Article

Initial Reactions to Unfamiliarity

Authors:
To read the full-text of this research, you can request a copy directly from the authors.

No full-text available

Request Full-text Paper PDF

To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.

... We collected parent reports and teacher reports of children's social anxiety, and parent reports of children's sociability. Further, direct observation of activity level was coded during the speech delivery given that reduction in activity level to perceived threat is considered a fear response (e.g., Buss, Davidson, Kalin, & Goldsmith, 2004;Campos, Barrett, Lamb, Goldsmith, & Sternberg, 1983;Frazier-Wood & Saudino, 2017;Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1992;Rothbart, 1988). Finally, saliva samples were collected to index children's salivary cortisol reactivity in response to the social stressor. ...
... Direct observation of activity level. We chose to examine activity level during the speech task as a dependent measure because children have the tendency to reduce activity in response to perceived threat (Campos et al., 1983;Frazier-Wood & Saudino, 2017;Kagan et al., 1992;Rothbart, 1988), with reduced activity being conceptualized as freezing behavior characteristic of a fear response (e.g., Buss et al., 2004). ...
... challenges (and accompanying low sociability) may be one mechanism for continuity of negative (fearful) shyness. Indeed, negative shy children in the present study displayed more fear-related behavior (i.e., lower activity levels) during the social stressor characteristic of a fearful temperament (Buss et al., 2004;Campos et al., 1983;Kagan et al., 1992;Rothbart, 1988), had relatively lower levels of sociability, and appeared to be at risk for clinically significant levels of social anxiety observed during the school-age years. Overall, we speculate that negative shyness reflects a fearbased construct that may be rooted in early temperament, has been maintained by low sociability, and places children at risk for social anxiety (Poole et al., in press;Schmidt & Poole, 2017). ...
Article
Full-text available
Most research treats shyness as a homogenous phenomenon when examining its correlates and consequences, which limits the identification of specific groups of shy children who may be at differential risk for maladaptive social outcomes. Here, we examined whether different types of shyness were uniquely associated with social adjustment and physiological stress reactivity in school-age children (n = 92; Mage = 7.47 years; SD = 2.23 years). During the completion of a videotaped self-presentation task, behavioral measures of positivity and avoidance were coded in order to derive shyness groups (i.e., positive shy: high positivity and high avoidance; negative shy: low positivity and high avoidance; and non-shy: low avoidance). Further, during the self-presentation task, direct observation of activity level was coded, and salivary cortisol reactivity to the social stressor was measured. We also collected parent- and teacher report of children’s social anxiety, and parent report of children’s sociability. We found that negative shy children were more socially anxious according to both parent- and teacher report, less sociable, and they also displayed reduced activity levels during the speech than the positive shy and non-shy children. Positive shy and non-shy children were indistinguishable across all measures of social behavior. Shyness group had no influence on children’s cortisol stress reactivity. Our findings provide support for heterogeneity in the expression of shyness, and highlight that not all shy children experience poor social adjustment. Expression of positivity during socially threatening situations may have an adaptive social function in shy school-age children, as it is associated with reduced social anxiety and increased sociability.
... While the empirical roots of the stress reactivity typology lie in observations of nonhuman primates, the model appears relevant to humans. A similar pattern of behaviors has been identified in inhibited children (Kagan, 1989;Kagan, Snidman & Arcus, 1992). Here again, the pattern may be relevant to cortisol secretion because a weak trend toward higher cortisol has been reported in inhibited children (Kagan et al., 1988). ...
... First, base rates for the R+ and R-types were 16.5% and 16.1%, respectively, in the initial study. These values were near the 15% rates for each type suggested by Kagan and his colleagues (Kagan, Reznick, & Snidman, 1986;Kagan, 1989), although these figures have recently been revised to as high as 20% for inhibited and 35% for uninhibited (Kagan et al., 1992). Second, the R+ and R-clusters were the only profiles that replicated in a second study utilizing a different personality inventory in a different military population (Vickers, Walton, Hervig, & Conway, 1993). ...
... Combining insights from the empirical stress reactivity and behavioral inhibition literatures (Higley & Suomi, 1989;Kagan et al., 1992;Sapolsky, 1990a,b) with theoretical principles from personality theory and analysis procedures appropriate for testing alternative hypotheses holds promise of significantly enhancing our understanding of the role of personality in stress responses. This wedding of empirical evidence, theory, and analysis should help provide more -26-interpretable results than are obtained from the typical psychological study (Meehl, 1990). ...
Article
Full-text available
A three-group stress reactivity typology was compared to a five-factor dimensional personality model as predictors of cortisol secretion in two samples of U.S. Navy recruits (n = 40 and n = 53) during military basic training. Initial exposure to basic training was associated with elevated cortisol levels compared to later in training. Individual differences in cortisol were moderately stable over the course of basic training, but neither personality model predicted the stable individual differences reflected in cortisol. In the typological model, stress reactive individuals showed higher cortisol at the end of training. In the dimensional model, agreeableness was associated with higher cortisol in the middle of training, and conscientiousness was associated with lower cortisol at the end of training, so the dimensional model predicted cortisol over a wider range of training conditions. These results are interpreted as consistent with a conditional person-environment fit model of stress. The model postulates that different personality attributes predict cortisol secretion when social stimuli relevant to those attributes are present. The relationships are conditional in that they are present only in a stable social situation.
... Inhibited and uninhibited styles are likely to be important for understanding the degree to which a child approaches or withdraws from novel experiences and people, and, as such, are as or more likely than other temperament attributes to be important in predicting teacher–child relationship quality in early childhood. People who are apprehensive toward new people, events, and things are categorically different from others who approach novelty with ease (Caspi & Silva, 1995; Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1992 ). They have a biologically based predisposition to be inhibited. ...
... They have a biologically based predisposition to be inhibited. In the general population, approximately 15% to 20% of people are inhibited, about 30% to 35% of people are uninhibited, and the remainder of the population falls somewhere in between (Kagan, 1997; Kagan et al., 1992; Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1998). These classifications remain fairly stable for 60% of children through at least age 9 (Kagan et al., 1998 ). ...
