Chances and Barriers for the Prolongation of Working Life. Interaction between State and Company Policies in Poland and Western Germany

Those who have specialized themselves with respect to representational systems— people who have come to value one representational system over the others for most of their behavior — will remain in particular accessing postures and maintain certain breathing rates and levels of muscle tension. This contributes to the relative atrophy or hypertrophy of certain muscle groups and affects the body's metabolism. We have noticed that certain body types tend to reflect the primary representation system of the individual. These body types seem to be the result of an interaction between the extended use of postural and other anatomical accessing processes and the genetic makeup of the individual. The patterns we have observed between body types and primary representation systems seem to parallel, in some ways, the work on constitutional psychology proposed by W. H. Sheldon. a) A thin, tense body (Sheldon's ectomorph) is characteristic of a visually oriented person. b) An athletic, muscular body (Sheldon's mesomorph) is characteristic of an individual who is more kinesthetically (in the tactile and motor realm) oriented. c) A full, soft body (Sheldon's endomorph) characterizes a person who is more oriented toward visceral or internal kinesthetics. d) The body of an auditorily oriented person tends to be in between those identified above, and is more readily identified by the "saxophone" posture described in this section. 23 The exact formulation is given by W.R ...»