Abstract
The paper provides a short history of somatotyping, including the early indices that were based upon 17 different measurements, and a subsequent system that was simpler, and comprised three primary parameters. From longtudinal studies of students, and experiments in starvation in which the individual’s weights changed markedly during the starvation regimen, it appears that the individual’s somatotype remains constant during the trajectory of life. The paper also shows the necessity for these three basic parameters to determine a somatotype, and illustrates how the somatotyping procedure has been made an objective method.
Reprinted from Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (1971) 7, pp. 119–126.
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© 1974 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht-Holland
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Sheldon, W.H. (1974). The New York Study of Physical Constitution and Psychotic Pattern. In: Moskowitz, H.R., Scharf, B., Stevens, J.C. (eds) Sensation and Measurement. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2245-3_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-2245-3_13
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