The growing interest in research on temperament during the last decade has been re­ corded by several authors (e. g. , R. Plomin; J. E. Bates) from such sources of informa­ tion as the Social Sciences Citation Index or Psychological Abstracts. The editors' inquiry shows that the number of cases in which the term temperament was used in the title of a paper or in the paper's abstract published in Psychological Abstracts reveals an essential increase in research on temperament. During the years 1975 to 1979, the term temperament was used in the title and/or summary of 173 abstracts (i. e. , 34. 6 publications per year); during the next five years (1980-1984), it was used in 367 abstracts (73. 4 publications per year), whereas in the last five years (1985 to 1989), the term has appeared in 463 abstracts, that is, in 92. 6 publications per year. Even if the review of temperament literature is restricted to those abstracts, it can easily be concluded that temperament is used in different contexts and with different meanings, hardly allowing any comparisons or general statements. One of the consequences of this state of affairs is that our knowledge on temperament does not cumulate despite the increasing research activity in this field. This situation in temperament research motivated the editors to organize a one­ week workshop on The Diagnosis of Temperament (Bielefeld, Federal Republic of Germany, September 1987).

Inhalt

I. Contemporary Conceptualizations.- 1. Temperament and the Concept of Goodness of Fit.- 2. The Functional Significance of Organismic Individuality: The Sample Case of Temperament.- 3. The EAS Theory of Temperament.- 4. Temperament: A Developmental Framework.- 5. Outline of a General Emotion-Based Theory of Temperament.- 6. Dimensions of Personality: The Biosocial Approach to Personality.- 7. The Neuropsychology of Temperament.- 8. Biotypes for Basic Personality Dimensions? "The Twilight Zone" between Genotype and Social Phenotype.- 9. Biochemical Variables in the Study of Temperament: Purposes, Approaches, and Selected Findings.- 10. Temperament and the Person-Situation Debate.- 11. The Concepts of Personality and Temperament.- PRAT II. Diagnostic and Methodological Issues.- 12. What Can We Learn from the Discussion of Personality Questionnaires for the Construction of Temperament Inventories?.- 13. Questionnaire Measurement of Infant and Child Temperament: Current Status and Future Directions.- 14. Mother-Father Agreement in Temperament Ratings: A Preliminary Investigation.- 15. Contemporary Instruments for Assessing Early Temperament by Questionnaire and in the Laboratory.- 16. Reactivity and Anxiety in the Laboratory and Beyond.- 17. Correlations between Psychometric Measures and Psychophysiological as Well as Experimental Variables in Studies on Extraversion and Neuroticism.- 18. Differential Psychophysiology and the Diagnosis of Temperament.- III. Addendum.- 19. Renaissance in Research on Temperament: Where to?.