Personality and Temperament

Jeffrey R Gagne, University of Texas, Arlington, Texas, USA

Published online: March 2013

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005244.pub2

Temperament is an early developing set of characteristics related to later personality. Commonly studied dimensions of temperament include activity level, anger/frustration, behavioural inhibition/fear, effortful control and positive affect. Personality includes a range of traits, including major traits of extraversion, neuroticism and impulsivity/sensation-seeking. Different aspects of personality and temperament are related to important developmental outcomes such as behavioural problems and psychopathology. Both behavioural genetic and molecular genetic research have contributed to the understanding of major traits of temperament and personality. Behavioural genetic approaches use twin and adoption study designs to estimate genetic and environmental contributions to individual differences in traits. Most behavioural genetic studies have found substantial heritability for personality and temperament. Molecular genetic investigations focus on the effects of specific genes (primarily dopamine- and serotonin-related genes in studies of temperament and personality).

Key Concepts:

  • Rothbart's broad extraversion/surgency, negative affectivity and effortful control dimensions of temperament are related to three of the Big Five personality factors: extraversion, neuroticism and conscientiousness, respectively.
  • The results of twin and adoption studies have shown significant genetic and nonshared environmental variance in temperament and personality.
  • Contemporary researchers investigating personality and temperament from a molecular genetic standpoint typically use either candidate gene studies or genome-wide association studies (GWAS).
  • Although behavioural and molecular genetics are separate fields, most behavioural genetic researchers have begun incorporating molecular techniques into their research programs.
  • Genotype–environment interactions, genotype–environment correlations and endophenotype approaches are utilised in genetic studies of temperament and personality.
  • Candidate gene studies of dopaminergic and serotonergic genes have informed ongoing molecular genetic research in temperament and personality.
  • Increasingly, studies of other candidate genes as well as GWAS approaches are also extant in the literature.

