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School Psychology Review

1998, Vol. 27, No. 4, pp. 479-491


Temperament, Self-Regulation, and Education
Mary K. Rothbart and Laura B. J ones
University of Oregon
Abstract: In recent years, advances in the study of temperament have identified a short list
of temperament dimensions. These include positive emotionality/approach, fear, irritability/
frustration, attentional persistence and activity level. In this article, we review research on
the first four of these dimensions, briefly linking themto underlying biological systems.
We then apply our knowledge of temperament to teachers approaches to childrens mastery
motivation, fear of novelty, and ego based anxiety. Weargue that educators training should
include a basic understanding of the development of temperament as well as methods for
assessing individual differences in childrens emotional reactivity and attentional self-
regulation.
Recent increases in our understanding of
temperament have created new ways for ap-
proaching the education of the child. These
approaches allow us to appreciate the ways in
which children differ from another, and the
positive contributions of this variability to the
classroom and society. In this article, we begin
with some introductory remarks on temperament
and schooling. We then review results of studies
identifying basic dimensions of temperament that
can affect childrens exploration, discovery, and
learning as well as their discouragement, anger,
and avoidance of potential sources of knowledge.
We describe the structure of temperament as it
has emerged from research during the past two
decades, briefly linking this structure to theories
of underlying biological systems. The structure
of temperament that has emerged includes indivi-
dual tendencies toward fear, angedfrustration,
positive affect and approach, activity level, and
effortful or executive attention. These emotional,
energetic, and attentional systems have been
conserved in evolution and are associated in
theories of temperament with underlying neural
networks and neurotransmitter activity.
We consider implications of individual
variability in these tendencies for the childs
experiences in school. We discuss ways in which
mastery motivation may be related to childrens
fear and avoidant tendencies, approach, and
effortful control of emotion and action. Finally,
we review implications of a temperamental
understanding of children for the training of
educators and the assessment of children.
Temperament and Schooling
In theories of temperament, early individual
differences in emotionality, activity level, and
attention are seen as based on a set of brain
systems underlying childrens reactivity and self-
regulation (Rothbart, Derryberry, & Posner,
1994). When there is variability in the sensitivity
of these systems, the same stimulus does not have
the same effect for all: children differ in how
easily and intensely they become fearful, frus-
trated, or positively excited. They differ in capa-
cities for attentional self-regulation. By the time
of school entry, temperament affects the nature
of the childs adjustment to the requirements and
challenges of the educational setting. Experiences
of success and failure in the school related to these
adjustments influence the childs representations
and evaluations of self, school, teachers and peers.
This work has been supported with NIMH Grant No. 43361 awarded to the first author.
Address all correspondence concerning this article to Mary K. Rothbart, Department of Psychology, 1227
University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403- 1227. E-mail: Maryroth@oregon.uoregon.edu.
Copyright 1998 by the National Association of School Psychologists, ISSN 0279-6015
479
480 School Psychology Review, 1998, Vol. 27, No. 4
Although temperament researchers had
originally believed that temperament systems
would be in place very early in development and
change little with the passage of time (e.g., Buss
& Plomin, 1984), we have since learned that
temperament systems follow a developmental
course (Rothbart, 1989; Rothbart & Bates, 1998).
Childrens reactive tendencies to both experience
and express negative and positive emotions, and
their responsivity to events in the environment
can be observed very early in life, but childrens
self-regulatory executive attention develops
relatively late and continues to develop through-
out the early school years. Because executive
attention is involved in the regulation of emotions,
some school children will be lacking in controls
of emotion and action that other children can
demonstrate with ease.
The influence of temperament upon person-
ality and schooling and contributions of the
school to personality can be considered in
numerous ways. Temperament refers to the
relative strength of childrens emotional reactions
and related behaviors as well as their capacities
for self-regulation. Emotional reactions and self-
regulatory capacities are important in child
development. Children differ, however, in the
strengths of their temperamental tendencies and
capabilities. Some children are at the extremes
of temperament; for example, some children tend
to approach new situations rapidly and im-
pulsively, are less subject to fear and have less
capacity for attentional control than others. Some
children are easily overwhelmed by stimulation;
some show powerful tendencies to irritability and
frustration. Children at the extremes clearly
demonstrate the power of temperament in the
classroom, and it is important to take these
temperament characteristics into account.
While childrens individual differences
influence their own adaptation to the classroom,
these characteristics also have an important
influence on how students are viewed and treated
by their teachers. Thomas and Chess (1977)
developed the concept goodness-of-fit to
describe how well childrens characteristics,
capacities and temperament meet theexpectations
and demands of the environment (Keogh, 1994;
Thomas & Chess, 1977; Thomas, Chess, &Birch,
1968). The goodness-of-fit concept provides a
framework for thinking about interactions
between children and the classroomenvironment.
Maintenance of classroom order is a priority for
teachers. When teachers are presented with
behavior potentially disruptive to classroom
routine, they must make quick decisions about
how to manage and respond to this behavior. Poor
fit can result when childrens characteristics fail
to meet teachers expectations of acceptable
behavior.
Teachers have a priori ideas about the
qualities of a model student (Keogh, 1989); these
qualities include temperament variables such as
high attention span, adaptability and approach,
and low activity and reactivity. Students are
viewed as more teachable when they closely
match this set of variables, and less teachable the
fiuther they are from the set. The quality of the
teacher-child interaction also is related to this
match. In one study, Martin ( 1989) reported that
children distractible and low in attention received
more criticism fromtheir teachers. Pullis (1985)
discovered that when teachers thought children
were capable of, but not practicing, self-control,
they were more likely to discipline the children
with more punitive and coercive discipline
techniques.
