Week 1 - Temperament and Attachment

Question 1

What are the three approaches to temperament?

Answer 1

Paediatric approach
Personality tradition
Individual differences

Question 2

What is the pediatric approach?

Answer 2

The ‘how’ of behaviour

Not ability, which is ‘what’ and ‘how well’

Question 3

What are the constituents of the pediatric approach?

Answer 3

Activity level
Regularity
Approach-withdrawal
Adaptability
Threshold of responsiveness
Intensity of reaction
Quality of mood
Distractibility
Attention span

Question 4

What is the three way typology of children?

“Difficult” temperament

Answer 4

Easy
Difficult
Slow-to-warm-up

Question 5

What is the definition of personality tradition?

Answer 5

Traits of genetic origin

Traits that appear during first years of life

Question 6

What are the constituents of personality tradition?

Answer 6

Emotionality
Activity
Sociability

(EAS)

Question 7

What is the definition of individual differences?

Answer 7

Individual differences in emotion, motor, and attentional reactivity and self-regulation

Question 8

What are the constituents of individual differences?

Answer 8

Fearful distress 
Irritable distress
Attention span and persistence
Activity level
Positive approach
Rhythmicity 
Agreeableness 
Adaptability

Question 9

What approach has the strongest evidence for heritability?

Answer 9

EAS traits

Question 10

What is goodness/poorness of fit?

Answer 10

Goodness - when child’s capacities, motivations and temperament are adequate to the masters demands and expectations

Poorness - not adequate leads to maladaptive functioning and distorted development

Question 11

What are the key characteristics of attachment?

Answer 11

Emotional intensity
Proximity maintenance
Specificity of attachment figure
Distress upon separation

Question 12

What are the three theories of attachment?

Answer 12

Learning accounts - food provision

Psychoanalytic accounts - love object through association with oral need-gratification

Ethnological - imprinting and evolutionary advantages

Question 13

What are the stages of development of attachment?

Answer 13

1) pre attachment - (0-6 weeks)
2) attachment in the making (6 weeks-6 months)
3) scaffolding by caregivers (contingency)
4) clear cut attachment (6 months-18 months)
5) reciprocal relationships - (18-24 months)

Question 14

How do we measure attachments and give an example

Answer 14

Through quality and security, e.g. the strange situation