15. Temperament

  • temperament: the characteristic mood, activity level and emotional reactivity of an individual

    • Predictive of individual

  • Differences in individual differences in temperament by 3 months

  • Mercurial - unpredictable, unstable mood

Behaviour inhibition

  • how individuals react to environmental change

    • 1st. baby high anxiety to stimulus → High inhibition → Later to be shy

    • 2nd baby relaxed to stimuli → Low inhibition → reacting well to

  • High BH → Higher RH activation

  • Low BH → Higher LH activation

What is personality?

  • Personality as a broader set of traits that include temperament but also impacted by cognitive and social components

    • One piece of a personality puzzle

Chen → temperament

Basic early emerging tendencies in emotional and behaviour responses

  • Personality is a larger part of the traits

Is temperament innate?

Notion as temperament as a foundational component to personality in adulthood

→ Plomin & Rowe

  • Social development of twin pairs - monozygotic (100% shared dna) Diozygotic (50% shared dna fraternal twins)

  • Monozygotic → High correlation in behaviour with one another

    • Strong genetic relationship to behaviours

is temperament stable?

  • Whether the category remains stable at ages 2 to 7

    • Regulation with social influences is a factor

      • E.g. Shy kid → will get pushed to become more social

NY Longitudinal Study

  • Measured 9 dimensions of temperament using parent report

    • Intensity of emotion, disposition when new things occur

    • Change in daily routine, how adaptable are they

  • Threshold (time it would take to respond)

→ Tomas and Chess temperament categories

  • the easy child

    • (Cheerful, regular routine, adapt well to new situations, not easily upset by any changes)

      • 40%

  • the slow to warm up child

    • Generally weary of new experiences, a little more inhibited, moderately reactive to changes

      • 15%

  • the difficult child

    • Not regular, do not keep regular routines, not very cheerful, very reactive to change and show high intensity reactions

      • 10%

  • Temperament is measurable through parent reports

  • parenting stress with the difficult child

  • Difficult children have difficult parents as there is a genetic factor (unpredictability and temperamental)

Is difficult temperament related to later behaviour problems?

  • NO

    • children with difficult temperaments had no reported problems as adults

  • YES

    • Other reports suggest a positive correlation between a difficult temperament and adjustment problems in adolescence and adulthood

Consequences of Temperament

  • Different temperaments will have a different response from caregivers and peers

  • attachment and temperament → outside factors such as social and foundational environment, father, grandparents