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Emotion, temperament and the brain
212A
Temperament
BIOLPSYCHIATRY 1989:25:2llA-212A
428 EXTREME SHYNESS IN CHILDREN J. Steven Reznick New Haven, CT Two hundred and eighteen subjects were tested longitudinally from infancy through late childhood in laboratory, home, and school contexts. Children who withdrew from unfamiliar social or nonsocial stimuli retained this behavior pattern across situation and time. Individual differences in peripheral physiological reactions suggest possible biological mediation of the tendency toward extreme shyness. Two additional findings will be described: First, longitudinal research from birth suggesting a pattern of reactivity in early infancy related to later shyness. Second, retrospective research with anxious or depressed adults indicating that these subjects recall behaviors and feelings that indicate extreme shyness as children. Implications of this work for research and clinical practice will be discussed.
429 EMOTION, TEMPERAMENT Jeffrey Gray London,
AND THE BRAIN
England
A general theory of emotion is presented. Each separate emotion is conceived as a state of the CNS that is elicited by a specific subset of reinforcing events. Analysis of a range of data from psychopharmacological and neuropsychological experiments with laboratory animals suggests the existence in mammals of three basic separable emotional states, each mediated by a separable subsystem of the brain. The three relevant systems are: (1) an approach system, which controls approach behaviour elicited by stimuli associated with reward or nonpunishment; (2) a fight/flight system, which organizes either aggression or escape in response to unconditioned punishment or non-reward; and (3) a behavioural inhibition system, which organizes behavioural inhibition (coupled with increments in arousal and attention) in response to stimuli associated with punishment or non-reward. Possible emotional states associated with these systems are suggested; the firmest identification is that of state anxiety with activity in the behavioural inhibition system. The relation of this analysis to dimensional descriptions of human personality is discussed. It is proposed that trait anxiety reflects individual differences in the reactivity of the behavioural inhibition system to its adequate inputs. A position for this trait within Eysenck’s three-dimensional personality space is suggested.
Temperament
BIOLPSYCHIATRY 1989:25:2llA-212A
428 EXTREME SHYNESS IN CHILDREN J. Steven Reznick New Haven, CT Two hundred and eighteen subjects were tested longitudinally from infancy through late childhood in laboratory, home, and school contexts. Children who withdrew from unfamiliar social or nonsocial stimuli retained this behavior pattern across situation and time. Individual differences in peripheral physiological reactions suggest possible biological mediation of the tendency toward extreme shyness. Two additional findings will be described: First, longitudinal research from birth suggesting a pattern of reactivity in early infancy related to later shyness. Second, retrospective research with anxious or depressed adults indicating that these subjects recall behaviors and feelings that indicate extreme shyness as children. Implications of this work for research and clinical practice will be discussed.
429 EMOTION, TEMPERAMENT Jeffrey Gray London,
AND THE BRAIN
England
A general theory of emotion is presented. Each separate emotion is conceived as a state of the CNS that is elicited by a specific subset of reinforcing events. Analysis of a range of data from psychopharmacological and neuropsychological experiments with laboratory animals suggests the existence in mammals of three basic separable emotional states, each mediated by a separable subsystem of the brain. The three relevant systems are: (1) an approach system, which controls approach behaviour elicited by stimuli associated with reward or nonpunishment; (2) a fight/flight system, which organizes either aggression or escape in response to unconditioned punishment or non-reward; and (3) a behavioural inhibition system, which organizes behavioural inhibition (coupled with increments in arousal and attention) in response to stimuli associated with punishment or non-reward. Possible emotional states associated with these systems are suggested; the firmest identification is that of state anxiety with activity in the behavioural inhibition system. The relation of this analysis to dimensional descriptions of human personality is discussed. It is proposed that trait anxiety reflects individual differences in the reactivity of the behavioural inhibition system to its adequate inputs. A position for this trait within Eysenck’s three-dimensional personality space is suggested.