Increasing teachers understanding of
childrens individual differences and their relation
to adaptations or problems can be extremely
helpful in shifting the focus from teachers
negative attributions of purposeful misbehavior
to active problem-solving. Increasing teachers
awareness of how childrens temperament
dimensions might contribute to the situation can
lead to reduced conflict (Pullis, 1985) and to the
development of appropriate strategies specific to
the temperament dimensions involved. When
children feel accepted and respected as indivi-
duals, the focus moves fromone of accusation to
one of support; children feel less compelled to
expend energy defending their positions and they
are more inclined to consider alternatives for
resolving problems.
While individual differences play a role in
childrens initial goodness-of-fit to the classroom
environment, especially for children at the
extremes of temperament, it also is helpful to
consider how these processes underlie adjustment
and adaptation to the school environment for all
children. For children generally, punishment can
lead to inhibition and avoidance; failure can lead
to defense or frustration. Positive affect and goal
orientation are related to curiosity and energy for
most children, and executive attention supports
childrens flexible response. The dynamics of
these systems are important in maintaining and
enhancing childrens motivation in the classroom,
Temperament, Self-Regulation, and Education
48 1
not just for children at the extremes, but for all
children, and we consider these dynamics in the
next section of this article. Finally, temperament
does not account for all aspects of school
experience. Childrens reactions to success and
failure in the classroom are subject to powerful
socializing influences in the home and during
previous schooling. For example, temperament
affects self-evaluations, but children will enter
schools with differing degrees of preparation for
classroom learning, and with personalities that
vary in their vulnerability and resilience to
challenge and disappointment. Children whose
parents have given unconditional support are
more likely to have more stable positive self-
evaluations; children whose parents have been
rejecting or conditional in their acceptance are
likely to be less resilient (Harter, 1998).
Dimensions of Treatment
Although temperament theory has an ancient
history, its application to child study has been
relatively recent (see review in Rothbart & Bates,
1998). In the great normative developmental
studies of the 1920s and 1930s, Gesell (1928)
and Shirley (1 933) identified what Shirley called
the early core of personality. Gesell and Shirley
argued that although childrens emotional
reactions change with development (for example,
children decrease in their expressed negative
emotion with age), childrens individuality can
nevertheless beobserved in such reactions as fear,
positive affect, humor, and irritability. Gesell
noted that for any set of temperament character-
istics, alternative pathways for development also
will exist, dependent upon the childs social
experiences.
To illustrate this principle, he used lhe case
of CD, who had maintained her tendencies to
positive emotions, beginning at the time that she
was nine months old
She is now five years of age, and in spite
of a varied experience in boarding homes
and institutions she has not lost these
engaging characteristics. They are part and
parcel of her makeup. . . . It can be predicted
with much certainty that she will retain her
present emotional equipment when she is
an adolescent and an adult. But more than
this cannot be predicted in the field of
personality. For whether she becomes a
delinquent, and she is potentially one, will
depend upon her subsequent training,
conditioning, and supervision. She is
potentially, also, a willing, helpful,
productive worker. (Gesell, 1928, cited in
Kessen, 1965, p. 223)
Parents and educators employ training, condi-
tioning and supervision of children in the hope
and expectation of positive developmental
outcomes. To do this well, it is helpful when the
childs reactive and regulative equipment is
taken into account.
Researchers with the greatest impact on
studies of temperament in childhood are
psychiatrists Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas
and their colleagues in the New York Longitu-
dinal Study, (NYLS); (Thomas & Chess, 1977,
Thomas, Chess, Birch, Hertzig, & Korn, 1963).
The NYLS researchers initially conducted a
content analysis on mothers reports of their
childrens behavior during the first six months
of life, identifying nine dimensions of tempera-
ment variability. The dimensions they identified
included childrens activity level, threshold for
reaction, rhythmicity of eating, sleeping and
bowel movement patterns, intensity of response,
approach versus withdrawal to new situations,
general mood, adaptability to change, distracti-
bility and attention spadpersistence. Recent
research however, suggests important revisions
of this list (Rothbart & Bates, 1998).
In part, revisions of the list are required
because temperament develops. The NYLS
content analysis was based on individual
variability in young infants. The dimensions
identified characterize children early in life; later-
developing dimensions were not considered. One
major area undergoing development is effortfid
or executive attention (Ruff & Rothbart, 1996):
the orienting and distractibility observed in young
infants early months of life is chiefly reactive and
automatic. Beginning late in the first year and
developing through the grade school years,
however, executive attentional control allows
increasing self-regulation of behavior and
emotion.
A second reason why revisions of the NYLS
dimensions are needed is that the nine NYLS
dimensions, devised for clinical and not psycho-
metric purposes, show considerable conceptual
overlap (Rothbart & Mauro, 1990). For example,
NYLS mood and adaptability dimensions overlap
with each other and with the approach-withdrawal
construct. This conceptual overlap is reflected in
research findings. Measures of some of the nine
dimensions are so strongly intercorrelated that a
I
482 School Psychology Review, 1998, Vol. 27, No. 4
single dimension is indicated (e.g., approach-
withdrawal and adaptability); for other dimen-
sions, different aspects of a postulated dimension
are not sufficiently related to each other. For
example, a child may not be intense in both fear
and positive reactions, thereby lowering internal
reliability for an intensity scale (see reviews by
Martin, Wisenbaker, & Huttunen, 1994; Rothbart
& Mauro, 1990). Factor analytic work reviewed
by Martin et al. (1 994) and Rothbart and Mauro
(1 990) suggests that the dimensions identified by
the NYLS can be described by a smaller number
of factors.
