Personality

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Personality across the Lifespan
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What is temperament and how can we measure it?

• Biologically based individual differences in
  behaviour that are present in early life, and are
  relatively stable across situations and time
  (Bates, 1987)
• What are the issues about measuring
  personality/temperament in children?

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Type of study

• Prospective vs Retrospective - what are the
  advantages and disadvantages of each type of
  study?
• What are the problems with retrospective reports?

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Types of study II

• Volunteer, birth cohort, selected sample what
  are the issues with each type of study?
• Longitudinal studies versus cross-sectional?
• Confounding factors may be?

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Method of measurement

• Self versus other report?
• Observer report
• Parent versus carer report?

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Tool of measurement

• Test-retest?
• Developmental change with maturation and learning
  what would this affect?
• Can not use the same tool
• What tools are available?

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Predictions of temperament

• What aspects of behaviour do you think
  temperament can predict?
• From what age?
• How would you go about designing such a study?

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(No Transcript)
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Are there differences in children?

• Behavioural differences can be noticed in
  children
• Are these individual differences due to
  differences in temperament / personality or due
  to parenting style or other factors??
• Does the behaviour in childhood predict the
  personality of the adult?

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Approaches

• First approach pioneered by Thomas and Chess
  (1977)
• Distinction between personality and temperament
  is blurred.
• Some researchers see temperament and personality
  traits as almost the same
• Second approach pioneered by Strelau (1983)
• Draws a distinction between temperament and
  personality, between biological and socialisation

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(Thomas and Chess 1977 Chess and Thomas, 1996)

• 9 categories of behaviours
• Activity-level
• Rhythmicity
• Approach-withdrawal
• Adaptability
• Threshold of responsiveness
• Intensity of reaction
• Quality of mood (predominant)
• Distractability
• Attention span/persistence

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Normal temperaments(Thomas and Chess)

• Temperament Types
• Easy (40)
• Slow-to-warm-up (15)
• Difficult (10)
• ?35

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Categorical and Dimensional approaches to
personality

• Categorical models people can be divided into
  types eg.astrology
• Dimensional models assume that scores are
  distributed continuously in the population

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Further work on temperament

• Problems with Thomas and Chess small samples
• Rothbart and Bates asked parents about specific
  behaviours in specific contexts
• Rothbart and Bates asked questions such as
• When put in the bath, how often did the baby
  kick and splash? Or When meeting a stranger,
  how often did the baby cry? Response on 7 point
  scale, never to always.
• They had two strands of behavioural-type research
• parental report
• home observations.

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Rothbart and Bates

• Two main dimensions
• positive (smiling, laughter, activity)
• negative reactivity (fear, frustration)
• BUT problems Can you think of any????
• They had no control in either self-reports or
  observations for actual level of stimulus baby
  experienced eg. Bath time
• They developed the Laboratory Temperament
  Assessment Inventory

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Laboratory Temperament Assessment Inventory

• Goldsmith Rothbart (1991)
• Assessed
• Smiling and laughter
• Fear
• Frustration
• Attention
• Soothability

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Seven factor Model of Temperament?

• Martin, Wisenbaker and Hattunen (1994)
• Activity level
• Negative emotionality
• Task persistence
• Adaptability / agreeableness
• Inhibition
• Rhythmicity
• Threshold

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Comparisons

• Parent ratings - 6 factors (Presley Martin
  (1994)) teacher ratings 3 (Martin, 1988)
• Activity-level Activity
• Rhythmicity Rhythmicity
• Approach-withdrawal Social inhibition yes
• Adaptability Adaptability
• Threshold of response
• Intensity of reaction
• Quality of mood Negative emotionality yes
• Distractability
• Attention span/persistence Task persistence yes

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Why different Dimensions

• Different raters?
• Different behaviours shown at different times?
• Parental Bias?
• Individual differences in raters?

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Psychobiological approaches

• Rothbart Derryberry
• Childrens Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ)
• Strelau

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Reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart,
Bates, Derryberry)

• Temperament (and personality) has basis in neural
  systems
• Motivation, attention and emotion

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Reactivity and self-regulation (Rothbart,
Bates, Derryberry)

• Temperament (and personality) has basis in neural
  systems
• Motivation, attention and emotion
• Childrens Behaviour Questionnaire
• higher order factors extraversion/surgency,
  negative affectivity, effortful control

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Defensive/fearful motivation system. Novel
stimuli, fear, punishment.
Appetitive system approach
Affiliant/nurturant system. Social rewards
Vigilance system. Alertness
Temperament
Frustrative/aggressive behaviour system.
Irritation, rage.
Rothbart Derryberry
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Neo-Pavlovian approach (Strelau)

• Strength of nervous system activation
• Derives from the hypotheses of Pavlov, Teplov and
  Nebvlitsyn
• The cns has general formal characteristics which
  can be assessed psychophysiologically and
  behaviourally
• Individuals differ on the strength of excitation
  of their nervous system
• The length of time that the cns maintains its
  response in the face of intense or prolonged
  stimuli.

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Strelau II

• Strength of excitation can be measured by
  techniques such as testing the effect of an
  extra, intense stimulus on a persons visual
  threshold (Mangan, 1982).
• Behaviourally ability to maintain performance
  on a task under high levels of stimulation.
• Extraversion Strength of the nervous system?
• extraverts appear to tolerate stimulation better
  than introverts (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1985).
• Behaviour-Temperament Inventory
• Briskness, perseverance, sensory sensitivity,
  emotional reactivity, endurance, activity
• Conceptual overlap with structural approaches

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Distinctions between temperament and personality
(Strelau)
Temperament Personality
Biology Infants All mammals CNS ties Cause of behaviours Socialisation Gradual development Humans Meaning In part self-shaped
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Linking temperament, later outcomes, personality

• Can be related psychometrically
• NEO-FFI, EAS-TS
• N Fearfulness, distress, anger
• E Sociability
• O Activity
• A Anger
• C ?Impulsivity
• Longitudinal studies

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Can Behaviour in childhood tell us about adulthood

• Temperament
• Personality
• Learning styles
• Cognition
• Can it predict mental health?

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Temperament and personality from childhood to
adulthood

• New Zealand Dunedin Study (Caspi et al)
• 1037 infants, 1972-73
• longitudinal study assessed at age 3 then again
  at 5,7,9,11,13,14,15,18 and 21
• Children - divided into three temperamental
  types
• well-adjusted, undercontrolled, inhibited

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Age-3 temperament and later outcomes

• What outcomes would you predict?
• What aspects of life?
• Childrens behaviour problems
• Adult Personality
• Interpersonal Relationships
• Employment
• Psychiatric Disorders
• Criminal Behaviour
• To answer these questions you need to read Caspi
  (2000) The Child is Father of the Man
  Personality Continues From Childhood to Adulthood
  JPSP 78 158-172

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Basic reading

• Personality Traits Matthews, Deary and Whiteman
• Further Reading
• Caspi, A. (2000) The child is the father of the
  man personality continuities from childhood to
  adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social
  Psychology, 78, 158-172. (not on reserve, see
  journal in psych library)
• Rothbart, M.K,Ahadi, S.A., Evans, D.E. (2000).
  Temperament and personality origins and
  outcomes. Journal of Personality and Social
  Psychology, 78, 122-135. (see journal in psych
  library).
• McCrae, R.R., Costa, P.T., Pedrosa de Lima, M, et
  al (1999) Age differences in Personality Across
  the Adult Life Span Parallels in Five Cultures