"William Sheldon (1898-1977) was an American psychologist who devoted his life to observing the variety of human bodies and temperaments. He taught and did research at a number of U.S.universities and is best known for his series of books on the human constitution. He was a keen observer of animals and birds as a child, and he turned this talent to good effect by becoming an avid people-watcher, and out of his observations he gradually elaborated his typology."
In the 1940s, Sheldon developed a theory that there are three basic body types, or somatotypes (based on the three tissue layers: endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm), each associated with personality characteristics, representing a correlation between physique and temperament
On this basis, Sheldon created his very interesting Atlas of Men (Macmillan Pub Co; 1970) in which all possible body types are graded in a scale from 1 (low) to 7 (high), based on the degree to which they matched these types; with 4 as average). Each type is represented by a series of photos, and is given a comical or descriptive name, like "saber tooth tiger" for extreme mesomorph, "Baluchitherium" (the largest prehistoric land mammal) for mesomorph and endomorph, "Male Mosquito" for the extreme ectomorph, and so on. On this scale, the extreme or pure mesomorph has a score of 1-7-1, the pure endomorph 7-1-1, and the pure ectomorph 1-1-7. Most people of course are a combination of types. The atlas referred to Male typology only; a female atlas was planned but never produced. The following list of characteristics is from
Teaching Clinical Psychology - Somatotypes
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Endomorphic Body Type:
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Mesomorphic Body Type:
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Ectomorphic Body Type:
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It is interesting to compare Sheldon's three temperaments with the classic four humours - the corpulent but optimistic Sanguine would seem to correspond to the Endomorphic Viscerotonic type, the pugnacious Choleric to the Mesophorphic Somatotonic type, and thin introspective Melancholic to the anxious Ectomorphic Cerebrotonic type. None of Sheldon's temperaments seem to match the Phlegmatic, although the endomorph would correspond in body-type.
On the other hand, the element "air" (= Sanguine) is traditionally associated in western hermeticism (e.g. the
Tarot suites) with the Jungian faculty of thinking, which implies the intellectual and hence cerebrotonic type, all of which shows how misleading it can be to force correlations between different conceptual systems
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Dr. William Sheldon - human personality traits / human temperament types
Tracking the Elusive Human - A Practical Guide to C.G. Jung's Psychological Types,
W.H. Sheldon's Body and Temperament Types, and Their Integration - online book - includes a good introduction to Sheldron's types.
what is your Body Type - from a bodybuilding site - includes a quizz, but its pretty self-obvious
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