For school-age children, this shorter list of
temperament dimensions includes negative
emotionality assessed in fear and irritability/
frustration as well as approacWpositive affect,
attentional persistence, and activity level
(Rothbart & Bates, 1998). Two much smaller
factors, rhythmicity and threshold, have been
found in some studies. In the next section, we
briefly review the first four of these dimensions,
includmg emotional reactivity dimensions and the
later developing executive attentional self-
regulatory system. We also briefly refer to links
made between these systems and underlying brain
systems. The references to brain systems will not
be clear to all readers, and can be skipped, but
they are important. For readers who desire an
introduction to some of the ideas presented here,
books by Posner and Raichle (1 994), LeDoux
( 1996), and Panksepp ( 1998) are recommended.
Positive AffectIApproach
This cluster of temperament dimensions
includes positive affect and rapid approach of
rewarding objects or events. Individual differ-
ences in positive affect can be observed very early
and they show considerable stability across the
first year of life. Smiling is related to the rapidity
of infants approach to novel objects as early as
6 months of age (Rothbart, 1988). Smiling and
laughter in the laboratory during infancy also
predict activity, approach, and impulsivity at
seven years of age as reported by childrens
mothers (Rothbart, Derryberry, & Hershey,
1995). In our research assessing temperament in
children 3 to 7 years of age, using the Childrens
Behavior Questionnaire (CBQ; Rothbart, Ahadi,
Hershey, & Fisher, 1997), we found activity level
to be related to a broad factor that also includes
approach and positive affect and we have called
this factor Surgency or Extraversion.
Gray (1 987) described a similar Behavioral
Activation System (BAS), which responds to
signals of reward. It involves the recruiting of
dopamine systems facilitating action. Depue and
Iacono (1989) also described a doparnine-related
Behavioral Facilitation System (BFS). Blockage
of this system is seen to lead to imtative and
aggressive behavior to remove the obstacle or
threat. A similar approach system is Panksepps
( 1986a) Expectancy-Foraging System, which
includes motor and autonomic responses to
emotional states such as desire, curiosity,
anticipatory eagerness, and locomotion. All of
these models posit neural systems linked to
positive affect and related to facilitated behavior,
particularly in the form of approach (Rothbart,
Derryberry, & Posner, 1994). As discussed
below, the approach system is of central
importance to schooling, in its associations with
curiosity, eagerness, and energy toward goal
satisfaction related to the construct of mastery
motivation. When it is not controlled, however,
the child may show failure of self-regulation in
the classroom.
Fear
Fearfulness can be defined as a tendency to
negative affect and inhibition or withdrawal in
response to novelty, challenge, or signals of
punishment. This dimension has been called
withdrawal in the NYLS studies (Thomas &
Chess, 1977), fearfulness (Rothbart, 1989) and
behavioral inhibition (Kagan, 1994). Individual
differences in fearfulness to novelty can be seen
by the last quarter of the first year of life, and
fear reactions in older infants are predictable from
four-month-olds negative affect and activity in
response to stimulation at four months of age
(Kagan, 1998). Individual differences in children
behavioral inhibition and shyness show consider-
able stability with time, and infants fear reactions
in the laboratory during the first year of life are
predictive of their mothers reports of childrens
fear and shyness at age seven years (Rothbart et
al., 1995).
Of all the temperament systems, fear has
probably been the most studied by neuroscientists
(e.g., Davis, 1992; LeDoux, 1996; review by
Rothbart, Derryberry, & Posner, 1994). Fear
responses are rapidly recruited in the amygdala,
part of the brains limbic system. Gray (1 982)
described fear or anxiety reactions in terms of a
Behavioral Inhibition System or BIS. In Grays
Temperament, Self-Regulation, and Education
483
model, brain circuits underlying the BIS include
hippocampus, subiculum, septum and related
structures. The BIS opposes the behavioral ap-
proach of the BAS. Because many situations
involve cues related to both reward and punish-
ment, reward cues would trigger the BAS, punish-
ment cues the BIS. Persons with stronger BAS
tendencies will then be more likely to act in a
given situation and be seen as extraverted; those
with stronger BIS to become shy, inhibited or
introverted.
A fear reaction includes many response
levels (see Rothbart et al., 1994 for review), in-
cluding arousal, recruitment of attention toward
the fear object and possible escape routes, auto-
nomic nervous system effects (heart rate and
respiratory increases, sweaty palms), and somatic
nervous system reactions (muscle tension, arrest
of ongoing behavior, tendency to startle).
Influences of fear or anxiety in disrupting
thinking, e.g., in childrens test anxiety, have been
an object of interest of school psychologists for
many years (e.g., Sarason, Lighthall, Davidson,
Waite, & Ruebush, 1960).
Irritability/Frustration
Irritability/frustration is defined as affect in
response to failure in goal attainment, removal
of reward, or blockage of progress toward a goal.
