You do not currently have permission to view the full text for this document. Please sign in to an account with an active subscription or contact support.
The title Temperament and Childhood chosen for this collection of papers is reminiscent of the 1950s anthropological studies by Mead and Bateson relating temperament to variables such as culture, sex, and stage of development. However, the perspective of these essays derives more from psychology, though not all the authors are based in that discipline, and the emphasis is more experimental and statistical than observational.
This is a weighty tome, co-authored by forty-three researchers from eleven different countries. It is divided into six sections with a major introductory chapter on each topic which provides an interesting and useful overview. The areas covered are: concepts and measures; temperament and development; temperament and biological processes; application of temperament concepts; cross-cultural, socioeconomic status, sex and other group differences; and, lastly, historical and international perspectives. The book brings together research in progress, recent studies, particularly from the 1980s, and puts it into a perspective which goes back to Hippocrates, who in the fourth century BC introduced the notion of bodily humours, and Galen, who in the second century AD put forward the schema of sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic temperaments.