International Temperament Experts Present Research at Dominican University of California

“The Conference provides a unique opportunity for national and international researchers, scholars, and practitioners from the United States and around the world to exchange the latest findings concerning temperament research, theory, and clinical application,” said this year's conference organizer Jan Kristal, an instructor of psychology at Dominican University of California.

Kristal teaches classes in temperament and child behavior, and child and adolescent development in Dominican’s Department of Psychology. Kristal also was temperament counselor and program coordinator of the Kaiser Permanente Temperament Program for many years and is author of The Temperament Perspective: Working with Children's Behavioral Styles.

More than 30 universities were represented at the Occasional Temperament Conference, including New York University; Ghent University, Belgium; the Chinese Academy of Sciences, China; Bowdoin College; the University of Connecticut; Colgate University; Uppsala University, Sweden; the University of Georgia; the University of Arizona; and the University of California San Francisco.

“This conference incorporates academic research with practical interventions,” said Kristal. “Most of the presenters are published authors and leading temperament experts.”

Presenters include Dr. Elaine N. Aron, author of the Highly Sensitive Person, Dr. Sandee McClowry, professor of applied psychology at New York University, director of the INSIGHTS program and author of Your Child's Unique Temperament, and Dr. Mary Rothbart, co-author of Educating the Human Brain.

Presentations covered a variety of temperament-related issues. Titles include: Predictions from Early Childhood Temperament to Socio-Emotional Functioning in Young Adulthood;  Working With Highly Sensitive Persons; Childhood Personality and the Development of Resilience; Social and Emotional Predictors of Changes in Children's Academic Competence;  Toddler Temperament in Four Cultures; and Children Born In the Spring Exhibit More Inhibition Than Their Peers: Evidence from a Large Elementary School Sample.