In some factor analyses of temperament data on
school-age children, this dimension forms part
of a cluster of Negative Emotionality, combined
with fearfulness, tendencies to discomfort, and
sadness; in other studies, it emerges as a separate
factor (Rothbart & Bates, 1998). Infant research,
however, uniformly differentiates these two
forms of negative affect. In Grays (1982) theore-
tical model, the amygdala, hypothalamus, and
midbrain support aggressive and defensive
behavior in response to frustration and form a
fighvflight system. Early fiustration reactions of
infants in the laboratory are predictive of child-
rens reactions to frustration (and their levels of
aggression) as reported by their mothers when
the children are seven years of age (Rothbart et
al., 1995). Like fear, frustration has important
implications for school situations associated with
failure, aggression, and defensive tendencies.
Attention Span/ Effortful Control
Attentional processes show considerable
development from infancy through the early
school years (Ruff & Rothbart, 1996). Infants
demonstrate reactive orienting that, when
sustained, appears to be related to interest in an
object. This orienting system is subject to
habituation, when repeated events no longer
evoke as strong a reaction, but it also supports
learning, when an event indicates where some-
thing interesting or important will appear next
(Posner & Raichle, 1994). The posterior orienting
network, including cortical, midbrain and
thalamic areas, underlies early orienting (Posner
& Raichle, 1994). Children differ in both their
latency to orient and in their duration of orienting
to novelty (Ruff & Rothbart, 1996). Individual
differences in duration of orienting in infancy are
related to caregiver reports of smiling and
laughter and vocal activity (Rothbart & Bates,
1998).
By late in the first year of life, a second, more
anterior brain system is developing that will allow
deployment of attention in the service of longer-
term goals as well as planning and persistence in
the face of distraction (Ruff & Rothbart, 1996).
We have called this the executive attention
system, and it supports effortful control, that is,
the ability to inhibit a dominant response to
perform a subdominant response. Executive
attention has been the subject of considerable
recent study by neuropsychologists and cognitive
psychologists. Executive or effortful attention is
related to the activation of midline frontal brain
areas, including the anterior cingulate and
adjacent structures (Posner & Raichle, 1994).
Effortful control constructs have become
extremely important in understanding influences
of temperament on behavior. Until recently,
almost all of the major theories of temperament
have focused on its more reactive aspects related
to reward, punishment, and arousal to stimulation.
Thus, people have been seen to be at the mercy
of their temperamental tendencies to approach
or avoid a situation or stimulus, given reward or
punishment cues. More extraverted individuals
were expected to be sensitive to reward and to
show tendencies to rapid approach; more fearful
or introverted individuals, sensitive to punish-
ment, showing inhibition or withdrawal from
excitement (Gray, 1975). Systems of effortfbl
control, however, allow the approach of situations
in the face of immediate cues for punishment.,
and avoidance of situations in the face of
immediate cues for reward. The programming of
effortful control is critical to socialization. The
work of Kochanska (1995) indicates that the
484 School Psychology Review, 1998, Vol. 27, No. 4
development of conscience is related to tempera-
mental individual differences in effortful control.
The home and the school are two of the major
sites for programming attention, effort, and
conscience. Using these dimensions of tempera-
ment variability as a starting point, we now
consider issues that relate temperament to the
classroom.
Applying Temperament Systems
to the Classroom
Rothbart, Ahadi, and Hershey (1 994)
described some of the basic ways in which
temperament can be seen to affect childrens
social experience, and we would expect these to
apply to the classroom as well as to the home.
First, individual differences in temperament mean
that the same environment will be processed
differently by different children. Some children
will be more easily overwhelmed by intense
levels of stimulation (e.g., noise, activity) than
others; our data indicate that these children also
are likely to be more fearful (Rothbart et al.,
1997). The reaction we are referring to is not
equivalent to fear, however; it is a feeling of
discomfort that may make processing comitive
material more difficult. Other children have
stronger tendencies to positive affect and
potentially out-of-control action; these children
may become especially excited about upcoming
positive events, and they are likely to be more
subject to contagious excitement. These tempera-
mental reactions, in turn, will form the basis for
childrens affective memories and evaluations of
the classroom and their classroom habits. For
some children, a teachers actions that might be
expected to gain the childs focus of attention also
will not be sufficient, and these children may fail
to be influenced by what the teacher is saying
and doing.
Teachers can directly address some of these
tendencies. Fearful children, for example, can
benefit by gradual introduction of new informa-
tion and novel situations, until they are com-
fortable with them. With higher comfort levels,
inhibition of behavioral response is less likely,
permitting the child to have a relatively positive
experience with novel situations. For children
highly sensitive to overstimulation, loud and
boisterous activity can be stressful and fatiguing,
and quiet places allowing them recover from
excitement are helpful. Children who are very
active may require motor outlets in opportunities
for exercise and movement. Motor activities
(pointing, reaching, moving fkomone location
to another, retrieving objects) also can be used
as an adjunct to teaching.
Temperamental processes also are strongly
implicated in the nature of social learning. Gray
(1975, 1982) described individuals with high
behavioral activation systems (BAS) as more
subject to reward; individuals with high beha-
vioral inhibition systems (BIS) as more subject
to punishment. This has important implications
for the classroom. Much of what adults require
of children involves the inhibition of actions the
child might prefer to be doing, so that for children
with a strong BIS, compliance will be much easier
than for children with ,a strong BAS and a weak
BIS. For the latter children, it may be more
important to stress what the child can do in a given
situation rather than what a child should not be
doing. On the other hand, children with a strong
BIS can become more easily discouraged and
may benefit from frequent but accurate feedback
about their performance, to counteract their
tendencies to discouragement. Attentional
switching also may be so difficult for some
children that both rewards and punishments may
have little effect.
