ABSTRACT
The term 'temperament' has been used since classical times to denote the factors which vary in different types of 'personality'. Temperamental differences are usually considered to be of a qualitative rather than a quantitative order. The notion that humanity can be roughly divided into two inherently opposed types of personality, each with its characteristic temperamental basis, is as old as the concept of temperament itself. The incompleteness of our knowledge in the temperamental field is generally admitted; for this reason the modern concept of temperament is largely heuristic. Anthropological implications will be taken here as the paradigm of the typological approach. This fact is important in the assessment of temperament, since the relatively simple psycho-motor level is more accessible to measurement than the more complex and variable higher emotional and intellectual processes. The nature of the rhythm of psycho-neural process may be the most important of all differences between personalities.
