Ithaca College

Carried out collaboratively with former IC students, Karen Ban, April Smith, and Anya Horowitz, Rader’s longitudinal research found characteristics of temperament identifiable in infancy and expressed in both cognitive style and social tendencies in middle childhood and adolescence. 

Children in the sample were first seen at 9 months of age and followed through age 16 years. The two major temperaments identified were thought-oriented/cautious and action-oriented/uninhibited.   Children who were thought-oriented tended to attend to detail but to be more anxious; children who were action-oriented tended to be more socially comfortable but to be more aggressive and more likely to have attention problems.