The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between masculinity-femininity scores on the Terman-Miles Attitude Interest Analysis Test and interest scores on certain subtests of the Kuder Preference Record. Masculinity-femininity was defined as the degree of similarity of the individual's responses to the responses characteristic of men or of women, respectively, of our culture. Interest was defined as the readiness of an individual to engage in some activity. The major purpose of this study was to determine whether members of opposite sexes having similar personality characteristics in relation to masculinity-femininity were closer in interest scores than were members of the same sex having opposite personality characteristics in relation to masculinity-femininity. Four groups of deviates on the masculinity-femininity dimension were selected from a large group of male and female volunteer undergraduates of the University of British Columbia. These four groups were then given the Kuder Preference Record, and six subtests, selected because of their proven ability to discriminate between the sexes, were scored. Statistical analysis showed that the hypothesized relationship did exist in two vocational areas and did not exist in the remaining two vocational areas and two personal areas. The second purpose of this study was to investigate the statement that amount of education is positively correlated with degree of masculinity for both sexes throughout life. A large group of male and female volunteer, white-collar, high-school graduates, none of whom had attended university, was given the Terman-Miles test. A comparison of the scores of these non-university males with the scores of the university males showed that the latter group was significantly more masculine. No significant difference was found in the case of the female non-university and university groups. It was concluded first, that interests, as measured by the Kuder Preference Record, are not as closely related to masculinity-femininity, as measured by the Terman-Miles test, as common-sense judgments of the situation would indicate: and second, that the positive relationship between degree of masculinity and amount of education may exist in the male population, but possibly not in the female population, in our culture. / Arts, Faculty of / Philosophy, Department of / Graduate

Orientador: Mateus José Rodrigues Paranhos da Costa / Coorientador: Nedenia Bonvino Stafuzza / Banca: Katia de Oliveira / Banca: José Corrêa de Lacerda Neto / Resumo: Em todos os esportes equestres é comum que os animais sejam testados com grande variação de obstáculos, percursos e ambientes. Essas dificuldades impostas nas provas equestres justificam o foco em um dos aspectos mais importantes do temperamento dos cavalos: sua reatividade ou comportamento de fuga ("flightness"). A reatividade dos potro pode ser caracterizada pela aproximação ou fuga de determinado estímulo. Este estudo teve como objetivo verificar a existência da variabilidade na expressão do comportamento de um grupo de potros Brasileiro de Hipismo (BH) frente à novo objeto e se existe alguma associação entre a reatividade dos animais durante o teste do novo objeto e a presença do polimorfismo de nucleotídeo único (SNP - Single Nucleotide Polymorphism) A758T do gene DBH. O teste do novo objeto (feito com a utilização de um guarda-chuva aberto) foi realizado em 260 potros Brasileiro de Hipismo (BH) sem nenhum treinamento montado. A avaliação da reatividade e rapidez de habituação foi feita por avaliação qualitativa do comportamento (QBA - Qualitative Behavior Analysis) durante o teste de novo objeto. Foi possível observar grande variabilidade fenotípica entre os potros, sendo que os animais foram divididos em um grupo com altos valores para as variáveis RELAXADO, FOCADO, CONFIANTE e POSITIVAMENTE CURIOSO e outro grupo de animais com altos valores para PRECAVIDO, AGITADO, CONFUSO e DESESPERADO. Também foi observado que os criatórios diferiram entre si quanto à adoção de sel... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: In all the equestrian sports it is common that the animals are tested with a great variation of obstacles, courses and environments. These difficulties imposed in the equestrian sports justify the focus in one of the aspects of a horse's temperament: his reactivity or flight behavior ("flightiness"). The horse's reactivity can be characterized by his approach or escape of determined stimulus. This study aimed to verify the existence of behavior variability in Brazilian Sport Horse fillies and colts and if there is any association between that behavior and the presence of the DBH SNP A758T. In order to accomplish this, we tested 260 Brazilian Sport Horse fillies and colts, without any mounted training, in a novel object test using an umbrella. The horse's reactivity and habituation speed was analyzed through a QBA- Qualitative Behavior Analysis during the novel object test. It was possible to observe a great phenotypic variability between the animals and divide them in a group with high values for the variables RELAXED, FOCUSED, CONFIDENT and POSITIVELY CURIOUS and another group of animals with high values for CAUTIOUS, AGITATED, CONFUSED and DESPAIRED. We also observed that the breeders differed with respect to the adoption of a directional selection or not for the animals' reactivity. In spite of this, the presence of animals that can be characterized as "pathologically anxious", shows the need for a greater attention on the part of national breeders in the selection of anim... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Many philosophers have worried about what philosophy is. Often they have looked for answers by considering what it is that philosophers do. Given the diversity of topics and methods found in philosophy, however, we propose a different approach. In this article we consider the philosophical temperament, asking an alternative question: what are philosophers like? Our answer is that one important aspect of the philosophical temperament is that philosophers are especially reflective: they are less likely than their peers to embrace what seems obvious without questioning it. This claim is supported by a study of more than 4,000 philosophers and non-philosophers, the results of which indicate that even when we control for overall education level, philosophers tend to be significantly more reflective than their peers. We then illustrate this tendency by considering what we know about the philosophizing of a few prominent philosophers. Recognizing this aspect of the philosophical temperament, it is natural to wonder how philosophers came to be this way: does philosophical training teach reflectivity or do more reflective people tend to gravitate to philosophy? We consider the limitations of our data with respect to this question and suggest that a longitudinal study be conducted.

