Lecture 22: Temperament, Resiliency and Vulnerability

Question 1

What is temperament?

Answer 1

Constitutionally based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation as observed within the domains of emotionality, motor activity and attention
Refers to INBORN CHARACTERISTICS
-sensitive to environment, intensity of emotional response, baseline mood
Result of genetic and intrauterine factors

Question 2

What is Reactivity?

Answer 2

Characteristics of individual’s responsivity to changes in the environment

Question 3

What is Self-regulation?

Answer 3

Processes modulating reactivity (e.g. approach avoidance inhibition)

Question 4

What are the 4 temperamental characteristics?

Answer 4

Phlegmatic = apathetic
Class of 2010 NNHS
Sanguine = warmth, optimism and expressiveness
Med students
Choleric = quick tempered and touch, easily aroused to anger
Noah Goldberg
Melancholic = tendency to be quiet and negative
Eeyor in Winnie the Pooh

Question 5

What is significance of Chess and Thomas NY Longitudinal study?

Answer 5

First attempt to classify temperament

Easy vs. slow-to-warm vs. difficult child

Question 6

What is a Slow-to-warm up child?

Answer 6

Slow to adapt to new experiences
But once they warm up, they do fine
Need clear routines and needs to cut down on transitions

Question 7

What constitutes a difficult child?

Answer 7

-irregular pattern of eating, sleeping, elimination and general activity level
-moody; frequent negative emotional expressions of high intensity
-react negatively to new situations (withdrawal)
-stimulate criticism and negative reactions from their caregivers
Me when I was younger lmaooo

Question 8

How to deal with the difficult child? Parenting strategies?

Answer 8

Provide activities that are soothing like bath, massage, water play, stories
-recognize cues that signal intensity is rising
Use humor to diffuse intensity
Give calm, clear, brief feedback

Question 9

What was the significance of Kagan et al experiment?

Answer 9

Inhibited vs. uninhibited children
Uninhibted children were outgoing and low reactive…less anxious
Inhibited kids were extremely shy and more timid…more anxious
None of inhibited children became consistently uninhibited

Question 10

What did fMRI studies show about inhibited vs. uninhibited children?

Answer 10

In fMRI studies, kids who were uninhibited showed NO change in amygdala activity when presented with new face vs. familiar face
Kids who were inhibited had significant difference in amygdala activity between familiar and unfamiliar
Amygdala = fear

Question 11

Delay of gratification (did not eat the marshmallow) led to

Answer 11

210 points in higher SAT scores lmaooo

Question 12

What are the key concepts of resiliency and vulnerability?

Answer 12

• reciprocal interaction
• goodness of fit
• poorness of fit
• continuity and change

Question 13

What is reciprocal interaction?

Answer 13

Parents and children interact with one another in reciprocal fashion
-child’s actions prompts the parents responses which in turn prompts child’s responses

Question 14

What is goodness of fit?

Answer 14

Results when the functioning of the parents or others in environment are in consonance of child’s temperament
-expectations and demands are reasonable

Question 15

What is poorness of fit?

Answer 15

Discrepancies of demands on child’s ability and dissonance with temperament
Leads to distorted maladaptive functioning

Question 16

What are characteristics of resilient children?

Answer 16

Ability to recover strength, spirits, good humor, etc. quickly; buoyance

• associated with easy temperament
• reduces the impact of the adverse effects of ineffective, insufficient and/or dysfunctional parenting
  
  • most high functioning individuals

Question 17

What are characteristics of vulnerable children?

Answer 17

The property of being open to injury, wounding or attack
Results when interaction between child and environment results in limitations and difficulties
Poorness of fit, new obstacles to learning, a lot of factors
-Lowest functioning individuals

Question 18

What is the consequence of us being social creatures?

Answer 18

The more support we have, the better we do

The more hostile the environment, the worse we do (white folk mentality)

Question 19

What was the significance of monkey experiment with ACTH?

Answer 19

Showed that genes AND nurture both play a part in development
Mother-reared monkeys both developed normally (regardless of genetics)
Peer-reared monkeys (long-short genotype led to higher ACTH in response to stress)
-it wasn’t until a change in nurture until the genetic predisposition to bad outcome was unmasked

Question 20

What gene moderates response to stress?

Answer 20

The gene for 5-HTT (hydroxytryptamine transporter) or serotonin transporter
Long arms vs. short arms of the 5-HT genotype
Genotype doesn’t matter if you only had 1 stressful activities
But the more stress you encountered, the more likely you are to be depressed
Two short arms = most likely to become depressed

Question 21

What is Diathesis?

Answer 21

Tendency to suffer from a particular medical condition

Question 22

What is the stress diathesis model of psychopathology?

Answer 22

Some people have genetics that gives them a tendency to suffer from psychopathology
However, bad genes does not mean you have bad outcome (adverse response to bullying)
-have to be exposed to stressor

Question 23

What is the link among temperament, vulnerability and resiliency?

Answer 23

goodness of fit is a key determinant of how temperament influences developmental outcomes
The better the fit, the more resilient kids become