What’s on the Temperament poster
A definition and 6 facts worth remembering.
Biologically based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation, observable from early infancy and forming the foundation on which personality develops.
- Thomas and Chess: easy, difficult and slow-to-warm-up types.
- Kagan: behavioural inhibition is stable and predicts later anxiety.
- Rothbart: surgency, negative affectivity, effortful control.
- Goodness of fit between temperament and environment matters more than temperament alone.
- Moderately heritable.
- Maps loosely onto adult Big Five dimensions.
- Visible from — infancy
- Stability — moderate
- A highly reactive infant is more likely to become a shy child, but far from certainly.
Goodness of fit is the key clinical idea: outcomes depend on the match between the child and the environment, not the child alone.
Questions about the Temperament poster
- What’s on the Temperament poster?
- A definition and 6 facts worth remembering. Biologically based individual differences in reactivity and self-regulation, observable from early infancy and forming the foundation on which personality develops. Thomas and Chess: easy, difficult and slow-to-warm-up types.; Kagan: behavioural inhibition is stable and predicts later anxiety.; Rothbart: surgency, negative affectivity, effortful control.; Goodness of fit between temperament and environment matters more than temperament alone.; Moderately heritable.; Maps loosely onto adult Big Five dimensions.; Visible from — infancy; Stability — moderate; A highly reactive infant is more likely to become a shy child, but far from certainly.. Goodness of fit is the key clinical idea: outcomes depend on the match between the child and the environment, not the child alone.
- Who is the Temperament poster for?
- Temperament belongs to the Psychology section rather than to a school year, because life science is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning personality & individual differences can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Temperament poster?
- Temperament is visible in infancy and is moderately stable into adult traits. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Temperament belongs on the wall where that life science work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Temperament?
- The Big Five, Culture & Personality and Defence Mechanisms sit alongside Temperament in the Psychology section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.The Big FiveCulture & PersonalityDefence Mechanisms
- Is the Temperament poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Temperament downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Psychology section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Temperament poster print at?
- Temperament is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Temperament loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Temperament on the same wall.
Browse every Psychology poster, or start from the full catalogue.