Table Of ContentJohn E, Bates & Theodore Wachs
D,
American Psychological Association
Washington, D.C.
t
Contributors ix
Preface xi
1 Introduction 1
John E. Bates
Part One: Basic Biological and
Theoretical Perspectives
Brain Substrates of Emotion and Temperament 17
Joseph E, Steinmetz
Neural Bases of Infant Temperament 47
Charles A. Nelson
A Psychobiological Approach to the Development
of Temperament
Mary K. Rothbart, Douglas Derryberry,
and Michael I. Posner
The Concepts of Arousal and Arousability as Used
in Temperament Studies I17
Jan Strelau
Quantitative Genetics and Molecular Genetics 143
Robert Plomin and Kimberly J. Saudino
Part Two: Temperament, Biology, and
Individual Adaptation
7 Psychoendocrine Studies of Temperament and Stress
in Early Childhood: Expanding Current Models 175
Megan R. Gunnar
vii
CONTENTS
8 Individual Differences in the Biological Aspects
of Temperament 199
Susan D. Calkins and Nathan A. Fox
9 Impulsive Unsocialized Sensation Seeking: The Biological
Foundations of a Basic Dimension of Personality 2 19
Marvin Zuckeman
Part Three: Implications of Biological Models
of Temperament
10 Methodological Implications of the Impending Engagement
of Temperament and Biology 259
Warren 0. Eaton
11 Toward Practical Uses for Biological Concepts
of Temperament 275
John E. Bates, Theodore D. Wachs, and Robert N. Emde
12 Behavioral Research in the Brave New World
of Neuroscience and Temperament: A Guide to the
Biologically Perplexed 307
Theodore D. Wachs and Beverly King
Author Index 337
Subject Index 351
About the Editors 363
viii
Contributors
John E. Bates, Department of Psychology, Indiana Uni-
versity
Susan D. Calkins, Institute for Child Study, University
of Maryland
Douglas Derryberry, Department of Psychology,O regon
State University
Warren 0. Eaton, Department of Psychology, University
of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Robert N. Emde, University of Colorado Medical School,
Denver, Colorado
Nathan A. Fox, Institute for Child Study, University of
Maryland
Megan R. Gunnar, Institute of Child Development, Uni-
versity of Minnesota
Beverly King, Department of Psychological Science, Pur-
due University
Charles A. Nelson, Institute of Child Development, Uni-
versity of Minnesota
Robert Plomin, Center for Developmental and Health
Genetics, Pennsylvania State University
Michael I. Posner, Department of Psychology,U niversity
of Oregon
Mary K. Rothbart, Department of Psychology, University
of Oregon
Kimberly J. Saudino, Center for Developmental and
Health Genetics, Pennsylvania State University
Joseph E. Steinmetz, Department of Psychology, Indi-
ana University
ix
CONTRIBUTORS
Jan Strelau, Faculty of Psychology, University of War-
saw, Warsaw, Poland
Theodore D. Wachs, Department of Psychological Sci-
ence, Purdue University
Marvin Zuckerman, Department of Psychology, Univer-
sity of Delaware
X
Preface
B
0th basic and clinical scientists, especially those interested in child
development, have become increasingly interested in temperament.
Part of this appeal has to do with the fact that temperament can be viewed
at both a biological and a behavioral level. The main appeal of the concepts
of temperament is that they theoretically represent fundamental, biolog-
ical processes. This has made temperament especially important in the
scientific movement toward understanding children’s development as a
systemic process, with contributions not only from the environment but
also from characteristics of the individual child. Although temperament
is theoretically at the interface of biology and behavior, for the most part,
research on temperament focuses on behavioral rather than biological
processes.
This book grew initially out of our curiosity about how temperament
is rooted in biology. Like many other researchers, both of us have studied
temperament primarily as a behavioral variable, viewing the assumed
biological basis as a black box. In large part, this reflects our lack of
understanding about the biological basis of behavior in general and tem-
perament in particular. Although a number of book chapters and articles
have appeared in the past few years that include some information about
the biological bases of temperament, few of them have focused sharply
on this question. We felt, even as behaviorally oriented researchers, that
a sharper focus needed.
was
Our search for a better developed understanding of the biological
roots of temperament first took the form of a conference that we orga-
nized. We had been tapped to take our turn as organizers of the Ninth
Occasional Temperament Conference, a loosely organized but remarkably
Persistent and regular group of developmentally oriented researchers that
has been meeting about every 2nd year since the late 1970s. We decided
xi
PREFACE
on a biological focus. This conference was held from October 2931,1992,
in Bloomington, Indiana.
The main discussions of the conference focused on the topics that
are presented in this book in the form of chapters. We felt that the sharp
focus that we had sought was realized in these presentations and in the
dialogue that ensued. An opening in the conference’s schedule allowed
Hill Goldsmith (a noted behavioral geneticist) to extemporaneously or-
ganize a very interesting panel discussion on quantitative genetics ap-
proaches. Other participants in this discussion included Adam Matheny,
Dick Rose, Julia Braungart, and Bob Emde. In addition to the main dis-
cussions, posters were presented by a number of other noted researchers,
including C. Stifter, J. Cameron, D. Rice, R. Hansen, D. Rosen, W. Carey,
L. Weissbluth, M. Weissbluth, B. Schraeder, A. Sanson, M. Prior, D. Smart,
F. Oberklaid, S. McClowry, G. Mettetal, R. Thomas, C. Ratekin, A. Slot-
boom, E. Elphick, M. Trudel, A. Legendre, F. Sinclair, J. Naud, Pai Chih
Kao, J. Worobey, G. Kochanska, and K. Murray. These researchers and
others (e.g., Stella Chess, Alex Thomas, Chuck Halverson, and Roy Martin)
contributed greatly to the intellectual stimulation of the meeting.
