Temperament

Temperament and its development have been associated with the alpha band of EEG coherence in previous research that focused on adolescent and adult populations, results suggest that this measure stands as a reliable indicator of emotional states. In the current study, five data sets from previously conducted studies were analyzed to determine if resting state alpha coherence measures differ in various brain regions and are associated with variation in levels of temperament. Additionally, we aimed to determine if, as age increases, a synchronous result in coherence may be seen (specifically, from posterior to anterior), in accordance with neurophysiological development. Regression analyses suggested that the negative affectivity temperamental qualities did not significantly associate with coherence. Repeated-measures analyses yielded significant results in favor of the electrocortical development hypothesis and, through exploratory analysis, more reactive temperament scores depicting positive affectivity, emotional/self-regulation, and activity level displayed in infants who had higher coherence in posterior regions. The study was suggestive of high coherence values associating with highly reactive temperamental attributes in posterior regions in the 3- to 12-month-old participants and higher coherence values displaying in posterior regions compared to anterior regions consistently across age groups.

The ability to regulate emotional expression serves as an important mechanism in the adaptation of an individual. One important individual difference related to emotional regulation is agreeableness. We examined two competing theories that link agreeableness to the ability to control emotional reactivity when involved in an aggressive situation. The person-environment fit hypothesis emphasizes social behavior as a product of how the individual and situation interact with each other. The temperament hypothesis suggests that agreeableness is linked to temperamental bases of effortful control, specifically the regulation of anger. Female college students (N = 40) participated in a study that was designed to examine individual differences in emotional self-regulation in a simulated two person social interaction. Physiological responses to perceived aggression and observations of aggressive behavior were related to self-reports to examine hypotheses about links among personality and aggression. The patterns of results were different for high and low agreeable persons when they were targets of aggression.