Temperament

1
Temperament

• Recent research has resulted in the following
  list of temperament dimensions
• Positive affect and rapid approach to rewarding
  objects or events.
• Surgency (approach) is of particular importance
  because of its associations with curiosity,
  eagerness, and energy toward goal satisfaction
  related to mastery motivation. When it is not
  controlled, the child may show failure of
  self-regulation.

2
Temperament

• Fear - the tendency to negative affect and
  inhibition or withdrawal in response to novelty,
  challenge, or signals of punishment.
• Fear reactions involve arousal, attention toward
  the feared object, escape, and the arrest of
  ongoing behavior.
• Of particular concern - the influence of fear or
  anxiety in disrupting thinking, for example, test
  anxiety.

3
Temperament

• Irritability/Frustration - the affect associated
  with responses to failure in goal attainment,
  removal of reward, or blockage of progress.
• Frustration has important implications in its
  association with failure, aggression, and
  defensive tendencies.

4
Temperament

• Attention / Effortful Control - Attentional
  processes show considerable development with
  maturation and are subject to habituation.
• The executive attention system is responsible for
  the deployment of attention for long-term goals,
  planning and persistence.
• The programming of effort control is considered
  critical to socialization, particularly with
  regard to development of attention, effort, and
  conscience.

5
Rothbart Temperament

• EXTRAVERSION/SURGENCY
• Sociability Enjoyment derived from social
  interaction and being in the presence of others.
  
• Positive Affect Latency, threshold, intensity,
  duration, and frequency of experiencing pleasure.
• High Intensity Pleasure Pleasure related to
  situations involving high stimulus intensity,
  rate, complexity, novelty, and incongruity.

6
Rothbart Temperament

• NEGATIVE AFFECT
• Fear   Negative affect related to anticipation
  of distress
• Sadness  Negative affect and lowered mood and
  energy related to exposure to suffering,
  disappointment, and object loss.
• Discomfort Negative affect related to sensory
  qualities of stimulation, including intensity,
  rate or complexity of visual, auditory,
  smell/taste, and tactile stimulation.
• Frustration   Negative affect related to
  interruption of ongoing tasks or goal blocking.

7
Rothbart Temperament

• EFFORTFUL CONTROL
• Attentional Control  Capacity to focus attention
  as well as to shift attention when desired.
• Inhibitory Control  Capacity to suppress
  inappropriate approach behavior.
• Activation Control  Capacity to perform an
  action when there is a strong tendency to avoid
  it.

8
Rothbart Temperament

• ORIENTING SENSITIVITY
• Neutral Perceptual Sensitivity Detection of
  slight, low intensity stimuli from both within
  the body and the external environment.
• Affective Perceptual Sensitivity Spontaneous
  emotionally valenced, conscious cognition
  associated with low intensity stimuli.  
• Associative Sensitivity  Spontaneous cognitive
  content that is not related to standard
  associations with the environment.

9
Rothbart Temperament

• Rothbart's Model of Temperament Reactivity and
  Self-Regulation
• According to this model , temperament is defined
  in terms of individual differences in the
  interaction of reactivity and self-regulation.
• Reactions to the unfamiliar are conceptualized as
  the behavioral manifestation of an individual's
  attempt to modulate or regulate levels of
  internal reactivity or arousal in response to
  novel or unfamiliar stimuli.

10
Kagan Temperament

• Inhibited and Uninhibited "Types"
• Temperament is viewed as a set of qualitatively
  different types which can be used to classify
  people. Using this model, educators can identify
  those children who exemplify the extremes (that
  is, inhibited or uninhibited). Each extreme
  describes 10 to 15 of children.

11
Behavior Temperament

• Successful management of temperament requires
  that temperament traits be recognized for what
  they are-normal variations of behavioral style
  such as shyness or low adaptability.
• Temperamental differences are best handled by the
  improvement of the fit with the environment
  primarily through environmental accommodations
  rather than by attempts to modify the
  temperament.
• The presence of challenging temperament traits
  does not necessarily lead to secondary behavioral
  dysfunction if there are no complications and if
  the traits are appropriately managed.

12
Coping Temperament

• Coping - an established pattern of handling life
  situations
• Factors contributing to coping
• developmental level,
• cognitive skills, and
• the accumulation of interpersonal experiences and
  relationships
• Temperament traits can become reinforced if they
  are allowed to dominate coping strategies and
  general approach to life situations as when
  shyness is allowed to develop into a general
  pattern of avoidance.

13
Sympathy Temperament

• Based on theory and research about sympathy and
  personal distress, researchers draw the following
  conclusions
• Children who are prone to intense and frequent
  negative emotions are low in sympathy. Thus,
  interventions that help children manage their
  negative emotions may be helpful in promoting
  other-oriented sympathy.
• Preschoolers and elementary school children who
  are sympathetic tend to regulate their emotions
  well. Thus, interventions that foster
  children's emotional regulation are likely to
  enhance their sympathy.

14
Sympathy Temperament

• Sympathy is an outcome of an optimal level of
  vicarious emotional arousal.
• For people prone to intense positive and negative
  emotions, regulation is important for modulating
  the effects of emotional reactivity.
• For those who are not very emotional, regulation
  of attention may enhance the likelihood of
  attending to the needs of others. Thus,
  interventions that enhance attentional or
  behavioral control may foster sympathy.

15
Sympathy Temperament

• People who are sympathetic also appear to be
  socially competent.
• Sympathetic responding, socially competent
  behavior, and low problem behavior are all
  partially an outcome of the ability to manage
  emotions in optimal ways. Thus, soft skills
  training that emphasize understanding and control
  of emotions may contribute to the development of
  sympathy and empathy.