One temperament characteristic also can be
used to moderate or control another. Children
higher in positive affectlapproach will be more
likely to become excited about upcoming events,
but unless these reactions are controlled by the
BIS (fear or inhibition) or by attentional
capacities, they are likely to become excited about
topics that are not part of the teachers agenda.
When an outgoing chiId is deficient in executive
attentional control, it may be especially dificult
to shift the childs enthusiasms in the direction
the teacher has chosen. Fearfulness or behavioral
inhibition to punishment or challenge (Kagan,
1998) works in opposition to approach, with more
inhibited children more likely to be quiet and
reserved, and to resist impulsive action. Although
educators often attempt to motivate children
through positive means alone, in fact, classroom
rules are often supported by childrens fear of
the results of infraction. Fear of not receiving
potential rewards or the possibility of poor grades
also is a motivating force in children. Forthe child
not prone to temperamentally based fear or school
anxiety, these influences may be less effective,
and attentional control may be much more
important.
Both fear (the BIS) and effortful control also
Temperament, Self-Regulation, and Education 485
may moderate childrens risky, impulsive and
aggressive behavior. For example, models by
Lytton (1990) and Quay (Quay, Routh, &
Shapiro, 1987) implicate temperament in the
development of aggressive and conduct pro-
blems. Quay et al. (1987) argued that aggressive
children are likely to have lower levels of the BIS
as well as strongly reactive reward or approach
systems (BAS). Rothbart et al. (1994) found that
infants with higher activity and positive affect
(BAS) in the laboratory and stronger anger/
frustration reactions were more likely to engage
in aggressive behaviors at age seven; children
who had been more fearful and inhibited (BIS)
were less likely to behave aggressively; these
latter children also showed more empathy to
others.
Children who tend to act quickly and
impulsively, or who explode with frustration,
need practice in attentional control. Cognitive-
behavioral approaches for training rule-based
self-control in children with attentional deficits
have often not been effective (Cherkes-
J ulkowski, Sharp, & Stolzenberg, 1997). After
the fact, this is not too surprising. These strategies
often subject children to intensified cognitive
demands as they attempt to invoke and apply
general rules for their behavior that make
compliance even more difficult.
Cherkes-J ulkowski et al. (1997) suggested
that a master-apprentice cooperative approach to
learning can be helpful in training self-regulation
skills. In this approach, the teacher initially, has
the executive function of organizing, regulating,
and monitoring the process as a whole. I t is
through the joint efforts of repeated action and
intersubjectivity that apprentices internalize the
actions of the other (Cherkes-J ulkowski et al.,
1997, p. 80). Apprenticeship approaches require
careful task analysis. This analysis can be further
implemented by cooperative goal-directed
learning using teaching aides, who can help to
pace children who may work too fast or too
slowly because of self-regulation problems,
including anxiety about their work. Master-
apprentice activity can serve important social-
emotional goals for children, providing adult
acceptance and support in the context of requiring
effortful performance. Enlisting families and
organizing volunteers (e.g., middle and high
school students, retired adults, and even children
from upper grades within the same school) will
increase childrens opportunities for these
valuable one-on-one experiences.
While it is hard to miss the excitement and
enthusiasm expressed by children high in
approach and positive affect, or the dramatic
emotional displays of more highly reactive
children, it also is important to identify and attend
to children who are trying very hard, but for
whom the process of learning does not generate
such a noticeable effect. It is easy to overlook
the efforts of these more subdued children and
consequently, they may not experience the usual
rewards of the classroom. This could lead to
discouragement. Attention to working with
discouraged children is helpful even though they
may not be actively stirring up excitement or
disrupting the classroom. By rewarding effort it
may be possible to decrease childrens dis-
couragement. Rewarding childrens efforts puts
the focus on the process of learning. With this
focus, students are less likely to compare their
performance to that of others, and are more likely
to concentrate on their own performance goals.
Mastery Motivation
We now illustrate the application of tempera-
ment ideas to an important system in support of
education, namely, mastery motivation. Mastery
motivation is initially closely linked to the basic
emotional-motivational systems seen in young
children, and hence to variability in functioning
of the dimensions identified with temperament.
It is further linked to childrens experiences of
reward and punishment in mastery-related
situations. Finally, however, with the passage of
time, mastery motivation becomes increasingly
affected by the evaluations of others and self-
evaluations reflected in ego involvement and
personality.
Schooling takes advantage of basic dimen-
sions of temperament in the creation of learning
environments for children. One of the most
important of these is positive affect and approach.
The positive affecdapproach system is an early
support for what has been called mastery
motivation. Messer described mastery motiva-
tion as, ba psychological force that stimulates an
individual to attempt independently, in a focused
and persistent manner, to solve problems and
master a skill or task that is moderately chal-
lenging to him or her (Messer, 1995, p. 319).
McCall(l995) used the term disposition rather
than force. He argued that mastery motivation is
inborn, but influenced substantially by the
environment. Barrett and Morgan (1995) agreed
486 School Psychology Review, 1998, Vol. 27, No. 4
that mastery motivation is intrinsic to the
individual. Instrumental aspects of mastery
motivation include task persistence, preference
for challenge or novelty, and an inclination to
control ones environment.