Article
Full-text available
Current educational policy emphasizes "school readiness" of young children with a premium placed on preschool interventions that facilitate academic and social readiness for children who have had limited learning experiences prior to kindergarten (Rouse, Brooks-Gunn, & McLanahan, 2005). The teacher–child relationship is viewed as a critical mechanism for the effectiveness of interventions (Girolametto, Weitzman, & Greenberg, 2003; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Early Child Care Research Network, 2003). The purpose of this study was to determine how children's temperament and language skills predict teacher–child relationship quality. The sample consisted of 99 at-risk preschool students. Three findings emerged: (a) bolder children with lower language complexity were more likely to have higher levels of conflict in their relationships with teachers, (b) shyer children with greater language complexity were more likely to have dependent relationships with their teachers, and (c) teacher effects accounted for more of the variance in conflictual and dependent teacher-child relationships compared to children's behavioral inhibition and language complexity. This study shows that teacher-child relationships are multirelational. Individual differences in temperament and language skills affect teacher-child interactions, and ultimately, contribute to the effectiveness of classroom interventions. Such information helps to unpack the complexities of classroom quality by increasing awareness among practitioners of factors contributing to positive teacher–child relationships.
... In addition, there appears to be considerable overlap in the clinical pictures of shyness and introversion, and Turner et al. (1990) speculated on the possible relationship of shyness to social phobia. Furthermore, the early onset pattern of anxiety, inhibition, and shyness that is called behavioral inhibition (BI; Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1992) may be a developmental precursor of social phobia. Alternatively, BI may serve as a constitutional vulnerability for the development of social phobia (and other anxiety disorders) by increasing an individual's sensitivity to social evaluation of traumatic experiences. ...
Article
Full-text available
Sixty-eight individuals with specific or generalized social phobia and 25 normal controls were assessed for presence of a family history of anxiety, childhood shyness, traumatic conditioning experiences, neuroticism, and extraversion. Subtype differences emerged, including significantly greater neuroticism and a more frequent history of shyness in the generalized subtype. Those with the generalized subtype also had significantly lower extraversion scores, and those with the specific subtype had a significantly higher frequency of traumatic conditioning episodes. Together, traumatic conditioning and childhood shyness predicted the presence of social phobia, although other unidentified factors also appeared to be relevant. The results are discussed in terms of potentially different modes of onset for the subtypes of social phobia and the role of neuroticism and introversion in the development of the disorder.
... Examining the development of internalizing disorders (e.g., anxiety) across biological and psychological (i.e., behavioral) domains (Bauer et al., 2002) is critical because dysregulation of physiological systems is common among children with internalizing disorders (Bauer et al., 2002), and numerous studies have documented physiological patterns associated with DF and BI (Buss et al., 2018;Fox et al., 2005). Theoretically, the early emergence of temperamental fearfulness suggests a biological basis (Kagan, 1994;Kagan et al., 1988;Kagan & Snidman, 1991;Kagan et al., 1992;Shiner et al., 2012). Decades of research have examined putative biological markers (Buss et al., 2004;Fox, Henderson, et al., 2008) but we still lack a complete understanding of the biological-behavioral link. ...
Preprint
Full-text available
Social anxiety disorder is among the most common forms of pediatric psychopathology. Social anxiety symptoms peak in adolescence and are associated with significant impairment encompassing familial, social, and academic domains. Considerable heterogeneity in symptomatology, risk factors, and biological underpinnings exists across anxious adolescents, which has implications for (1) understanding the developmental etiology of who is at highest risk, (2) identifying individual patterns of symptom course. In particular, fearful temperament is the best early-emerging predictor of the development of anxiety symptoms, and attention bias to threat and other neurobiological processes have been implicated as mechanisms but it is unknown for whom and to what degree these factors impair functioning and what the developmental course looks like across adolescence. The current study employs a longitudinal design capturing a wide range of anxiety symptom presentation (i.e., low risk, temperamental risk, and clinical anxiety). We follow adolescents (N = 195) annually across the transitions to middle- and high-school – ages 13, 14, 15, & 16 years. We implement a rich assessment of anxiety symptoms, temperament, attention bias, endocrine (cortisol), physiological (RSA) and neurobiological (EEG, ERP) processes. We aim to (1) characterize a biobehavioral (i.e., biased attention, neuroendocrine, physiological, and neural processes) pattern associated with fearful temperament and social anxiety in adolescence, (2) characterize trajectories of social anxiety in adolescence, with an emphasis on linking fearful temperament and anxiety across development, and (3) examine how social contextual factors, sex, and pubertal development shape social anxiety trajectories and moderated links between temperament and SA.
... Also, Jadidi (2020) showed that students who have more academic adaptation have a higher position in their desire to learn. Kagan, Snidman, and Arcus (1992) found that in families with low interaction and emotional relationships and social activities, children's emotional, social and educational adjustment is low. In the present study, due to the minority of Afghans in Iran and the low level of social interaction, they had lower social and emotional adjustment than Iranian students. ...
... Activity level (defined as intensity of bodily movement) was coded on a three-point scale: 0 = no bodily movement (e.g., rigid behavior) to 2 = high bodily movement (e.g., big arm swinging). We chose to examine activity level, because children have the tendency to reduce activity in response to perceived threat [47][48][49], with reduced activity being conceptualized as a fear response [50]. Presence of positivity was coded as: 0 = no positivity and 1 = presence of positivity (e.g., smiling and giggling). ...
Article
Full-text available
Selective mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder in which a child fails to speak in some situations (e.g., school) despite the ability to speak in other situations (e.g., home). Some work has conceptualized SM as a variant of social anxiety disorder (SAD) characterized by higher levels of social anxiety. Here, we empirically tested this hypothesis to see whether there were differences in social anxiety (SA) between SM and SAD across behavioral, psychophysiological, self-, parent-, and teacher-report measures. Participants included 158 children (Mage = 8.76 years, SD = 3.23) who were classified into three groups: children with SM and who were also highly socially anxious (SM + HSA; n = 48), highly socially anxious children without SM (HSA; n = 48), and control children (n = 62). Children participated in a videotaped self-presentation task, following which observed SA behaviors were coded, and salivary cortisol reactivity was measured. We also collected child, parent, and teacher reports of children’s trait SA symptoms. The SM + HSA and HSA groups had similar observed non-verbal SA behavior, cortisol reactivity, and trait SA symptom levels according to parent and child reports, but SM + HSA children had significantly higher SA according to teacher report and observer-rated verbal SA behavior relative to the HSA group. As expected, control children had lower cortisol reactivity and SA across all measures relative to the other groups. Although SM and SAD in children share many similarities, SM may be characterized by greater SA in certain social contexts (e.g., school) and is distinguishable from SAD on behavioral measures of verbal SA.
