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Mothers, nurses and pediatricians are well aware that infants begin to express themselves as individuals from the time of birth. The fact that each child appears to have a characteristic temperament from his earliest days has also been suggested by Sigmund Freud and Arnold Gesell. In recent years, however, many psychiatrists and psychologists appear to have lost sight of this fact. Instead they have tended to emphasize the influence of the child's early environment when discussing the origin of the human personality

As physicians who have frequent occasion to examine the family background of disturbed children, we began many years ago to encounter reasons to question the prevailing one-sided emphasis on environment. We found that some children with severe psychological problems had a family upbringing that did not differ essentially from the environment of other children who developed no severe problems. On the other hand, some children were found to be free of serious personality disturbances although they had experienced severe family disorganizations and poor parental care. Even in cases where parental mishandling was obviously responsible for a child's personality difficulties there was no consistent or predictable relation between the parents' treatment and the child's specific symptoms. Domineering authoritarian handling by the parents might make one youngster anxious and submissive and another defiant and antagonistic. Such unpredictability seemed to be the direct consequence of omitting an important factor from the evaluation: the child's own temperament, that is, his own individual style of responding to the environment.

It might be inferred from these opinions that we reject the environmentalist tendency to emphasize the role of the child's surroundings and the influence of his parents (particularly the mother's) as major factors in the formation of personality, and that instead we favor the constitutionalist concept of personality's being largely inborn. Actually er we reject both the :nurture" and the "nature" concepts. Either by itself is too simplistic to account for the intricate play of forces that form the human character. It is our hypothesis that personality is shaped by the constant interplay of temperament and environment.

We decided to test this concept by conducting a systematic long-term investigation of the differences in the behavioral reactions of infants. The study would be designed to determine whether or not these differences persist through childhood, and it would focus on how a child's behavioral traits interact with specific elements of his environment. Apart from satisfying scientific curiosity, answers to these questions would help parents and teachers - and psychiatrists - to promote healthy personality development.

After much preliminary exploration we developed techniques for gathering and analyzing information about individual differences in behavioral characteristics in the first few months of life, for categorizing such differences and for identifying individuality at each stage of a child's life. This techniques consisted in obtaining detailed descriptions of children's behavior through structured interviews with their parents at regular intervals beginning when the child had reached an age of two to three months. Independent checks by trained observers established that the descriptions of the children's behavior supplied by the parents in these interviews could be accepted as reliable and significant.

Analyzing the data, we identified nine characteristics that could be reliably scored on a three-point scale (medium, high and low):

1. the level and extent of motor activity;
2. the rhythmicity, or degree of regularity, of functions such as eating, elimination and the cycle of sleeping and wakefulness;
3. the response to a new object or person, in terms of whether the child accepts the new experience or withdraws from it;
4. the adaptability of behavior to changes in the environment;
5. the threshold, or sensitivity, to stimuli;
6. the intensity, or energy level, of responses;
7. the child's general mood or "disposition", whether cheerful or given to crying, pleasant or cranky, friendly or unfriendly;
8. the degree of the child's distractibility from what he is doing;
9. the span of the child's attention and his persistence in an activity.

 

 

HALLIE, a six-moths-old experimental subject, is shown in motion picture taken during an observation session. In frames beginning at top left and running downward she pulls at rings hanging above her crib and repeatedly pushes away stuffed animal. She demonstrates a high level of concentration and persistence by rejecting animal each time it is given and continuing to play with the rings.

Equipped with this means of collecting and analyzing the required data on individual children through standard interviews with their parents, we proceeded to our long-term study of the development of a large group of children. We obtained the willing collaboration of 85 families, with a total of 141 children, who agreed to allow us to follow their children's development from birth over a period of years that now extends to more than a decade. Our parents have cooperated magnificently in all the interviews and tests, and in the 14 years since the study was started only four families (with five children) have dropped out. In order to avoid complicating the study by having to consider a diversity of socioeconomic influences we confined the study to a homogenous group, consisting mainly of highly educated families in the professions and business occupations.

