1. Temperament

2. Personality Test!

3. Outline What is temperament? 3 Approaches Stability of Temperament
Causes and Outcomes of Temperament

4. Defining Temperament
Early emerging individual differences in characteristic patterns of emotional, behavioral, and motor responding (Rothbart & Bates 2006; Goldsmith, 1987; Calkins & Degnan, 2006)
Generally considered to have a biological or genetic basis
Generally stable across contexts and over time
Foundation for later personality

5. Temperamental Characteristics
Negative emotionality
Positive emotionality
Behavioral inhibition
Activity level
Approach behavior
Persistence
Fearfulness

6. Temperament & Personality
Temperamental characteristics provide the early building blocks for personality
Dimensions are correlated with Big Five personality characteristics
Personality broader
Beliefs, motivation, values

7. 3 Approaches to Temperament
Multiple theoretical approaches to temperament
These approaches vary:
In number of temperament dimensions proposed
Emphasis on emotion vs. behavior

8. Approach #1: Rothbart and Bates Approach
Two broad dimensions: Reactivity and Regulation (Rothbart, 2007; Rothbart & Bates, 2006)
Measured along multiple dimensions that place emphasis on basic emotion, attention, and motor behaviors
Create broad dimensions based on these basic components of temperament

9. Rothbart and Bates’ Dimensions
Temperament
Dimensions
Negative Emotionality
Surgency
Effortful Control
Rothbart’s Dimensions

10. Negative Emotionality
Fear
Anger
Frustration
Sadness

11. Negative Affectivity (Reactivity)
Dimension
Definition
Frustration
Amount of negative affect related to interruption of ongoing tasks or goal blocking.
Fear
Amount of negative affect, including unease, worry or nervousness related to anticipated pain or distress and/or potentially threatening situations.
Sadness
Amount of negative affect and lowered mood and energy related to exposure to suffering, disappointment and object loss.
Discomfort
Amount of negative affect related to sensory qualities of stimulation, including intensity, rate or complexity of light, movement, sound, texture.
Soothability
Rate of recovery from peak distress, excitement, or general arousal.
Putnam & Rothbart, 2006

12. High Intensity Pleasure
Surgency
Activity Level
Approach
High Intensity Pleasure
Impulsivity

13. Exuberance/Surgency (Reactivity)
Dimension
Definition
Activity Level
Level of gross motor activity including rate and extent of locomotion.
Approach
Amount of excitement and positive anticipation for expected pleasurable activities.
Smiling and Laughter
Amount of positive affect in response to changes in stimulus intensity, rate, complexity, and incongruity.
Shyness (low)
Slow or inhibited approach in situations involving novelty or uncertainty.
High Intensity Pleasure
Amount of pleasure or enjoyment related to situations involving high stimulus intensity, rate, complexity, novelty and incongruity.
Impulsivity
Speed of response initiation.
Putnam & Rothbart, 2006

14. Effortful Control Low Intensity Pleasure Attentional Control
Perceptual Sensitivity
Inhibitory Control

15. Effortful Control (Regulation)
Dimension
Definition
Attentional Focusing
Tendency to maintain attentional focus upon task-related channels.
Inhibitory Control
The capacity to plan and to suppress inappropriate approach responses under instructions or in novel or uncertain situations.
Low Intensity Pleasure
Amount of pleasure or enjoyment related to situations involving low stimulus intensity, rate, complexity, novelty and incongruity.
Perceptual Sensitivity
Detection of slight, low-intensity stimuli from the external environment.
Putnam & Rothbart, 2006

16. Individual Differences in Regulation
Children’s ability to mask disappointment
Two things to keep in mind:
There are no methodological controls
This is not a good parenting strategy
Jimmy Kimmel YouTube Challenge
(WARNING: Some inappropriate language)

17. During everyday activities, how often did your child…
Pay attention to you right away when you called to him/her?
Seem to be irritated by tags in his/her clothes?
Become bothered by sounds while in noisy environments?
Seem full of energy, even in the evening?
ECBQ; Rothbart & colleagues

18. Let’s evaluate the children’s temperament.
Matthew
Exasperating!
Kai
Apparently
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

