We often hear the term “temperament” thrown around to mean any type of emotional disposition or affective response. In humans or pets! But researchers who work on our evidence base often refer to temperament as a very specific aspect of human emotional life. So, what is temperament? And how does it affect clients’ emotional experiences?
Temperament is our innate emotional disposition at birth. That is, it is our tendency to experience certain types of emotions more or less frequently and with different intensities. Some researchers argue that the type of emotional distress doesn’t matter at birth; rather, it’s the degree of distress that counts.
This concept is of deep interest to developmental psychologists. And the emotion-research nerds among us liken this term to trait affect, but in a more genetic, at-birth, sense. So, how does temperament matter for therapists?
First, it provides a functional understanding. Temperament influences many aspects of a child’s upbringing and emotional life. In particular, it plays a key role in the nature-nurture interaction between genetic factors and/or prenatal conditions and one’s environment, shaping development over time.
A baby’s temperament interacts with caregiver responses in meaningful ways. For instance, a pleasant baby usually evokes pleasant responses from parents. Those parent-child interactions are likely to remain positive over time, and that child is more likely to grow up in a relatively low-stress environment.
On the other hand, a colicky baby can be more difficult for parents to soothe. These parents often experience and express higher levels of distress. That difficulty increases the chances of the child growing up in a higher-stress environment. Such an environment may also negatively impact an individual’s opportunity to learn skills for regulating emotion. These interactions, in turn, raises the risk of developing psychological difficulties.
One highly impacted example of this process is seen in the development of borderline personality disorder. A leading theory asserts that high emotionality and emotional sensitivity (key aspects of temperament) interact with harsh or critical parenting styles to increase the risk of developing the disorder.
Second, and luckily, therapists have tools that can help. Broadly, therapy aims to provide specific strategies for emotional coping. These help individuals who’ve experienced more difficult intersections of genetics and environment. Specific evidence-based therapies like DBT, CBT, and exposure therapies offer clients practical skills to engage with long-standing emotional reactions in new ways.
So there are therapist resources to help! And that’s pretty sweet.