POSITIVE RESPONSE is displayed by Hallie when she was three months old as she is feda new food, Cream of Wheat, for the first time. When her mother presents her with a spoonful of the food, she accepts it eagerly, swallows it and unhesitatingly accepts more.

NEGATIVE RESPONSE is demonstrated by Hallie's younger brother, Russ, during his first exposure to a cereal at three months of age. He refuses to swallow the new food, spits it out, pushes the spoon away, grimaces and titls his head away from the spoon.

We have observed the children's development throughout their preschool period and their years in nursery and elementary school. Their parents have been interviewed at frequent intervals, so that descriptions of the children's behavior have been obtained while the parents' memory of it was still fresh. The interviews have focused on factual details of how the children behaved in specific situations, avoiding subjective interpretations as much as possible. We have supplemented the parental interviews with direct observations and with information obtained from the children's teachers. The children have also been examined with various psychological tests. Youngsters who have shown evidence of behavioral disturbances have received a complete psychiatric examination. The detailed behavioral data collected on all the children have been analyzed both in statistical and descriptive terms.

Our preliminary exploration had already answered our first questions: Children do show distinct individuality in temperament in the first weeks of life, independently from their parents' handling or personality style. Our long-terms study has now established that the original characteristics of temperament tend to persist in most children over the years. This is clearly illustrated by two striking examples.

• Donald exhibited an extremely high activity level almost from birth. At three months, his parents reported, he wriggled and moved about a great deal while asleep in his crib. At six months he "swam like a fish" while being bathed. At 12 months he still squirmed constantly while he was being dressed or washed. At 15 months he was "very fast and busy"; his parents found themselves "always chasing after him". At two years he was "constantly in motion, jumping and climbing". At three he would "climb like a monkey and run like an unleashed puppy". In kindergarten his teacher reported humorously that he would "hang from the walls and climb on the ceiling". By the time he was seven Donald was encountering difficulty in school because he was unable to sit still long enough to learn anything and disturbed the other children by moving rapidly about the classroom.
• Glem exemplifies a child who scored high in intensity of reaction. At four and a half months he screamed every time he was bathed, according to his parents' report. His reactions were "not discriminating - all or none". At six months during feeding he screamed "at the sight of the spoon approaching his mouth". At nine and a half months he was generally "either in a very good mood, laughing or chuckling", or else screaming. "He laughed so hard playing peekaboo he got hiccups." At two years his parents reported: "He screams bloody murder when he's being dressed." At seven they related: "When he's frustrated, as for example when he doesn't hit a ball very far, he stomps around, his voice goes up to its highest level, his eyes get red and occasionally fill with tears. Once he went up to his room when this occurred and screamed for half an hour."

 

 

Not all the children in our study have shown a basic constancy of temperament. In some there have apparently been changes in certain characteristics as time has passed. We are analyzing the data in these cases to try to determine if changes in the children's life situations or in specific stresses are responsible for the apparent fluctuations in temperament. We may find that inconsistency in temperament is itself a basic characteristic in some children.

When we analyzed the behavioral profiles of the children in an endeavor to find correlations among the nine individual attributes, we found that certain characteristics did cluster together. The clusters defined three general types of temperament (although some of the children did not fit into any of the three).

