Activity 4: Caregivers Are People First

Purpose: This is an activity designed to bring the information on temperament "home" for participants, as they consider the caregiver's contribution to the "fit" in relationships with children and others.

For this activity you will need:

· One copy of Handout D: Temperament Characteristics
· Red and blue ink pens

Step 1: Explain to participants that the issues of temperament do not just apply to young children. We all have our adult styles of responding to the world that we have carried with us through life. We can gain insight about rough spots in the "fit" of relationships that we have and the ease (or not) with which we fit into certain kinds of environments when we look at our own temperament characteristics.

Step 2: Have participants take a few minutes to review Handout D: Temperament Characteristics, and then fill it out with the red pen by circling the number on the one-through-five scale that best characterizes them if the extremes are one and five.

Step 3: Direct them to look at their assessment of their own temperament traits to see how they have chosen activities and/or relationships for themselves to match their temperament preferences. For example, ask:

• Do you like to teach because you are very active and couldn't ever sit still at a desk all day?
• Do you like being a family advocate because your intensity can be put to good use?

On the other hand, are there predictable rough spots or conflicts that happen for them that are in part explained by temperament? For example, ask:

•  Does it drive you crazy when colleagues are late for meetings because you are always on time? Maybe you are a very ordered person whereas they are not.
• Is your active, always-on-the-move child hard for you to deal with because you have a lower activity level and are slower to adapt?

Step 4: Have participants choose a person with whom they have a relationship. It might be a co-worker, spouse, child, or friend. Have them fill out the same temperament profile for this person, using the blue pen.

Suggest they look at these temperaments profiled together and ask themselves:

• Where are the differences or similarities complementary?
• Where might they predict conflict?
• Does understanding your individual differences help you think about how to improve the fit and therefore improve the relationship?

Step 5: If they would like to, participants can share their profiles with the person they chose and ask that person to do the activity, too. Have them compare their assessments of each other and themselves.

Points to Consider

•  One way that temperament is evident in work settings is in people's work styles.
• Have you ever been in a team situation where work styles were in conflict?
• Could a working knowledge of temperament help bridge differences in work styles?
  
  

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