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A tantrum is an emotional outburst wherein higher brain functions are unable to stop the emotional expression of the lower (emotional and physical) brain functions. Usually the tantrum is shown by children of the ages of 3-6 but sometimes 7-9; this is a very clear case of emotional disinhibition caused by immature forebrain development. It is not just children that throw tantrums, however, with celebrity tantrums being very common also. People who have intellectual disabilities such as Autism have tantrums much more often than normal people do. Because a tantrum is most often associated with children, it is often also colloquially known as a dummy spit, a reference to a human baby spitting out their dummy (pacifier) because it is unhappy.

In many situations, it can be a very effective political and social tool, especially for adults, such as police (Good cop/bad cop scenarios), custodial officers, childcare workers, teachers, therapists and politicians.

Most people might show their tantrum when they are upset or bothered. These people may have learnt consciously or unconsciously that they will probabilistically achieve their goal. This statistical probabilities material is consciously used by actuarialists such as Cognitive Behavioural Psychologists, to "mold" a client's behaviour.

There are several goals in a tantrum, which may or may not be the "reward(s)" that are attempted by the person. To many outsiders or unskilled people, these goals may seem irrational, unreasonable, inappropriate, criminal, unethical, immoral, or the work of some spiritual force(s). To people familiar with or trained to recognize the psychological causes of such behavior, however, there are clear emotional, cognitive behavioural and biochemical correlates to each and every tantrum.

Since there are chemical corellates to some tantrums, sometime medication can minimize but not always prevent tantrums. This is especially so for those people with Traumatic Brain Injury, which commonly affects the forebrain. The main ways to temporarily damage the forebrain are to poison it with a mood depressant (such as alcohol) or brain-fatigue by lack of sleep.

To most untrained people, a tantrum seems to be an irrational outburst, where the person may seem to be inconsolable, even when given what he or she wants. It can be categorized by an irrational fit of crying, screaming, defiance, and a resistance to every attempt at pacification in which even physical control is lost. The person may not stand or sit on their own. It differs from a normal fit in that even when the "goal" of the person is met, he or she is not calmed.

Tantrums are such common and powerful communication tools between people that some schools of acting demand them as an essential part of their training. Most good script-writers use the tantrum to emphasize important parts of their productions onto the audiences.

Other names

• Dummy spit
• Tanny spit (Irish)
• Hissy fit
• Tizzy

• Sociology