1. One type is characterized by positiveness in mood, regularity in bodily functions, a low or moderated intensity of reaction, adaptability and positive approach to, rather than withdrawal from, new situations. In infancy these children quickly establish regular sleeping and feeding schedules, are generally cheerful and adapt quickly to new routines, new food and new people. As they grow older they learn the rules of new games quickly, participate readily in new activities and adapt easily to school. We named this group the "easy children", because they present so few problems in care and training. Approximately 40 percent of the children in our total sample could be placed in this category.
2. In contrast, we found another constellation of characteristics that described "difficult children". These children are irregular in bodily functions, are usually intense in their reactions, tend to withdraw in the face of new stimuli, are slow to adapt to changes in the environment and are generally negative in mood. As infants they are often irregular in feeding and sleeping, are slow to accept new foods, take a log time to adjust to new routines ore activities and tend to cry a great deal. Their crying and their laughter are characteristically loud. Frustration usually sends them into a violent tantrum. These children are, of course, a trial to their parents and require a high degree of consistency and tolerance tin their upbringing. They comprised about 10 percent of the children in our sample.
3. The third type of temperament is displayed by those children we call "slow to warm up". They typically have a low activity level, tend to withdraw on their first exposure to new stimuli are slow to adapt, are somewhat negative in mood and respond to situations with a low intensity of reaction. They made up 15 percent of the population sample we studied. Hence, 65 percent of the children could be described as belonging to one or another of the three categories we were able to define; the rest had mixtures of traits that did not add up to a general characterization.

 

 

In general easy children respond favorably to various child-rearing styles. Under certain conditions, however, their ready adaptability to parental handling may itself lead to the development of a behavioral problem. Having adapted readily to the parents' standards and expectations early in life, the child on moving into the world of his peers and school may find that the demands of these environments conflict sharply with the behavior patterns he has learned at home. If the conflict between the two sets of demands is severe, the child may be unable to make an adaptation that reconciles the double standard.

TWO YEARS OLD Hallie plays with her father as he tries to change her clothes. He gets shirt off after struggling to lift it over her head, but she holds on with cord. She runs away, provoking chase, and tries to escape as he buttons her shirt. Hallie displays many temperamental characteristics such as intensity, positive mood and high activity.

The possible results of such a dissonance are illustrated in the case of an "easy child" we shall call Isobel. Reared by parents who placed great value on individuality, imagination and self-expression, she developed these qualities to a high degree. When she entered school, however, her work fell far below her intellectual capabilities. She had difficulties not only in learning but also in making friends. It was found that the problems arose from her resistance to taking instruction from her teacher and to accepting her schoolmates' preferences in play. Once the nature of the conflict was recognized it was easily remedied in this case. We advised the parents to combine their encouragement of Isobel's assertions of individuality with efforts to teach her how to join constructively in activities with her teacher and schoolmates. The parents adopted this strategy, and within six months Isobel began to function well in school life.

TABLE I: Temperament of a child allows him to be classified as "easy", "slow to warm up", or "difficult" according to how he rates in certain categories in the authors' nine-point personality index. The categories areonly a general guide to temperament. Of the 141 subjects 65 percent could be categorized, but 35 percent displayed a mixture of traits. Such a child might for example be rated "easy" in some ways and "difficult" in others.

[Addition by J. Gruber:

• distractibility (the degree to which extraneous stimuli affect behavior),
• attention span and persistence (the amount of time devoted to an activity and the effect of distraction on the activity), and
• threshold of responsiveness (the intensity of stimuli required to evoke a discernible response)

TYPE OF CHILD	ACTIVITY LEVEL	RHYTHMICITY	DISTRACTIBILITY	APPROACH WITHDRAWAL	ADAPTABILITY	ATTENTION SPAN AND PERSISTENCE	INTENSITY OF REACTION	THRESHOLD OF RESPONSIVENESS	QUALITY OF MOOD
	The proportion of active periods to inactive ones	Regularity of hunger, excretion, sleep and wakefulness	The degree to which extraneous stimuli affect behavior	The response to a new object or person	The ease with which a child adapts to changes in his environment	The amount of time devoted to an activity and the effect of distraction on the activity	The energy of response regardless of its quality or direction	The intensity of stimuli required to evoke a discernible response	The amount of friendly, pleasant, joyful behavior as contrasted with unpleasant, unfriendly behavior
"EASY"	VARIES	VERY REGULAR	VARIES	POSITIVE APPROACH	VERY ADAPTABLE	HIGH OR LOW	LOW OR MILD	HIGH OR LOW	POSITIVE
"SLOW TO WARM UP"	LOW TO MODERATE	VARIES	VARIES	INITIAL WITHDRAWAL	SLOWLY ADAPTABLE	HIGH OR LOW	MILD	HIGH OR LOW	SLIGHTLY NEGATIVE
"DIFFICULT"	VARIES	IRREGULAR	VARIES	WITHDRAWAL	SLOWLY ADAPTABLE	HIGH OR LOW	INTENSE	HIGH OR LOW	NEGATIVE

