Developmental Psych Temperament

Friday December 7th 2012
Developmental Psychology
Final Paper

Temperament: An Integrative Approach

Temperament is not only interesting but a vital field of study. Temperament is considered to be on a continuum with personality disorders. When certain characteristics of a person’s temperament become dominant and begin to impair function over a prolonged period of time then these characteristics meet the requirements for a personality disorder which is in essence an exaggeration of traits in an individual’s personality that we all possess in moderation, thus isolating specific aspects of temperaments that can be regarded as problem areas or precursors for problem behaviors aids in the study, treatment and quite possibly the prevention of personality disorders. Like all subjects in psychology the roll of coaction is the first question to be asked. How much of temperament is determined by biological factors and how much of temperament is determined by environmental aspects? The following research paper seeks to not only present compiled information but to interpret evidence in favor and against the genetic argument for temperament and the environmental argument for temperament.
In order to tackle these queries of where temperament stems from, an understanding of what temperament is in psychology must first be established. Consider the following definitions: According to the The American Heritage® Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2007, 2004 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved ; tem·per·a·ment (tmpr-mnt, tmpr--) n. 1. The manner of thinking, behaving, or reacting characteristic of a specific person. 2. Disposition; temper. The Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine. Copyright 2008 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved states temperament as a person 's natural or genetically determined disposition. Mentioned in: Personality Disorders. In the Mosby 's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. © 2009, Elsevier. It is found that temperament [tem´per-ah-ment] Etymology: L, temperamentum, mixture in proper proportions, the features of a persona that reflect an individual 's emotional disposition, or the way he or she behaves, feels, and thinks. The Miller-Keane Encyclopedia and Dictionary of Medicine, Nursing, and Allied Health, Seventh Edition. © 2003 by Saunders, an imprint of Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved, explains temperament as an inherent, constitutional predisposition to react to stimuli in a certain way; the term is often used synonymously with personality. Compare character. The McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. refers to temperament in psychology as an inborn pattern of behavior that tends to remain constant throughout life; a constitutional predisposition to react in a particular way to stimuli. See Artistic temperament, Temper. Cf Personality.
As is evident in the previous medical definitions of temperament, the term is regarded as inherent to the person that manifests the specific characteristics that compose that particular person’s temperament. If this holds to be true and is the general assumption then it is safe to say that genetics is the majorly accepted route to temperament. An example of this theory; Julie and Holy are identical twins that were separated at birth. They have never met and developed in extremely different environments. Julie was raised in the suburbs; her adoptive parents were a loving couple of dentists. Although Julie was not wealthy her family is well off, thus she never wanted for anything and was able to focus on her talents and studies. Julie is a successful corporate attorney, who has strived for excellence. Julie show’s strong traits of extroversion, she is ambitious and driven. Julie never loses sight of her goals and is very career oriented. Holy on the other hand was brought up in the projects. She was passed along from one foster family to the next and was never shown any true affection or given any oversight. On many occasions Holy did not have access to basic utilities in order to fulfill her fundamental human needs, much less was she able to attain a stable education while growing up. Holy soon learned to fend for herself and come out of the poverty she had been immersed in all of her life. Holy became an infamous drug dealer. She had several subunits all over the tri-state area and imported only the finest cannabis seeds from Afghanistan to plant in her own illegal agricultural operation. Quite literally Holy is a marihuana manufacturer. Holy is also an extrovert and very ambitious, she is lucrative and well respected with in her trade; although many would consider her a product of her circumstances she displays entrepreneurial traits. At first glance, Julie and Holy appear to be very different, one a successful mainstream business women and the other a King Pin, a criminal hegemon. However if one were to take away the focus they have given their lives it is easy to see that these women are of similar temperament. They are both extroverts, motivated, and aspire for more. These are characteristics of their temperament that were not decided by their environment. The major differences presented by these two women are where they chose to concentrate their efforts and determination; subsequently these differences are what can be regarded as influenced by their environments.
In contrast Julie could have taken advantage of her situation and lived off of her parents for as long as possible without being productive in any way for her own means or her future, just as well Holy could have lived off the state welfare system and become a substance abuser. These scenarios could have played out in these ladies lives had they both not had what could be described as Type A personalities a direct reference to their temperaments.
After taking the previously described hypothetical example of genetic influence on temperament into account one would think environment plays little to no role on a person’s ultimate compendium of personality characteristics. However there is also evidence that supports that even though an individual may be genetically predisposed for a certain disorder, if particular environmental factors are not present to trigger the genetic predisposition in may never be manifested, therefore it would not transcend from the genotype into the phenotype.
Understanding how child characteristics and the family environment relate to increases and decreases in problem behavior across childhood and adolescence are of key interest to developmental and clinical psychologists. One avenue to expand such knowledge is to examine the link between specific child characteristics and specific problem behaviors. Several studies have shown that family environmental factors might moderate the relationship between specific child temperamental characteristics and child internalizing and externalizing behavior (Bates, Pettit, Dodge, & Ridge, 1998; Morris et al., 2002; Stoolmiller, 2001).
Consider Andrew and Daniel, they are brothers. At ages five and seven Andrew and Daniel go on a fishing trip with their father. During this trip weather conditions become detrimental and all three family member fall over board, Andrew is immediately rescued by their father but Daniel gets caught in the fishing net and is under water for several minutes. Finally their father manages to rescue Daniel and bring their fishing boat to port. After the incident Andrew develops a fear of bodies of water that becomes so severe he is diagnosed with Phobic Disorder Natural-Environmental type, specifically Hydrophobia. However even though Andrew and Daniel have the same mother and father, and underwent the same traumatic experience, Daniel to an even further extent than Andrew due to almost drowning, Daniel did not develop any type of disorder, much less one specifically pertaining to the events of that day. How can this phenomenon be explained, through coaction. It would be a reasonable conclusion to state that Andrew’s genotype held the precursors for Phobic Disorder and Daniel’s genotype did not. Therefore both brothers were placed in a traumatic life threatening situation yet only one developed a subsequent disorder. Perhaps if this traumatic event had never occurred then neither brother would have a developed a disorder but because it did Andrew was grievously affected.
The hypothetical example that was just mentioned illustrates that although genetics did play a major part in the development of his disorder, the onset was triggered by an environmental factor, this is to say the genotypic characteristics that led him to manifest these traits in his phenotype might have very well laid dormant and never risen had it not been for the near drowning of his brother, and because of coaction, even though his brother did indeed almost drawn there were genotypic characteristics to be triggered thus he did not develop the disorder. Taking into account all that has been discussed ultimately even though environment does play a role in determining the outcome of a person’s temperament, it is undeniable that the major determining factor is in fact the individual’s biological predispositions. Ergo animals, including human beings are all born with a certain set of traits that are carried out through a beings existence and materialize according to that beings experiences and circumstances; nonetheless, if the being does not have these traits to begin with its situations will not create these traits. The aspects of temperament are pre-inscribed in the psychological material of an individual and cannot be fabricated by a situation, only triggered to become apparent.

