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In psychology, temperament is the innate aspect of an individual's personality, such as introversion or extroversion.

Temperament is defined as that part of the personality which is genetically based. Along with character, and those aspects acquired through learning, the two together are said to constitute personality.

Historically the concept was part of the theory of the humours, which had corresponding temperaments. It played an important part in premodern psychology, and was important to philosophers like Immanuel Kant and Hermann Lotze.

More recently, with the emphasis on the biological basis of personality, the relationship between temperament and character has been examined with renewed interest

It has also inspired artists like Carl Nielsen, and Hindemith, whose music is featured in George Balanchine's ballet "The Four Temperaments." See also Keirsey Temperament Sorter.

Temperament in infants, children and adults

Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess began a classic longitudinal study in the 1950s regarding infant temperament. The study focused on how temperamental qualities influence adjustment throughout life. Chess and Thomas rated young infants on nine temperament characteristics, which by itself, or with connection to another affects how well a child fits in at school, their friends, and at home. Behaviors for each one of these traits are on a continuum. If a child leans towards the high or low end of the scale, while this is typical, it could be a cause for concern. The specific behaviors are: activity level, initial caution vs. curiosity, adaptability, mood, regularity of sleeping and eating patterns, intensity of emotion, distractibility, sensory sensitivity and attention span.

Going to separate out the traits in their own paragraph and add more detail.

Thomas and Chess found that many babies could be categorized into one of three groups: easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up. (Thomas & Chess 1977). Not all children can be placed in one of these groups. Approximately 65% of children fit one of the patterns. Of the 65%, 40% fit the easy pattern, 10% fell into the difficult pattern, and 15% were slow to warm up. Each category has its own strength and weakness and one is not superior to another.

Thomas and Chess showed that Easy babies readily adapt to new experiences, generally display positive moods and emotions and also have normal eating and sleeping patterns. Difficult babies tend to be very emotional, irritable and fussy, and cry a lot. They also tend to have irregular eating and sleeping patterns. Slow-to-warm-up babies have a low activity level, and tend to withdraw from new situations and people. They are slow to adapt to new experiences, but then slowly accepts them after repeated exposure.

Thomas and Chess found that these broad patterns of temperamental qualities are remarkably stable through childhood. These traits are also found in children across all cultures.

Thomas and Chess also studied temperament and environment. One sample consisted of white middle class families with high educational status and the other was of Puerto Rican working class families. They found several differences. Among those were:

Parents of middle class children were more likely to report behavior problems before the age of nine and the children had sleep problems. This may be because children start preschool between the ages of three and four. Puerto Rican children under the age of five showed rare signs of sleep problems, however, sleep problems became more common at the age of six.

Middle class parents also placed great stress on the child’s early development, believing that problems in early ages were indicative of later problems in psychological development, whereas Puerto Rican parents felt their children would outgrow any problems.

At the age of nine, the report of new problems dropped for middle class children but they rose in Puerto Rican children, possibly due to the demands of school.

Influences of Temperament on Family Life

Most experts agree that temperament does have a genetic and biological basis; but researchers also agree that environmental experiences can modify a child's temperament. Differences of temperament or behavior styles among each individual are important in family life. They affect the interactions among family members. While some children can adapt quickly and easily to family routines and get along with siblings, others who are more active or intense may have a difficult time adjusting. It is the interactions between these children and their parents and/or siblings that can lead to stress and friction within the family life.

Parents can also differ in temperament. The mix between parents and children also has an affect on family life. These affects can be positive, frustrating or even conflicting. Parents can refer to the “Goodness of Fit.” “Goodness of fit” refers to the match or mismatch between children and other family members. For example, a slow paced parent may be irritated by a highly active child or if both parent and child are highly active and intense it could mean big conflict. This can be useful to parents for figuring out how temperaments affect family relationships. What may appear to be a behavioral problem may actually be a mismatch between the parent’s temperament and their child’s. By taking a closer look at the nine traits that Thomas and Chess revealed from their study, parents can gain a better understanding of their child’s temperament and their own.

The website Temperament by Dr. Arthur Becker-Weidman provides a checklist scale for parents to use helping them to discover areas of match and mismatch between theirselves and the child. The checklist is from The Center for Family Development, 2001. Here is an example of the checklist:

On each scale below place a markto indicate your estimate of where your child, you, and your partner are on that scale. Child =*, you=X, and your partner=/.