In the case of difficult children the handling problem is present from the onset. The parents must cope with the child's irregularity and the slowness with which he adapts in order to establish conformity to the family's rules of living. If the parents are inconsistent, impatient or punitive in their handling of the child, he is much more likely to react negatively than other children are. Only by exceptionally objective, consistent treatment, taking full account of the child's temperament. can he be brought to get along easily with others and to learn appropriate behavior. This may take a long time, but with skilful handling such children do learn the rules and function well. The essential requirement is that the parents recognize the need for unusually painstaking handling; tactics that work well with other children may fail for the difficult child.

For children in the "slow to warm up" category the key to successful development is allowing the child to adapt to the environment at his own pace. If the teacher ore parents of such a child pressure him to move quickly into new situations, the insistence is likely to intensify his natural tendency to withdraw. On the other hand, he does need encouragement and opportunity to try new experiences. Bobby was a case in point. His parents never encouraged him to participate in anything new; they simply withdrew things he did not like. When, as an infant, he rejected a new food by letting it dribble out of his mouth, they eliminated it from his diet. When ha backed away from other children in the playground, they kept him at home. By the age of 10 Bobby was living on a diet consisting mainly of hamburgers, applesauce and medium-boiled eggs, and in play he was a "loner". Any activity that required exposure to new people or new demands was distasteful or even impossible for him. Yet he was adept and took pleasure in activities he could pursue by himself and at his own speed.

In general our studies indicate that a demand that conflicts excessively with any temperamental characteristics and capacities is likely to place a child under heavy and even unbearable stress. This means that parents and teachers need to recognize what a specific child can and cannot do. A child with a high activity level, for example, should not be required to sit still through an eight-hour automobile trip; frequent stops should be made to allow him to run around and give vent to his energy. A persistent child who does not like to be distracted from a project should not be expected to come running when he is called unless he has been told in advance how much time he will have before he is called.

Obviously a detailed knowledge of a child's temperamental characteristics can be a great help to parents in handling the child and avoiding the development of behavioral problems. A highly adaptable child can be expected to accept new foods without resistance and even welcome them. On the other hand, a non-adaptable, intense child may need to have the same food offered at each meal for several days until he comes to accept it; if the mother takes away a rejected food, tries it again some weeks later and again retreats in the face of protests, the child simply learns that by fussing enough he will have his way. Ad adaptable child who is caught sticking things into electric sockets may need only one lecture on the danger to give up this practice; an easily distractible child may merely need to have his attention diverted to some other activity; a persistent child may have to be removed bodily from the hazard.

Understanding a child's temperament is equally crucial in the school situation. Hi temperamental traits affect both his approach t a learning task and the way he interacts with his teacher and classmates. If the school's demands on him go against the grain of theses traits, learning may be difficult indeed. Hence the teacher has a need to know not only the child's capacities for learning but also his temperamental style.

A pupil who wriggles about a great deal, plays continually with his pencils and other objects and involved himself in activities with the student next to him - in short, a child with a high activity level - obviously requires special handling. If the teacher decides the child does not want to learn and treats him accordingly, the youngster is apt to conclude that he is stupid or unlikeable and react with even worse behavior. The teacher is best advised to avoid expressions of annoyance and to provide the child with constructive channels for his energy, such as running necessary errands, cleaning the blackboard and so on. Similarly, a "slow to warm up" child requires patience, encouragement and repeated exposure to a learning task until he becomes familiar with it and comfortable in attacking it. Children with the "difficult" constellation of traits of course present the most taxing problem. They respond poorly to a permissive, laissez faire attitude in the teacher and angrily to learning tasks they cannot master immediately. The teacher needs to be firm and patient; once the child has been tided over the period (which may be long) of learning rules or becoming familiar with new tasks, he will function well and confidently. Laissez faire treatment is also detrimental for youngsters who are slow in persistence and easily distracted from their work. Such a child will do poorly if few demands are made and little achievement is expected of him. He must be required to function p to his abilities.

