10.5 Temperament Flashcards
What is temperament?
individual differences in
1. emotion,
2. activity level, and
3. attention
that are present from infancy
Which three categories of temperament did Thomas and Chess describe?
- easy: quickly establish routines; cheerful; easy to calm
- difficult: irregular routines; react negatively; slow to adjust
- slow-to-warm-up: difficult at first but easier over time
What is the difference between a “between-person” approach and a “within-person” approach?
- “between-person”: groups children into categories
- “within-person”: characterizes every child along the same set of dimensions
Which dimensions of temparament did Mary Rothbart identify?
- fear
- distress/anger/frustration
- attention span
- activity level
- smiling and laughter
Why are temparament measures useful?
- stable over time
- predict later problems with
- behaviour
- anxiety
- social competence
How is temparament measured?
- questionnaires
- physical reactions
How is temparament measured using questionnaires?
- parents, teachers, or observers answer questions about how well some statements describe the child
- responses are averaged together
- each child gets a score for each dimension
How is temparament measred using physical reactions?
- heart-rate variability (how much heart rate goes up and down)
- EEG (measure brain waves) in frontal lobe
How are EEG readings associated with temparament?
- measure frontal lobe during novel situation
- left frontal lobe, associated with
- liking being approached
- positive emotions
- exploring around them
- interacting well with others
- right frontal lobe associated with
- avoiding and going away
- uncertainty
- fear
- anxiety
- depending on which side activates more:
- left: relaxed, happy, likes new experiences
- right: more anxiety and avoidance
What are the advantages and disadvantages of parental reports of temparament?
- advantages
- know how their kids react in various situations
- disadvantages
- not objective
- don’t know how their kid compares
What are the advantages and disadvantages of laboratory observations of temparament?
- advantages
- less biased
- disadvantages
- only how they were feeling that day/in those circumstances
- lab is not like real world
Which genes are most involved in temparament?
genes for neurotransmitters like dopamine affect attention and therefore self-regulation
Which aspects of temparament are most well explained by heritability?
- effortful control
- negative affectivity
- extroversion
Which aspects of the environment most affect temparament?
- teratogens during pregnancy
- malnutrition
- cocaine
- maternal stress
- behaviours of parents
- harsh or unstable = problems with self-regulation and expression of emotion
- warm and responsive = fewer emotional problems, more positive emotions, prosocial behaviours
- how challenging child is: makes a cycle
- unregulated children make their parents more angry
- regulated children make their parents warm
What is goodness of fit?
how well a child’s temparament matches the demands of a particular context
What is differential susceptibility?
the degree to which development depends on the match between temparament and environment (goodness of fit)
What are orchids and dandelions?
- orchid: a child who does well when conditions are good but bad when conditions are bad (high differential susceptibility)
- dandelion: a child who does well in almost all environments (low differential susceptibility)
