The Eighth Month

2019 ◽  
pp. 103-116
Author(s):  
Vanessa LoBue
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Parenting Styles ◽  
Infant Temperament

This chapter describes the development of the fetus in the eighth month of pregnancy. This month, as the author’s family plans a baby shower for her, she contemplates what a newborn might need. This is a difficult task, she finds, as newborns have unique personalities right from the beginning of life, with different styles of reacting to the environment and different needs. The chapter is devoted to discussing infant temperament and how individual differences in temperament shape a baby’s personality from birth into the preschool years, predicting whether the infant is likely to be shy or socially outgoing as a child. The chapter concludes with a discussion of how different parenting styles might fit best with different infant temperaments and what a parent might do to help a potentially difficult newborn.

Latent class trajectories of infant temperament and associations with problem behavior at two years of age

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Gerald F. Giesbrecht ◽  
Nicole Letourneau ◽  
Deborah Dewey ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Positive Affect ◽  
Problem Behavior ◽  
Externalizing Behavior ◽  
Latent Class ◽  
Negative Emotionality ◽  
Infant Temperament ◽  
Developmental Patterns ◽  
Regulatory Capacity ◽  
Internalizing And Externalizing

Abstract Individual differences in temperament have been well-described, but individual differences in temperament trajectories require elaboration. Specifically, it is unknown if subgroups of infants display different developmental patterns and if these patterns relate to later behavioral problems. The aims were to identify distinct developmental patterns in broad dimensions of temperament among typically developing infants, to determine whether these developmental patterns differ by sex, to evaluate how developmental patterns within each dimension of temperament relate to developmental patterns within other dimensions of temperament, and to determine whether developmental patterns of infant temperament are associated with internalizing and externalizing behavior at 2 years of age. Data from the longitudinal Alberta Pregnancy Outcomes and Nutrition study (n = 1,819) were used to model latent class trajectories of parent-reported infant temperament at 3, 6, and 12 months. Four to five unique latent trajectories were identified within each temperament dimension. Sex was not associated with trajectory groups. Developmental coordination was observed between trajectories of negative emotionality and regulatory capacity, and between regulatory capacity and positive affect, but not between positive affect and negative emotionality. Negative emotionality and regulatory capacity predicted internalizing and externalizing behavior. Patterns of development in infant temperament, and not just intensity of temperament, contribute toward later problem behavior.

The association of temperament and maternal empathy with individual differences in infants’ neural responses to emotional body expressions

2015 ◽  
Vol 27 (4pt1) ◽  
pp. 1205-1216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Purva Rajhans ◽  
Manuela Missana ◽  
Kathleen M. Krol ◽  
Tobias Grossmann
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Empathic Concern ◽  
Attention Allocation ◽  
Infant Temperament ◽  
Neural Responses ◽  
Social Emotional ◽  
Emotional Information ◽  
Developmental Neuroscience ◽  
Fearful Expression ◽  
Novel Objects

AbstractWe examined the role of infant temperament and maternal dispositional empathy in the neural processing of happy and fearful emotional body expressions in 8-month-old infants by measuring event-related brain potentials. Our results revealed that infants’ tendency to approach novel objects and people was positively correlated with the neural sensitivity (attention allocation) to fearful expressions, while infant fearfulness was negatively correlated to the neural sensitivity to fearful expressions. Maternal empathic concern was associated with infants’ neural discrimination between happy and fearful expression, with infants of more empathetically concerned mothers showing greater neural sensitivity (attention allocation) to fearful compared to happy expressions. It is critical that our results also revealed that individual differences in the sensitivity to emotional information are explained by an interaction between infant temperament and maternal empathic concern. Specifically, maternal empathy appears to impact infants’ neural responses to emotional body expressions, depending on infant fearfulness. These findings support the notion that the way in which infants respond to emotional signals in the environment is fundamentally linked to their temperament and maternal empathic traits. This adds an early developmental neuroscience dimension to existing accounts of social–emotional functioning, suggesting a complex and integrative picture of why and how infants’ emotional sensitivity varies.

scholarly journals Consistent individual differences in fathering in threespined stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura R. Stein ◽  
Alison M. Bell
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Predation Risk ◽  
Parenting Styles ◽  
Gasterosteus Aculeatus ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Parental Behavior ◽  
Temporal Changes ◽  
Egg Mass ◽  
Activity Levels ◽  
Second Clutch

Abstract There is growing evidence that individual animals show consistent differences in behavior. For example, individual threespined stickleback fish differ in how they react to predators and how aggressive they are during social interactions with con-specifics. A relatively unexplored but potentially important axis of variation is parental behavior. In sticklebacks, fathers provide all of the parental care that is necessary for offspring survival; therefore paternal care is directly tied to fitness. In this study, we assessed whether individual male sticklebacks differ consistently from each other in parental behavior. We recorded visits to nest, total time fanning, and activity levels of 11 individual males every day throughout one clutch, and then allowed the males to breed again. Half of the males were exposed to predation risk while parenting during the first clutch, and the other half of the males experienced predation risk during the second clutch. We detected dramatic temporal changes in parental behaviors over the course of the clutch: for example, total time fanning increased six-fold prior to eggs hatching, then decreased to approximately zero. Despite these temporal changes, males retained their individually-distinctive parenting styles within a clutch that could not be explained by differences in body size or egg mass. Moreover, individual differences in parenting were maintained when males reproduced for a second time. Males that were exposed to simulated predation risk briefly decreased fanning and increased activity levels. Altogether, these results show that individual sticklebacks consistently differ from each other in how they behave as parents.

The challenge of accounting for individual differences in folk-economic beliefs

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin C. Ruisch ◽  
Rajen A. Anderson ◽  
David A. Pizarro
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Political Ideologies ◽  
Economic Beliefs ◽  
Existing Data

AbstractWe argue that existing data on folk-economic beliefs (FEBs) present challenges to Boyer & Petersen's model. Specifically, the widespread individual variation in endorsement of FEBs casts doubt on the claim that humans are evolutionarily predisposed towards particular economic beliefs. Additionally, the authors' model cannot account for the systematic covariance between certain FEBs, such as those observed in distinct political ideologies.

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