PSYC 2450 Chapter Notes - Chapter 12: Twin, Dazed

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2450
• Professor: Dalia Kennig

Document Summary

This social referencing- the use of others emotional expressions to infer the meaning of otherwise ambiguous situations. As parents and daycare providers well know every baby has a distinct personality. In trying to describe infant personality researchers have focused on aspects of temperament- person"s characteristic modes of responding emotionally and behaviourally to environmental events including such attributes as activity level irritability fearfulness and socialility. Hereditary influences- behavioral genetics have looked for hereditary influences by comparing the temperamental similarities of pairs of identical and fraternal twins. Environment influences- research implies that the home environment that siblings share most clearly influences such positive aspects of temperament as smiling/sociability. Yet shared environment contributes very little to children"s activity levels and to level negative attributes such as irritability and fearfulness because siblings living together often barely resemble each other in these negative aspects. Cultural influences- where u are in the world affects temperament. Living in developed or developing countries is also a factor.