Temperament

1. Temperament

2. Today’s overview • What is temperament? • Describe your temperament using Thomas/Chess, Fox/Henderson or Caspi types • What is goodness-of-fit (give examples)? • What are pros and cons of laboratory behavioral and parent report measures of temperament? • What are three types of infants distinguished by Fox/Henderson and how do they develop? • Reference the DVD illustrating these infants from class. • Do you favor a person-centered or variable-centered approach to temperament and why? • What does 3 year old behavioral type predict in Caspi‘s studies? • What does it mean that the child is father to the man? Messinger & Henderson

3. Defining Temperament • Underlying, biologically based (heritable) individual differences in the behavioral characteristics of the individual that is relatively invariant over time and across situations Messinger & Henderson

4. But… • Calling something temperament does not make it any more ‘biological’ or inherited than any other construct • Temperament is a measured construct with particular characteristics • Stable/Unstable • More heritable/Less heritable Messinger & Henderson

5. Thomas & Chess: Early temperamental types • Difficult Child (10%) • irritable, irregular biological rhythms • intense response to new situations • Easy Child (40%) • happy, regular biological rhythms • accept new situations • Slow to warm up, inhibited, child (15%) • Reluctant/hesitant in new situations • New York Longitudinal Study (Thomas & Chess, 1984) • Which one are you? Messinger & Henderson

6. Goodness-of-Fit Model • The “meshing” of temperament with environmental properties, expectations, and demands • Implications for parents and educators for creating environments that recognize each child’s temperament while encouraging adaptive functioning Messinger & Henderson

7. Applications of Goodness-of-Fit • A “difficult” temperament promotes survival during famine conditions in Africa (De Vries, 1984) • Why? • Low activity level is a risk for mental retardation among children raised in a poor institution (Schaffer, 1966) • Why? Messinger & Henderson

8. Recent Models of Temperament: Individual differences in • The expression of primary emotions (anger, fear, joy, interest) • Goldsmith & Campos • Activity level, emotionality, and sociability • Buss & Plomin Messinger & Henderson

9. Individual differences in Reactivity and Self-regulation • Reactivity - the arousability of motor activity, affective, autonomic, CNS & endocrine responses. • Self-regulation - Can modulate (facilitate or inhibit) reactivity and those processes include attention, approach, withdrawal, attack, behavioral inhibition, and self-soothing.” • Rothbart, 1989 Messinger & Henderson

10. Neural bases of development of individual differences in temperament • Reactivity–speed, strength & valence of response to stimulation, • Self Regulation – behaviors thatcontrol behavioral and emotional reactions to stimulation ( + or -) • develops: reactive control, then active self regulation at end of 2nd year • maps to development of brain areas involved in executive attention control • Corresponds to current brain-behavior models: • behavioral approach/activation system and behavioral inhibition/anxiety system • Henderson, H. A., & Wachs, T. D. (2007). Temperament theory and the study of cognition-emotion interactions across development. Developmental Review, 27(3), 396-427. doi: 10.1016/j.dr.2007.06.004 Nayfeld

11. BAS and BIS: motivational tendencies • Behavior Approach System (BAS) • - governs approach/appetitive motivations • - responds to signals of reward/end of punishment • - behavior towards goals, positive feelings • Behavior Inhibition System (BIS) • - inhibition, interruption of behavior , increase in arousal/vigilance • - responds to signals of punishment, nonreward, novelty • - underlies states of fear and anxiety • - Temperament differences: relative balance of positive affect/approach versus negative affect/inhibition behaviors Nayfeld

12. Neurolophysiology of approach/withdrawal • Amygdala - connections with brainstem nuclei—universal fear reactions - sensitive to ambiguity and uncertainty - temperament related to differences in amygdala activity • Nucleus accumbens - anticipatory reward-related responding - activity related to size of anticipated reward • EEG asymmetry - resting EEG asymmetry during stressful task related to differences in dealing with novel/stressful events Nayfeld - right frontal EEG asymmetry discriminated among preschoolers’ levels of social play

13. Inhibited and Uninhibited Infants“Grown Up” • “[A]dults who had been categorized in the second year of life as inhibited, compared with those previously categorized as uninhibited, showed greater functional MRI signal response within the amygdala to novel versus familiar faces.” • 22 adults (M = 21.8 years) • at two years were inhibited (n=13) or uninhibited (n = 9) • 20 JUNE 2003 VOL 300 SCIENCE Carl E. Schwartz,1,2,3* Christopher I. Wright,2,3,4 Lisa M. Shin,2,5 Jerome Kagan,6 Scott L. Rauch2,3 Messinger, Henderson & Fernandez

14. Messinger & Henderson

15. Self-regulation • Attentional and effortful processes that modulate reactivity • regulate behaviors and emotions through voluntary inhibition, response modulation, and self-monitoring (Ahadi et al, 1993) • form basis for well-regulated behavior and emotion • executive system monitors and regulates reactivity • Anterior cyngulate cortex (ACC) and Effortful control • ACC facilitates voluntary control of thoughts and emotions • ACC as neural alarm Nayfeld

16. Assessment of Temperament Parental Report Laboratory Observations Psychophysiological Assessment Messinger & Henderson

