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Definition
The EAS is a developmental, multidimensional, and causal personality model described by Buss and Plomin (1984). The acronym EAS refers to three basic dimensions: emotionality, activity, and sociability. Emotionality, activity, and sociability manifest before socialization, persist later in life, and show substantial heritability.
The EAS Dimensions
The individual characteristics of children are often referred to as temperament, the constitutional early basis of adult personality. However, the dimensions of the EAS model are considered stable and not restricted to a specific age range.
Emotionality is a dimension referring to the quality and intensity of emotional reactions. Individuals with high emotionality tend to react even to low-intensity stimuli with negative emotions such as anxiety or sadness. At the other end of the dimension, individuals are emotionally stable. Emotionality shows similitudes to the adult equivalents of...
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References
Buss, A. H., & Plomin, R. (1984). Theory and measurement of EAS. In Temperament: Early developing personality traits (pp. 98–130). Hillsdale: Erlbaum.
Buss, A. H., & Plomin, R. (1975). A temperament theory of personality development. New York: Wiley-Interscience.
Boer, F., & Westenberg, P. M. (1994). The factor structure of the Buss and Plomin EAS temperature survey (parental ratings) in a Dutch sample of elementary school children. Journal of Personality Assessment, 62(3), 537–551.
Mathiesen, K. S., & Tambs, K. (1999). The EAS temperament questionnaire: Factor structure, age trends, reliability, and stability in a Norwegian sample. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 40(3), 431–439.
Naerde, A., Roysamb, E., & Tambs, K. (2004). Temperament in adults: Reliability, stability, and factor structure of the EAS temperament survey. Journal of Personality Assessment, 82(1), 71–79.
Saudino, K. J., Cherny, S. S., & Plomin, R. (2000). Parent ratings of temperament in twins: Explaining the ‘too low’ DZ correlations. Twin Research, 3(4), 224–233.
Bould, H., Araya, R., Pearson, R. M., Stapinski, L., Carnegie, R., & Joinson, C. (2014). Association between early temperament and depression at 18 years. Depression and Anxiety, 31(9), 729–736.
Stringaris, A., Maughan, B., & Goodman, R. (2010). What’s in a disruptive disorder? Temperamental antecedents of oppositional defiant disorder: Findings from the Avon longitudinal study. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 49(5), 474–483.
Melchior, M., Chastang, J. F., de Lauzon, B., Galéra, C., Saurel-Cubizolles, M. J., Larroque, B., & EDEN Mother–Child Cohort Study Group. (2012). Maternal depression, socioeconomic position, and temperament in early childhood: The EDEN mother–child cohort. Journal of Affective Disorders, 137(1), 165–169.
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Purper-Ouakil, D. (2017). EAS Temperament Model. In: Zeigler-Hill, V., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Personality and Individual Differences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_745-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-28099-8_745-1
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