19. Match Temperament Factors to Big Five!
Negative Affectivity
Surgency
Effortful Control
Openness to Experience
Conscientiousness
Extraversion
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
© 2013 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

20. Gender Differences? Exuberant – Surgency Negative Affectivity
(Extraversion)
Negative
Affectivity
(Neurotiscism)
Effortful
Control
(Conscientousness)

21. Approach #2: Thomas & Chess
Temperament
Description
Activity
Is the child always moving and doing something OR does he or she have a more relaxed style?
Rhythmicity
Is the child regular in his or her eating and sleeping habits OR somewhat haphazard?
Approach / withdrawal
Does he or she "never meet a stranger" OR tend to shy away from new people or things?
Adaptability
Can the child adjust to changes in routines or plans easily or does he or she resist transitions?
Intensity
Does he or she react strongly to situations, either positive or negative, OR does he or she react calmly and quietly?
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

22. Approach #2: Thomas & Chess
Temperament
Description
Mood
Does the child often express a negative outlook OR is he or she generally a positive person? Does his or her mood shift frequently OR is he or she usually even-tempered?
Persistence and
Attention Span
Does the child give up as soon as a problem arises with a task OR does he or she keep on trying? Can he or she stick with an activity a long time OR does his or her mind tend to wander?
Distractibility
Is the child easily distracted from what he or she is doing OR can he or she shut out external distractions and stay with the current activity?
Sensory Threshold
Is he or she bothered by external stimuli such as loud noises, bright lights, or food textures OR does he or she tend to ignore them?
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

23. Video © 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood (40%) Easy
Positive mood, high regularity, low intensity, adaptability, approach (not withdrawal)
Difficult
(10%)
Negative mood, irregularity, extreme intensity, slow to adapt, withdrawal, loud crying/laughter
Slow to warm-up
(15 %)
Low activity, withdrawal, slower to adapt, somewhat negative mood, low intensity
Video
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

24. What about the other 35%
The other children in Thomas and Chess’s (1977) study could not be classified:
Displayed characteristics in a different configuration
Were not consistent in the types of behaviors they displayed across different situations or over time

25. Approach #3: Behavioral Inhibition (Kagan)
Perspective focuses on two types of temperament: Inhibited and uninhibited
Thought to represent distinct approach vs. withdrawal tendencies to new situations and people

26. Behavioral Inhibition
Inhibited
The tendency to withdraw from unfamiliar people and situations. Shy can also be fearful.
Uninhibited
Do not withdraw in unfamiliar situations and with unfamiliar people
(Exuberant – approach oriented)

27. Behavioral Inhibition: Stability
Infant Temperament
Distressed babies are more likely to be______
Calm babies are more likely
to be____________

28. Is temperament stable? Rank-Order Stability Mean-Level Change
Personality Coherence
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

29. Rank-Order Stability: Surgency, NA, and EC
ICBQ (1981; 3-12 months)
3-month stability; increases with time
ECBQ (2006; 1.5 – 3 years)
r = .45 to .80
CBQ (2006; 3 to 8 years)
r = .63 to .73
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

30. (Roberts and DelVecchio, 2000). Note. Big Five
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

31. Is personality stable? Rank-Order Stability Mean-Level Change
Personality Coherence
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

32. (Lamb et al., 2002)
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

33. (Roberts, Walton, & Viechtbauer, 2006)
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

34. Big Five – Mean Level Change
ES and C
Increase with age, then declines in old age
Agreeableness
Increases or remains stable with age
Extraversion
Social vitality/liveliness decreases with age
Social dominance increases with age
Openness to Experience
Curvilinear
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

35. Is personality stable? Rank-Order Stability Mean-Level Change
Personality Coherence
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

36. Personality Coherence
Traits are stable over time.
But, how people express the trait can change over time.
Example: Mischel’s Marshmallow Study
Trait = Delay of gratification
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

37. Personality Coherence: Delay of Gratification
TED
4- and 5-year old children
15 minutes: total time
≈ 9 minutes: Avg time before ate marshmallow
11-year follow-up at ages 15/16
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

