Participation Check

Thinking back to my childhood, I believe I could always express my emotions freely. I wasn’t told to tough it out or to stop crying because my parents wanted to raise me differently than how they grew up. My mother always told me it was okay to cry, but I couldn’t just sit in the emotion. I had to work past it and process why I was feeling that way.

When talking about temperament, I have been told that I was an easy baby. I didn’t cry much (or at all really). I had a secure attachment to my parents so maybe that played a role. As for the rating, I would say that I was a mixture of high extraversion/surgency and effortful control. I was an overall happy baby, but I was able to regulate my emotions when needed.

Using Chess and Thomas’ classification (easy, difficult, slow-to-warm-up), which temperament did you have as a child?

Using Rothbart and Bates’ rating system (high/low in extraversion/surgency, negative affectivity, effortful control), how would you describe your childhood self?