Positive affect and approach tendencies are
not the only contributors to childrens mastery
motivation. Tendencies to fear, frustration, and
effortful control are all likely additional
contributors. Wehave previously discussed three
types of selection processes linking temperament
and learning: childrens temperamentally based
response tendencies, their experience of the
emotions and their attentional capacities
(Derryberry & Rothbart, 1997). Response
tendencies regulate the type of information
children are exposed to. Even during infancy,
children act to select the level of stimulation they
will experience, using self-soothing and self-
stimulating behavior, or through their direction
of attention (Ruff & Rothbart, 1996). As noted,
positive affect/approach is related to exploration
and stimulus seeking, and to duration of interest.
The continuing power of interest or positive
involvement to influence achievement is sug-
gested by a meta-analysis of the studies involving
children in grades 5 through 12 (Schiefele, Krapp,
& Winteler, 1992). In a review of 121 studies
conducted in 18 different countries, Schiefele et
al. found that interest accounted for 10% of the
variability in childrens achievement. Interest also
was more strongly related to achievement in boys
than in girls. In our research with college students,
we have found that self-reported higher positive
affect is related to higher scores on the personality
dimension of openness to experience, a likely
contributor to mastery motivation (Evans &
Rothbart, 1998).
Children also differ in their direct emotional
responses to events and related learning. Fearful
children and children who are easily frustrated
are more prone to associate negative affect with
events, while children higher in approach
experience more positive affect (Rothbart, 1989).
These emotional responses further influence
childrens fbture reactions to challenge and the
childs tendency to approach or avoid challenge.
Temperament variability affects the types of
information an individual stores in memory.
Persons high in anxiety formstronger short-term
memory representations for attended negative
words (Reed & Derryberry, 1995) and these
representations can influence how a child views
himself or others (Rothbart & Ahadi, 1994). If
children are fearful, their estimation of their
abilities and likelihood of their success in a given
situation also may be affected, as may betheir
perceptions about whether novel people or objects
are a source of safety or of threat (Rothbart &
Ahadi, 1994). Fearfbl children who rely primarily
on avoidant strategies may find temporary relief
fiom their anxiety, but their ability to learn about
perceived situations of threat will be limited. They
may not learn they can effectively cope in these
situations and may persist in representing the self
as vulnerable and ineffective (Cortez & Bugental,
1995).
With development, however, childrens
capacity for effortful control increases. Atten-
tional control can strongly influence sources of
input: children are increasingly able to shift
attention away from threatening stimuli and .
internal feelings of inefficacy; at the same time
they can more readily focus on positive informa-
tion, which can lead to improved self-evaluations
relating to feelings of efficacy and success.
Finally, they can overcome reactive tendencies
and persist in a task, even in the midst of negative
consequences (Denybeny & Rothbart, 1997).
Attention is not the only route to more
positive experiences for vulnerable children. I t
is important to remember that even the most
vulnerable and negative child also has capacities
for positive experiences. Accentuating the
positive in the childs experience can serve to
increase mastery motivation. Thinking about
temperament in this way, we can consider
interactions among systems that can either
facilitate or inhibit childrens mastery motivation.
Children high in approach and low in fear may
launch into new situations with zeal; this behavior
is useful in that the children are continually
exposed to situations with the potential for
reward, but the lack of fear controls can lead to
impulsive behavior. On the other hand, strong
fear and weak behavioral activation can lead to
overregulation of approach; children may avoid
novel situations, resulting in missed opportunities
for the positive experiences of mastery. For these
children, accentuating the positive is important.
Mastery motivation will be sustained by
childrens experiences of reward or non-
punishment in achievement situations (Harter,
1980). With age, however, childrens responses
move fromtaking direct pleasure in mastering
tasks to added concerns about the results of their
efforts and the evaluation of others based on these
results. Affect is still critically important to
Temperament, Self-Regulation, and Education 487
mastery motivation, but it is now at least partially
mediated by childrens views of how others view
their performance, and by childrens related ego-
involvement, self-evaluation and sense of
competence (Harter, 1980). Harter observes that
the initial purity of affective response to mastery
becomes diluted by the necessity to consider the
reactions of significant others in the environment.
Ego-Involvement and Mastery
The development of ego involvement
provides an interesting perspective on childrens
evolving reactions to success and failure, reward
and punishment. Toward the middle of the second
year, children begin to show signs of self-
consciousness about their appearance and
behavior (Lewis & Brooks-Gunn, 1979). They
increasingly express pride in mastery and shame
in failure to achieve a goal (Lewis & Feiring,
1989; Stipek, Recchia, & McClintic, 1992). Now,
children are more likely to complete tasks, to
pause after completing a task, and to refuse help
(J ennings, 1993), suggesting early links between
ego and success. Lewis, Alessandri, and Sullivan
(1992) found that 33- to 36-month-old children
showed more pride upon success in a difficult
task compared to completion of an easy task.
They also showed less shame upon failure in a
difficult task compared to failure on an easy task.
Children at this age are beginning to recognize
that exerting effort on a challenging task is
important, and that they should persist until the
task is complete (Barrett & Morgan, 1995).
Increased self-awareness also supports the
emergence of later developing shyness. Buss
( 1985) argued that self-conscious shyness occurs
when children have attained an advanced,
cognitive self (Buss, 1985, p. 43). This self-
conscious evaluation is not so heavily dependent
upon temperament. Children who have been
criticized and punished by others may come to
demonstrate later appearing shyness even though
they earlier showed little shyness (Asendorpf,
1990).
