Lecture 5 development Flashcards
What is temperament?
Personality in adults is based on the big 5 but there is a lot of different theories for kids
Rothart Temperament
Constitutionally based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation, influenced over time by heredity, maturation and experience.
–> It is constitutionally biologically based
Why is temperament biologically based?
Appears very early in life
Substantial heritability
Can be observed in animals
Regulation
Processes than regulate reactivity (early coping)
Reactivity
Responsiveness of underlying psychobiological processes, dispositions toward emotional, motor and orienting reactions
How can you measure reactivity and temperament?
You can measure the latency, intensity, peak rise time of an infants reaction.
–> How rapidly does she become fearful and frustrated
–> How rapidly does she approach a novel toy
–> How intense are these reactions
How can you measure regulation and temperament?
What and how well an infant does something to regulate reactivity?
–> How rapidly does she recover?
–> What does she do to regulate reactivity?
Using factor analysis you can structure temperament in any age group into three factors. What are they?
Negative Affectivity
Positive Affectivity/Surgency
Effortful Control.
What is negative affectivity?
The general tendency to experience negative emotions (reactivity)
Positive Affectivity / Surgency
Social orientation, combine motor control, positive emotion and sociabilit.
Effortful Control / Regulatory Capacity
Inhibitory control and attention focusing
Neonatal Behavioural Assessment Scale NBAS and Lab Tab are examples of what?
Observational studies to look at temperament in children
Rothbart Questionnaires are an example of
How we study temperament with questionnaires
Rothbart Questionnaires are an example of
How we study temperament with questionnaires
How does temperament predict personality?
Temperamental tendencies form building blocks that underlie the development of individual differences
How does temperament predict psychopathology?
Negative emotionality was most closely related to behavioural problems when regulatory capacity was low
How does temperament predict psychopathology?
Negative emotionality was most closely related to behavioural problems when regulatory capacity was low
How does negative emotionality predict health?
Related poor health outcomes through various pathways
–> However, it protects against injuries as they are more wary and vigilant to threat
How is surgency related to later health outcomes
Related to better health outcomes, but also associated with risk-taking and injuries
How is effortful control related to health?
Better health but not just because you are better at regulating lifestyle.
A gradient of childhood self-control predicts health, wealth and public safety
Followed a cohort of 1000 kids from birth
–> Measured physical health
–> Substance dependence
–> Finances
–> Criminal Offenses
At age 32
They also controlled for intelligence and SES
Is temperament stable?
Constitutionally based, but to some degree is shaped by the environment
What could some environmental factors be?
Prenatal teratogens.
–> Culture
–> Parenting
–> PPD
How is PPD related to infant fear trajectories ?
Depressive symptoms predict steeper increase in infant fearfulness over time.
–> Maternal fear was not predictive of fear!!!
–> High initial infant fear and steeper increases in fear predicted more toddler anxietyt
What was higher in USA infants compared to Dutch infants?
They were higher in negative affectivity
–> They had more fear and frustration etc
What was higher in Dutch babies compared to US babies?
They had better regulatory capacity and soothability
–> They smiled and laughed more.
How did low sensitive parents affect baby temperament?
It makes them have
–> Lower positive emotionality and effortful control
–> they had more negative affectivity and fearfullness
What happens when the mother is low in cooperation and more controlling and interfering?
They have more negative affectivity
They had less effortful control
At 6 weeks _____ can predict the ______ at 9 months
Temperament can predict the bonding at 9 months
–> So for example, if a baby has high negative affectivity at 6 weeks it can predict worse bonding at 9 months
At 6 weeks _____ can predict the ______ at 9 months
Temperament can predict the bonding at 9 months
–> So for example, if a baby has high negative affectivity at 6 weeks it can predict worse bonding at 9 months
They also found that the ____ at 1 week could predict_____ at 6 weeks
Bonding at 1 week could predict the temperament of the baby at 6 weeks
They found that the _____ at 6 weeks did not predic the ______ at 9 months
Bonding at 6 weeks did not predict temperament at 9 months
Some children make _______ work harder
Their parents !!!!!! Very important as it has varying difficulty for parents
Fearfullness can elicit ____
More sensitivity
Effortful control can elicit ___
More sensitivity and more cooperation
How did negative affectivity in kids affect parents?
