Temperament and the Pursuit of an Integrated Developmental Psychology (original) (raw)
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Temperament and the development of personality
Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 1994
We present a psychobiological approach to personality development, incorporating developmental principles outlined by R. B. Cairns (1979). We review individual differences in temperament and ask how a temperamental approach to personality might be congruent with these complex and flexible principles. We then illustrate the nature of temperamental processes by considering several developmental topics. We first consider the interaction of infant distress-proneness and maternal behavior in the development of attachment. We then describe the development of self-regulatory mechanisms, emphasizing development of conscience, aggression, and mastery motivation. Finally, we briefly review mechanisms of temperament and environment interaction, illustrating these processes through variable developmental pathways for risk of adolescent and adult psychopathology. Throughout, we stress the idea that temperamental models of personality development are dynamic, interactive, and fit well with Cairns's developmental principles.
Temperament, Development, and Personality
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 2007
Understanding temperament is central to our understanding of development, and temperament constructs are linked to individual differences in both personality and underlying neural function. In this article, I review findings on the structure of temperament, its relation to the Big Five traits of personality, and its links to development and psychopathology. In addition, I discuss the relation of temperament to conscience, empathy, aggression, and the development of behavior problems, and describe the relation between effortful control and neural networks of executive attention. Finally, I present research on training executive attention.
Connections between Temperament and Social Development: A Review
Social Development, 2004
This paper critically reviews the literature on the links between temperament and social development in children and adolescents. Social development is broadly defined to include externalizing and internalizing behaviour problems, prosocial behaviour and social competence. It concludes that there are clear links between specific dimensions of temperament and particular aspects of social development. Examples include the association of negative reactivity with externalizing behaviour problems, inhibition with internalizing behaviour problems, and attention regulation with school functioning. Theoretical and methodological issues to be confronted in future research are identified, including the need to investigate further the interactions between temperament and social context. Analysis of patterns of change in temperament, in relation to physiological changes and to such factors as parenting and socio-cultural expectations of children, promise to refine our understanding of how temperament works in context. Some practical implications which can be drawn from the research are also discussed.
2012
Temperament in the Classroom 2 Some students fare better than others, even when controlling for family background, school curriculum, and teacher quality. Variance in academic performance that persists when situational variables are held constant suggests that whether students fail or thrive depends not only on circumstance, but also on relatively stable individual differences in how children respond to circumstance. More academically talented children, for instance, generally outperform their less able peers. Indeed, general intelligence, defined as the "ability to understand complex ideas, to adapt effectively to the environment, to learn from experience, to engage in various forms of reasoning, to overcome obstacles by taking thought" (Neisser et al., 1996, p. 77) has a monotonic, positive relationship with academic performance, even at the extreme right-tail of the population ). Much less is known about how traits unrelated to general intelligence influence academic outcomes.
Temperament and personality: Origins and outcomes
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2000
This article reviews how a temperament approach emphasizing biological and developmental processes can integrate constructs from subdisciplines of psychology to further the study of personality. Basic measurement strategies and findings in the investigation of temperament in infancy and childhood are reviewed. These include linkage of temperament dimensions with basic affective-motivational and attentional systems, including positive affecl/approach, fear, frustration/anger, and effortful control. Contributions of biological models that may support these processes are then reviewed. Research indicating how a temperament approach can lead researchers of social and personality development to investigate important person-environment interactions is also discussed. Lastly, adult research suggesting links between temperament dispositions and the Big Five personality factors is described.