... Second, activity level (defined as intensity of bodily movement) was coded on a 3-point scale: 0 = no bodily movement (e.g., rigid behavior) to 2 = high bodily movement (e.g., big arm swinging). We chose to examine the activity level because some children have the tendency to reduce activity in response to perceived threat (Buss, Davidson, Kalin, & Goldsmith, 2004;Frazier-Wood & Saudino, 2017;Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1992). ...
Article
Early theoretical work by Buss (1986a, 1986b) posited that there is an early‐developing fearful shyness that emerges during toddlerhood, and a later‐developing self‐conscious shyness that emerges during early childhood. It has been theorized that early‐developing shyness is related to fear, rooted in inherited biases, and manifests in contexts of social novelty, whereas later‐developing shyness is related to self‐conscious emotions, may result from social ridicule or poor social skills, and manifests in contexts of social exposure. Despite the hypothesized correlates of these shyness subtypes, this theory has not been empirically tested in children. We tested 96 children aged 5 to 10 years old and classified them into three groups: early‐developing shyness (n = 28; MAgeOnset = 2.4 years), later‐developing shyness (n = 19; MAgeOnset = 4.8 years), and non‐shy (n = 49). Findings revealed that children with later‐developing shyness had the highest relative cortisol responses in the context of self‐presentation, highest levels of embarrassment, and lowest social skills relative to the other groups, while children with early‐developing shyness displayed the highest relative resting right frontal brain asymmetry (a neural correlate of fear) relative to the other groups. These preliminary findings provide partial empirical support for the previously theorized correlates and distinction of early‐developing and later‐developing shyness in childhood.
... However, many genetic programs are not immutable predetermined fate; they are tendencies with more than one possible outcome. An interesting example is the work by Kagan (1992) with his studies of differences between timid and bold children. ...
... However, many genetic programs are not immutable predetermined fate; they are tendencies with more than one possible outcome. An interesting example is the work by Kagan (1992) with his studies of differences between timid and bold children. ...
... However, many genetic programs are not immutable predetermined fate; they are tendencies with more than one possible outcome. An interesting example is the work by Kagan (1992) with his studies of differences between timid and bold children. ...
Book
Full-text available
The book discusses Neuroscience research discoveries enabled by recent advances in functional brain imagery, allowing observation of a working brain. A most compelling example is the process of neuro- plasticity, durable biological brain changes, many of which emanate from learning experiences. These include neuronal wiring and firing patterns, and even the creation of new neurons. Prior to this time most everyone believed that any biological brain changes had to be effected through chemicals or surgery. The findings ushered in a sea change for understanding how brain biology is involved in mental health and illness. Furthermore, they made possible to conceptualize the brain as a system, to infer goals of that system, identify structures involved in certain behaviors and specify system dysfunctions implicated in observed pathological behavior symptoms. Psychotherapy protocols could design learning interventions for correcting brain impairments and to train the brain to support healthy behavior. I include detailed discussion of an applied research project in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry. They focused on brain structures that appear implicated in the symptoms of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The entire treatment was restricted to psychotherapy learning interventions. Functional MRIs were employed for diagnosis and assessment of benefits, along with observations of remission of behavior symptom remissions. This contrasts with so much of evidence-based treatment intervention which assesses remission of behavior symptoms, and illogically infers improvement in brain health. Contrary evidence is referred to as side effects. A general research principle which is a product of systems theory is that treating an entity that is part of a system as if it is independent, is hazardous in both research and practice.
... Kagan et al. (1988) proposed a genetic component based upon their observations that from their early years some animals and children show consistent and early avoidance or behavioural restraint in response to novel stimuli. More recently, Kagan, Snidman and Arcus (1992) reported that the condition could be acquired primarily as a function of experience alone. Such experience might involve communication apprehension which McCroskey (1977) claimed is 'a learned trait, one that is conditioned through re-enforcement for the child's communicative behaviours' (p.80). ...
Article
Full-text available
Social anxiety is a debilitating problem affecting many life domains, however the aetiology of this anxiety remains unclear. Aside from biological models, learning and, more recently, information transfer have been implicated in the onset of social anxiety. These last are of particular concern to those working with children or adolescents. The primary aim of this study is to investigate the role of early parental style as a casual factor in social anxiety and then to assess the impact of social anxiety on emotional wellbeing, quality of life and relation-ships, and the use of coping strategies. Ninety-five 18-19 year old first year university students (75 females, 19 males) completed the Parental Bonding Instrument (relevant to their first 16 years), the Austin Quality of Life Scale, Personal Assessment of Intimacy in Relationships Scale - Revised, UCLA Loneliness Scale, EAS Temperament Scale, Ways of Coping Checklist-Revised, and a measure of social anxiety suitable for nonclinical samples. Childhood perceptions of reduced care and overprotection from fathers predicted social anxiety (R 2 16 per cent) but maternal style did not. Social anxiety was related to less use of solution oriented coping; greater use of affective-based coping strategies; poorer emotional well-being, quality of relationships and quality of life; and higher levels of loneliness. The importance of the role of the family when working with young adolescents and children is discussed as is the suggestion that early information transfer from peers, siblings, and more importantly teachers are also assessed as predictors of social anxiety. While the present study revealed no association between gender and social anxiety on information transfer, it is suggested that future studies examine separate cohorts of young males and females.
... Instead, it may operate separately. This conclusion is supported by the extensive longitudinal research conducted by Kagan and his colleagues who focused exclusively on inhibited versus uninhibited children (Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1992). Further research is needed to more closely examine Downloaded by [New York University] at 12:52 18 June 2013 how the temperament dimension of withdrawal is related to student classroom behavior and to teacher/student interactions. ...
