The Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire (MPQ; A. Tellegen, 1982, in press) provides for a comprehensive analysis of personality at both the lower order trait and broader structural levels. Its higher order dimensions of Positive Emotionality, Negative Emotionality, and Constraint embody affect and temperament constructs, which have been conceptualized in psychobiological terms. The MPQ t...

The present research examined the role of approach and avoidance motivation in models of personality. Specifically, it examined the hypothesis that approach and avoidance temperaments represent the foundation of several basic dimensions espoused in the trait adjective, affective disposition, and motivational system approaches to personality. Factor analytic support for the hypothesis was obtain...

The current study examined whether biologically-influenced temperamental traits implicated in the pathogenesis of disordered eating behaviors contribute to their development over and above current negative affect and dietary restraint. Participants (N=276) were undergraduate psychology women who completed the BULIT-R, BDI-II, STAIS, RS, and the MPQ. Temperamental characteristics, particularly i...

This prospective, longitudinal investigation examined differential consistency of three core dimensions of individuality from toddlerhood through middle childhood. Data came from 273 families who participated with their child at least once during three developmental periods: toddlerhood (2 years), early childhood (3 to 5 years), and middle childhood (6 to 10 years). Both mothers and fathers rep...

We tested the structure and magnitude of genetic and environmental influences on the overlap among self-esteem, negative emotionality, and major depression symptoms in adolescent girls (N=706) from the Minnesota Twin Family Study. Genetic and environmental influences on all three operated via a general, heritable factor. Genetic influences explained the majority of overlap among the three const...

BACKGROUND G-protein coupled receptors (GPR) bear the potential to serve as yet unidentified drug targets for psychiatric and metabolic disorders. GPR12 is of major interest given its putative role in metabolic function and its unique brain distribution, which suggests a role in emotionality and affect. We tested Gpr12 deficient mice in a series of metabolic and behavioural tests and subjected ...

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common example of developmental psychopathology that might be able to be better understood by taking an emotion regulation perspective. As discussed herein, emotion regulation is understood to consist of two component processes, emotion (e.g., positive and negative emotionality) and regulation (e.g., effortful and reactive forms of control), ...

Earlier studies have shown that when individuals recall an emotional memory while simultaneously doing a demanding dual-task [e.g., playing Tetris, mental arithmetic, making eye movements (EM)], this reduces self-reported vividness and emotionality of the memory. These effects have been found up to 1 week later, but have largely been confined to self-report ratings. This study examined whether ...

A principle characteristic of public speaking anxiety relates to intrusive mental images of potential future disasters. Previous research has found that the self-reported emotionality of such "flashforwards" can be reduced by a cognitively demanding, dual-task (e.g., making eye movements) performed whilst holding the mental image in-mind. The outcome measure in these earlier studies was partici...

This research examined the relations among maternal emotionality, biology, and infant outcome and autonomic nervous system reactivity (cardiac vagal tone). The sample consisted of 27 pregnant adolescents and their 3-week-old infants. Measures of anxiety, depression, anger, and saliva cortisol were obtained from the adolescents both pre- and postnatally. Infant outcome measures consisted of gest...