Social Anxiety: Clinical, Developmental, and Social Perspectives by Stefan G. Hofmann & Patricia M. Dibartolo

Author:Stefan G. Hofmann & Patricia M. Dibartolo
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Academic Press
ISBN: 9780123750969
Publisher: Academic Press
Published: 2010-08-17T21:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

Temperamental Contributions

to the Development of

Psychological Profiles

Jerome Kagan

Department? Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138

Most scientists define a temperamental bias as a biologically based suscepti-

bility for particular feelings and actions, usually appearing during early child-

hood, that experiences sculpt into a large, but limited, number of possible

personality traits. The affective components of each bias include the ease and

intensity with which particular feelings are experienced and the individual’s

ability to regulate them. I have suggested that, although most temperamen-

tal biases are the result of heritable variation in brain neurochemistry, some

temperaments can be produced by prenatal events that are not strictly genetic,

including season of conception and maternal infections or stressors that alter

the chemical environment during gestation (Kagan & Snidman, 2004).

Because the number of possible biological foundations for a temperament

is very large, the majority of biases remain undiscovered. Some of these biases

will be rare and others relatively common. There are over 290 000 combina-

tions of the 12 blood types and their variants and the probability that any two

people will have the same combination is 3 out of 10 000 (Lewontin, 1995).

Because there are many more distinct neurochemical profiles than there are

blood types, the chance of any two individuals having the same pattern of tem-

peraments should be far less than 3 out of 10 000. Newton’s inverse square law

explained why there are seasons; Darwinian theory provided an account of

the similarities and differences among animals; the concept of “temperament”

helps to explain why fraternal twins develop different personalities and why

only some individuals exposed to a stressor acquire a form of psychopathology.

How many temperaments?

Infants vary in a relatively small number of behaviors that appear to be tem-

peramental in origin. The most obvious refer to reactions to the uncomfortable

Social Anxiety: Clinical, Developmental, and Social Perspectives. Doi: 10.1016/B978-0-12-375096-9.00012-2

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states of pain, cold, and hunger. Infants vary in both the intensity and duration

of distress to aversive events, as well as in the ease of being soothed; hence,

there should be at least four different temperamental biases: (1) infants who

cry intensely and do not soothe easily; (2) infants who cry intensely but are

soothed with minimal effort; (3) infants who are not seriously distressed but,

nonetheless, do not soothe easily; and, finally (4), those who are minimally

distressed and easily soothed.

Another quartet of temperaments is defined by reactions to unfamiliar or

unexpected events that are neither painful nor frustrating. These include new

foods, smells, sounds, and sights. Some infants become motorically active

to these incentives; others remain still; some cry; others are quiet. The com-

binations of these reactions generate four additional temperaments. Infants

also vary in their reaction to frustrations, such as losing the nipple they were

sucking or being restrained by a blanket or hands. The combination of vig-

orous motor activity and crying to these frustrations yields an additional four

temperaments. Four additional biases are defined by the degree of lability or

predictability of the infant’s behavior, as well as the frequency of spontane-

ous babbling, smiling, or limb movements that occur without any external

incentive.

These 16 temperaments are defined by the infants’ behavior rather than by

private psychological states that are not easily observed.

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