Discuss temperament, including the characteristics of the easy, difficult, and slow-to-warm-up child and how parenting can affect each of these temperaments

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Newborn babies differ noticeably in temperament, which is the inherited, physical core of personality and includes sensitivity, irritability, distractibility, and typical mood. About 40 percent of all newborns are easy children who are relaxed and agreeable. Ten percent are difficult children who are moody, intense, and easily angered. Slow- to-warm-up children make up about 15 percent of the newborns and are restrained, unexpressive, or shy. The remaining children do not fit neatly into a single category. Because of differences in temperament, some babies are more likely than others to smile, cry, vocalize, reach out, or pay attention. As a result, babies rapidly become active participants in their own development. For example, an easy baby who smiles frequently and is easily fed tends to encourage parents to touch, feed, and sing to them. This affection rewards the baby, causing him or her to smile more. Soon, a dynamic relationship blossoms between parents and child. Similarly, good parenting can reciprocally influence a very shy child who, in turn, becomes progressively less shy. The reverse can also occur. Difficult children may make parents unhappy and elicit more negative parenting with this negative parenting possibly turning a moderately shy child into a very shy one. This suggests that inherited temperaments are dynamically modified by learning.