Article
Full-text available
The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships of student temperament and gender to disruptive classroom behavior in urban primary grade schools. Teacher reports and classroom observations were used. Forty-four teachers and their 152 students participated. A two-step cluster analysis was conducted with teacher reports on their students' temperaments. Three temperament clusters were identified: industrious, intermediate, and high maintenance. ANOVAs revealed that, as compared to students with other temperaments, children who were high maintenance exhibited significantly higher levels of overt aggression toward others, emotional-oppositional behavior, attentional difficulties, and covert disruptive behavior. Teachers reported more difficulty managing the behavior of high maintenance students and were observed to provide more negative feedback to them compared to those who were industrious. Hierarchical and logistic regression analyses demonstrated that temperament mediated the relationship between student gender and disruptive classroom behaviors. Temperament also mediated the association between gender and teachers' difficulty managing students' covert disruptive behavior. Irrespective of gender, students whose temperaments were high maintenance and intermediate were more likely than industrious students to receive negative teacher feedback. Irrespective of students' temperament, teachers were observed to provide more positive feedback to boys than to girls.
... We may now consider a tentative developmental model for thinking about the differentiation and integration of temperament systems, illustrated in Figure 3. Amygdalar structures are differentiated prenatally (see Nelson, this volume), and activity within this complex may be involved in the negative affect and related activity observed in the young infant (Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1992). Above we have presented developmental data consistent with the predictability of both later irritability (Larson et al., 1987) and fear (Riese, 1987) from individual differences in newborn negative affect. ...
Article
Full-text available
Temperament research investigates constitutionally based individual differences in basic psychological processes of emotion, motivation and attention (Bates, 1989). As a domain of study it occupies a particularly interesting location with respect to psychology and neuroscience. Although most of temperament research completed to date is behavioral, temperamental differences can also be studied at the neural systems level (see reviews by Gunnar, 1990, and Rothbart, 1989a). It is nevertheless important to remember that behavior is itself biological, a critical part of the adaptive functioning of the organism (Gunnar, 1990). Our approach to temperament follows the distinction we have made between temperamental reactivity and self-regulation, with reactivity defined as characteristics of the individual's reactions to stimulus change, reflected in the temporal and intensive parameters of the somatic, endocrine and autonomic nervous systems (Rothbart & Derryberry, 1981). Self-regulation is defined as processes functioning to modulate this reactivity, including behavioral patterns of approach and avoidance, and attentional orientation and selection (Rothbart & Posner, 1985). In this chapter, we first consider behavioral dimensions of temperament, reviewing briefly some of the recent findings on higher order factors of individuality in temperament and personality. We then attempt to develop links between these broad dimensions and models from affective and cognitive neuroscience. Finally, a developmental model resulting from this effort is described.
... Shyness is a neurophysiological withdrawal response from social stimuli that is devoid of any appraisal of the individual's situation but simply notes the presence of a social stimulus (Kagan, Reznick, & Snidman, 1988;Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1992;M. Lewis, 1992M. ...
Article
Full-text available
To contribute to understanding self-transcendence, this article provides an account of my personal experience of transcending my shamed self. This requires explaining the kind of self and shame involved. In mystical literature, the consciousness that remains after self-transcendence is sometimes called the Self or non-ego, in contrast to the self or ego, which is the empirical, executive self of ordinary consciousness and functioning. The self includes specific selves that play distinctive roles in various contexts. The specific self transcended in my personal experience was the shamed self, one that was experiencing the self-rejecting emotion of shame. Ordinary discourse as well as philosophical and empirical research often employ the term shame generically while failing to distinguish among at least eight closely related emotions: shyness; embarrassment; fear of rejection; feeling exposed, vulnerable, inferior, or unfulfilled; and self-rejection—shame in the strict sense, the emotion caused by my self-evaluation that I do not deserve love, even my own. The article proceeds in six parts: a summary introduction; a phenomenological account of shame; a phenomenological account of my personal experience of shame; a phenomenological account of my personal experience of transcending my shamed self; a phenomenological account of the aftermath; and an outline of a naturalistic explanation of my self-transcendence. Throughout the article, the term Self refers to an embodied, observing Self that avoids overly identifying with any aspect or function of the self, rather than an ontologically disembodied entity that transcends nature.
... Multidisciplinary research indicates that fear and hostility are natural reactions to unfamiliarity in human and animal subjects (Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1992;Morrison & Johnston, 2003;Warr, 1990). Thus, the neglect of the sheriff and rural constituents in the social science literature leads non-rural residents to react negatively toward rural dwellers or develop unflattering mental representations. ...
... Individual differences in temperament are the result of variations in reactivity and regulation that are expressed through attentional and affective behaviors as well as motor behavior. These variations in motor behavior are associated with the amygdala, a limbic system structure that has projections to areas known to mediate arms and leg flexion and extension in response to stimulation (Kagan, et al., 1992). As prenatal cocaine exposure affects these same systems, it is reasonable to expect prenatal cocaine exposure to impact the reactivity and regulation of the motor system. ...
Article
Effects of prenatal exposure to cocaine on the reactivity and regulation of the motor system of 825 four-month-old infants enrolled in the Maternal Lifestyle Study were examined. Videotaped assessments of 338 cocaine-exposed (CE) infants and 487 non-exposed comparison infants were coded by examiners masked to exposure status. Exposure status was determined by meconium assay and maternal self-report of prenatal cocaine use. Infants were presented with a series of 17 visual, auditory and tactile stimuli for 30-second each. Intensity and latency of limb movement responses on a subset of items were analyzed to test the following hypotheses: CE infants are more active in general; CE infants exhibit increased movement levels for a larger proportion of time in response to stimulation; the motor systems of CE infants are more reactive to stimulation (e.g., shorter latencies to respond); and CE infants are poorer regulators of the motor system. Results CE infants were not more active in general and data do not indicate a more highly reactive motor system. However, CE infants exhibited increased movement levels for a larger proportion of time in response to stimulation. Additional analysis of movement exhibited during three tactile items found increased movement lability in CE infants and different patterns of responding, suggesting that the effects of prenatal cocaine exposure on the motor system may vary by context. Covariate effects for tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana are also reported.
