Somatotype Theory or Myers-Briggs Type Indicator Essay

Núria Martínez Sánchez

SOMATOTYPE THEORY OR MYERS-BRIGGS TYPE INDICATOR

People’s personality classification has always been a matter of discussion. That is why some people decided to create sources which would help us to understand our personalities easily. Although everybody knows which personality they have, these sources can help us to restate our kind of personality. I am going to compare two theories that classified personality differently: the Sheldon Body Type and Personality Assessment and the Myers-Briggs Index.
The first theory is settled in the 1940s. An American psychologist called William Sheldon developed a theory of personality about physical appearance, known as theory of somatotypes. He suggested that personality might be related to body physique. He divided people into three large groups: endomorphs, ectomorphs and mesomorphs. Endomorphs are people who have a lot of fat on their bodies, they are easy-going and happy; ectomorphs are skinny people, they are quiet and thoughtful; and finally, mesomorphs are muscular individuals that have personalities that are outgoing, athletic, aggressive and assertive. Typically individuals are rated on a scale of 1 to 7 for each type, according to the degree of dominance. The descriptive sequence of numbers refers to components in the following order; endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph. Accordingly, 1-7-1 indicates extreme mesomorphy Successful athletes of particular sports tend to share the same somatotype; for example, discus-throwers, shot-putters, and hammer-throwers tend to have a somatotype of about 3-6-3, while middle-and long-distance runners tend to have a somatotype of about 2.5-4-4.   Sheldon and some other researchers rated lots of photographs of different people and gave scores to their physiques in order to be able to classify them. These scores were compared to personality descriptions of the individuals and correlation coefficients were calculated.
Another more recent type approach to...