Psychology Dictionary of ArgumentsHome
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| Temperament: Temperament in psychology refers to innate, enduring traits that influence an individual's emotional and behavioral tendencies. It encompasses mood, activity level, rhythmicity, tendency for approach or withdrawal, and adaptability, often observed from early childhood. See also Personality traits, Personality. _____________Annotation: The above characterizations of concepts are neither definitions nor exhausting presentations of problems related to them. Instead, they are intended to give a short introduction to the contributions below. – Lexicon of Arguments. | |||
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Psychological Theories on Temperament - Dictionary of Arguments
Corr I 177 Temperament/psychological theories/Rothbart: The Eastern European temperament tradition has its roots in Pavlov’s (1951–52)(1) observations of individual differences in his dogs’ behaviour in the laboratory. Pavlov linked temperamental differences among the animals (which he argued would generalize to humans) to qualities of the central nervous system, including strength of neural activation. Subsequent work by Nebylitsyn (1972)(2) and others adapted these ideas to the study of individual differences in human adults and, although Eastern European methods changed considerably, contemporary research remains heavily influenced by Pavlov’s work (for a discussion see Strelau and Kaczmarek 2004)(3). In contrast to Eastern European research, early studies of temperament in the West were more focused on identifying regularities in the structure of individual differences through the use of psychometric techniques. For example, in 1908 Heymans and Wiersma asked 3,000 physicians to observe a family (parents and children) and to fill out a temperament/personality questionnaire on each family member. >Personality, >Personality traits, >Extraversion, >Introversion. Corr I 178 More recently, (…) a resurgence of interest in temperament has stemmed at least in part from the realization that the parent-child influence is bidirectional, not only from parent to child but also from child to parent. Children bring much to interactions with their families (Bell 1968)(4), and a large part of what they bring is related to temperament. Temperament research has also been linked to recent advances in neuroscience, with individual differences in temperament providing links to genes and neural networks, as well as to social interaction. >Interaction, >Behavior, >Social behavior. Corr I 179 Temperament/Thomas and Chess: (Thomas and Chess 1977)(5): A content analysis of interview information on the first twenty-two infants yielded nine dimensions of temperamental variability: Activity Level, Rhythmicity, Approach-Withdrawal, Adaptability, Threshold, Intensity, Mood, Distractibility and Attention Span-Persistence. The goals of the New York Longitudinal Study (NYLS) were chiefly clinical, and no attempt was made to conceptually distinguish these dimensions from one another. As a result of more recent research, however, major revisions to the NYLS list have been proposed (Rothbart and Bates 2006)(6). See >Temperament/Rothbart, >M.K. Rothbart. 1. Pavlov, I. P. 1951–52. Complete works, 2nd edn. Moscow: SSSR Academy of Sciences 2. Nebylitsyn, V. D. 1972. Fundamental properties of the human nervous system. New York: Plenum 3. Strelau, J. and Kaczmarek, M. 2004. Warsaw studies on sensation seeking, in R. M. Stelmack (ed.), On the psychobiology of personality: essays in honor of Marvin Zuckerman, pp. 29–45. New York: Elsevier 4. Bell, R. Q. 1968. A reinterpretation of the direction of effects in studies of socialization, Psychological Review 75: 81–95 5. Thomas, A. and Chess, S. 1977. Temperament and development. New York: Brunner/Mazel 6. Rothbart, M. K., and Bates, J. E. 2006. Temperament in children’s development, in W. Damon and R. Lerner (Series eds.) and N. Eisenberg (Vol. ed.), Handbook of child psychology, vol. III, Social, emotional, and personality development, 6th edn, pp. 99–166. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley Mary K. Rothbart, Brad E. Sheese and Elisabeth D. Conradt, “Childhood temperament” in: Corr, Ph. J. & Matthews, G. (eds.) 2009. The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology. New York: Cambridge University Press_____________Explanation of symbols: Roman numerals indicate the source, arabic numerals indicate the page number. The corresponding books are indicated on the right hand side. ((s)…): Comment by the sender of the contribution. Translations: Dictionary of Arguments The note [Concept/Author], [Author1]Vs[Author2] or [Author]Vs[term] resp. "problem:"/"solution:", "old:"/"new:" and "thesis:" is an addition from the Dictionary of Arguments. If a German edition is specified, the page numbers refer to this edition. |
Psychological Theories Corr I Philip J. Corr Gerald Matthews The Cambridge Handbook of Personality Psychology New York 2009 Corr II Philip J. Corr (Ed.) Personality and Individual Differences - Revisiting the classical studies Singapore, Washington DC, Melbourne 2018 |
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