medigraphic.com
ISSN 0185-3325 (Print)
Órgano Oficial del Instituto Nacional de Psiquiatría Ramón de la Fuente Muñiz

2003, Number 3

<< Back Next >>

Salud Mental 2003; 26 (3)

¿Qué es el temperamento? El retorno de un concepto ancestral.

Albores-Gallo L, Márquez-Caraveo ME, Estañol B

Language: Spanish
References: 64
Page: 16-26
PDF size: 397.07 Kb.


ABSTRACT

History
The awareness of a peculiar style of behavioural functioning in individuals, basically regarding emotional nature and associated to personality present in Greek Medicine. Since ancient times, it still prevails.
Hippocrates in V a.D. described four types of individuals: the sanguine or cheerful type, the melancholic or of black bile, the irritable associated to an increase of yellow bile, and the phlegmatic (due to a phlegm excess), present in the passive or calmed type of individual.
This old concept is present in more recent theories that emphasize the relationship between temperament and neurotransmissers (Bond, 2001) and between these and specific receptors, genetically determined, associated to certain temperamental features (Cloninger, 1987, 1996; Auerbach, 2001). The concept of biological-genetics, and the “humoral” theory that support the idea that emotions constitute a distinctive feature of the temperament, remain valid for contemporary theories.

Categorical vision
In 1968, A. Thomas, S. Chess and H. Birch revolutionized the temperament´s concept in childhood pointing out the innate behavioural quality in contrast with predominant theories that considered children as passive recipients of external influences, as had been proposed in former unilineal and unidirectional models. They established nine behavioural categories present from birth: activity level; regularity or rhitmicity in biological functions, as feeding, sleep and elimination; approach to new stimuli like foods, toys or people; adaptability to new situations; answer threshold to stimuli; intensity of the reaction; humour quality; attention and distractibility as well as persistence. They pointed out 3 temperamental styles that are combinations of these categories: easy temperament (40% of their sample), difficult temperament (10%) and slow to warm up (15%), the remaining percentage constitutes mixtures of these 3 basic types.
These authors also developed the concept “goodness or poorness to fit” to make reference to a particular style to respond to the environment.

Traits´ vision
Goldsmith (1987) and Plomin (1993): considered emotions, activity and sociability as important temperamental domains. Rothbart (1988, 1989) highlighted the self-regulation and reactivity as a nuclear element of temperament; this author considered auto regulation as a group of processes to modulate (facilitate or inhibit) reactivity and include attention, approach or retreat, attack or inhibition as well as the ability to calm. This author also designed a temperament questionnaire for children.

Profiles´ vision
Kagan et al. (1987) developed the term of shyness or behavioural inhibition as a profile type of infantile behaviour, which is stable and present in 20% of the children. This profile contrasts with disinhibited type of children that approach without fear to events and people, and it comprise, 40% of the sample.
These authors also studied the relationship between these profiles and their neurobiologic response types. Shyness is associated to stable heart rates, high stress hormones levels like cortisol and norepinephrine, arterial blood pressure modifications and some changes in the voice parameters when speaking under stress cognitive conditions. Different studies have been done, to study the association between cortisol, shyness and insecure attachment, not present in secure attachment (Nachmias, 1996).

Genetics, temperament and neurotransmissers
Longitudinal studies in monozygotic twins (Robinson and cols., 1992) have identified the heretability basis of behavioural inhibition, they also suggested gene activation and deactivation in different stages of the child development (Cherny, 1994; Plomin, 1993). The first report of an association between a temperament feature such as novelty seeking (which is a response to novel stimulus), and a gene for the dopamine receptor (DrD4), was first published in 1996 in Nature Genetics (Cloninger, et al. 1996) and establishes a landmark in temperament research. The theory is that individuals with (DrD4) dopamine gene lacked in dopamine and they search for novelty experiences to increase dopamine release.
Toward convergence of models and theories.
The recognition that personality traits represent temperament psychobiological domains (Eysenck, 1992, 1997; Tellegen, 1985; Watson and Clark, 1993), will allow convergence of models and theories that basically would recognize:
1. The genetic component of personality or temperamental traits.
2. Core dimensions of personality studied in adults, such as neuroticism and extraversion, or behavioural inhibition in children, are associated to the affective experience and give support to the neurobiological basis of affection and emotion in temperament.
3. After decades of studies, investigators have converged in a phenotypic taxonomy of personality.
4. Research models in adults are being tested in children and children´s longitudinal research will help researchers to understand temperament and personalities at long life views.
The most recent models of temperament like the “Big Three” are studies derived from the theories of Eynseck; Tellegen, Watson and Clark developed their own Big Three model. Cloninger (1987) described a psychobiologic model which consisted of three dimensions genetically independent (novelty seeking, harm avoidance, and reward dependence).

