ABSTRACT
The close association generally maintained between temperament and character is undoubtedly derived chiefly from the emotional factor which we have just discussed. But further connexion is sometimes urged between temperament and what we are accustomed to describe as willed action. The allusions which have been made above to the persistence of reaction as a possible temperamental factor will at once call up a reference to the ‘strong and weak willed types’. It may be that if we attempt to analyse what we mean by the strong or the weak will we shall be driven to state the distinction in terms similar to those we have already employed, and that therefore the argument will not progress except in circular fashion. It may also be objected that the scientific treatment of temperamental differences can in no way be advanced by the invocation of an abstract ‘Will.’ With this objection we shall be in entire agreement. It is customary at this stage of psychology to speak not of the will but rather of volitional action, and to recognise in this not the isolated effect of one abstract ‘faculty’ but an integrated activity based upon the building up of the self-regarding sentiment. But we find that even in psychological writings the exact connotation of ‘willed action’ varies greatly. An example of this will appear when we have to consider some contemporary American experimental research into the question of temperament. Such discrepancies have constantly to be born in mind. The question arises here, in view of the great importance of Ach’s classification of temperaments which formed part of his wide investigations into the nature of acts of will. The following brief summary of Ach’s work is not intended in any sense as a comment upon his theory of will, but simply as the necessary preliminary explanation of his consequent demarcation of temperamental differences.
