Activity-specific approach in temperament research

[14] Vladimir Rusalov, who continued the line in research in the Laboratory of Differential Psychophysiology (Institute of Psychology of Russian Academy of Sciences) started by Nebylitsyn and Teplov, recorded EEGs and measured evoked potential, absolute threshold in visual, auditory, and tactile modalities, strength of excitation and mobility in auditory and visual modalities, problem solving in deterministic and probabilistic conditions, endurance in solving the tasks, and the speed of solving a variety of tests.

[6] Rusalov suggested, therefore, that individual differences in these three types of activities should be assessed and analyzed using separate scales.

[6][7][15][16][17][18] Trofimova, who was doing her PhD in Rusalov's lab in the early 1990s suggested that the trait of impulsivity reflects the speed of initiation of immature (emotionality-based) behavioural response, whereas tempo and plasticity relate to the speed of more integrated behavioural response.

Previous models of a structure of temperament did not distinguish among the traits regulating behaviour in different areas of activity.

Many models of temperament and personality follow a so-called "general arousal" approach, considering only one general trait related to the energetic component of behaviour: "strength of excitation" (Pavlov, Jan Strelau) "liveliness", “vigilance” (Cattell), extraversion (Eysenck, Five-Factor model in personality), "activity" (Heymans, Buss & Plomin, 1984; Rothbart, et al., 2000), approach behavioural system (Gray), drive persistence (Telegen, 1985) or just "arousal""(Mehrabian, 1996).

Moreover, early temperament models (offered by Pavlov, Eysenck, Gray) were originally developed through animal studies under relatively deterministic conditions using insensitive statistical methods that could not explain individual differences in complex probabilistic human behavior.

This meant that animal models of temperament should be upgraded with the traits related to specifics of human activities.

By the same logic, Motor and Social Plasticity represent manipulation of well-defined behavioural elements and these traits describe therefore tempo- and not plasticity-related aspects.