The present study explored experimenters’ looking behavior in a gaze-following task as a function of infant temperament. Two experienced female experimenters ran 62 15-month-olds through a six-trial gaze-following procedure in which infants were not distracted on the first three trials, but were distracted on the latter three trials by an Elmo video playing in the background. Although experimenters were trained to look at target objects for eight seconds per trial and were blind to infant temperamental status, both experimenters looked significantly longer during the non-distracted trials when infants were rated by their caregivers as high on effortful control or surgency. These results suggest that even experienced experimenters are susceptible to infant-driven influences. More importantly, these results highlight the importance of conceptualizing lab-based infant research involving human experimenters as, in Bronfenbrenner's (1977) terms, representing the totality of a functional social system that does not exclude the experimenters.

Emotion regulation is processes by which individuals influence which emotions they have, when they have them, and how they experience and express those emotions. In the field of developmental psychology, there is a large literature on affect regulation focused almost exclusively on infants and young children with a focus on temperamental differences in reactivity, both affective and physiological, and accompanying regulatory strategies. The purpose of the current study was to examine the role of two dimensions of temperament, negative affect (NA) and effortful control (EC), and how these dimensions relate to physiology, self-report of emotion, and behavior during resting and stressor tasks (Stroop, video game, hand cold pressor, and delayed gratification), the latter in which emotion suppression instructions were given. Using the Adult Temperament Questionnaire (ATQ) to screen 656 subjects, 24 males and 53 females were recruited to take part in the second phase of the study, creating four groups with their screening ATQ scores: high NA/high EC, low NA/low EC, high NA/low EC, low NA/high EC. Physiological measures derived from electrocardiogram (ECG) and impedance cardiography were recorded during each task and behaviors were coded using the Emotion Expressive Behavior Coding System. EC Group and NA Group were not significant for the majority of the physiological, self-report, and behavioral variables. However, the EC subscale inhibitory control was predictive of lower resting HRV for females only, and the Extraversion/Surgency subscale Sociability was a significant predictor of cardiac sympathetic activity during the tasks, with low sociability subjects showing a stronger sympathetic response. Neither self-report of emotion nor behavioral variables show a clear group difference in response to the tasks. Future studies will examine the use of other types of regulatory tasks, such as social interactions, as well as the need for a balance between emotion expressivity and emotion regulation. / Ph. D.

Temperament is thought to be the foundation for normative personality and subsequent behaviors later in life. To assess the relationship of early temperament with variation in structural brain development, this study examined rhesus macaque mother-infant behavior, and then three years later, used MRI to assess neurostructural differences. Individual differences in mother-infant interactions and emotionality were then linked to brain differences. Extensive behavioral data obtained over the first year of life under both resting and stressful conditions was used to assess the quality of mother-infant interactions and emotionality. The MRI focused on brain volume in areas thought to be related to emotional regulation and such as the cingulate gyrus and corpus callosum structures. These structures are often mentioned as areas that modulate emotions, temperament and general social behavior. The methods involved in this research include behavior coded from group-housed infant rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta). The subjects were 15 mother-reared subjects, each housed in a social group of 12-20 subjects, living in social settings with their mothers, other adult females, two adult males, and other same-aged subjects; conditions that approximate the social composition of the natural setting. Behaviors related to temperament and mother-infant interactions were assessed using an objective behavioral scoring system. Behavior was coded under three conditions, and each behavioral coding session was 5-minute long. Homecage: Two behavioral coding sessions were recorded weekly for each subject as it interacted naturally with its mother and peers over the first six-months of life. Preseparation (month 6): Two weeks before four, sequential, 4-day social separations, behavioral data were collected once each day. Reunion with mother: Following each of the social separations, data were collected twice immediately following return to mother and again on the morning before the separation. Subjects underwent MRIs 1-2 years later when they were 2-3 years of age. The result of this research was that during pre-separation interactions, anterior cingulate size to brain ratio showed a positive correlation with mutual ventral contact (being cradled and held closely), a measure of the use of mother as a secure base to calm anxiety and fear.