... Beidel, Turner & Dancu, 1985; Levin, Schneier & Liebowitz, 1989), personality characteristics, such as neuroticism and introversion, shyness and behavioral inhibition (e.g. Eysenck, 1982; Bruch, 1989; Turner, Beidel & Townsley, 1990; Kagan, Snidman & Arcus, 1992), parental rearing styles, like overprotectiveness and stressing the importance of others' opinions (e.g. Parker, 1979; Bruch, 1989; Bruch & Heimberg, 1994) and learning history, including traumatic conditioning experiences (e.g. ...
Article
Full-text available
Two studies, investigating the learning history (i.e. traumatic conditioning experiences, vicarious learning, informational learning) of individuals with and without fear of blushing, are presented. In study 1, individuals high (n = 61) and low (n = 59) in fear of blushing completed the (revised) Phobic Origin Questionnaire (POQ; Ost, L. G., & Hugdahl, K. (1981). Acquisition of phobias and anxiety response patterns in clinical patients. Behavior Research and Therapy, 19, 439-447). In study 2, individuals who applied for treatment for fear of blushing (n = 31) and a nonfearful, matched control group (n = 31) were interviewed with the same instrument, taking into account only specific memories. High fearful individuals reported more negative learning experiences in connection with blushing than low fearful individuals, irrespective of the type of questioning. Meanwhile, study 1 (written POQ) produced higher percentages of negative learning experiences for both high and low fearful individuals than study 2 (interview). It is concluded that the POQ interview showed a more realistic picture than the written POQ. The possible role of learning history in the acquisition of fear of blushing is discussed. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
... Temperamental differences in reactivity to novelty and to strangers (Kagan et al 1992) show sa'iking correlates with hemispheric differences in activation (Davidson 1993b). Shy or inhibited children identified at 31 months showed more right hemispheric activation than did uninhibited children when they were tested at 38 months. ...
Article
Full-text available
... The original group of subjects included 372 healthy children (186 girls and 186 boys) 21 months old, born to middle-class Caucasian parents who had volunteered to be part of a larger longitudinal study of behavioral development (Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1992). All subjects were healthy, firstborn or second-born children who were born at term following unremarkable pregnancies. ...
Article
Full-text available
Measures of heart rate and forehead temperature on 238, 21-month-old children exposed to mild laboratory stressors revealed 2 provocative results. More children were cooler on the left side of the forehead than on the right side of the forehead, and those with a cooler left side of the forehead had lower heart rates. These data suggest that some aspects of cerebral asymmetry and cardiovascular reactivity may be mediated by a common set of processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
... Parent coaching and role-playing procedures based on evidence-based social skills and parent behavior management interventions (eg, Eyberg, 1988; Webster Stratton, 1998) could be developed to meet this need. Another area of potentially fruitful research is the temperamental trait " inhibition to the unfamiliar, " as it has been studied in the general population by Jerome Kagan and colleagues (eg, Kagan, 1997; Kagan, Snidman, & Arcus, 1992; Mullen, Snidman, & Kagan, 1993). Although it has been hypothesized that children with orofacial clefts may show an overly inhibited response style, this is based largely on research using teacher and/or caregiver-report rating scales. ...
Article
Children with orofacial clefts are believed to have distinctly elevated risk for a variety of adverse social-emotional outcomes including behavior problems, poor self-concept, and parent-child relationship difficulties. This assumption has been based primarily on theories of facial appearance and social bias, a handful of empirical studies, and clinical impressions. Studies of these children have been limited by methodological problems such as diagnostic heterogeneity, ascertainment bias, and absent or poorly matched control groups. In an attempt to address at least some of these methodological problems, the longitudinal research described in this article examined the developmental course of infants with unilateral cleft lip & palate (CLP) and cleft palate only (CPO). We followed these infants to age 7, with ongoing comparisons to a demographically matched group of typical children. Outcome measures targeted child attachment, maternal/child interaction during feeding and teaching tasks, parent satisfaction with surgical outcomes, parent and teacher behavior rating scales, and child self-concept and behavioral adaptation. Although our findings have provided limited support for the hypothesis that infants and young children with CLP/CPO are at greater risk for social-emotional problems than their peers, we have found that among infants with clefts, early assessment can predict subsequent social-emotional outcomes. In this article, we review theory and data in this area of study, summarize our longitudinal findings, describe our success and failures with respect to methodological rigor, and discuss emerging research and areas for further inquiry.
... Farone y Kagan, 1992; Biederman, Rosembaum, Bolduc-Murphy, Faraone, Chaloff, Hirshfeld y Kagan, 1993; Biederman, Rosembaum, Chaloff y Kagan, 1995) y en concreto, de ansiedad social o fobia social (Rosenbaum, Biederman y Hirshfeld, 1991, Kagan et al., 1992; Rosembaum, Biederman, Pollock y Hirsfeld, 1994 ...
Chapter
This thoughtful and beautifully written book demonstrates compellingly that emotions are central to personality development across the lifespan. Carol Magai and Jeannette Haviland-Jones draw on a wealth of textual and film material to forge an original empirical and theoretical analysis of the dynamics of emotion in human development. For its content, the work examines the lives of three mid-century psychologists, Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis, and Fritz Perls. Each man adopted a unique stance on the question of emotion in personality and in therapeutic interventions and, tellingly, the therapeutic methods they developed necessarily reflected their own emotional dynamics. Drawing on the most important research in clinical, social, and personality psychology, the authors reveal the pervasive influence of emotional organization in the lives of these individuals. Having presented a new approach to personology, autobiography, autobiography, narrative studies, psychotherapy and the theory of emotions on its publication in 2002, this book is essential reading.
Chapter
This thoughtful and beautifully written book demonstrates compellingly that emotions are central to personality development across the lifespan. Carol Magai and Jeannette Haviland-Jones draw on a wealth of textual and film material to forge an original empirical and theoretical analysis of the dynamics of emotion in human development. For its content, the work examines the lives of three mid-century psychologists, Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis, and Fritz Perls. Each man adopted a unique stance on the question of emotion in personality and in therapeutic interventions and, tellingly, the therapeutic methods they developed necessarily reflected their own emotional dynamics. Drawing on the most important research in clinical, social, and personality psychology, the authors reveal the pervasive influence of emotional organization in the lives of these individuals. Having presented a new approach to personology, autobiography, autobiography, narrative studies, psychotherapy and the theory of emotions on its publication in 2002, this book is essential reading.
