Personality differences in childhood and adolescence: measurement, development, and consequences

Abstract

Child psychologists and psychiatrists are interested in assessing children's personalities. This interest is fueled by the practical desire to identify differences between children that have predictive utility, and by recognition that future advances in developmental theory, especially in relation to gene-environment interplay, can only be as good as the measures on which they rely. The aim of this article is to facilitate these practical and theoretical advances. First, we delineate a taxonomy of measurable individual differences in temperament and personality in childhood, and point the reader to proven and/or promising measuring instruments. Second, we describe the processes through which early temperament differences may become elaborated into adult personality structure and lifelong adaptation, and identify gaps in the empirical research that need to be filled. Third, we explore the various connections between temperament/ personality traits and psychopathology, and direct attention to promising questions and strategies.

Channeling identity: A study of storytelling in conversations between introverted and extraverted friends

“…For example, one way in which traits become developmentally elaborated is through the selection of friends and mates who are similar in personality (Caspi & Herbener, 1990;Kandel, 1978). A performative approach to the development of identity is somewhat similar in that individuals actively select and tell their stories to listeners whom they feel will appreciate and understand their experience, and that in the process of storying experience, identities are actively created in vivo (Bamberg, 2004).Our construal of extraversion and introversion, although compatible with evidence that these individual differences are genetically and psycho-physiologically based (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985;Shiner & Caspi, 2003), is grounded in the phenomenological view that introverts and extraverts proffer personal experience differently by virtue of the way they prefer to live in the world, with extraverts constructing a more inclusive, common space, and introverts a more exclusive, individual space (Jung, 1923(Jung, /1976. Past research suggests that these different orientations are apparent in narratives.…”

“…Our construal of extraversion and introversion, although compatible with evidence that these individual differences are genetically and psycho-physiologically based (Eysenck & Eysenck, 1985;Shiner & Caspi, 2003), is grounded in the phenomenological view that introverts and extraverts proffer personal experience differently by virtue of the way they prefer to live in the world, with extraverts constructing a more inclusive, common space, and introverts a more exclusive, individual space (Jung, 1923(Jung, /1976. Past research suggests that these different orientations are apparent in narratives.…”

Friendship in High-functioning Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Mixed and Non-mixed Dyads

“…While HFASD children in mixed dyads "looked better" and were not significantly different from other HFASD children with respect to the aspects of cognitive social, and emotional functioning that we assessed, the possibility remains that the HFASD children still differed in some systematic way. For example studies of typically and atypically developing children have found that personality (Fordham and Stevenson-Hinde 1999;Shiner and Caspi 2003), self-esteem (Azmitia 2001), aspects of executive functioning and attention (Hay et al 2004), levels of co-morbid psychopathology (Deater-Deckard 2001;Hay et al 2004), and emotion regulation (Eisenberg et al 2000), as well as parent characteristics including levels of social support and networks (Cook et al 2002;Bost 1995;Melson et al 1993) also play a role in children's abilities to form friendships.…”

Behavioral problems in children with motor and intellectual disabilities: Prevalence and associations with maladaptive personality and marital relationship

“…In this perspective personality disorders and maladaptive personality traits are seen as extreme variants of normal personality traits (Widiger & Mullins-Sweatt, 2009). In addition, there is a growing agreement that both adaptive and maladaptive personality traits can be measured from early childhood on (Shiner & Caspi, 2003;De Clercq, De Fruyt, & Widiger, 2009). The importance of a dimensional classification of personality is emphasized by work groups preparing the future Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fifth edition (DSM-V) (Widiger & Mullins-Sweatt, 2009).…”