Psychology Colloquium: Temperament in Context: How the Individual and the Environment together shape Socioemotional Trajectories
Please register to receive Zoom link on the day of the event.
Speaker
Dr. Koraly Perez-Edgar, Pennsylvania State University
Title
Temperament in Context: How the Individual and the Environment together shape Socioemotional Trajectories
Abstract
Behavioral inhibition is a biologically-based temperamental trait marked by sensitivity to novelty and discomfort in social situations. Associated with a unique psychophysiological and neural profile, behavioral inhibition is also one of our strongest known markers of risk for anxiety. Yet, the majority of children with behavioral inhibition do not go on to develop a clinical disorder. For most children, maturational and environmental forces work in tandem to ameliorate this risk. For those children who do show elevated anxiety, attention mechanisms may act as a developmental tether that sustains early temperamental risk over time.
Attention is a central mechanism by which individuals navigate through their world and attention to evocative stimuli may shape the child’s “experienced environment” helping determine developmental pathways. The current presentation will examine the building blocks for these patterns in infants and children, using behavioral and neural measures, including stationary and mobile eye-tracking.
Faculty Host
Dr. Rebecca Ryan