The Personality Puzzle: How a Child’s Temperament Shapes Their World

What is Temperament?

Temperament is the way children respond to the world, influencing the way they handle emotions, regulate behaviour, feel around new people and adapt to new environments. These individual characteristics are assumed to have a biological basis, appear early in development and play a role in subsequent social functioning which vary from child to child depending on their temperamental disposition. The subject of temperament has been increasingly prevalent in recent research, uncovering the true extent to which it affects different areas such as school performance, empathy and the development of conscience in a child's later years. These areas have traditionally been seen almost exclusively as the result of socialisation, not the influence of temperament on developmental pathways and outcomes.

According to researchers Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas (1996), children vary in nine varieties of temperament: activity, regularity, initial reaction, adaptability, intensity, mood, distractibility, persistence-attention span and sensory threshold. Each trait has a range of intensity levels that affect the gravity of temperament reactions. These traits with their varying intensities combine to create a child's unique temperament.

Activity - Does the child display mostly active or inactive states?

Regularity - Is the child predictable or unpredictable regarding sleeping, eating, and elimination patterns?

Initial Reaction - Does the child react or respond positively or negatively to a newly encountered situation?

Adaptability - Does the child adjust to unfamiliar circumstances easily or with difficulty?

Intensity - Does the child show low or high energy when reacting to stimuli?

Mood - Is the child normally happy and pleasant, or unhappy and unpleasant?

Distractibility - Is the child's attention easily diverted from a task by external stimuli?

Persistence-attention span - How long will the child continue at an activity despite difficulty or interruptions?

The New York Longitudinal Study (1956) was a long-term study into personality types and temperament traits, spanning several decades. From this research, categories of temperament were developed and are still seen as useful in understanding and working with children. These categories or profiles include the following: "easy or flexible" children (40%), these children are characterised by positiveness in mood, regularity in bodily functions, moderate intensity of reactions and good adaptability to new situations; "slow to warm up" children (15%), these children are characterised by low activity levels, withdrawal upon first exposure to new stimuli, moderate adaptability, negativity in mood and low intensity of reaction; "difficult or feisty" children (10%), these children are characterised by irregularity in bodily functions, relative slowness to adapt to changing environments, general negativity in mood and tendency to withdraw in the face of new stimuli; "undifferentiated" children (35%), those who cannot be easily categorised.

Is There Such a Thing as “Good” or “Bad” Temperament?

No single type of temperament is inherently good or bad. However, it is believed that infants with difficult temperaments are more likely to develop emotional problems especially if they have depressed or anxious caregivers.

In a study funded by the National Institutes of Health and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the correlation between behavioural inhibition in infancy and introversion/internalised psychopathology in adulthood was studied. Psychopathology is the scientific exploration of abnormal mental states. Behavioural inhibition (BI) is a term used to describe people with a temperamental disposition causing them to be cautious, fearful and avoidant toward unfamiliar circumstances. BI has been found to be relatively stable across toddlerhood and childhood, and children with BI have been found to be at greater risk for developing social withdrawal and anxiety disorders than children without BI.

In the aforementioned study, researchers recruited their participant sample at four months of age and characterised them for BI at 14 months. At age 15, the participants returned to the lab to provide neurophysiological data which was used to assess error-related negativity (ERN). Error-related negativity is a negative dip in the electrical signal recorded from the brain following incorrect responses to computerised tasks. ERN reflects the intensity of an individual's sensitivity to errors. A larger ERN has been associated with internalising conditions such as anxiety, while a smaller ERN has been associated with externalising conditions such as impulsivity and substance use.

The same participants returned to the lab at the age of 26 and were assessed for psychopathology, personality, social functioning and education/employment outcomes. The researchers discovered that the participants with BI at 14 months of age, possessed a more reserved personality at 26 years of age. They had fewer romantic relationships, lower social functioning with friends and family, and higher levels of psychopathology (only for those that exhibited larger ERN signals at age 15.)

This study goes to show just how important the concept of temperament is in child development and how it can affect the life of an individual as they enter adulthood.

