Remembrance of Research Past in Hope of Research Future….pdfVIP

Remembrance of Research Past in Hope of Research Future A review of Temperament as a Regulator of Behavior: After Fifty Years of Research by Jan Strelau New York: Eliot Werner, 2008. 271 pp. ISBN 978-0-9752738-9-0. $85.00 Reviewed by Patricia T. Ashton One of the earliest and most enduring personality theories originated with the early Greeks. Conceived by Galen on the basis of the four humors identified by Hippocrates (Kagan, Snidman, Arcus, Reznick, 1994), this view of human personality determined by four stable temperament traits has influenced psychological thinking for centuries. For example, one of Pavlovs lesser known theories was based on his belief that the temperament traits proposed by Galen could be explained by properties of the central nervous system. In Temperament as a Regulator of Behavior: After Fifty Years of Research, Jan Strelau chronicles his courageous 50-year-long investigation of temperament, beginning with tests of Pavlovs physiological assumptions about temperament and culminating in an influential psychological theory of temperament, the regulative theory of temperament (RTT). Moving beyond Pavlovs focus on the central nervous system to incorporate the role of subcortical structures, including the reticular activation system, the autonomic system, and the endocrine system, in understanding temperament, Strelaus work highlights the role of temperament as “a general tendency toward specific behaviors” (p. 49). Strelaus book is a testament to the power of his own temperament that enabled him to persist and flourish as a Polish researcher under repressive regimes that limited access t