References

Latzman, R. D. (2009). Interrelations among youth temperament, executive functions, and externalizing behaviors. The University of Iowa). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 124. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.librda.mville.edu:2048/docview/304901904?accountid=12257. (304901904).

Leve, L. D., Kim, H. K., & Pears, K. C. (2005). Childhood temperament and family environment as predictors of internalizing and externalizing trajectories from ages 5 to 17. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 33(5), 505-20. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10802-005-6734-7

Nigg, J. T., & H, H. G. (1998). Developmental psychopathology, personality, and temperament: Reflections on recent behavioral genetics research. Human Biology, 70(2), 387-412. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.librda.mville.edu:2048/docview/224539898?accountid=12257

References: Latzman, R. D. (2009). Interrelations among youth temperament, executive functions, and externalizing behaviors. The University of Iowa). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 124. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.librda.mville.edu:2048/docview/304901904?accountid=12257. (304901904). Leve, L. D., Kim, H. K., & Pears, K. C. (2005). Childhood temperament and family environment as predictors of internalizing and externalizing trajectories from ages 5 to 17. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 33(5), 505-20. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10802-005-6734-7 Nigg, J. T., & H, H. G. (1998). Developmental psychopathology, personality, and temperament: Reflections on recent behavioral genetics research. Human Biology, 70(2), 387-412. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com.librda.mville.edu:2048/docview/224539898?accountid=12257