Chapter 9
Things to think about before reading this Chapter
- How do developmental scientists distinguish temperament from emotion?
- How might some of the early aspects of development—neurological, perceptual, cognitive, language—be influenced and be influenced by individual differences in temperament and emotion in childhood?
- At several points in this chapter the authors argue that traditional understandings of emotion, temperament, and the self have been replaced by more contemporary ones in developmental science. How would you describe the common features of the themes of these changes?
- What developmental mechanisms can be used to explain stability and change in temperament, personality, and the self from infancy through adulthood?
- What would you say are the strengths and limitations of taking a strong individual approach to understanding psychological development?
Chapter Outline
THE INDIVIDUAL CHILD: TEMPERAMENT, EMOTION, SELF, AND PERSONALITY
Introduction
Temperament
Defining Temperament
Dimensions of Temperament
Stability of Temperamental Qualities, and Prediction of Later Behavior
Temperament and Development
Temperament: Conclusion and Future Directions
Emotion
Defining Emotion
What is Emotional Development the Development of?
Neurobiological foundations
Emotion perception
Emotional understanding
Empathy and emotional contagion
Emotion and the growth of self-understanding
Understanding and the use of display rules
Emotion regulation
Emotion and Relationships
Emotion: Conclusion and Future Directions
Self
What is “Self”?
Methods of Developmental Study
A Developmental Outline of the Self
Infancy
Early childhood
Middle childhood
Adolescence and beyond
Self: Conclusion and Future Directions
Conclusions
Suggested Readings
Bartsch, K., & Wellman, H. M. (1995). Children talk about the mind. New York: Oxford University Press.
Caspi, A., & Shiner, R. L. (2006). Personality development. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), N. Eisenberg (Vol. Ed.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. 3: Social, emotional and personality development (6th ed., pp. 300–365). New York: Wiley.
Cole, P. M., & Tan, P. Z. (2007). Emotion socialization from a cultural perspective. In J. E. Grusec & P. D. Hastings (Eds.), Handbook of socialization: Theory and research (pp. 516–542). New York: Guilford.
Denham, S. (1998). Emotional development in young children. New York: Guilford.
Eisenberg, N. & Morris, A. S. (2002). Children’s emotion-related regulation. In R. Kail (Ed.), Advances in child development and behavior (Vol. 30, pp. 190–229). San Diego, CA: Academic.
Gunnar, M. R., & Vasquez, D. (2006). Stress neurobiology and developmental psychopathology. In D. Cicchetti & D. Cohen (Eds.), Developmental psychopathology, Vol. 1: Developmental neuroscience (2nd ed., pp. 533–577). New York: Wiley.
Nelson, K., & Fivush, R. (2004). The emergence of autobiographical memory: A social cultural developmental theory. Psychological Review, 111, 486–511.
Rothbart, M. K., & Bates, J. E. (2006). Temperament. In W. Damon & R. M. Lerner (Eds.), Handbook of child psychology, Vol. 3: Social, emotional and personality development (6th ed., pp. 99–166). New York: Wiley.
Sroufe, L. A. (1996). Emotional development. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Thompson, R. A. (2006b). Conversation and developing understanding: Introduction to the special issue. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 52(1), 1–16.
Thompson, R. A., Lewis, M., & Calkins, S. D. (2008). Reassessing emotion regulation. Child Development Perspectives, 2(3), 124–131.
Tomasello, M., & Rakoczy, H. (2003). What makes human cognition unique? From individual to shared to collective intentionality. Mind & Language, 18, 121–147.
Glossary
Autobiographical memory: Emerging after the third birthday, personal memories of past events of one’s life that rely upon a sense of self that is central to the narrative account, organizing and giving meaning to the events that are remembered.
Behavioral inhibition: A moderately stable self-regulatory response that causes some children to withdraw from unfamiliar people and situations.
Conscience: Relationally influenced cognitive and affective processes which govern how young children construct and act consistently with generalizable, internal standards of conduct.
Differential susceptibility hypothesis: The view that some temperamental or genetic characteristics render children more susceptible to positive as well as negative environmental influences.
Display rules: Social rules governing the appropriate expression of emotion in social situations.
Effortful control: A temperamental quality that concerns the ability to focus and/or shift attention, thinking, or behavior to accomplish one’s goals.
Emotion regulation: The management of emotions to accomplish one’s goals.
Functionalist approach: Explains emotion in terms of goal attainment in everyday experience: “(e)motion is thus the person’s attempt or readiness to establish, maintain, or change the relation between the person and his or her changing circumstances, on matters of significance to that person” (Saarni, et al., 2006, p. 227).
Internal working models: Mental representations of the self, other people, and relationships that young children construct from their interactions with attachment figures.
Joint attention: A child’s shared attention with another via eye contact, often established through referential pointing and shared emotional expression.
Molecular genetics: The study of the structure and function of specific gene polymorphisms and their behavioral correlates.
Neurotransmitters: Biochemical substance which is released by the presynaptic neuron at synapses that transmits information to another neuron.