However, more important than child temperament is how caregivers respond to it. A child's long-term adjustment depends on the goodness-of-fit of their particular temperament to the nature of the environment in which they find themselves. Therefore, it is vital that a caregiver adjusts their approach to each type of child to improve their interactions with them. For instance, a "slow to warm up" child may need to be given a warning if new people or situations are going to be introduced.

So there is no such thing as "good" or " bad" temperament, only varying styles of temperamental differences. A cautious or reticent child may exhibit withdrawal from new stimuli or new environments, however, these children tend to be observers, noticing details that others do not. They are also more likely to display a superior level of self-control as they get older, given their tendency to think before acting.

How is Temperament Assessed in Children?

Various methods are used to study a child's temperament, such as questionnaires and home-and-laboratory observations, each having its advantages and disadvantages. Questionnaires based on reports from caregivers are an economical way to gather information and cover a wide range of behaviours observed by parents or teachers. While laboratory observations offer researchers more control over the environment and enable them to precisely measure the response time, intensity, and duration of a child's behaviour. Home or school observations, on the other hand, allow for objective evaluation by observers while providing a natural setting for children.

Questionnaires that rely on caregiver reports may not be entirely accurate, as the respondent may have a desire to portray the child in a positive light. Laboratory observations have limitations as certain behaviours may not be elicited, and some carry-over effects can occur between episodes. Natural observations tend to be expensive and time-consuming, requiring multiple visits to ensure a reliable sample of children's behaviour. Though not perfect, each method has its own tools to improve our comprehension of temperament and its correlation with developmental outcomes. Recent scientific studies that focus on the brain and nervous system are developing new methods. These studies have discovered brain networks that have links to behaviour and arousability, allowing us to research how these networks change and develop.

Nathan Fox's Lab at the University of Maryland

A great example of how temperament is evaluated in children can be seen in Nathan Fox's Lab at the University of Maryland, USA. Two nine-month-old infants, Emily and Jack, were brought to the research facility for a temperament assessment. The researchers wanted to measure the emotions of anger, joy and fear in the infants, taking note of their reactions to specific situations and the intensity of said reactions.

The first part of the assessment involved a toy and a transparent barrier. At first, the infant is allowed to play with the colourful toy. However, after some time, a transparent barrier is put between them. The reactions to this frustrating situation were starkly different among the two infants. Jack was very persistent in his efforts to retrieve the toy despite the struggle he faced. After he realised that he could not do it on his own, he even tried getting the researcher to help him. Emily, on the other hand, was of a more laid-back approach, only attempting to retrieve the toy one or two times before giving up. She remained uninterested even when the researcher attempted to entice her with the toy again.

The second part of the assessment involved a puppet show. During this part of the study, researchers wanted to draw joy from the infants. Emily, on one hand, loved the puppet show and enjoyed interacting with the puppets. But when the researcher tried the same experiment on Jack, he found the situation anything but joyful. In fact, he was deeply distraught, and physically turned away from the puppet show.

The third part of the assessment involved frightening masks. The researchers wanted to test the infants' reactions when something frightened them. Unsurprisingly, Jack was shaken by the scary masks, breaking down into tears. But Emily had the very opposite reaction, the scary masks simply amused her, causing her to laugh and reach out for them.

To find out where the difference resided between the two infants, researchers placed an EEG cap on Emily. The electrodes in the cap measured the electrical signals produced by her brain in response to a series of sounds. A researcher distracted Emily while they got a baseline reading of her brain. Then a series of tones was played, consisting of regular beeps interspersed with other sounds that were different. How the brain reacted to sudden new stimuli was thus recorded. Based on the results from the test, researchers concluded that Emily had more activity in her right frontal lobe, a reading associated with children who have a more subdued personality. On the other hand, babies with exuberant temperaments, such as Jack, show an exaggerated response in the left frontal lobe.

This groundbreaking discovery has shed light on the neurobiological basis of restraint and exuberance in infants.

Conclusion

Understanding a child's temperament is crucial to address their emotional, social, and learning needs effectively. Discussions around this topic can serve as a guide in selecting the best intervention approaches and provide parents with fresh insights into their child's abilities.