TEMPERAMENT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAmyt5gRd3k
Defining Temperament
 Biologically rooted individual differences in
behavioral style
 Emotional style (intensity, duration, approach)
 Behaviors (motor movements, regularity)

 Effortful control (persistence)

 Relatively stable over time

 Situations?
Biologically-Based
Trait Identical Fraternal
Sociability .56 .05
Emotionality .60 .27
Activity .73 .05
Persistence .59 -.27
 Heritability (Plomin & Rowe, 1977)
◼ Physiological systems
Stable
 Similar patterns across lifespan
 NOT RIGID, but individual differences show some
stability.
 Observed reactions differ depending on age!
◼ Developmentally appropriate indicators
 More stable estimates at later ages…
◼ Why?
◼ Consolidation (brain processes), environment, other
psychosocial variables (self)
Nature versus Nurture?
 Nature is key to temperament.
 But, environment plays a role.

 Experience can reinforce biology

1) Children seek out experiences (active g-e
association)
2) Temperament affects interpretation of
experiences
3) Parental responses to child temperament
(evocative g-e association)
 Nature versus Nurture?
 “Difficult” children are not doomed.
 Experience can also modify biological functioning

1) Quality of Care
 Parental sensitivity and responsiveness
2) Goodness of Fit (match/mismatch)
3) Parents understand biology behind behavior
Classification Systems
 Thomas and Chess (1977)
 Easy,difficult, slow-to-warm up
 1/3 of children couldn’t be classified
Classification Systems
 Kagan (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVJBzvaylH8)

 Behavioral Inhibition
◼ Reactivity task?
◼ Predicts shyness at age 2 & 4.5 years
◼ Many children are unclassifiable
Classification systems
 Rothbart and colleagues
 Psychobiological approach
 Temperament is:
◼ Reactivity
◼ Emotional, Attentional, and Motor
◼ Self-regulating ability
Classification systems
 Rothbart et al.
 Three primary dimensions of temperament (Child Behavior
Q; p. 116)
 Extraversion/Surgency
◼ Activity, Shyness (R), High-intensity pleasure, Smiling and laughter,
Impulsivity, Positive anticipation, Affiliation
 Negative affectivity
◼ Frustration, Fear, Discomfort, Sadness, Soothability
 Effortful control
◼ Attention focus, Inhibitory control, Perceptual sensitivity, Low-intensity
pleasure
 Associations with personality?
◼ Temperament is often considered the how of behavior, while
personality is the what and why of behavior
Universal or Culturally-Specific?

B C

Rothbart, 2007
Outcomes Associated with Temperament

Rothbart, 2007
Outcomes Associated with Temperament

Garstein, Putnam, & Rothbart, 2012

Outcomes Associated with Temperament

Kochanska & Kim, 2020

Outcomes Associated with Temperament

 Personality
 Individual,relatively enduring patterns of reacting to
and interacting with others
◼ Big Five Model (and others)
◼ Openness
◼ Curious, perceptive
◼ Conscientiousness
◼ Organized, efficient
◼ Extraversion
◼ Assertive, outgoing
◼ Agreeableness
◼ Affectionate, forgiving, kind
◼ Neuroticism
◼ Anxious, tense, touchy