Relations of Temperament Dimensions to Young Children’s Strategy Use in a Novel Situation
Open Access
- Author:
- Scarlata, Mathilde
- Area of Honors:
- Psychology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Science
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Pamela Marie Cole, Thesis Supervisor
Sarah Myruski, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- Temperament
Effortful Control
Extraversion/Surgency
Negative Affectivity
Self-Regulation
Cognitive Resources
Emotion
Fear - Abstract:
- Temperament can be defined as individual predispositions to reactivity and regulation (Rothbart et al., 2004). Inherent in this conceptualization of temperament is the role of self-regulation, defined as the engagement of cognitive resources to alter a prepotent response, an aspect of temperament (Cole et al., 2019; Kopp, 1982; Rothbart et al., 2004). The present study hypothesizes that different dimensions of temperament—Negative Affectivity, Effortful Control, and Extraversion/Surgency—are related to the extent to which children respond fearfully and engage cognitive resources in a novel, fear-inducing context (Rothbart et al., 2004). Participants included 149 children between the ages of 30 and 60 months and their mothers. Mothers completed the Child Behavior Questionnaire as a measure of temperament dimensions. Children completed the Novel Boxes procedure, in which they were introduced to an unfamiliar research assistant (Segment 1) and asked to engage with a series of three novel, scary boxes (Segments 2-4). Two teams of behavioral coders rated children’s emotions, including fear, and the extent to which children engaged cognitive resources, as observed from their behavior from video records. As predicted, children who were rated as higher in Extraversion/Surgency were less fearful and engaged cognitive resources more frequently and to a greater extent. Contrary to hypotheses, higher Negative Affectivity was inversely related to children’s fear intensity and not related to their cognitive engagement, and higher Effortful Control was not related to higher cognitive engagement. The findings are discussed in relation to published evidence as well as in terms of future research directions.