Temperament and psychopathology
A major challenge nowadays is the study of temperament and its contribution to adaptative or maladapatative mechanisms in different healthy or psychopathological responses. Controversy remains regarding temperamental traits, debating wether these are risk factors or symptoms of a disorder (Graham and Stevenson, 1987).

Some examples of these associations include the following characteristics:
Difficult temperament and behaviour dysfunctions (Thomas et al., 1968), behavioral inhibition and anxiety dysfunctions (Biederman, 1993), extraversion factor and alcoholism problems (Wennberg, 2002), behavioural desinhibition and attention deficit disorder (Hirshfeld-Becker et al., 2002) and novelty seeking and substance abuse (Rose, 1995).
Finally, temperament as a protective factor has been pointed out by Werner and Garmezy longitudinal studies who established activity and sociability as important traits present in the development of resiliency.


REFERENCES

  1. ALLPORT GW: Concepts of trait and personality. Psychological Bulletin, 24:284-293, 1927.

  2. ALLPORT GW: Personality: A Psychological Interpretation. Holt, Nueva York, 1937.

  3. AHADI S, ROTHBERT MYE: Child temperament in the US and China: Similarities and differences. European J Personality, 7:359-378, 1993.

  4. AUERBACH JG, FAROY M, EBSTEIN R, KAHANA M, LEVINE J: The association of the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) and the serotonin transporter promoter gene (5-HTTLPR) with temperament in twelve months old infants. J Child Psychol Psychiatry, 42(6):777-83, 2001.

  5. BAGBY RM, RECTOR NA, BINDSEIL K, DICKENS SE, LEVITAN RD, KENNEDY SH, LEVITT AJ: Self report ratings and informants’ ratings of personalities of depressed outpatients. Am J Psychiatry, 155:437-438, 1998.

  6. BIEDERMAN J, ROSENBAUM JG, BOLDUC-MURPHY EA y cols.: A 3 year follow up of children with and without behavioral inhibition. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 32:814-821, 1993.

  7. BOND AJ: Neurotransmitters, temperament and social functioning. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol, 11(4):261-74, 2001.

  8. CASPI A: Personality development across the life course. En: Damon W, Eisenberg N (eds.). Handbook of Child Psychology. Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development. 5a. ed., pp. 311-352. Wiley, Nueva York, 1998.

  9. CAUDILL WA, WEINSTEIN H: Maternal care and infant behavior in Japan and America. Psychiatry, 32:12-43, 1969.

  10. CATTELL RB: The description of personality: Basic traits resolved into clusters. J Abnormal Social Psychology, 38:486- 498, 1943.

  11. CATELL RB: Personality: A systematic and factual study. McGraw Hill, Nueva York, 1950.

  12. COSTA PT, MC CRAE RR: Trait psychology comes of age. En: Sonderger TB (ed). Nebraska Symposium on Motivation: Psychology and Aging. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 169-204.Lincoln, 1992.

  13. CHERNY SS, FULKER DW, CORLEY RP, PLOMIN R y cols.: Continuity and change in infant shyness from 14 to 20 months. Behav Genet, 24:365-379, 1994.

  14. CLARK LA, WATSON D: Handbook of personality second edition. Theory and research. Lawrence A, Pervin, Oliver PJ (eds.), Temperament a New Paradigm for Trait Psychology, p. 399-423. The Gulford Press, Nueva York, 1999.

  15. CLONINGER CR: A systematic method for clinical description and classification of personality variants. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 44:573-588, 1987.

