Temperament: A Psychological Perspective (perspectives On Individual Differences)

Temperament A Psychological Perspective PERSPECTIVES ON INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES CECIL R. REYNOLDS, Texas A &M University, College Station ROBERT T. BROWN, University of North Carolina, Wilmington Current Volumes in This Series ASSESSMENT OF INTELLECTUAL FUNCTIONING, Second Edition Lewis R. Aiken BEHAVIOR GENETIC APPROACHES IN BEHAVIORAL MEDICINE Edited by J. Rick Turner, Lon R. Cardon, and John K. Hewitt COGNITIVE ASSESSMENT A Multidisciplinary Perspective Edited by Cecil R. Reynolds DEAFNESS, DEPRIVATION, AND IQ Jeffery P. Braden DEMENTIA Allen Jack Edwards EXPLORATIONS IN TEMPERAMENT Edited by Jan Strelau and Alois Angleitner FIFTY YEARS OF PERSONALITY PSYCHOLOGY Edited by Kenneth H. Craik, Robert Hogan, and Raymond N. Wolfe INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN CARDIOVASCULAR RESPONSE TO STRESS Edited by J. Rick Turner, Andrew Sherwood, and Kathleen C. Light INTERNATIONAL HANDBOOK OF PERSONALITY AND INTELLIGENCE Edited by Donald H. Saklofske and Moshe Zeidner PERSONALITY, SOCIAL SKILLS, AND PSYCHOPATHOLOGY An Individual Differences Approach Edited by David G. Gilbert and James J. Connolly SCHIZOPHRENIC DISORDERS Sense and Nonsense in Conceptualization, Assessment, and Treatment Leighton C. Whitaker TEMPERAMENT A Psychological Perspective Jan Strelau TEST ANXIETY The State of the Art Moshe Zeidner A Continuation Order Plan is available for this series. A continuation order will bring delivery of each new volume immediately upon publication. Volumes are billed only upon actual shipment, For further information please contact the publisher. Temperament A Psychological Perspective Jan Strelau University of Warsaw Warsaw, Poland, and Silesian University Katowice, Poland Kluwer Academic Publishers New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow eBook ISBN: Print ISBN: 0-306-47154-X 0-306-45945-0 ©2002 Kluwer Academic Publishers New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow Print ©2000 Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers New York All rights reserved No part of this eBook may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without written consent from the Publisher Created in the United States of America Visit Kluwer Online at: and Kluwer's eBookstore at: http://kluweronline.com http://ebooks.kluweronline.com To the memory of Boris M. Teplov and Hans J. Eysenck and to Alexander Thomas and Stella Chess all pioneers of contemporary temperament research This page intentionally left blank. Preface More than 40 years have elapsed since I was a psychology student at the University of Warsaw and wrote a seminar paper on temperament, specifically, on Teplov’s contribution to this field. My first published paper, which appeared in 1958, was devoted to Pavlov’s typology of higher nervous activity, and to assessing temperament in children. These four decades of my academic career can be summarized in two statements: (1) My professional activity has always been rooted at the University of Warsaw as its center; and (2) from its inception, my research has concentrated on temperament. These