Keywords: personality; temperament; behaviour; development; genetics

Figure 1. Mean temperament difficulties among 48-month-old children as a function of (a) dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene (long versus short allele) and (b) resting frontal electroencephalogram asymmetry (left versus right) at 9 months. Reproduced with permission from Schmidt et al. (2009a). © Sage Publications.
Figure 2. Distributions of estimated novelty seeking scores by D4DR genotype. Reproduced with permission from Benjamin et al. (1996). © Nature Publishing Group.
close
 References
    Anokhin AP, Heath AC and Myers E (2006) Genetic and environmental influences on frontal EEG asymmetry: a twin study. Biological Psychology 71: 289–295.
    Bakshi VP and Kalin NH (2000) Corticotropin-releasing hormone and animal models of anxiety: gene-environment interactions. Biological Psychiatry 48: 1175–1198.
    book Bates JE (1989) "Concepts and measures of temperament". In: Kohnstramm GA, Bates JE and Rothbart MK (eds) Temperament in Childhood, pp. 3–26. Chichester, UK: Wiley.
    Benjamin L, Li L, Patterson C et al. (1996) Population and familial association between the D4 dopamine receptor gene and measures of novelty seeking. Nature Genetics 12: 81–84.
    Bouchard TJ Jr and Loehlin JC (2001) Genes, evolution, and personality. Behavior Genetics 31: 243–273.
    Burkhouse KL, Gigg BE, Coles ME, Knopik VS and Mcgeary JE (2011) Serotonin transporter genotype moderates the link between children's reports of overprotective parenting and their behavioral inhibition. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 39: 783–790.
    Button TM, Scourfield J, Martin N, Purcell S and McGuffin P (2005) Family dysfunction interacts with genes in the causation of antisocial symptoms. Behavior Genetics 35: 115–120.
    Carver CS, Johnson SL, Joormann J, Kim Y and Nam JY (2011) Serotonin transporter polymorphism interacts with childhood adversity to predict aspects of impulsivity. Psychological Science 22: 589–595.
    Caspi A (2000) The child is father of the man: personality continuities from childhood to adulthood. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 78: 158–172.
    Caspi A, Roberts BW and Shiner RL (2005) Personality development: stability and change. Annual Review of Psychology 56: 453–484.
    Comings DE, Johnson JP, Gonzalez NS et al. (2000) Association between the adrenergic alpha 2A receptor gene (ADRA2A) and measures of irritability, hostility, impulsivity and memory in normal subjects. Psychiatric Genetics 10: 39–42.
    Deater-Deckard K and O'Connor TG (2000) Parent–child mutuality in early childhood: two behavioral genetic studies. Developmental Psychology 36: 561–570.
    Deater-Deckard K and Petrill SA (2004) Parent–child dyadic mutuality and child behavior problems: an investigation of gene–environment processes. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 45: 1171–1179.
    Dick DM, Latendresse SJ and Riley B (2011) Incorporating genetics into your studies: a guide for social scientists. Frontiers in Psychiatry 2: 1–11.
    Dyson MW, Olino TM, Durbin CE, Goldsmith HH and Klein DN (2012) The structure of temperament in preschoolers: a two-stage factor analytic approach. Emotion 12: 44–57.
    Ebstein RP, Novick O, Umansky R, Priel B and Osher Y (1996) Dopamine D4 receptor (D4DR) exon III polymorphism associated with the human personality trait of novelty seeking. Nature Genetics 12: 78–80.
    Fox NA, Nichols KE, Henderson HA et al. (2005) Evidence for a gene–environment interaction in predicting behavioral inhibition in middle childhood. Psychological Science 16: 921–926.
    Gagne JR, Saudino KJ and Asherson P (2011) The genetic etiology of inhibitory control and behavior problems at 24 months of age. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 52: 1155–1163.
    Gizer IR, Ficks C and Waldman ID (2009) Candidate gene studies of ADHD: a meta-analytic review. Human Genetics 126: 51–90.
    Goldsmith HH and Lemery KS (2000) Linking temperamental fearfulness and anxiety symptoms: a behavior-genetic perspective. Biological Psychiatry 48: 1199–1209.
    book Goldsmith HH and Campos JJ (1982) "Toward a theory of infant temperament". In: Emde RN and Harmon RJ (eds) The Development Of Attachment and Affiliative Systems, pp. 161–193. New York: Plenum Press.
    Goldsmith HH, Buss AH, Plomin R et al. (1987) Roundtable: what is temperament? Four approaches. Child Development 58: 505–529.
    Gottesman II and Gould TD (2003) The endophenotype concept in psychiatry: etymology and strategic intentions. American Journal of Psychiatry 160: 636–645.
    Hariri AR, Mattay VS, Tessitore A et al. (2002) Serotonin transporter genetic variation and the response of the human amygdale. Science 297: 400–403.
    Jaffee SR, Caspi A, Moffitt TE et al. (2005) Nature × nurture: Genetic vulnerabilities interact with physical maltreatment to promote conduct problems. Development and Psychopathology 17: 67–84.
    Lesch K-P, Bengel D, Heils A et al. (1996) Association of anxiety-related traits with a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene regulatory region. Science 274: 1527–1531.
    Munafo MR, Clark TG, Moore LR et al. (2003) Genetic polymorphisms and personality in healthy adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Molecular Psychiatry 8: 471–484.
    Murray KT and Kochanska G (2002) Effortful control: factor structure and relation to externalizing and internalizing behaviors. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology 30: 503–514.
    book Posner MI and Rothbart MK (eds) (2003) Developing Mechanisms of Self-Regulation. New York: Brunner-Routledge.
    Posner MI, Rothbart MK, Sheese BE and Tang Y (2007) The anterior cingulate gyrus and the mechanism of self-regulation. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience 7: 391–395.
    book Rothbart MK and Bates JE (1998) "Temperament". In: Eisenberg N (volume ed.) Handbook of Child Psychology: Social, Emotional, and Personality Development, pp. 105–176. New York: Wiley.
