Many parenting and educational websites reference the term temperament to help describe different parental challenges and find solutions for staying connected and engaged with family members. What does temperament mean? How important is it to understand temperament?
Temperament helps determine how people react and behave during exposure to daily stimuli. Children’s temperamental traits are the innate reactions they display as they develop. Personal characteristics are evident within the first few years of life as parents and caregivers witness rapid emotional and behavioral growth.
After studying temperament through instructional training and genuine interest, I can tell you it is fascinating. There is an entire shelf of mine devoted to books written by Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas and textbooks describing the work of Sigmund Freud, Ivan Pavlov, and Carl Rogers. None with dust or any consideration for the thrift store basket. Temperament is a fascinating topic and one that, when appropriately understood, helps individuals obtain information about loved ones to create a proper understanding of their daily quirks and behaviors.
Why is Temperament Important for Child/parent Relationships?
Temperament is vital for relationships because it helps caregivers understand their children’s behaviors. Kids use different ways to communicate, so they succeed at their goals. It becomes easier for adults to understand that they are not being personally attacked by a reaction but witnessing a trait that helps determine human behavior.
According to Jennifer Hope Ph.D., temperament is the “biological compound that informs emotional reactivity,” which helps “influence behaviors.” Suppose you are driving into a massive blockage of traffic. Temperament determines your reaction to a decrease in speed and driving productivity. It is unique to you and your traits. Your behaviors and responses to the traffic pile are different from someone else’s because everyone is born with different temperamental characteristics.
During intense teaching moments, younger children who tend to slump back and ignore instructions with glazed-over eyes use their temperaments to convey a message. It may not always be apparent that this is happening. Adults typically forget to consider these reactions as a form of behavioral communication.
How Important is Temperament?
The importance of temperament on a scale of low to high priority is pretty darn crucial if you work with children, teens, young adults, or older adults in any setting.
Understanding temperaments and related traits help caregivers understand the reason behind behaviors and patterns. Learning how someone reacts to situations and responses is helpful during critical interactions because you know to adapt by tailoring communication techniques and listening routines. It is essential for adults who work closely with kids and teens to learn the basics of temperament, so they communicate effectively.
What are the 9 Temperament Traits and Their Characteristics?
The nine temperamental traits are activity level, regularity, initial reaction, mood, intensity, adaptability, distractibility, sensitivity, persistence.
Please check each of them out individually to learn more about each one and some examples.
Activity Level
The amount of physical exertion a person displays generally falls into the category of activity level. This can be a range of behaviors –fidgety, wiggly, overly enthusiastic, unmotivated, sluggish, and calm.
Regularity
The frequency an individual experiences everyday bodily habits and cycles are referred to as regularity. It is also called the biological rhythm. One’s regularity affects daily rituals like eating, sleeping, bowel movements, napping, and playing.
Initial Reaction
Also referred to as approach or withdrawal, the initial reaction is the trait that determines the rate at which a person learns to feel comfortable in a newly discovered opportunity. Some people tend to embrace and quickly adjust to new experiences, while others shy away.
Mood
Generally an over-used word, mood refers to a person’s general character and natural behaviors. Some people have varying qualities when considering perspectives that range from giddy and pleasant to angry and cynical.
Intensity
The level or threshold at which people express emotions is considered the intensity of a reaction. It is common to see children have sincere responses to people with a very high level of expression. Some kids are more reserved or less severe with their emotions.
Adaptability
The way that people get acclimated to a brand new environment is known as adaptability. Some people fluidly move throughout the day, and others experience new opportunities with less ease.
Distractibility
One’s attentiveness to certain stimuli is referred to as distractibility. While it may be easy for some to focus for long periods, others have a more challenging time applying themselves and paying attention.
Sensitivity
People who express discomfort to specific stimuli are experiencing the trait known as sensitivity. Physical and mental reactions are typical ways people express sensitivity to experiences –crying, hitting, scratching, and covering eyes. Typically the behaviors are related to the experience that the individual is attempting to react to –loud sounds, animals, lights, or family members.
Persistence
The length of time a child can spend on a task is considered persistence. It is normal to see some kids focus a lot of time and energy on a simple task and not give up until they are satisfied. Other children devote less time and express less motivation when experiencing new activities or trying out ideas.
What Determines Our Temperament?
According to Medline Plus, temperament is considered ‘between 20 and 60 percent genetic’, so people’s characteristics are mostly inborn. The environment does contribute to evolution and adaptation. Scientists are still studying how the environment and temperaments are related.
What is the Big 5 Refer?
The big 5 is a group of personality traits used to describe common characteristics that people display every day. There are many different personalities and traits used to categorize people are endless. The Big 5, also called OCEAN, is an easy-to-remember set of widely known features that help people classify personality types.
The way humans interpret temperament is influenced by how we see the world as we consider professions, relationships, and experiences. We wonder how certain behaviors shape opportunities and focus on creating our world to accommodate learned patterns. Our emotions, thought patterns, and behaviors help us make choices. Understanding why we have classified these behaviors will help us figure out how we got here and why we think about temperament this way. The big five is also called OCEAN.
Different features are classified into five categories called The Big Five:
- Openness
- Contiencousness
- Extroversion
- Agreeableness
- Neuroticism
The Relationship Between Temperaments and Personalities?
Temperament is the biological makeup that determines the way people behave and act. Personalities are the environmental product of the temperament that people are born with. Personalities are a backdrop for people’s behaviors and habits that are expressed after birth.
What Are the 4 personality Types?
Understanding the different aspects of temperament requires us to dig deeper and learn how the Greek philosophers classified temperaments. There are four major personality types: sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, and melancholic.
Who discovered the supine temperament? According to this website, the supine temperament was founded in 1983 by Drs. Richard and Phyllis Arno.
Sanguine
Phlegmatic
Choleric
Melancholic
Supine
Optimistic, positive, hopeful, carefree, confident, cheerful
Unenthusiastic, calm, unemotional, stable, nonchalant
Irritable, cross, angry, demanding, disruptive, awkward
Gloomy, emotional, or unemotional, empty, persnickety
Gentle, loyal, caring, dependent, willing, passive
How to Help Your Child Understand Their Temperament
Stay aware and focused when you explain your child’s behaviors to them. Learn to recognize patterns and different things your child does to achieve goals. Try to draw attention to the ways that your child reacts to things without being harsh or forceful. When children fail or succeed at a task, coach them by helping them to identify which behavior helped or hurt their progress.
How Does Temperament Affect Behavior?
Temperament plays a role in how a person responds and reacts. Consider a person’s needs, goals, and interests. How their behavior changes as they learn to attain a goal is how temperament affects behavior. Some people move through life more fluidly, and some are very intense –because of temperament.
Conclusion
As you can see, temperament is a very incredible topic. There is much to learn and many things to read. Hopefully, this helped explain a little, so you learn to identify and manage your children’s strong emotions and behaviors.