ABSTRACT

Even though theoretical statements regarding infant temperament dwell on individual differences, the contributions of environmental contexts should not be regarded as an irrelevant issue. Items for temperament questionnaires are almost always worded with social and physical environments explicitly stated as settings within which a temperament characteristic is to be rated. Moreover, social contexts such as family or school are explicit locales for the application of a variety of questionnaires. Laboratory-based observations also have specific situational contexts that may produce situational effects even though individual differences of temperament will presumably become salient across situations (Phillips & Matheny, 1997). Although we consider that temperament characteristics have the attributes of traits because the characteristics are somewhat stable across contexts and time (Matheny, Wilson, & Nuss, 1984), the search for context-free temperament may lead to the neglect of identifying aspects of temperament associated with or dependent on contexts.