Temperament and Its Implications

Global Missions Event

• Background: The "Global Missions thing" was formerly known as the World Mission Workshop when the speaker was a student. It was a cooperative effort between universities, rotating campuses each year (Harding, Pepperdine, Lubbock, the speaker's current institution, and Lidsville).
• Purpose: The event focused on the importance of sharing the gospel globally while acknowledging the diversity of religious backgrounds, which has always been a point of tension.
• Attendance & Engagement:
  • During the speaker's student years, there was massive participation, especially when hosted at their campus. They devoted entire chapel services to it, and the rollout was effective in engaging students beyond just mission-focused individuals.
  • Attendance significantly dipped after that period, the event disappeared for a while, and then returned in its current form.
  • Recent advertising for the event at their campus included slides and verbal announcements only twice in chapel, compared to the past full chapel service dedication.
• Mark Cooper: A former director of missions at the speaker's institution, he was a presenter and shared historical context about the event's evolution from campus to campus.

Temperament: Introduction & Early Models

• Definition: Temperament refers to behavioral manifestations that appear very early in life, are biologically based, and demonstrate differences in two broad areas: reactivity and regulation.
  • Reactivity: How strongly and quickly children respond to their environment.
  • Regulation: How effectively they modulate or manage their own responses.
• Key Researcher: Mary Rothbart ($R.o.t.h.b.a.r.t.$): Proposed an early model focusing on these two broad areas.

Thomas and Chess's Three Broad Categories of Temperament

• Based on the New York longitudinal study, which monitored the same children over several years, Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess identified three main categories:
  1. The Easy Child:
     • Characteristics: Regular biological rhythms (sleep, feeding), generally positive moods, adapted well to new situations, mild to moderate reactions to their environment, and low stress for parents.
     • Example: A $6-month$ old who goes to bed around the same time each night, wakes at the same time each day, smiles at strangers, eats well, and adjusts easily to daycare.
  2. The Difficult Child:
     • Characteristics: Irregular biological rhythms (sleep, feeding), negative moods, very high-intensity reactions to environments, difficulty adapting to new experiences, cried a lot, and more difficult for parents to soothe.
     • Example: A $9-month$ old who wakes at different times each night, often refuses food liked the day before, cries for a long time with a new babysitter, resists soothing, and reacts strongly to minor frustrations like an out-of-reach toy.
  3. The Slow to Warm Up Child:
     • Characteristics: Relatively inactive, fairly mild reactions to their environment, tendency to initially withdraw from new people or situations, but gradually adapted over time with repeated exposure.
     • Example: A child who reacts cautiously when meeting new relatives, clings to their mother, avoids eye contact, but gradually smiles and interacts after several visits, though possibly more subdued than peers.
• Limitations: Approximately $1/3$ of the children in the study did not neatly fit into one of these three categories, suggesting temperament is likely more dimensional than strictly categorical.

Rothbart's Dimensional Model and Kagan's Behavioral Inhibition

• Rothbart's Later Model (Dimensional): Expanding on her earlier work, Rothbart's more dimensional model categorized children based on:
  • Negative Affect: Includes irritability, fear, and sadness.
  • Surgency or Extroversion: Refers to a high activity level, high levels of being able to approach others, and positive anticipation.
  • Effortful Control: Abilities like attention focusing, attention shifting, and the overall control of one's responsiveness.
• Jerome Kagan's Behavioral Inhibition:
  • Definition: Refers to wariness or caution towards new situations.
  • Association: Kagan believed this was associated with being shy or fearful.

Temperament, Parenting, and Psychopathology

• Temperament and Parenting: Parenting is a one-directional act (parents act on children) but occurs within a bidirectional relationship. Children contribute to this relationship through their temperament, which is observable from birth (e.g., "fussy" babies).
  • Biological Basis: Temperaments are largely considered biologically and genetically determined, not primarily a function of parental interaction or reinforcement.
  • Stability over Time: While there can be some moderation and variation as children grow, temperaments tend to be fairly stable.
• Relationship to Disordered Behavior (Psychopathology): Temperamental differences can be implicated in disordered behavior.
  • High Behavioral Inhibition:
    • Associated with: Increased risk for social anxiety and internalizing problems (e.g., mood disorders like depression and general anxiety).
    • Explanation: A child who dislikes new situations and is generally scared may experience ongoing fear (social anxiety), and their potential for social isolation (due to wariness) can lead to hallmarks of depression like withdrawal and lack of social connection.
  • Low Effortful Control / Poor Inhibitory Control:
    • Associated with: Increased risk for ADHD (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder), ODD (Oppositional Defiant Disorder), and other conduct problems (e.g., disruptiveness, fighting, disobedience).
    • Explanation: If effortful control involves the inability to regulate oneself and control behavior, then a lack of it leads to difficulty "chilling out." This contributes to behavioral patterns seen in disorders where there's poor self-control and defiance.
  • High Negative Affect (Irritability, Fear, Sadness):
    • Associated with: Increased risk for both internalizing disorders (e.g., mood/anxiety disorders) and externalizing disorders (e.g., oppositional defiance, conduct issues).
    • Explanation: High irritability, fear, or sadness can manifest inwards as anxiety/depression or outwards as defiance and aggression.