TABLE 2: BEHAVIOR of a child revels that he has a distinct temperament early in life. These reports taken from interviews with parents of the children studied by the authors show that temperamental differences are apparnt when a child is only two months old. As a child grows his temperamenttends to remain constant in quality: if he wriggles while his diaper is being changed at two months, his high activity level is likely to be expressed at one years through eager eating and a tendency "to climb inot everything". A five-year-old child who behaved quietly in infancy may dress slowly and be able to sit quietly during long automobile rides. Color indicates those temperamental characteristics that are crucial to classifying a child as "easy", "slow to warm up" and "difficult".

TEMPERAMENTAL QUALITY	RATING	2 MONTHS	6 MONTHS	1 YEAR	2 YEARS	5 YEARS	10 YEARS
ACTIVITY LEVEL	HIGH       ----------- LOW	Moves often in sleep. Wriggles when diaper is changed. --------------------- Does not move when being dressed or during sleep	Tries to stand in tub and splashes. Bounces in crib. Crawls after dog. ------------------ Passive in bath. Plays quietly in crib and falls asleep.	Drinks rapidly. Eats eagerly. Climbs into everything. -------------- Drinks bottle slowly. Goes to sleep easily. Allows nail-cutting without fussing	Climbs furniture. Explores. Gets in and out of bed while being put to sleep. ------------- Enjoys quiet play with puzzles. Can listen to records for hours.	Leaves table often during meals. Always runs. ---------- Takes a long time to dress. Sits quietly on long automobile rides.	Plays ball and engages in other sports. Cannot sit still long enough to do homework. --------- Likes chess and reading. Eats very slowly.
RHYTHMICITY	REGULAR       ---------- IRREGULAR	Has been on four hour feeding schedule since born. Regular bowel movement. --------------- Awakes at a different time each morning. Size of feeding varies	Is asleep at 6:30 every night. Awakes 7:00 AM. Food intake is constant. ----------- Length of nap varies; so does food intake.	Sleeps after lunch each day. Always drinks bottle before bed. ---------- Will fall asleep for an hour or more. Moves bowels at a different time each day	Eats big lunch each day. Always has a snack before bedtime. ---------- Nap time changes from day to day. Toilet training is difficult because bowel movement is unpredictable	Falls asleep when put to bed. Bowel movement regular. ----------- Food intake varies; so does time of bowel movement.	Eats only at mealtimes. Sleeps the same amount of time each night. ---------- Food intake varies. Falls asleep at a different time each night.
DISTRACTIBILITY	DISTRACTIBLE         --------- NOT DISTRACTIBLE	Will stop crying when diaper is changed. Stops fussing if given pacifier when diaper is being changed. ------------- Will not stop crying when diaper is changed. Fusses after eating, even if rocked	Stops crying when mother sings. Will remain still while clothing is changed or given a toy. ------------- Stops crying only after dressing is finished. Cries until given bottle.	Cries when face is washed unless it is made into a game. ------------ Cries when toy is taken away and rejects substitute.	Will stop tantrum if another activity is suggested.   -------------- Screams if refused some desired object. Ignores mother's calling.	Can be coaxed out of forbidden activity by being led into something else. ------------- Seems not to hear if involved in favorite activity. Cries for a long time when hurt.	Needs absolute silence for homework. Has hard time choosing a shirt in a store because they all appeal to him -------------- Can read a book while television set is at high volume. Does chores on schedule.
APPROVAL/WITHDRAWAL	POSITIVE               ---------- NEGATIVE	Smiles and licks washcloth. Has always liked bottle.           ------------ Rejected cereal the first time. Cries when strangers appear.	Likes new food. Enjoys first bath in a large tub. Smiles and gurgles. Smiles and babbles at strangers. Plays with new toys immediately. --------------- ?	Approaches strangers readily. Sleeps well in new surroundings.       -------------- Afraid when placed on sled. Will not sleep in strange beds.	Slept well the first time he stayed overnight at grandparents' house.       ------------- Avoids strange children in the playground. Whimpers first time at beach. Will not go into water.	Entered school building unhesitatingly. Tries new food.         ------------ Hid behind mother when entering school.	Went to camp happily. Loved to ski the first time.           ----------- Severely homesick at camp during first days. Does not like new activities.