It may be useful to distinguish between early
appearing temperamental fearfulness or shyness
and ego-related anxiety. Temperament tendencies
to fear are seen in childrens inhibition of
excitement and approach of new situations and
challenges. In addition, however, low or
vulnerable self evaluation can lead children with
a wide range of temperamental endowments to
become anxious about the possibility of failure
andor to resist evidence that they have failed (cf.
Ausubel, 1996; Ausubel, Sullivan, & Ives, 1980).
Evaluative reactions may nevertheless be affected
by temperamental fearfulness. Harter (1980), for
example, reported rudimentary signs of fearful
childrens decreased interest in challenging tasks
and behavioral withdrawal when they are
scrutinized and evaluated by others.
In our view, childrens ego concerns reflect
the values of their society. In the United States,
ego values exist for autonomous achievement,
forthrightness and consistency between public
and private selves (Harter, 1998). Ego values have
traditionally varied for girls and boys, with
individual success more important for boys and
social approval and physical attractiveness more
important for girls. As childrens representations
of self develop, their vulnerability and anxiety
about failure in these valued areas increases
(Harter, 1998). Childrens temperamental
susceptibility to fear will be a contributor to these
reactions, but at least equally important will be
childrens ego needs for successful performance.
Anxiety is related to early experiences in the
family. Children whose feelings of self-worth
depend chiefly upon their individual performance
will be more anxious about the possibility of
failure than children who achieve vicarious
success from parental acceptance (Ausubel,
1996). Temperamental tendencies to fearfulness
will contribute to anxiety reactions, but under ego
pressures, even a temperamentally positive and
approaching child can become vulnerable to
anxiety about the possibility of failure. In
addition, ego-involved children will be subject
to the frustration, defensiveness, avoidance, and
depression related to avoiding feelings of failure
and decreased self-evaluation (Harter, 1998).
Asendorpf ( 1990) conducted an important
longitudinal study of childrens shyness and
behavioral inhibition in a classroom setting. In
his research, children who showed fear of
strangers (early appearing shyness) were inhibited
in the classroom early in the year, but by the end
of the year were likely to have made an
adjustment to the class setting. Other children,
however, became more inhibited during the
course of the school year and increasingly isolated
from others. Asendorpf suggests that this later
developing shyness occurs for children who have
behaved in ways that led to rejection from their
peers. I n Asendorpf and van Akens (1994)
follow ups of the children, early appearing
shyness (stranger fear) was not the major
488 School Psychology Review, 1998, Vol. 27, No. 4
predictor of later self-esteem; the children likely
to develop lower self-esteem were those showing
later developing shyness.
I t is important to note, however, that
Asendorpf s research was conducted in German
classes where children remained in the same class
from year to year, allowing stronger peer
influence. Cross-cultural research also suggests
that the value of outgoing versus shy behavior
will differ from one cultural group to another. In
the United States, early appearing shyness may
create more problems of adjustment than it would
in Germany. However, Asendorpf s findings
suggest that punishment related concerns may be
at least as important as initial temperament in the
development of behavior problems with self-
esteem. Teachers can bealert to peer rejection in
the classroom and work to create opportunities
for these children to become more involved with
their peers. Closely monitored small group
activity in which the teacher or aide observes the
group at play, models appropriate strategies for
initiating peer contact, and facilitates cooperative
play is one helpful way to ease children into peer
relationships and bolster their confidence in social
situations.
Cicchetti and Tucker ( 1994) argue that early
incompetence tends to promote later incom-
petence, because the person reaches successive
stages of development with inadequate resources.
Children high in fear and/or low in self-evaluation
may thus come to avoid achievement situations,
resulting in relative inexperience and possible
feelings of inadequacy. With the development of
self-awareness, the child may experience feelings
of shame connected with feelings of inadequacy,
leading to an even stronger fear or anxiety and
avoidance in response to novel or challenging
situations. This developmental progression,
however, is not without recourse. Changes in the
external and internal environment may lead to
improvements in an individuals ability to master
developmental changes and to redirect the
developmental trajectory (Cicchetti & Tucker,
1994). Repeatzd opportunities for mastery in
novel situations might alter the childs perception
of novel experiences as threatening and bad to a
perception of the experiences as safe and positive.
The emergence of effortful control is another
important internal element to mastery. Using
effort, children now will have an increased
capacity to modulate reactive systems.
In older children, two kinds of academic
achievement goals have been identified, one
including intrinsic mastery motivation and task
involvement, the other extrinsic motivation,
performance evaluation, and ego involvement. In
a review of the relations between these two
orientations and cognitive engagement, Pintrich,
Marx, and Boyle (1993) reported that, a focus
on mastery or learning goals can result in deeper
cognitive processing on academic tasks than a
focus on the self (ego-involved) or a focus on
performance (grades, besting others), which
seems to result in more surface processing and
less overall cognitive engagement (p. 173). In
turn, mastery motivation is affected by school
structure: children are more oriented toward
mastery when the goals they are directed toward
are meaningful and challenging, when the
children themselves have some control of the
direction of their effort, and when evaluations are
not highly focused on external rewards, compe-
tition or social comparison. When performance
is focused on reward and competition, children
tend to bemore concerned about doing better than
others or pleasing the teacher, than on under-
standing the content of what is taught (review by
Pintrich et al., 1993).