  16. CLONINGER CR, ADOLFSSON R, SVRAKIC DM: Mapping genes for human personality. Nature Genetics, 12:3- 4, 1996.

  17. CLONINGER CR, SVRAKIC DM, PRZYBECK TR: A psychobiological model of temperament and character. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 50:975-990, 1993.

  18. CONSTANTINO JN, CLONINGER CR, CLARKE AR, HASHEMI B, PRZYBECK T: Application of the seven-factor model of personality to early childhood. Psychiatry Res, 109(3):229-43, 2002.

  19. DE LA FUENTE R: Psicología médica. En: El Temperamento, los Motivos de la Conducta y el Carácter. Capítulo VII Fondo de Cultura Económica, México, 1983.

  20. EYSENCK HJ: Four ways five factors are not basic. Personality Individual Differences, 13:667-673, 1992.

  21. EYSENCK HJ: Personality and experimental psychology: The unification of psychology and the possibility of a paradigm. J Personality Social Psychology, 73:1224-1237, 1997.

  22. GARMEZY N: Developmental psychopathology: some historical and current perspectives. En: Magnusson D, Casaer P (eds.) Longitudinal Research on Individual Development. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1993.

  23. GRAHAM P, STEVENSON J: Temperament and psychiatric disorders: The genetic contribution to behaviour in childhood. Aust NZ J Psychiatry, 21:267-274, 1987.

  24. GOLDBERG LR: Language and individual differences: The search for universals in personals in personality lexicons. En: Wheeler L (ed.). Review of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol.1, pp. 203-234, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, 1981.

  25. GOLDSMITH HH, CAMPOS JJ: The structure of temperamental fear and pleasure in infants. Child Dev, 61:1944- 1964, 1990.

  26. GOLDSMITH HH, BUSS DM, PLOMIN R, ROTHBART MK, THOMAS A, CHESS S, HINDE R, MCCALL RB: Roundtable: What is temperament? Four approaches. Child Development, 58:505-529, 1987.

  27. HAMER D: The search for personality gebes: Adventures of a molecular biologist. Current Directions Psychological Science, 6:111-114, 1997.

  28. HIRSHFELD-BECKER DR, BIEDERMAN J: Temperamental correlates of disruptive behavior disorders in young children: preliminary findings. Biol Psychiatry, 51(7):563-74, 2002.

  29. JANG KL, LIVESEY WJ, VERNON PA: Heritability of the big five personality dimensions and their facets: a twin study. J Pers, 64:577-591, 1996.

  30. JANG KL, MCCRAE RR, ANGLEITNER A, RIEMAN R, LIVESLEY WJ y cols.: Heritability of facet-level traits in a cross cultural twin sample: Support for a hierarchical model of personality. J Personality Social Psychology, 74:1556-1565, 1998.

  31. KAGAN J, REZNICK JS, SNIDMAN N: The physiology and psychology of behavioral inhibition in children. Child Dev, 58:1459-1473, 1987.

  32. KAGAN J, REZNICK JS, SNIDMAN N: Biological basis of childhood shyness. Science, 240:167-173, 1988.

  33. KAGAN J, SNIDMAN N: Temperamental factors in human development. Am J Psicol, 46:856-862, 1991.

  34. KAGAN J: Biology and the child. En: Damon W, Eisenberg N (eds.). Handbook of Child Psycholog y. Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development. Quinta edición, pp. 177-235. Wiley, Nueva York, 1998.

  35. KELLEY TL: Oddities in mental make-up. Sch Soc, 24:529-534, 1926.

  36. MCCRAE RR, COSTA PT: Personality trait structure as a human universal. Am Psychologist, 52:509-516, 1997.

  37. MALHOTRA S: Variedad de factores de riesgo y pronóstico (outcomes): Una perspectiva India. En: Carey WB, McDevitt SC (eds). Clinical and Educational Applications of Temperament Research. Swets, Berwyin, 1989.

  38. NACHMIAS M, GUNNAR M, MANGELSDORF S, HORNIK R, BUSS K: Behavioral inhibition and stress reactivity; the moderating role of attachment security. Child Development, 67:508-522, 1996.

