The first part of the article contains a brief historical background about the main directions of temperament research conducted by foreign and domestic scientists. Particular attention is paid to the methodological principles of modern experimental studies of temperament, formulated by V. D. Nebylitsyn back in the 60s of the last century. In connection with the emergence during this time of new technologies for the experimental study of the properties of the central nervous system as the basic basis of temperament, a new experimental technique is proposed in the work, which is based on the hypothesis of the correlation of some properties of the summary skin potential with the main characteristics of temperament types. The second part of the article, which will appear in the next issue of the journal, will present the first results of an experiment using summary skin potential as an indicator that correlates with at least some types of temperament.