                                        mid-point

ACTIVITY LEVEL ↓

          High/Active___________________________________________Low/Inactive

REGULARITY

          Predictable___________________________________________Unpredictable

INITIAL REACTION

      Bold/Approaches___________________________________________Cautious

ADAPTABILITY

                Quick___________________________________________Gradual

INTENSITY

                 Mild___________________________________________Intense

MOOD

       Sunny/Cheerful___________________________________________Stormy

DISTRACTIBILITY

               Rarely___________________________________________Easily

PERSISTENCE & ATTENTION SPAN

      Persistent/Long___________________________________________Intermitent/Short

SENSITIVITY

          Nonreactive___________________________________________Sensitive

If you find more than two mismatches there is a potential for conflict and parent-child difficulties. 2001 Center for Family Development. (Temperament by Dr. Arthur Becker-Weidman 2006).

Parents can encourage new behaviors in their children, and with enough support a slow-to-warm-up child can become less shy, or a difficult baby can become more emotionally stable. More recently infants and children with temperament issues have been called "spirited" to avoid negative connotations of "difficult" and "slow to warm up." Numerous books have been written advising parents how to raise their spirited youngsters.

Understanding Temperament to Improve Family Life

Understanding a child’s temperament can help reframe how parents interpret children’s behavior and the way parents think about the reasons for behaviors. By parents having access to this knowledge now helps them to guide their child in ways that respect the child’s individual differences. By understanding children’s temperaments and our own helps adults to work with them rather than try to change them. It is an opportunity to anticipate and understand a child’s reaction. It is also important to know that temperament does not excuse a child’s unacceptable behavior, but it does provide direction to how parents can respond to it. Making small and reasonable accommodations to routines can reduce tension. For example a child who is slow paced in the mornings may need an extra half hour to get ready. Knowing who or what may affect the child’s behavior can help to alleviate potential problems.

Recognizing the child’s temperament and helping them to understand how it impacts his/her life as well as others is important. It is just as important for parents to recognize their own temperaments. Recognizing each individual’s temperament, will help to prevent and manage problems that may arise from the differences among family members.

Temperament continues into adulthood, and later studies by Chess and Thomas have shown that these characteristics continue to influence behavior and adjustment throughout the life-span.

We are still looking for information about the later study done and will add more here if we can find some.

In addition to the initial clinical studies, academic psychologists have developed an interest in the field and researchers such as Bates, Buss & Plomin, Kagan, and Rothbart have generated large bodies of research in the areas of personality, neuroscience, and behavioral genetics.

Artistic Temperament

The tendency for those who are highly artistic to show dramatic swings in emotion. While not solely possessed by artists, it is highly prevalent among artists of all mediums, including painters, sculptors, musicians, writers, etc. This behavior is often characterized by being highly passionate about subjects of importance to the possessor of this behavior, extremely dedicated to certain goals, often hyper-aware of the presence of others, and at other times seemingly oblivious to the presence of others (which explains the odd, extreme movements some artists may have while performing their art.) It is also accompanied by the full range of all the emotions, often elevated to extremes. There is a theory that this due to the high instance of bipolar disorder in the artistic community, however this is a subject of debate. Also, in some individuals its origin could be due to a self-fulfilling expectation that, "Since I am an artist, I should have an artistic temperament."

Rudolf Steiner and the four temperaments

In his lectures on education, Rudolf Steiner brought a new approach to the four classical temperaments: melancholic, phlegmatic, sanguine and choleric. He emphasized their importance in elementary education, as this is a time when the child is strongly affected by his or her nature in this respect. A person's temperament may change, especially in the pre-puberty years, and in any case diminishes in importance as the personality becomes more developed after puberty.

In any case, the temperament is not exclusive; most people combine aspects of all of them. One or two may dominate, however, or be prominent by their absence. In addition, for each temperament Steiner pointed out that there are less and more mature forms: the sullen, self-absorbed melancholic can mature to the sympathetic helper and/or the deep thinker. A person may transform his or her own temperament, as well, either by becoming more mature in what is naturally given or by metamorphosing into a different temperament.

See also

• MBTI

References

• Anschütz, Marieke, Children and Their Temperaments. ISBN 0-86315-175-2.
• Carey, William B., Understanding Your Child's Temperament. ISBN 1-4134-7028-9.
• Steiner, Rudolf, The Four Temperaments. ISBN 910142114

• Personality