constitutional psychology
- noun
- /ˌkɒnstɪˈtjuːʃənəl saɪˈkɒlədʒi/
- Archaic
:
psicología constitucional
- William Herbert Sheldon is known for developing the theory of constitutional psychology and classifying body types.
Examples
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Constitutional psychology proposed that a person's personality traits could be linked to their body type, influencing how psychologists studied behavior in the past.
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Constitutional psychology was influential in the mid-20th century but is now largely rejected by modern science.
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Many psychology textbooks discuss constitutional psychology in the context of outdated personality theories.
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Many early psychologists studied constitutional psychology to understand personality.
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The principles of constitutional psychology are often debated.
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In the early 20th century, constitutional psychology gained attention for suggesting that physical characteristics were determinants of individual behavior.
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Textbooks often include constitutional psychology as a historical example of how early theories shaped the field of psychology.
Surface Forms
Morphology
The compound directly denotes the branch of psychology concerned with a person's constitution (physical/temperamental makeup); this meaning is compositionally derivable from 'constitutional' (relating to physical/temperamental makeup) + 'psychology' (the study of mind/behavior). Although somewhat technical, it follows a regular noun-modifier pattern in English and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.
Etymology
Constitutional psychology comes from an old idea that a person's physical constitution, their 'body type', shapes their psychology or 'personality'. So the name literally links the body and the mind and was used for studies that tried to predict character from body build.
