 Society teaches the developing children: › Delay gratification › Control impulse › Modulate emotional expression  Success at many life tasks = individual’s mastery (e.g. Ego control).  Ill-tempered (hırçın/huysuz/aksi) refers to irritable or grumpy  Tuntrum refers to emotional outburst of Children (crying,kicking and so on).

 This article interested in looking back at the life histories of children who; › Were failing to achieve mastery, were still reacting to childhood frustruation and adult authority with explosive temper tantrums.  So, ill-tempered children become ill-tempered adults???  To explain these kins of questions, this article focused on; › Two of the many meanings of interaction

Meanings

 Simply, this study proposed to look; › Continuinity of chilhood temparement into adulthood. › Participants’ life course trajectories were organized in terms of achievement patterns (education, millitary and work setting), marital careers and parenting.

 Subjects: › Data were obtained from te archieves of Institute of Human Development at the Uni. Of California,Berkeley. › Subjects are members of Berkeley Guidance Study › Initated in 1928 › Involved:  intensively studied; group of 113  Less intensively studied; group of 101 › Consisted of White, Protestant and native-born › More than 60% were born in middle class homes › 214 participants in total (102 boys, 112 girs) › In boys,87 out of 102 have been followed up into adulthood › In girls, 95 out of 112 have been followed up into adulthood

 Childhood data on the Berkeley subjecs were obtained from; › Clinical interviews with their mothers and organized into 5 point scales.  This study used two of these scales; › Severity of temper tantrums (biting, kicking, throwing things) › Frequency of temper tantrums (screaming, shouting, swearing)  Tantrum frequency ranged from one per month to several times per day  Any child with a score of 3 or above = having had a history of childhood temper tantrums

 Adult Assestment: › The Berkeley subjects were interviewed when they were about 30 › And again when they were about 40 › These interviews provide a detailed information about participants’ education, work, marriage and parenthood. › Marital and parenting roles were obtained from their spouses and child/ren during second int.

 Ill-tempered boys become ill-tempered men  They are significantly described as; undercontrolled, irritable, less ambitious, dependable and moody a) Adult Achievement: › The men from middle class with a history of childhood tantrums resemble men from the working class › By mid-life, ill-tempered boys from the middle class have become indistinguishable from their working class peers. › Downward mobility emerged › Besides, men with a childhood history of tantrum =  Achieved lower military rank  Prone to erratic work lives  Experience more unemployment  Hold more jobs  Change employers more often

b) Mechanisms of continuity › Remember cumuative continuity( provoke further maladaptive responding) and interactional continuity(reciprocal maintaining responses from other in social interaction )  Cumulative cont. is illustrated by the effect of childhood trantrums on occupational stat. at mid-life.  Middle class boys with a history of childhood tantrums= lower occupational status at mid-life  WHY?  Because they trancuated their formal education earlier  Not because they cont. to carry an ill tempered interactional style. c) Marriage and Parenthood  Men with such a history were significantly less llikely to have an intact first marriage at mid life  Men again with such a history were inadequate in parenting

 Do ill-tempered girls become ill-tempered women? › If they do, it is not apparent from the interview BUT the subjects’ husbands and children think otherwise a) Adult Achievement The key elements of adult achievement ( education, occupational attainment, worklives) assessed for men were less applicable to the women in this historical period. b) Marriage and Parenthood insuffienct self control in childhood consigned women to marriages «below their station» Husbands of that women report more conflict and more dissatisfied Their children reported their mother as less adequate and ill-tempered mothers

 To sum up, ill-tempered children become ill-tempered adults.  Children with a stabe pattern of temper tantrums in late childhood experience difficulties across many life tasks.  The early tendencey toward explosive, undercontrolled behavior was evoked in new roles and settings especially in education, military and work setting.  Ill-tempered boys= downward mobility and problems occur in men’s lives and work  Ill-tempered girls = downward mobility through marriage and problems occur in women’s lives,parenting.  Ill-tempered children of both sexes were likely to divorce and to have conflict laden marriages.

 Caspi,A., Elder, H.G. & Bem D.J. (1987). Moving Against the World: Life-Course Patterns of Explosive Children. Developmental Psychology,23(2),