ADAPTABILITY	ADAPTABLE         ---------- NOT ADAPTABLE	Was passive during the first bath; now enjoys bathing. Smiles at nurse.   ------------- Still startled by sudden, sharp noise. Resists diapering.	Used to dislike new food; now accepts them well.     ------------ Does not cooperate with dressing. Fusses and cries when left with sitter.	Afraid of toy animals at first; now plays with them happily.   ------------ Continues to reject new foods each time they are offered.	Obeys quickly. Stayed contentedly with grandparents for a week. ------------ Cries and screams each time hair is cut. Disobeys persistently.	Hesitated to go to nursery school at first; now goes eagerly. Slept well on camping trip. ---------- Has to be hand led into classroom each day. Bounces on bed in spite of spankings.	Likes camp, although homesick during first days. Learns enthusiastically.   ------------- Does not adjust well to new school or new teacher; comes home late for dinner even when punished.
ATTENTION SPAN AND PERSISTENCE	LONG           --------- SHORT	If soiled, continues to cry until changes. Repeatedly rejects water if he wants milk.   --------------- Cries when awakened but stops almost immediately. Objects only mildly if cereal precedes bottle.	Watches mobile over crib intensely. "Coos" frequently.       ------------ Sucks pacifier for only a few minutes and spits it out.	Plays by self in playpen for more than an hour. Listens to singing for long periods. ----------- Loses interest in toy after a few minutes. Gives up easily if she falls while attempting to walk.	Works on a puzzle until it is completed. Watches when shown how to do something. ------------ Gives up easily if a toy is hard to use. Asks for help immediately if undressing becomes difficult.	Practiced riding a two wheeled bicycle for hours until mastered it. Spent over an hour reading a book. ------------ Still cannot tie his shoes because he gives up when he is not successful. Fidgets when parents read to him.	Reads for two hours before sleeping. Does homework carefully.     ------------- Gets up frequently from homework for a snack. Never finishes a book.
INTENSITY OF REACTION	INTENSE           --------- MILD	Cries when diapers are wet. Rejects food vigorously when satisfied.     ----------- Does not cry when diapers are wet. Whimpers instead of crying when hungry.	Cries loudly at the sound of thunder. Makes sucking movements when vitamins are administered. ---------- Does not kick often in tub. Does not smile. Screams and kicks when temperature is taken.	Laughs hard when father plays roughly. Screams and kicks when temperature is taken. ----------- Do not fuss much when clothing is pulled over head.	Yells if he feels excitement or delight. Cries loudly if a toy is taken away.   ------------ When another child hit her, she looked surprised, did not hit back.	Rushes to greet father. Gets hiccups from laughing hard.     ------------- Drops eyes and remains silent when given a firm parental "No." Does not laugh much.	tears up an entire page of homework if one mistake is made. Slams door of room when teased by younger brother. ----------- When a mistake is made in a model airplane, corrects it quietly. Does not comment when reprimanded.
THRESHOLD OF RESPONSIVENESS	LOW         -------- HIGH	Stops sucking on bottle when approached     ----------- Is not startled by loud noises. Takes bottle and breast equally well.	Refuses fruit he likes when vitamins are added. Hides head from bright . --------- Eats everything. Does not object when diapers are wet or soiled.	Spits out food he does not like. Giggles when tickled.   ------------- Eats food he likes even if mixed with disliked food. Can be left easily with strangers.	Runs to door when father comes home. Must always be tucked tightly into bed. ----------- Can be left with anyone. Falls to sleep easily on either back or stomach	Always notices when mother puts new dress on for first time. Refuses milk if it is not ice-cold. ------------- Does not hear loud, sudden noises when reading. Does not object to injections.	Rejects fatty foods. Adjusts shower until water is exactly the right temperature.   ------------- Never complains when sick. Eats all foods.
QUALITY OF MOOD	POSITIVE           ----------- NEGATIVE	Smacks lips when first tasting new food. Smiles at parents.     --------------- Fusses after nursing. Cries when carriage is rocked.	Plays with splashes in bath. Smiles at everyone.     --------------- Cries when taken from tub. Cries when given food she does not like.	Likes bottle; reaches for it and smiles. Laughs loudly when playing peekaboo. ------------- Cries when given injections. Cries when left alone.	Plays with sister; laughs and giggles. Smiles when she succeeds in putting shoes on. -------------- Cries and squirms when given haircut. Cries when mother leaves.	Laughs loudly while watching television cartoons. Smiles at everyone.   -------------- Objects to putting boots on. Cries when frustrated.	Enjoys new accomplishments. Laughs when reading a funny passage aloud.   ------------- Cries when he cannot solve a homework problem. Very "weepy" if he does not get enough sleep.