Chapter
This thoughtful and beautifully written book demonstrates compellingly that emotions are central to personality development across the lifespan. Carol Magai and Jeannette Haviland-Jones draw on a wealth of textual and film material to forge an original empirical and theoretical analysis of the dynamics of emotion in human development. For its content, the work examines the lives of three mid-century psychologists, Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis, and Fritz Perls. Each man adopted a unique stance on the question of emotion in personality and in therapeutic interventions and, tellingly, the therapeutic methods they developed necessarily reflected their own emotional dynamics. Drawing on the most important research in clinical, social, and personality psychology, the authors reveal the pervasive influence of emotional organization in the lives of these individuals. Having presented a new approach to personology, autobiography, autobiography, narrative studies, psychotherapy and the theory of emotions on its publication in 2002, this book is essential reading.
Chapter
This thoughtful and beautifully written book demonstrates compellingly that emotions are central to personality development across the lifespan. Carol Magai and Jeannette Haviland-Jones draw on a wealth of textual and film material to forge an original empirical and theoretical analysis of the dynamics of emotion in human development. For its content, the work examines the lives of three mid-century psychologists, Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis, and Fritz Perls. Each man adopted a unique stance on the question of emotion in personality and in therapeutic interventions and, tellingly, the therapeutic methods they developed necessarily reflected their own emotional dynamics. Drawing on the most important research in clinical, social, and personality psychology, the authors reveal the pervasive influence of emotional organization in the lives of these individuals. Having presented a new approach to personology, autobiography, autobiography, narrative studies, psychotherapy and the theory of emotions on its publication in 2002, this book is essential reading.
Chapter
This thoughtful and beautifully written book demonstrates compellingly that emotions are central to personality development across the lifespan. Carol Magai and Jeannette Haviland-Jones draw on a wealth of textual and film material to forge an original empirical and theoretical analysis of the dynamics of emotion in human development. For its content, the work examines the lives of three mid-century psychologists, Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis, and Fritz Perls. Each man adopted a unique stance on the question of emotion in personality and in therapeutic interventions and, tellingly, the therapeutic methods they developed necessarily reflected their own emotional dynamics. Drawing on the most important research in clinical, social, and personality psychology, the authors reveal the pervasive influence of emotional organization in the lives of these individuals. Having presented a new approach to personology, autobiography, autobiography, narrative studies, psychotherapy and the theory of emotions on its publication in 2002, this book is essential reading.
Chapter
This thoughtful and beautifully written book demonstrates compellingly that emotions are central to personality development across the lifespan. Carol Magai and Jeannette Haviland-Jones draw on a wealth of textual and film material to forge an original empirical and theoretical analysis of the dynamics of emotion in human development. For its content, the work examines the lives of three mid-century psychologists, Carl Rogers, Albert Ellis, and Fritz Perls. Each man adopted a unique stance on the question of emotion in personality and in therapeutic interventions and, tellingly, the therapeutic methods they developed necessarily reflected their own emotional dynamics. Drawing on the most important research in clinical, social, and personality psychology, the authors reveal the pervasive influence of emotional organization in the lives of these individuals. Having presented a new approach to personology, autobiography, autobiography, narrative studies, psychotherapy and the theory of emotions on its publication in 2002, this book is essential reading.
Article
This paper presents results of twin studies pertinent to the development of a rating scale designed for use by teachers to identify anxious and shy children, aged 5 to 7 years, in Kindergarten and Grade One. Currently, no instruments designed specifically for this purpose exist. Children experiencing difficulty with internalizing disorders such as anxiety, shyness, and behavioural inhibition represent a growing segment of the population (Merrell,2001). Evidence indicates the educational, psychological, and emotional needs of these children are not being addressed (Barlow,2002). Kindergarten and Grade One teachers were interviewed to find out if they recognized behaviours drawn from the literature on childhood anxiety disorders as shyness and anxiety. Information obtained was used to formulate, construct, and evaluate a rating scale to be administered by teachers. The paper includes an overview, literature review of the research on anxiety in young children, description of methods used to obtain salient information and a discussion regarding construction of the rating scale. Data for the two studies was obtained by both quantitative and qualitative methods. The first study employed semi-structured interviews with teachers and their completion of a prototype rating scale. The second study consisted of the administration of the scale and comparisons of its psychometric properties to other instruments. The paper concludes with a discussion of the results and limitations of the studies.
Article
Self-organization can be approached in terms of developmental processes occurring within and between component systems of temperament. Within-system organization involves progressive shaping of cortical representations by subcortical motivational systems. As cortical representations develop, they feed back to provide motivational systems with enhanced detection and guidance capabilities. These reciprocal influences may amplify the underlying motivational functions and promote excessive impulsivity or anxiety. However, these processes also depend upon interactions arising between motivational and attentional systems. We discuss these between-system effects by considering the regulation of approach motivation by reactive attentional processes related to fear and by more voluntary processes related to effortful control. It is suggested that anxious and impulsive psychopathology may reflect limitations in these dual means of control, which can take the form of overregulation as well as underregulation.
Chapter
Fearful temperament, most often conceptualized as behavioral inhibition, has been found to be a robust predictor for the development of pediatric anxiety disorders, with most evidence suggesting a link with social anxiety disorder. In addition to a detailed review of behavioral inhibition, recent work that supports a new construct, dysregulated fear, is also reviewed in this chapter. New evidence is presented that demonstrates that dysregulated fear is conceptually and methodologically distinct from behavioral inhibition and improves the prediction of which fearful toddlers are at risk for pediatric anxiety disorders. The following review will summarize the empirical bases for these two approaches and their role in the development of anxiety disorders, as well as evidence for biomarkers, executive processes, and parenting environment that exacerbate or ameliorate this early temperament risk. Specifically, research on fearful temperament has identified multiple trajectories and outcomes for children with the same underlying temperamental biases. That is, not all young children who display fearful temperament maintain this behavioral profile or develop anxiety symptoms. Therefore, this chapter summarizes evidence for biological, regulatory, and parental processes that account for these divergent trajectories and addresses the question of which fearful children are at highest risk for developing anxiety disorders.