    Rothbart MK (2007) Temperament, development, and personality. Current Directions in Psychological Science 16: 207–212.
    book Rothbart MK and Derryberry D (1981) "Development of individual differences in temperament". In: Lamb ME and Brown AL (eds) Advances in Developmental Psychology, vol. 1, pp. 37–86. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
    Rueda MR, Rothbart MK, McCandliss BD, Saccomanno L and Posner MI (2005) Training, maturation, and genetic influences on the development of executive attention. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 102: 14931–14936.
    Saudino KJ and Eaton WO (1991) Infant temperament and genetics: an objective twin study of motor activity level. Child Development 62: 1167–1174.
    Saudino KJ and Eaton WO (1995) Continuity and change in objectively assessed temperament: a longitudinal twin study of activity level. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 13: 81–95.
    Saudino KJ, Wertz AE, Gagne JR and Chawla S (2004) Night and day: are siblings as different in temperament as parents say they are? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 87: 698–706.
    Schmidt LA, Fox NA, Perez-Edgar K and Hamer DH (2009a) Linking gene, brain and behavior: DRD4, frontal asymmetry, and temperament. Psychological Science 20: 831–837.
    Smoller JW, Rosenbaum JF, Biederman J et al. (2003) Association of a genetic marker at the corticotropin-releasing hormone locus with behavioral inhibition. Biological Psychiatry 54: 1376–1381.
    Smoller JW, Yamaki LH, Fagerness JA et al. (2005) The corticotropin-releasing hormone gene and behavioral inhibition in children at risk for panic disorder. Biological Psychiatry 57: 1485–1492.
    Strobel A, Spinath FM, Angleitner A, Riemann R and Lesch KP (2003) Lack of association between polymorphisms of the dopamine D4 receptor gene and personality. Neuropsychobiology 47: 52–56.
    Terracianno A, Sanna S, Uda M et al. (2010) Genome-wide association scan for five major dimensions of personality. Molecular Psychiatry 15: 647–656.
    Wahlsten D (1999) Single-gene influences on brain and behavior. Annual Review of Psychology 50: 599–624.
    Willis-Owen SA, Turri MG, Munafo MR et al. (2005) The serotonin transporter length polymorphism, neuroticism, and depression: a comprehensive assessment of association. Biological Psychiatry 58: 451–466.
    Wood AC, Saudino KJ, Rogers H, Asherson P and Kuntsi J (2007) Genetic influences on mechanically assessed activity level in children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 48: 695–702.
 Further Reading
    book Bates JE and Wachs TD (1994) Temperament: Individual Differences at the Interface of Biology and Behavior. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.
    Bouchard TJ (1994) Genes, environment, and personality. Science 264: 1700–1701.
    book Gagne JR, Vendlinski MK and Goldsmith HH (2009) "The genetics of childhood temperament". In: Kim Y-K (ed.) Handbook of Behavioral Genetics. New York: Springer.
    book Halverson CF, Kohnstamm GA and Martin RP (1994) The Developing Structure of Temperament and Personality from Infancy to Adulthood. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
    Nigg JT and Goldsmith HH (1998) Developmental psychopathology, personality, and temperament: reflections on recent behavior genetic research. Human Biology 70: 387–412.
    book Plomin R and Caspi A (1999) "Behavioral genetics and personality". In: Pervin LE and John OP (eds) Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research, pp. 251–276. New York: Guilford Press.
    Saudino KJ (1997) Moving beyond the heritability question: new directions in behavioral genetic studies of personality. Current Directions in Psychological Science 6: 86–90.
    Scarr S and McCartney K (1983) How people make their own environments: a theory of genotype–environment effects. Child Development 54: 424–435.
    Tellegen A, Lykken D, Bouchard TJ et al. (1988) Personality similarity in twins reared apart and together. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54: 1031–1039.
    book Thomas A and Chess S (1977) Temperament and Development. New York: Brunner/Mazel.
 Web Links
    ePath BDNF; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/627
    ePath CDH13; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/1012
    ePath CDH23; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/64072
    ePath CLOCK http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/9575
    ePath CNTNAP2; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/26047
    ePath DRD4 (dopamine receptor D4); http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/1815
    ePath DYRK1A; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/1859
    ePath H19 (H19, imprinted maternally expressed untranslated mRNA); http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/283120
    ePath IGF2 (insulin-like growth factor 2 (somatomedin A)); http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/3481
    ePath SLC6A3 (solute carrier family 6 (neurotransmitter transporter, dopamine), member 3); http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/6531
    ePath SLC6A4 (solute carrier family 6 (neurotransmitter transporter, serotonin), member 4); http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/6532
    ePath SNAP25; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/6616
    ePath XIST (X (inactive)-specific transcript); http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/gene/7503

Related Sub-Topics:

Nervous System Development | Neural Networks and Behaviour
Contact Editor close
Submit a note to the editor about this article by filling in the form below.

* Required Field

Article Title: Personality and Temperament
 
How to Cite close
Gagne, Jeffrey R(Mar 2013) Personality and Temperament. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005244.pub2]