17. Measuring temperament • Parent report • Parent knows child best but is biased • Lab measures • Objective but limited behavior sample • Do not correlate highly • Under what conditions do the correlate??? Messinger & Henderson

18. When parents and raters agree • “maternal and observer ratings of infant negativity converged when infants manifested high degrees of negative affect during routine home-based activities. • …ratings of infant positivity converged when infants experienced low mutually positive affect during play…. • Sensitive to non-optimal behavior • Hane et al., 2006 Messinger & Henderson

19. Measurement Approaches • Cognitive Neuroscience Techniques • allowed understanding of neural network • Interplay between networks and subcortical systems • BUT, drawbacks of fMRI • Restrictive procedure • Poor temporal resolution Carter

20. Parent report: IBQ Messinger & Henderson

21. Infant smiling/laughter reveal influence of genetic & environment • Contrasts with parental responses to questions about negative emotion - heritability estimates tend to be higher and environmental influences less pronounced. • Shared environmental effects – effects shared by monzygotic and dizygotic twins – point to possible socialization effects in factors affecting smiling and other positive emotional expressions. • {Goldsmith, 1997 #1501}. {Goldsmith, 1999 #606}. Messinger & Henderson

22. Shyness/Inhibition by4-month temperament group 8 . .6 .4 2 . Low Reactive Standardized measure of inhibition (+/- 1 SE) 0.0 High Negative High Positive -.2 -.4 -.6 -.8 14 24 48 Age (months) Fox, Henderson, et al. (2001) Kagan classic: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGjO1KwltOw

23. Change in behavioral inhibition was related to nonparental care Messinger & Henderson

24. “A complex interplay of within-child and maternal factors affect the development of internalizing behavior in the early school years” • High exuberance related to left frontal EEG asymmetry • High exuberance related to social competence as moderated by frontal EEG asymmetry. • Children with high, stable Exuberance profile displayed less social reticence (low level of shyness) • High exuberance (supported by physiological motivation) also displayed greater surgency and greater externalizing behavior problems at age 5. • Kathryn Amey Degnan, Heather A. Henderson, Nathan A. Fox, Kenneth H. Rubin. Predicting Social Wariness in Middle Childhood: The Moderating Roles of Child Care History, Maternal Personality and Maternal Behavior Romero

25. Romero

26. Romero

27. Gene-Endoenvironment Interaction • DRD4 - Long Allele • Novelty/Sensation Seeking • Attention Problems/Aggression • Susceptibility to Parenting • EEG Asymmetry • Left Frontal – “Easy” Temperament • Right Frontal – “Negative Reactive” Temperament • Schmidt, Fox, Perez-Edgar & Hamer (2009) "Long" versions of polymorphisms are the alleles with 6 to 10 repeats. 7R appears to react less strongly to dopamine molecules.[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine_receptor_D4 Mattson

28. Frontal Asymmetry, DRD4, TemperamentDifferential susceptibility • 9 mo • EEG, Genes • 48 mo • Temperament • CCTI – Maternal Report • Soothability • Attention Difficulties Mattson

29. Group Differences • DRD4 by Asymmetry • Susceptibility to Asymmetry • Soothability • Attention Difficulties • Asymmetry unrelated to DRD4 • Complex Gene-Gene Interaction? Mattson

30. Genes influence relation between parenting and temperament 18-21 month olds DRD4 48 (7-repeat allele) “long” Allele increased sensitivity to environmental factors such as parenting. Lower quality parenting higher sensation seeking. Higher quality  lower sensation seeking Parenting quality interacts with genetic variation in dopamine receptor D4 to influence temperament in early childhoodSheese BE, et al. Dev Psychopathol 2007 19(4):1039-46 Messinger & Henderson

31. Making temperamental predictions • Variable-centered approach • How do folks differ on a variable • Stability over time • Person-centered approach • Relations among constructs within individual • Stability over time • Caspi Messinger & Henderson

32. Person-centered approach • Observed 1,037 3-year-olds for 90 mins • A cluster analysis of lack-of-control, approach, sluggish • yielded 5 temperament types: • Undercontrolled (impulsive, negative, low ER; 10%) • Inhibited (shy, fearful, easily upset; 8%) • Confident (zealous, eager to explore, impulsive; 28%) • Reserved (timid, some shyness; 15%) • Well-adjusted (self-control, confident, easy; 40%) Bell

33. Age-3 behavior styles and Questionnaire profiles at age 18 Messinger & Henderson

34. Age-3 behavior styles and informant impressions at age 21 Messinger & Henderson

35. Anti-social and suicide attempts Messinger & Henderson

36. 26 years – assess adult personality • Connections between 3-year-old temperament is stronger at 26 years (n=980) than 18 years • Idea of niche-picking - as children become young adults they can create their own environments in ways that are correlated with their dispositional tendencies • However, the effect sizes for these predictions are small to moderate! • Caspi et al. (2003) Bell

37. The Child Is Father of the Man? My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So is it now I am a man: So be it when I shall grow old, Or let me die! The Child is father of the Man; And I could wish my days to be Bound each to each by natural piety. • William Wordsworth, "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold" Messinger & Henderson