The Study of Temperament

Changes, Continuities, and Challenges

Robert Plomin, Judy Dunn

• Publisher: Psychology Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN:
  9780898596700
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134929535
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Developmental Psychology
• Index: Psychology

First Published in 1986. The modern history of temperament research began in the late 1950s with the New York Longitudinal Study. Twenty-five years later, temperament has become a major focus of research on early developing emotional and social traits. The impetus for this growth in temperament research stems from the merging of several shifts in child development research: from a view of the child as passive to a model of the child as an active, transacting partner with the environment; increasing interest in individual differences in development; an expansion of research on emotional and social development; and a clear change from an exclusive reliance on environmental explanations of developmental differences to a more balanced perspective that recognizes the possibility of biological as well as environmental influences. Most stimulating is the multidisciplinary flavor of temperament research-clinicians, infancy researchers, cultural anthropologists, and behavioral geneticists have, each for their own reasons, been drawn to the study of temperament. Each of these fields is represented in the present volume, which provides the first overview of the growing field of temperament.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• 1. The Measurement of Temperament
• 2. Issues of Stability and Continuity in Temperament Research
• 3. Continuity and Discontinuity of Temperament in Infancy and Early Childhood: A Psychometric Perspective
• 4. The New York Longitudinal Study: From Infancy to Early Adult Life
• 5. Temperamental Inhibition in Early Childhood
• 6. The EAS Approach to Temperament
• 7. Behavior-Genetics Research in Infant Temperament: The Louisville Twin Study
• 8. Children and Adolescents in Their Contexts: Tests of a Goodness of Fit Model
• 9. Changes in Associations Between Characteristics and Interactions
• 10. Temperament, Development, and Culture
• 11. Clinical Interactions of Temperament: Transitions from Infancy to Childhood
• 12. Commentary: Issues for Future Research
• Author Index
• Subject Index