indicates the expression.

${\displaystyle V_{1}Z_{7}S_{1}\ \!}$

would correspond to a "perfect" cerebrotone.

See also

• Typology
• phrenology

literature

• JB Asendorpf : Psychology and Personality. Basics. Springer, Berlin a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-540-61217-3 .
• Hermann-Josef Fisseni: Personality Psychology. Looking for a science. An overview of theories. 4th revised and expanded edition. Hogrefe, Göttingen u. a. 1998, ISBN 3-8017-0981-7 .
• Ernst Kretschmer : physique and character. Investigations into the constitution problem and the doctrine of temperaments. 26th edition, revised and expanded by Wolfgang Kretschmer. Springer, Berlin a. a. 1977, ISBN 3-540-08213-1 .
• Dirk Revenstorf : Personality. A critical introduction (= IFT-Texte 9). Röttger, Munich 1982, ISBN 3-920190-28-9 .

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Nomination Database for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1901–1951 . Retrieved December 27, 2010.