Article
Resilience is often associated with extreme trauma or overcoming extraordinary odds. This way of thinking about resilience leaves most of the ontogenetic picture a mystery. In this chapter, we put forth the Everyday Stress Resilience Hypothesis where resilience is seen as a process of regulating everyday life stressors and is analyzed from a systems perspective. The hypothesis argues that successful regulation accumulates into regulatory resilience which emerges during early development from successful coping with the inherent stress in typical interactions. These quotidian stressful events lead to the activation of behavioral and physiologic systems. Stress that is effectively resolved in the short run and with reiteration over the long term increases children’s as well as adults’ capacity to cope with more intense stressors. Infants,however, lack the regulatory capacities to take on this task by themselves. Therefore, through communicative and regulatory processes during infant–adult interactions, we demonstrate that the roots of regulatory resilience originate in infants’ relationship with their caregivers and that infant reactivity, maternal sensitivity, and the nature of the stressor can help or hinder the growth of resilience.
Article
In this study we investigated the psychometric properties of the Social Anxiety Scale for Children, Revised, German Version (SASC-R-D). This scale is a measure designed for children on the basis of the Fear of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE) and the Social Avoidance and Distress Scale (SAD) for adults. We presented it to 422 pupils along with German versions of the Children's Anxiety Test (CAT) and the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C), as well as a questionnaire assessing school-related fears. Additionally, teacher ratings of the pupils' shyness, aggressiveness, and popularity were obtained. We were able to show that the SASC-R-D is a valid and reliable measure, confirming a previous study. Normative values for the SASC-R-D were collected from a sample of 627 pupils.
Book
This book offers new perspectives and practical guidance for enhancing performance and managing the stress that typically accompanies performance situations. Specific recommendations are provided alongside comprehensive reviews of existing theory and research, enabling the practitioner to place the strategies and techniques within the broader context of human performance, and encouraging novel ways of conceptualizing music making and teaching. Part I sets out ground rules for achieving musical excellence. What roles do innate talent, environmental influences, and sheer hard work play in attaining eminence? How can musicians best manage the physical demands of a profession that is intrinsically arduous, throughout a career that can literally span a lifetime? How can performers, teachers, and researchers effectively assess and reflect on performance enhancement for themselves, their colleagues, and their students? Part II presents approaches for increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of practice. These are examined generally for the individual and ensembles and specifically for the tasks of memorizing, sight-reading, and improvising music. Musicians spend vast amounts of time and energy acquiring and refining their skills, but are there particular rehearsal strategies that they can employ to produce better performance results or to achieve the same results more quickly? What implication does existing knowledge of human information processing and physical functioning have for musical learning and practice? Part III introduces scientifically validated methods for enhancing musical achievement, ordered from the more physical to the psychological to the pharmacological; however, they all address issues of both mental and physical significance for the musician. Collectively, they stand as clear evidence that applied, cross-disciplinary research can facilitate musicians' strives for performance excellence.
Article
Resilience is often associated with extreme trauma or overcoming extraordinary odds. This way of thinking about resilience leaves most of the ontogenetic picture a mystery. In the following review we put forth the Everyday Stress Resilience Hypothesis, in which resilience is analysed from a systems perspective and seen as a process of regulating everyday life stressors. Successful regulation accumulates into regulatory resilience, which emerges during early development from successful coping with the inherent stress in typical interactions. These quotidian stressful events lead to activation of behavioural and physiological systems. Stress that is effectively resolved in the short run and with reiteration over the long term increases children’s, as well as adults’, capacity to cope with more intense stressors. Infants, however, lack the regulatory capacities to take on this task by themselves. Therefore, through communicative and regulatory processes during infant–adult interactions, we demonstrate that the roots of regulatory resilience originate in infants’ relationships with their care givers and that maternal sensitivity can help or hinder the growth of resilience.
Article
For years, there has existed a gap in academic research on county sheriffs in their role in rural law enforcement. However, the image of the county sheriff has been caricatured perennially on the silver screen, ie, in films. This study, rooted in cultivation theory, uses qualitative film analysis in an attempt to identify common themes and heuristics in media portrayals of the sheriff. After identifying these themes, we explore the implications of these portrayals for public perceptions of the sheriff as a professional law enforcement officer and as an elected official. We argue that the sheriff serves as a symbol of rural America — and conclude by discussing the implications of this phenomenon and how it might be ameliorated by more intense research focused on the sheriff.
Chapter
Conditions experienced early in life can have enduring consequences. Results from epidemiological studies and basic research agree that individual differences in both physical and mental health (cognitive, social, and emotional development as well as metabolic asset) can be determined by the early environment. Both prenatal life and the early postnatal periods are crucial times when adverse experiences including psychological or toxic stress can have major impact on developing systems. The next step in research is to identify the mechanisms underlying such programming. Changes in the effectors of stress responses during critical developmental stages may favor vulnerability to obesity, mental health, and neurodegeneration. Such broad spectrum of effects may explain the comorbidity often found between different pathologies, which can greatly affect longevity and the quality of life during aging. In addition to genetic susceptibility, epigenetic processes—which rely upon permanent changes in gene expression—could underlie such long-term effects and offer promise for environmental or pharmacological interventions.
Article
A review of the papers on subjective well-being published in the world during the last years was made. The results obtained were critically analyzed taking into account the epistemological foundations that served as a sustenance. The fact that the studies about subjective well-being are still in force shows the increasing awareness of the investigators about the importance of studying those factors influencing positively on health. The understanding of the complex skein of interactions determining the subjective well-being at the macrosocial, microsocial and individual levels is an indispensable requirement for the implementation of interventions at the primary health care level and for elevating this indicator so closely related to health.
Article
Full-text available
This theoretical article presents from a review the recent contributions of hedonic psychology to the issue of hedonic management and addictions. The article includes four parts: (1) the "hedonic instrument panel" (dimensions, components and functions of emotions, mood and hedonic tone, the functions of "instrument panel", the metamotivational states); (2) the unconscious part of emotions (the phenomena of dissociation and their importance in addictions); (3) hedonic judgments (their mechanisms and processes, and their impact on addictions); (4) personality and hedonic experience (dimensions of personality playing a role in addictions). In conclusion, a synthetic model is presented, as well as a series of propositions forming the bases of a program of research on addictions.