38. Personality Coherence: Delay of Gratification
11-years later (ages 15/16)
36 years later (40s)
Higher SAT scores & GPA
Lower BMIs
Less drug use
Higher self-esteem
Better regulation of stress
Greater self-control
Better performance on self-control task
Brain Patterns
Low-delayers: ventral striatum
High-delayers: prefrontal cortex
But, depends on predictability of environment!
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

39. ↑ Openness to Experience
Childhood Measure
Adulthood Outcomes
↑ Extraversion
Positive Relationships (Peer, Romantic)
Aggression, Well-being
↑ Neuroticism
Social Difficulties
Lower occupational attainment in adulthood
↑ Conscientiousness
Academic Achievement in childhood and adulthood
Career success (income / occupational status), job satisfaction
Positive Relationships
↑ Agreeableness
Positive Peer Relationships
Greater academic achievement and work competence
Reduced delinquency
↑ Openness to Experience
Academic achievement and IQ, Creativity
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood

40. Temperament Moderately Stable
Correlations over time range between .35 to .70
More variability in infancy and greater stability after 2 years of age
Temperamental traits in infancy similar to traits when children were 7 years of age
High approach tendencies at 3-years-old people rated themselves as more impulsive, spontaneous, and careless when they were 18 years of age

41. Causes and Outcomes of Temperament
Genetics
Biological Factors
Internalizing/Externalizing Problems
Socioemotional Outcomes
Peer Relationships
Goodness-of-Fit

42. Big Five: Genetics or Environment?
rMZ
rDZ h2 c2 e2
Self-report
.54
.27
.46
Observer-report
.45
.20
.50
-.05
.55
Average of Self and Observer Reports
.65
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood
(GOSAT; Borkenau et al., 2001)

43. Typical correlations of personality trait levels between relatives of various kinds
Type of relative
Correlation
Identical twins raised together
.45
Identical twins raised apart
Fraternal twins raised together
.20
Nontwin biological siblings raised together
Parent and biological child (together)
Parent and biological child (apart)
Adoptive siblings
Adoptive parent and child
Note. Averages across different traits and
different samples of persons.
© 2015 M. Guthrie Yarwood
Table adapted from Ashton (2013)

44. Biological Factors Dopamine Serotonin Norepinephrine – Neuroticism
Extraversion, Openness
Serotonin
Conscientiousness, Agreeableness
Neuroticism (Low Serotonin)
Norepinephrine – Neuroticism
Testosterone
Extraversion
Agreeableness (Low T)
Oxytocin - Agreeableness

45. Internalizing and Externalizing Problems
Children who are more irritable, difficult, impulsive, and emotional experience a higher rate of problems in later life
Fearful, shy children → Internalizing problems
Childhood behavior problem in which the behavior is directed at the self rather than others, including fear, anxiety, depression, loneliness, and withdrawal
Poor effortful control → Externalizing problems
childhood behavior problem in which the behavior is directed at others, including hitting, stealing, vandalizing, and lying
What might contribute to these associations?

46. Socioemotional Outcomes
High Surgency/High Effortful control
Children more likely to explore environment
High Surgency / Low Effortful Control
More likely to exhibit high levels of externalizing behavior problems
High Negative Emotionality / Low EC
Linked to externalizing and internalizing behavior problems & lower social competence

47. Peer Relationships
In general, temperament has been found to influence peer relationships
Inhibition predicts withdrawal from peers
Lower peer acceptance
Higher negative emotionality
High activity
Low persistence

48. Goodness-of-Fit
Child’s Adjustment = Child’s temperament PLUS match b/w temperament and environment.
Development is optimized when parents’ child-rearing practices are sensitive to the child’s temperamental characteristics

49. Goodness-of-Fit Situational Characteristics Parenting Child
Temperament
Parenting

50. Goodness-of-Fit
Children high on negative affectivity who have parents who are sensitive more likely to have better adaptation.
Toddlers high on behavioral inhibition are less likely to exhibit later shyness if their parents are not overprotective or insensitive
BBC Video (1:35)

51. Summary Children exhibit a narrower range of emotions and temperaments
As children age, they experience more emotions and express broader personality traits
Temperament is caused by genetics, nonshared environ, and biology

52. Have a good day!