6: Temperament Flashcards
Temperament
biologically based individual differences in reactivity and self regulation that tend to be stable
Role of amygdala in temperament
controls reactivity - shows automatic response to threat regardless of attention, awareness - fear response - activation manifests as irritability
Role of pre-frontal cortex in temperament
regulatory component - important in personality development
Categorisations of temperament
- Easy child
- Slow to warm up child
- Difficult child
- Difficult to classify
Slow to warm up child
- relative inactivity
- mild intensity of reaction to new stimuli
- slow adaptability
Easy child
- rhythmicity in functions
- positive approach
- high adaptability
- mild or moderately intense mood (+ve)
Difficult child
- irregular biological functions
- withdrawal
- slow adaptability
- intense moods (-ve)
Contributions to temperament
- Could be nature
- Could also be nurture
Is temperament stable? Explain.
.7-.8 stability, few change radically
Heredity and parenting tend to influence parenting
Explain the relationship between temperament and parenting
- temp may impact responsiveness of parents
- parenting may influence temperament
- relationship may be moderated by age. gender, parent characteristics and cultural factors
‘Hot’ effortful control tasks
assess ability to delay gratification (eg. putting snack in front of child’ - eg. marshmallow experiment
‘Cold’ effortful control tasks
assess ability to inhibit a dominant response and perform a subdominant response - eg. stroop task
Explain temperament’s longer term outcomes?
- classification could predict clinical outcomes
- found that own temperament can influence parenting (Sanson, Pryor, Oberklaid)
- In longitudinal Study of Australian Children (Forbes, Rapee, Camberis & McMahon) - found:
- high reactivity - ADHD, conduct link
- high approach - ADHD, conduct
- low approach – anxiety
- low persistence - more conduct problems
Differential susceptibility
certain temperamental dispositions are particularly susceptible to both positive and negative environments.
Is temperament a ‘protective’ or ‘risk’ factor?
- easy temperament as protective – more resilient – evocative gene environment correlations
Emotion regulation
All strategies to increase, maintain, or decrease a component of an emotional response
Under regulated
Deficit in emotional regulation that may result in externalising (conduct disorder)
Over regulated
Deficit in emotion regulation which may lead to internalising (depression, anxiety)
Socio emotional competence
Socio-emotional competence by Denham in:
- emotional expression
- emotional understanding
- emotion regulation
Trajectory in emotional expression and understanding
Infants: develop social smile between 3wks-3mths. Display 5 basic emotions in 3-4 months with faces.
Toddlers & preschoolers: maintain stable basic emotions and develop more complex social emotions (empathy, pride, guilt, etc.) developed by cognition and social forces.
- cognitive foundations of more complex emotions
- socialised aspects are from parent’s reactions, values, and vicarious experience of other’s emotions
Preschoolers: can begin posing with facial expressions but harder with negative emotions and voluntarily express emotions.
Primary schoolers: can begin to substitute and mask affect.