Article
This in-class exercise is designed to teach basic principles of survey methodology and make students more aware of the pervasiveness of and potential problems associated with shyness in college students. Students complete a brief survey on shyness, and the instructor presents a summary of the results to the class as part of a lecture on survey methodology. The instructor also discusses the problems associated with shyness in college students and possible causes of shyness. Suggested readings to help students overcome their shyness are also included.
Article
This paper purports to demonstrate that teaching is an art form that not only relies on knowledge of theory and practice, but, even more importantly, also depends on a sensitivity to the needs of the individual student and the needs of the group. It is important for us, as teachers, to understand that in order to teach our students we need to reach them on an emotional level by implementing emotionally intelligent judgments throughout our interactions with them. It is not sufficient to be totally versed in the subject we are teaching, we must be continually aware of the emotional state of our students by assessing myriad clues simultaneously. These clues are received accurately by an emotionally intelligent teacher, affording students the opportunity to actualize their potential. The Nebulous Bull’s-Eye and Proprioception of the Mind are graphic representations of two key concepts; understanding how a student progresses through emotional stages and circumstances yielding the optimal conditions to actualize their learning potential, and how a masterful awareness of students’ cognitive and emotional bearings guide a teacher towards effective instruction.
Article
The Psychology Department at Saint Mary's College involves all faculty and students in the process of writing by requiring students to demonstrate an advanced writing proficiency within the major. Fulfillment of this requirement involves many paper-writing assignments that are evaluated by course instructors and outside readers. Hence, writing occupies a more important role in the major, and student writing is more consistently high in quality than before the requirement was instituted. In this article, I discuss the effects of this writing requirement on the Psychology Department's faculty and students.
Article
The research reported in his study was a cross‐cultural test of the communibiological model of communication apprehension as temperamental expression. The study was designed to replicate the findings reported by Beatty, McCroskey, and Heisel (1998) in the U.S. and Japan. In this study participants from Japan and the U.S. completed measures of communication apprehension, neurotitism, and extroversion. The results indicated that, for both Japanese and U.S. college students, scores on the measure of communication apprehension were significantly correlated with measures of neuroticism and extroversion. Multiple regression analyses indicated that both neuroticism and extroversion predicted unique variance in communication in both cultures and that the multiple correlations for the two cultures did not differ significantly. It was concluded that the replication was successful and that temperament scores are substantially predictive of communication apprehension across the cultures tested.
Article
Discusses the field of subjective well-being (SWB) and its use in exploring the conditions under which personality traits are likely to be important. Because of the strong influence of traits on SWB and a resurgence of interest in the "Big Five" system of traits, the area offers an object lesson in the pitfalls of a personality psychology that relies exclusively on trait constructs. It is shown that even when traits offer strong predictions, they do not offer a complete account of psychological phenomena. It is concluded, however, that traits can be very important organizing structures with which to initially classify and understand some important phenomena of psychology. Scientific understanding based on traits must be augmented by a process orientation and a study of relevant situational factors in order for the field of personality to remain an intellectually vigorous science. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Notes that subjective well-being (SWB) is related to inherited temperament, is stable across time, and consistent across situations. The author provides further evidence that SWB is a trait-like personality variable in its low correlation with nonpersonality and situational variables like income and health status. Of the Big Five personality traits, the author relates extroversion to positive affect, and considers neuroticism as identical to negative affect. He relates other personality variables, such as self-esteem, optimism, and agency, to SWB. The author concludes that the various process theories that connect SWB to personality involve density of reinforcements, person–environment fit, memory, baseline temperament, life tasks, and goals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
Full-text available
This study examines infant temperament (inhibited and uninhibited styles) as a predictor of behavior in the kindergarten classroom. Thirty-one kindergarten children were observed in their classrooms for approximately 1.5 hours on each of four occasions between September and January. Fourteen children (8 girls, 6 boys) had been classified as high reactive at 4 months of age and inhibited at 14 and 21 months; 17 (7 girls, 10 boys) were low-reactive at 4 months, and uninhibited at 14 and 21 months. Modest evidence for continuity in temperament was found, and, as predicted, differences were most apparent for classroom behaviors that might be stressful for socially inhibited children. The results show some differences between girls and boys and describe trends in classroom behavior as children make the transition to kindergarten. These findings identify temperament as a factor that influences children's adjustment to kindergarten and contributes to a body of work that identifies early risk factors for later behavioral problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
This paper explores the development of cortical plasticity and cognitive representations in light of temperamental differences in basic motivational systems. Motivational systems related to reward/approach and punishment/avoidance begin to function early in life. By controlling the child's behavioral and emotional reactions, these systems provide exteroceptive and interoceptive information capable of stabilizing cortical synapses through use-dependent processes. By controlling attention, the motivational systems further contribute to synaptic stabilization through modulatory processes. As a result, children with strong reward/approach systems are likely to develop representations that emphasize potential rewards and frustrations and may become vulnerable to impulsive disorders. Children with strong punishment/avoidance systems may develop representations emphasizing punishment and relief, along with a vulnerability to anxiety disorders. These motivationally constructed representations differentiate in varied ways across domains involving the physical world, moral rules, and the self and, thus, contribute to the various forms of impulsive and anxious psychopathology.
Article
Full-text available
discuss a methodological approach to the study of temperament . . . and describe the current version of a developmental model for thinking about temperament / defined temperament as constitutionally based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation, with 'constitutional' referring to the person's relatively enduring biological make-up, influenced over time by heredity, maturation, and experience measuring temperament / breadth versus narrowness of temperament constructs (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Article
A group of 43 children classified as either behaviorally inhibited or uninhibited at 21 months were observed at 4 years of age in situations designed to evaluate behavior with an unfamiliar peer, heart rate and heart rate variability to cognitively challenging tasks, reluctance to answer difficult questions, and differential fixation of an active and passive figure in various scenes. At age 4, the 22 formerly inhibited children, compared with the 21 uninhibited children, were socially inhibited with the other child, displayed a higher and more stable heart rate, were more reluctant to guess at difficult problems, and preferentially fixated the passive figure. Additionally, the mothers' descriptions of their children were in accord with the observed behaviors. These data, which are consonant with the work of others, suggest that a tendency toward behavioral inhibition or lack of inhibition to the unfamiliar is moderately stable over the preschool years and possibly influenced by biological factors.