It lowers their cooperation but there are mixed results on sensitivity
In a study, they looked at how negative affectivity affects parents. How did it?
At 12 months, it made the parents
–> less emotionally supportive
–> less cognitively stimulating
–> made them spank more
–> Other studies find that it increases sensitivity.
–> perhaps it relies on other factors such as education and income. May respond in a less sensitive way to a child high in negativity compared to mothers with more resources (More research needed!!!)
Dual Risk Model / Diathesis-Stress Model
Low Parenting Quality coupled with high negative affectivity was seen as having two risks which would make for more problems
What is the main criticism of the dual-stress model
It comes from an evolutionary standpoint.
–> If infants with more neg affectivity and less self-regulation are only more at risk then what use is the temperamental trait from an evolutionary perspective
Differential Susceptibility Model
Similar to the Dual Stress Model.
–>The kids dont have a ‘difficult’ temperament per se but they have a more susceptible temperament and can be molded more easily.
–> Not at risk but allows them to adapt to an environment.
–> AFFECTED FOR BETTER AND FOR WORSE!!!
–> Compared to dandelions and orchids. Dandelions are more resilient. Orchids are more susceptible to either blossom or wilt
Is there evidence for the differential susceptibility?
Some evidence for candidate genes
Is it easier for babies to read parents emotions than those of strangers?
Could match with mother at 12 weeks but not the father.
–> Humans learn to read emotions of mother at 12 weeks, of strange women few weeks later, of father much later (probably because women express emotions more clearly)
Is emotional temperament constant?
It is expected tha kids with extreme temperament at 4m will keep that at 9m and 24m
What are some major gender differences in temperament
Boys have higher levels of surgency
Girls have higher effortful control
Is differential susceptibility bimodally or normally distributed?
Normally, most people are not highly susceptible or not
Is differential susceptibility domain specific?
It is more rule than exception
How could attachment relate to later child outcomes?
Through internal working models such as cognitive framework with mental representations of understanding the world and others
–> If you are treated a certain way you may think this is how the world will work
–> Thought to develop around 3 years of age
Secure children recall _______ while insecure children recall ____
Stories about sensitive mother-child interactions better
Rejecting stories better
–> If u read them a story, not about real-life situations.
All attachment categories are strongly related to
Social competence in later life.
Life history theory
In our life, we have trade-offs, such as allocating resources to certain things.
–> We have biological trade-offs such as growing up faster. Or putting your resources into one child or having another one.
–> These trade-offs depend on the context.
–> Safe/predictable environment –> Slow life history strategy such as late menarche or puberty, delayed reproduction. Greater investment in current offspring
–> Harsh environment with a higher probability of ones child dying before reproducing –> Fast life strategy such as early menarche
How were insecure children biologically different?
They completed pubertal development ealier and had an earlier age of menarche compare to secure infants, even after factoring for age of menarche in the infants of mothers
Insecure attachment is also linked to
Romantic Relationships
Intelligence/cognitive functioning
Academic Achievement
Risk behaviour
What is central to attachment theory according to Bulby
That a sensitive caregiver is of fundamental importance to the development of a secure attachment bond
What are the 4 parts of the Ainsworth sensitive scale
–> Awareness of signals (looking at a child’s face while changing a nappy)
–> An accurate interpretation of the signals (going into the babys POV, he is signalling he is not happy)
–> An appropriate response to them
–> A prompt response to them
What else can affect attachment security?
Temperament especially negative affectivity is not proven to be a major contributor to attachment secuirty.
Do children with autism, deafness or down syndrome affect attachment?
No!! the mother played a more important role
Is there a difference in preterm infants and normal infants in attachment?
NO!! they are not at higher risk to develop an insecure attachment
–> Maternal behaviour is more affected by preterm birth rather than the actual birth of the child
Is sensitivity important for attachment?
It is important but not the exclusive condition
Why is attachment security less well accounted for by sensitivity than expected?
There may a difficulty in measuring sensitivity in the infant
–> Sensitivity is also variable throughout the day
–> Maternal sensitivity to distress situations was related to fewer behavioural problems and higher social competence.
–> Other important things such as skin to skin, encouraging exploration
Maternal sensitivity to _____ is related to fewer problems?
distress but not to non-distress
–> What people do in times of stress may be important
