A longitudinal study (G. K. Kochanska, 1997) showed
that temperamental fearfulness, assessed at toddler age
via observational data and maternal ratings, moderated
pathways to internalized conscience at age 4. For fearful
children, maternal gentle discipline deemphasizing power
predicted conscience development; for fearless children,
attachment security predicted conscience development. Electrodermal
reactivity assessed at age 4 on the same children was used
as a physiological reflection of fearful temperament and
was substituted for the earlier fearfulness measure to
test the theoretical model. As expected, for electrodermally
reactive children, maternal gentle discipline predicted
conscience, whereas for nonreactive children, attachment
security predicted conscience. The findings support the
notions of (a) electrodermal reactivity at an early age
as a correlate of temperament, (b) temperament as a moderator
of socialization in early moral development, and (c) lovelessness
in psychopathic individuals as an index of the failure
of the alternative pathway (via attachment) to conscience
in fearless children.