Ricardo and Paula are working on puzzles in their preschool. Ricardo sits and works on puzzles for a half an hour without moving whereas Paula spends only a few minutes on a puzzle before walking off to see a friend. This difference between Ricardo and Paula reflects which aspect of their temperament according to Mary Rothbart?

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To analyze this preschool temperament scenario, we consider what each Rothbart dimension measures.
Option 1: attention span. This relates to how long a child can sustain focus on a task and resist distractions. Ricardo sits and works on puzzles for a sustained half hour, demonstrating a high ability to maintain attention, which aligns with a strong attention span.
Option 2: approach. This dimension concerns how readily a child initiates or is drawn toward people, objects, or situations. Paula walking off to see a friend suggests she is not displaying wariness or avoidance, but it does not specifically describe her tendency to initiate or pursue social interactions as the primary trait here.
Option 3: activity level. This measures the overall amount of physical movement or energy a child displays across activities. The contrast given (one child sitting for a long time vs. one moving away quickly) points more to sustained attention rather than general movement, so activity level is not the best fit for explaining this difference.
Option 4: rhythmicity. This reflects the regularity of biological functions like sleep and hunger. The scenario does not mention regular patterns of physiology or routines, so rhythmicity is not pertinent to the observed behavior.
Reflecting on how the children engage with a task, the key distinction is the ability to maintain attention on the puzzle versus moving away quickly, which directly maps onto the attention span dimension rather than the other temperament traits.

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