Transcript Temperament_Caspi - University of Miami

Temperament
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
2
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
3
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%)
–
–

Easy Child (40%)
–
–

happy, regular biological rhythms
accept new situations
Slow to warm up, inhibited, child (15%)
–

irritable, irregular biological rhythms
intense response to new situations
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
8
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
9
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
10
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 selfsoothing.”

•
Rothbart, 1989
Messinger & Henderson
11
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


Corresponds to current brain-behavior models:
–

maps to development of brain areas involved in executive attention control
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
BAS and BIS: motivational tendencies

Behavior Approach System (BAS)
–
–
–

Behavior Inhibition System (BIS)
–
–
–

- governs approach/appetitive motivations
- responds to signals of reward/end of punishment
- behavior towards goals, positive feelings
- 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
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
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
16
Messinger & Henderson
17
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
Assessment of Temperament
Parental Report
Laboratory Observations
Psychophysiological Assessment
Messinger & Henderson
20
Measuring temperament

Parent report
–

Lab measures
–

Parent knows child best but is biased
Objective but limited behavior sample
Do not correlate highly
–
Under what conditions do the correlate???
Messinger & Henderson
22
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
23
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
Parent report: IBQ
Messinger & Henderson
27
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
28
Standardized measure of inhibition (+/- 1 SE)
.
8
Shyness/Inhibition by
4-month temperament group
.6
.4
.
2
Low Reactive
0.0
High Negative
High Positive
-.2
-.4
-.6
-.8
14
24
48
Age (months)
Kagan classic:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CGjO1KwltOw
Fox, Henderson, et al. (2001)
Change in behavioral inhibition was
related to nonparental care
12
10
8
At Home
6
Out-of-home
care
4
2
0
Stable
Change
Messinger & Henderson
35
“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
Romero
Romero
Gene-Endoenvironment Interaction

DRD4 - Long Allele
"Long" versions of polymorphisms
are the alleles with 6 to 10 repeats.
– Novelty/Sensation Seeking
7R appears to react less strongly to
– Attention Problems/Aggression
dopamine molecules.[8]
–

Susceptibility to Parenting
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dopamine_recept
or_D4
EEG Asymmetry
–
–
–
Left Frontal – “Easy”
Temperament
Right Frontal – “Negative
Reactive” Temperament
Schmidt, Fox, Perez-Edgar & Hamer
(2009)
Mattson
Frontal Asymmetry, DRD4, Temperament
Differential susceptibility

9 mo
–

48 mo
–

EEG, Genes
Temperament
CCTI – Maternal
Report
–
–
Soothability
Attention
Difficulties
Mattson
Group Differences

DRD4 by Asymmetry
–
Susceptibility to
Asymmetry
 Soothability
 Attention
–
–
Difficulties
Asymmetry unrelated to
DRD4
Complex Gene-Gene
Interaction?
Mattson
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
childhood Sheese BE, et al. Dev
Psychopathol 2007 19(4):1039-46
Messinger & Henderson
47
Making temperamental
predictions

Variable-centered approach
–
How do folks differ on a variable
 Stability

Person-centered approach
–
Relations among constructs within individual
 Stability

over time
over time
Caspi
Messinger & Henderson
48
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
Age-3 behavior styles and
Questionnaire profiles at age 18
Messinger & Henderson
51
Age-3 behavior styles and
informant impressions at age 21
Messinger & Henderson
52
Anti-social and suicide attempts
Messinger & Henderson
54
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
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
58