External standards do, however, have their
place in the classroom. Although it may appear
that external standards interfere with the
development of intrinsic motivation, standards in
the classroom actually serve to maintain order in
addition to providing important learning goals for
children to pursue. An optimal learning environ-
ment is one in which these external standards
serve as a scaffold for students as they work to
cultivate their own approach to leamirig. Teachers
bring vast knowledge about how to meet these
standards to the classroom. This knowledge,
coupled with an increased understanding of
childrens individual differences permits the
development of approaches that best match
students needs, thereby stimulating childrens
intrinsic motivation.
What fosters the development of intrinsic
motivation? Recall that the definition of mastery
motivation centers on an individuals attempts to
solve challenging problems. Childrens individual
differences contribute to their unique experience
of challenge, adjustment and mastery in school,
but the classroom environment will have a
substantial impact on this experience. Providing
extracurricular activities and multiple oppor-
tunities in the classroom for young people with a
wide variety of temperament characteristics to
learn and to excel also promote feelings of
Temperament, Self-Regulation, and Education 489
mastery. Following this approach, almost all
children can find a school activity they are good
at. In addition, many children will develop
multiple interests, so that if one learning pursuit
is not going well, another will be available to
shore up the childs self-evaluation and maintain
motivation for mastery. Education can do many
things to encourage students to find joy in
learning, to welcome new opportunities, and to
follow through on tasks.
Temperament: Training and Assessment
In this section, we apply topics we have
discussed to the training of educators and school
psychologists and to the use of broad-based
assessment in the classroom. Because tempera-
ment variability in emotion, motivation and self-
regulation strongly influence childrens learning
and failure to learn, it becomes necessary for the
educator to follow the advice of educational
psychologists to teach children, not subject
matter (Sarason, 1993, p. 124). To do this,
educators should understand childrens tempera-
ment and personality characteristics as well as
they understand their cognitive-processing
capacities. This means that programs for college
and university training of educators should
include state-of-the-art knowledge of child
temperament and development and their relation
to the classroom. In the creation and imple-
mentation of this curriculum, collaborations
between educators and developmental psychol-
ogists would have much to offer.
A second application of temperament ideas
is to assessment. As in the assessment of cognitive
skills, a multidimensional approach to tempera-
ment-related assessment is helpful. Information
about temperament can be obtained from the
parent, so that the teacher or school psychologist
can learn about aspects of the childs emotional
reactivity and attentional self-regulation as they
are shown outside of the classroom. Measures
such as the Childrens Behavior Questionnaire
(Rothbart et al., 1997) for children from 3 to 8
years of age or McClowry, Hegvik, and Teglasis
(1993) measure for children from 8 to 12 years
of age are useful for obtaining information about
temperament from the parents. Another important
source of information is the classroom teacher.
In assessing temperament, Keoghs Teacher
Temperament Questionnaire can assist teachers
with identifying childrens temperamental
tendencies (Pullis, 1989; Pullis & Cadwell, 1985).
Assessment of classroom structure also is
essential (Keogh, 1994). Keogh argued that
traditional assessment focuses upon the child
while ignoring critical information about
contributions of the school environment to the
childs adaptations (Keogh & Speece, 1996).
Children high in activity, for example, may have
difficulty sitting for long periods of time; highly
reactive children may be bothered by noise and
crowding (Rothbart & J ones, in press).
In assessment, one important distinction is
between the childrens early appearing fearful-
ness and their evaluation anxiety based on ego
concerns. Some shy and fearful children will be
slow to adapt to new situations, including testing,
and they need time and familiarity with the setting
to do their best. Other problems are more related
to evaluation concerns. Variations in admin-
istration of test items can be used to examine
effects of ego involvement and evaluation anxiety
(Smith, 1988). Smith described an apparently
anxious 10-year-old who is given accurate
information that she or he had responded to some
of the questions at above a 16-year level; this
information led to increased confidence, allowing
the child to correctly perform items she or he had
previously failed. Other assessment variations can
investigate sources of inattentive childrens
errors, for example, by looking for improvement
when the childs attention is directed to relevant
features of a display, or when competing
responses are reduced, or when background
stimulation is increased or decreased (Smith,
1988).
Sarason et al. (1960) noted that we often
forget what a powerful figure a teacher is in the
lives of children. All children benefit from a
classroom atmosphere created by the teacher that
fosters their desire to learn, and provides exposure
to a challenging and meaningful cumculum. They
benefit from a place where efforts are encouraged
and rewarded; an environment where children
collaborate with peers, rather than compete with
them, and a climate in which children are accepted
and supported regardless of their intellectual and
temperament characteristics. A Zen story may
apply to this last point, One day Banzan was
walking through a market when he overheard a
customer ask a butcher for the best piece of meat
he had. Every piece in my shop is the best, the
butcher said. Hearing the butchers explanation,
Banzan became enlightened (Schiller, 1997).
Acceptance benefits all children, helping them
achieve classroom skills by taking on new
490 School Psychology Review, 1998, Vol. 27, No. 4
challenges, adapting to changing classroom
demands, and persisting in their efforts to
succeed.
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Mary K. Rothbart, PhD, is Professor of Psychology at the University of Oregon. She is currently on a
Senior Scientist award fromNIH, allowing her to study the development of temperament and attention.
Laura B. J ones is a graduate student studying developmental psychology at the University of Oregon.
She is currently on an emotion training grant from NIH to study the development of attention and its
influence on emotional expression.

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