Temperament Flashcards
What are the 2 main axes of temperament? In what domains do these manifest?
Reactivity and self-regulation.
It’s thought of within the context of emotionality, motor activity, and attention.
How is “reactivity” defined?
Person’s response to changes in environment.
How is “self-regulation” defined?
Processes modulating reactivity. (e.g. inhibition, avoidance, approach)
When is temperament more or less set?
At birth. (could be combination of genetic and intrauterine factors)
What are the 2 modern axes of temperament?
Neuroticism-stability.
Introversion-extraversion.
What did the Chess & Thomas New York Longitudinal Study (1977) look at? Major concept that came out from it?
Temperament in middle-upper class infants -> kids in NYC. Classification of infants as easy, slow-to-warm-up, difficult, or unclassified with predictions of future behavior based on these.
How can kids with a “difficult” temperament still have good outcomes?
If parents accommodate well, let them adapt at own pace, they’ll be fine. (don’t throw them in the pool)
Does degree of inhibition at 14mo predict sociability later in life?
At the extremes, yes, pretty well.
What part of the brain functions differently upon seeing new or familiar faces in inhibited vs. uninhibited kids?
The amygdala. It’s more revved up in general in inhibited kids, and increases activity in response strange faces. In uninhibited kids, amygdala activity is equally low when viewing new and familiar faces.
What was the outcome of the 2010 Rapee study in “Parent-Focused Intervention for Inhibited Childen”?
Their anxiety was reduced, though they remained inhibited.
What do Rhesus monkey experiments tell us about the relationship between mothering, stress, and genetics? What measure for stress was used?
Genetics can make motherless Rhesus monkeys more vulnerable to producing a physiologic stress response, but having been reared by a mother (as opposed to in a peer group) is protective to the point where the genetics almost don’t matter.
ACTH levels marked stress.
What specific gene was involved in the Rhesus monkey stress/mothering/genetics experiments discussed? It’s function?
5HTTLPR - serotonin transporter promoter
How do variants in the serotonin transporter promoter gene affect stress responses in humans?
People with a short alleles were, in a dose-dependent fashion, more susceptible to depression and suicidal ideation in response to multiple stressful life events and maltreatment. (note that that the genes didn’t affect susceptibility in the absence of multiple stressful life events)
