PSYCH211 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Teddy Bear, Dazed, 18 Months

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH211
• Professor: Kathleen Bloom

Document Summary

When we describe one person as cheerful and upbeat, another as active and energetic, and still others as calm, cautious, or prone to angry outbursts, we are referring to temperament; early- appearing, stable individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation. Reactivity refers to quickness and intensity of emotional arousal, attention, and motor activity. Self-regulation refers to strategies that modify that reactivity. Research shows that temperament can increase a (cid:272)hild"s (cid:272)ha(cid:374)(cid:272)es of e(cid:454)pe(cid:396)ie(cid:374)(cid:272)i(cid:374)g ps(cid:455)(cid:272)hologi(cid:272)al problems or alternatively protect a child from the negative effects of a highly stressful home life. At the same time, thomas and chess (1977) discovered that parenting practices can modify (cid:272)hild(cid:396)e(cid:374)"s e(cid:373)otio(cid:374)al styles. Compared with difficult children, slow-to-warm-up children present fewer problems initially. However, they tend to show excessive fearfulness and slow, constricted behaviour in the late preschool and school years, when they are expected to respond actively and quickly in classrooms and peer groups. Toda(cid:455), the (cid:373)ost i(cid:374)flue(cid:374)tial (cid:373)odel of te(cid:373)pe(cid:396)a(cid:373)e(cid:374)t is ma(cid:396)(cid:455) roth(cid:271)a(cid:396)t"s.