With the conference as a springboard, the next step in our search
was the present book. Some of the biologically oriented researchers who
participated at the conference were asked to contribute chapters on their
specialty areas. They were asked not merely to summarize their knowl-
edge on the biological roots of temperament but to bridge the apparent
gap between behavioral and biological researchers. We feel that the chap-
ter authors succeeded in this mission. Behaviorally oriented readers of
this book will gain a greater appreciation of the beautiful details of the
biological roots of individual differences in development. Biologically
oriented readers will gain a greater appreciation of how individual dif-
ferences in behavior might result from complex interactions between
biological and nonbiological processes.
An effort such as this owes much to the contributions of others. The
contribution of an edited collection such as this one is directly related
to the effort and skill of the chapter authors. We were exceedingly for-
tunate to have the collaboration of authors of such high quality. They are
an eminent group of scholars who have definitely provided the educational
xii
PREFACE
process we sought when we started this project. We are grateful to them
for sharing their expertise in such interesting writing and for their gracious
responses to our editorial efforts.
The American Psychological Association (-A) Science Directorate
awarded us a grant for organizing the conference. The editors are grateful
not only to APA for their financial support of the conference but also to
the Dean of Research at Indiana University and the Dean of Liberal Arts
at Purdue University for providing matching funds. We also wish to thank
our respective departmental chairpersons, Margaret Intons-Peterson (In-
diana University) and Gerald Gruen (Purdue University) for their support
and encouragement. Thanks are also due to a number of colleagues and
students, who helped greatly in the preparations for and logistics of the
conference, and to Liz Feitl, who provided secretarial-organizational help
in getting the preparations for the conference underway. We also are
especially grateful to Lana Fish, who handled the major part of the con-
ference arrangements in her typical outstanding way.
The conference and the editing of this book have been both chal-
lenging and stimulating for us. We hope that the readers of this book will
find some of the same challenges and rewards.
John E. Bates
Theodore D. Wachs
xiii
CHAPTER 1
Introduction
John E. Bates
I
nterest in the topic of temperament has grown at an increasing rate
over the past 25 years, especially in the context of child development
(Bates, 1989b). Temperament terms frequently appear in models of child
development and social adjustment. Among the empirical advances in the
area are the covariations found between temperament and other dimen-
sions, including behavior problems (Bates, 1987, 1989a);a ttachment (Bel-
sky & Rovine, 1987; Goldsmith & Alansky, 1987); maternal depression
(Cutrona & Troutman, 1986); parent-child relations (Crockenberg, 1986);
and children’s behavior in laboratory learning situations (Wachs, Morrow,
& Slabach, 1990), during I& testing (Bathurst & Gottfried, 1987), at home
(Sanson, Prior, & Oberklaid, 1985), and in the classroom (Pullis, 1985).
Despite this empirical progress, however, there is still considerable un-
certainty about the meaning of the empirical results. Do operational mea-
sures reflect influences from core, inborn factors in the child-as model
testers have hoped-or alternatively, are they indexes of the current en-
1
JOHN BATES
E.
vironment, the accumulated experience of the child, or informants’ cog-
nitive-perceptual construal processes?
Concepts of Temperament
Conceptually, temperament encompasses multiple levels (Bates, 1989b).
At the most observable level, dimensions of temperament are defined in
terms of patterns of behavior, with questions of the developmental origins
of the behavior set aside. For example, one could define a dimension of
temperament the behavior pattern of negative emotionality. At this
as
level of definition, one is not concerned with origins-whether from con-
stitutional factors, environmental-experiential factors, or both. In con-
trast, at a deeper level, dimensions of temperament are explicitly defined
as behavior patterns that develop from biological characteristics. The
developmental process by which constitutional factors produce temper-
ament, including genes and neural structure and function, has to include
repeated organism-environment transactions (Wachs, 1992). Indeed, it is
becoming very difficult to think of biological influences, from the level
of the DNA codes on up, as operating independently of the environment
(Gottlieb, 1992; Hinde, 1992).
There is nearly universal agreement among temperament research-
ers that the individual differences that are called temperament have de-
velopmentally early, biological roots (Goldsmith et al., 1987). In fact, a
very big part of the conceptual appeal of temperament concepts is their
assumed inborn, biological basis, even if it is also generally agreed that
temperament characteristics may shift over time to some degree. Re-
searchers and clinicians are more and more often searching for improved
ways to describe how biological and environmental factors interact to
produce individual adaptations (Lazarus, 1991; Wachs & Plomin, 1991).
Nevertheless, until now, the major research emphasis has been on tem-
perament at the behavioral level. Only recently has emphasis been given
to empirical and theoretical explorations of the biological roots of tem-
perament.
This book brings together leading examples of the recent research
on the biological origins of temperament-relevant behavior. The book was
2