The paramount conclusion from our studies is that the debate over the relative importance of nature and nurture only confuses the issue. hat is important is the interaction between the two - between the child's own characteristics and his environment. If the two influences are harmonized, one can expect healthy development of the child; if they are dissonant, behavioral problems are almost sure to ensue.

It follows that the pediatrician who undertakes to supervise the care of a newborn child should familiarize himself with his young patient's temperament as well as physical characteristic. He will then be able to provide the parents with appropriate advice on weaning, toilet training and the handling of other needs as the child develops. Similarly, if a behavioral disorder arises, the psychiatrist will need to understand both the child's temperament and the environmental demands in conflict with it in order to find helpful course of action. His function then will often be to guide rather than "treat" the parents. Most parents, once they are informed of the facts, can change their handling to achieve a healthier interaction with the child.

Theory and practice in psychiatry must take into full account the individual and his uniqueness; how children differ and how these differences act to influence their psychological growth. A given environment will not have the identical functional meaning for all children Much will depend on the temperamental makeup of the child. As we learn more about how specific parental attitudes and practices and other specific factors in the environment of the child interact with specific temperamental and physical attributes of individual children, it should become considerably easier to foster the child's healthy development.

The Authors

Alexander Thomas is professor of psychiatry at the New York University School of Medicine,
Stella Chess is professor of child psychiatry at the same institution (PubMed Query), and
Herbert G. Birch (1918-1973) is professor of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.

Thomas and Chess are married. (look inside "Temperament: Theory and Practice" by S. Chess and A. Thomas)

All three authors received their M.D. degree from the NYU School of Medicine.

In addition to continuing with the work described in the present article, Thomas is engaged in the behavioral study of a population of children and adolescents and their parents from a working-class Puerto Rican families and a cross-cultural comparison of this group with middle-class native-born families described in the article.

Chess is currently (1970) investigating temperamental and other behavioral characteristics in a population of mentally retarded children living at home, and she is also directing a study of the behavioral and psychiatric characteristics of a large group of children with organic damage resulting from congenital rubella ("German measles").

Birch's major interests are mental retardation, the effects of early malnutrition on brain functioning and behavior and the psychophysiology of disadvantaged children.

Related Links

Child Temperament: FAQs

CHESS, STELLA, M.D., ALEXANDER THOMAS, M.D., AND HERBERT G. BIRCH, M.D., PH.D. Your Child Is A Person: A Psychological Approach To Childhood Without Guilt. The Viking Press, New York: 1965. 213 pages (Ad Infinitum Books)

Joachim Gruber