Temperament and Dyadic Contributions to Affect Regulation: Implications From Developmental Research for Clinical Practice

The temperamental trait of inhibition offers a setting to examine the characteristics of the interplay between intraindividual factors and contextual influences. This article drew from both the developmental psychoanalytic model on mutual regulation of affect and developmental research on temperament to portray the mechanisms and consequences of the dynamic processes of change, in which both the individual and the environment are constantly changing. The portrait presents a unique case of a very inhibited girl at age 3, who gradually shifts from a frozen, fearful stance into a spontaneous, active behavior. The examination uses the paradigm of coconstruction of play narratives, a paradigm that combines both projective techniques and developmental research perspectives. The function of the adults as stress buffers is explored. Possible

Eva Appelman, PhD, Cambridge Hospital. Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Harvard Medical School.

This work has been done with the support of Dennie Wolf, Jerome Kagan, and Nancy Snidman. I am grateful to them for their inspiration in bringing this work to fruition. Thanks to Bennet Simon and Thomas Rosbrow for their careful reading and comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Eva Appelman, PhD, who is now at the Department of Psychology, Bar Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel 52900. Electronic mail may be sent to .

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implications for psychoanalysis, treatment processes, and developmental psychopathology are discassed.

There is a place where time stands still. Raindrops hang motionless in air. Pendulums of clocks float midswing. Dogs raise their muzzles in silent howls. Pedestrians are frozen on the dusty streets, their legs cocked as if held by strings. The aromas of dates, mangoes, coriander, cumin are suspended in space.

As the traveler approaches this place from any direction, he moves more and more slowly. His heartbeats grow farther apart, his bre