No description available.

Research has suggested that the differential experiences of children in the same family were often greater than those of children across different families. Although studies identified potential moderators (e.g., age, gender) associated with differential parenting, there has been less investigation of mediators. The current study examined attachment as a mediator in the relationship between differential parenting and parents' perceptions of their children. As part of this study, 132 culturally diverse mothers with children who ranged in age from 2- to 10-years rated how differently they treat their own children, their children's attachment, their parenting characteristics, and their children's functioning (i.e., temperament and emotional and behavioral functioning). Meditational and hierarchical regression analyses suggested the importance of examining both parenting characteristics as well as attachment variables in understanding how mothers rated both their older and younger children. In particular, results demonstrated that the parent-child attachment relationship is particularly important for older children in families with a younger sibling present. For younger siblings, this study corroborated existing research and found that punitive parenting was especially important in predicting parents' ratings of these children's emotional and behavioral functioning. These findings are particularly helpful for professionals working with families with multiple children and with parents who are reporting troubling behaviors in these children.

To examine the relationships among children's temperament, parents' attributions, parenting stress, and children's behavior problems, the current study investigates the responses of parents who are raising children between the ages of 3- and 6-years. Each parent completed the Dimensions of Temperament Scale-Revised for Children (Windle & Learner, 1986), the Parenting Locus of Control Scale-Short Form (Rayfield, Eyberg, Boggs, & Roberts, 1995a), the Parent Attribution Test (Bugental, 1998), the Child Trait Rating Scale (Sacco, Johnson, & Tenzer, 1993), the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form (Abidin, 1995), and the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000, 2001). Using correlational and regression analyses, results of this study suggest that difficult child temperament is related positively and significantly to an external locus of parental control, less positive child trait attributions, and higher levels of parenting stress, whereas easier child temperament is related to an internal locus of parental control, more positive child trait attributions, and lower levels of parenting stress. Although different patterns of findings occur for mothers and fathers, regression results indicate generally that parents' attributions mediate the relationship between children's temperament and parenting stress. Such findings suggest that interventions would benefit from targeting parents' attributions of their children as well as the relationships among parents' attributions, parenting stress, other parenting characteristics, and children's behavior problems.

Middle childhood is a critical period of attentional development. Previous research has linked neural oscillations in the theta frequency band to controlled attentional and cognitive processes, which has been replicated in children and adults. The development of executive attention, which biases attention and alters mental representation in the service of task goals, is preceded by development of sustained attention, and further selective sustained attention. These three attentional constructs can be represented by Posner’s altering (sustained) orienting (selective sustained) and executive attention networks. Effortful control, a temperament trait describing individual differences in ability to exert self-regulation, has been linked to efficiency of the executive attention system. To examine attentional engagement (within task) and demand (between task) electroencephalography was recorded from 226 six- and nine-year-old children at medial and lateral, frontal, and parietal scalp locations during a baseline, visual search, and the Attention Network Task to measure sustained, selective sustained and executive attention, respectively. Repeated measures MANOVA of frontal and parietal scalp locations indicate multiple complex three-way interactions of region (medial vs lateral), Age, and Block/Task. Frontal and parietal activation patterns were also different from each other, as well as between age groups. When temperament factors, effortful control and surgency, were included in the model (repeated measures MANCOVA) most interactions were no longer significant. We therefore find, in accord with previous literature, that medial frontal theta is impacted by attentional engagement and demand but this association is heavily impacted by individual biologically based differences. / M.S. / During middle childhood, kids' ability to pay attention develops into a more sophisticated, adult-like form. Scientists have found that the way our brain waves work in a certain frequency (called theta) is connected to our ability to focus and think. This is true for both kids and adults. There are three critical forms of attention identified by developmental and cognitive researchers. First, there's the kind where you can stay focused on something for a while. Then, there's another type where you not only stay focused but also pick out specific things to focus on. Lastly, there's the kind where you can change your focus to fit the task you're doing. Our goal was to examine how theta brain waves relate to each of these forms of attention and how those change after three years. Using the electroencephalography technique, we measured brain activity of used a special brain scanning technique on 226 kids when they were six and nine years old, while they completed three tasks. One analysis focused on attentional engagement, how children focused over the course of a single task, and the other on attentional demand, how children focused differently as tasks got more difficult. We found power in the theta frequency band decreased with age, which means that children’s attentional processing was more efficient the older they were. We also found that theta in the front of the brain did not change greatly over the course of the task except for the initial set of trials. This was different from the middle regions of the brain, which changed a lot over the course of the task. Theta power in both frontal and middle parts of the brain was different between the tasks, and harder tasks were associated with more theta. Finally, we found that temperament, a child’s individual self-control and excitability, greatly explained the differences in theta power over the tasks.