  39. PORGES SW: Vagal tone: a physiological marker of stress vulnerability. Pediatrics, 90:498-504, 1992.

  40. PLOMIN R, EMDE RN, BRAUNGART JM y cols. : Genetic change and continuity from fourteen to twenty months: the McArthur Longitudinal Twin Study. Child Dev, 64:1354-1376, 1993.

  41. PLOMIN R, OWEN MJ, MCGUFFIN P: The genetic basis of complex human behaviours. Science, 264(5166):1733-1739, 1994.

  42. PERRIN F, KLEIN D: Psychology. Pp. vii-375, Holt, Nueva York, 1926.

  43. POLLACK SD, CICHETTI D, KLORMAN R, BRUMA GHIM JT: Cognitive brain event-related potentials and emotion processing in maltreated children. Child Development, 68:773-787, 1997.

  44. ROBINSON JL, KAGAN J, REZNICK JS: The heritability of inhibited and uninhibited behavior: a twin study. Dev Psychol, 28:1-8, 1992.

  45. ROSENBAUM JF, BIEDERMAN J: Behavioral inhibition in children of parents with panic disorder and agoraphobia. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 45:463-470, 1988.

  46. ROSE RJ: Genes ad human behaviour. Annual Rreview Psychology, 46:625-654, 1995.

  47. ROTHBART MK: Temperament and the development of inhibited approach. Child Dev, 59:1241-1250, 1988.

  48. ROTHBART MK: Temperament and Childhood. En: Kohnstamm GA, Bates JE, Rothbart MK (eds.). Wiley, pp. 59-73, Nueva York, 1989.

  49. ROTHBART MK: Measurement of temperament in infancy. Child Development, 52:564-578, 1981.

  50. ROTHBART M, BATES J: Temperament. En: Damon W, Eisenberg N (eds.). Handbook of Child Psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development. Quinta edición pp.105-176. Wiley, Nueva York, 1998.

  51. SIEGEL RE: Galens system of phisiology and medicine. Karger, Basel, 1968.

  52. STRELAU J: Temperament-Personality-Activity. Academic Press, Londres, 1983.

  53. SYMONDS PM: What is an attitude? Psychol Bull, 24:200-201, 1927.

  54. SNIDMAN N, KAGAN J: Cardiac function and behavioral reactivity during infancy. Psychophysiology, 32:199-207, 1995.

  55. SVRAKIC DM, WHITEHEAD C, PRYSBECK TR, CLONINGER CR: Differential diagnosis of personality disorders by the seven-factor model of temperament and character. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 50:991-999, 1993.

  56. THOMAS A, CHESS S, BIRSCH H y cols.: Behavioural Individuality in Early Childhood. University Press, Nueva York, 1963.

  57. THOMAS A, CHESS S, BIRCH H: Temperament and Behavior: Disorders in Children. University Press, Nueva York, 1968.

  58. TELLEGEN A: Structures of mood and personality and their relevance to assessing anxiety, with an emphasis on self report. En: Tuma AH, Maser JD (eds.). Anxiety and the Anxiety Disorders, pp. 681-706, Erlbaum, Hillsdale, 1985.

  59. TENNES K, KREYE M: Children´s adrenocortical responses to classroom activities and tests in elementary school. Psychosom Med, 47:451-460, 1985.

  60. THORNDIKE EL: Educational Psychology. University Press, Nueva York, 1914.

  61. TITCHENER EB: The type-theory of simple reaction. Mind, 4:506-514, 1895.

  62. WATSON D, CLARK LA: Behavioral disinhibition versus constraint: A dispositional perspective. En: Wegner DM, Pennebaker JW (eds.). Handbook of Mental Control, pp. 506- 527. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, 1993.

  63. WENNBERG P, BOHMAN M: Childhood temperament and adult alcohol habits: a prospective longitudinal study from age 4 to age 36. Addict Behav, 27(1):63-74, 2002.

  64. WERNER EE: High risk children in young adulthood: a longitudinal study from birth to 32 years. Am J Orthopsychiatry, 59:72-81, 1989.




2020     |     www.medigraphic.com