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Contributors
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- By Michael H. Allen, Leora Amira, Victoria Arango, David W. Ayer, Helene Bach, Christopher R. Bailey, Ross J. Baldessarini, Kelsey Ball, Alan L. Berman, Marian E. Betz, Emily A. Biggs, R. Warwick Blood, Kathleen T. Brady, David A. Brent, Jeffrey A. Bridge, Gregory K. Brown, Anat Brunstein Klomek, A. Jacqueline Buchanan, Michelle J. Chandley, Tim Coffey, Jessica Coker, Yeates Conwell, Scott J. Crow, Collin L. Davidson, Yogesh Dwivedi, Stacey Espaillat, Jan Fawcett, Steven J. Garlow, Robert D. Gibbons, Catherine R. Glenn, Deborah Goebert, Erica Goldstein, Tina R. Goldstein, Madelyn S. Gould, Kelly L. Green, Alison M. Greene, Philip D. Harvey, Robert M. A. Hirschfeld, Donna Holland Barnes, Andres M. Kanner, Gary J. Kennedy, Stephen H. Koslow, Benoit Labonté, Alison M. Lake, William B. Lawson, Steve Leifman, Adam Lesser, Timothy W. Lineberry, Amanda L. McMillan, Herbert Y. Meltzer, Michael Craig Miller, Michael J. Miller, James A. Naifeh, Katharine J. Nelson, Charles B. Nemeroff, Alexander Neumeister, Matthew K. Nock, Jennifer H. Olson-Madden, Gregory A. Ordway, Michael W. Otto, Ghanshyam N. Pandey, Giampaolo Perna, Jane Pirkis, Kelly Posner, Anne Rohs, Pedro Ruiz, Molly Ryan, Alan F. Schatzberg, S. Charles Schulz, M. Katherine Shear, Morton M. Silverman, April R. Smith, Marcus Sokolowski, Barbara Stanley, Zachary N. Stowe, Sarah A. Struthers, Leonardo Tondo, Gustavo Turecki, Robert J. Ursano, Kimberly Van Orden, Anne C. Ward, Danuta Wasserman, Jerzy Wasserman, Melinda K. Westlund, Tracy K. Witte, Kseniya Yershova, Alexandra Zagoloff, Sidney Zisook
- Edited by Stephen H. Koslow, University of Miami, Pedro Ruiz, University of Miami, Charles B. Nemeroff, University of Miami
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- Book:
- A Concise Guide to Understanding Suicide
- Published online:
- 05 October 2014
- Print publication:
- 18 September 2014, pp vii-x
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8 - A temperamental disposition to the state of uncertainty
- Edited by Jon Rolf, The Johns Hopkins University, Ann S. Masten, University of Minnesota, Dante Cicchetti, University of Rochester, New York, Keith H. Nüchterlein, University of California, Los Angeles, Sheldon Weintraub, State University of New York, Stony Brook
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- Book:
- Risk and Protective Factors in the Development of Psychopathology
- Published online:
- 06 August 2010
- Print publication:
- 31 August 1990, pp 164-178
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Summary
An approach to temperament
The behaviors of young children that are classified as temperamental can be named with constructs that remain close to the events (a Baconian strategy that minimizes error) or constructs that are considerably more abstract. The broader concepts are preferred by most scholars, but they require a large corpus of reliable information and a unifying idea. Because facts have been thin and theory weak, the names for temperamental characteristics have usually, and properly, referred to observed qualities, such as activity level, lability of mood, crying, and approach or withdrawal to novelty (Buss & Plomin, 1975). During the last two decades, however, biologists and ethologists have produced rich descriptions of behavioral ontogeny in mammalian species that hold the promise of providing an initial rationale for parsing the dimensions of temperament from above rather than from below.
One of the many theoretical perspectives that might be used for the classification of temperament rests on four assumptions. The first, which is noncontroversial, assumes that all animals possess structures and functions that permit them to cope with at least four universal adaptational problems: eating, sleeping, reproduction, and protection from harm. The second, only a little less obvious, states that evolutionary changes within the mammals have involved alterations in the degree of preparedness to react to particular incentives and to issue specific motor actions that serve the adaptation domains. During mating, for example, rodents are prepared to be especially sensitive to chemical signals; primates are more sensitive to visual cues. When harm is a possibility, kittens are prepared to freeze to a threat; primate infants become excited and emit distress calls.