Tantrum

Last updated
"Christina Rossetti in a Tantrum" by her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti Dante Gabriel Rossetti - Christina Rossetti in a Tantrum.jpg
"Christina Rossetti in a Tantrum" by her brother, Dante Gabriel Rossetti

A tantrum, temper tantrum, lash out, meltdown, fit, or hissy fit is an emotional outburst, [1] [2] [3] usually associated with those in emotional distress. It is typically characterized by stubbornness, crying, screaming, violence, [4] defiance, [5] angry ranting, a resistance to attempts at pacification, and, in some cases, hitting and other physically violent behavior. Physical control may be lost; the person may be unable to remain still; and even if the "goal" of the person is met, they may not be calmed. Throwing a temper tantrum can lead to a child getting detention or being suspended from school for older school age children, and can result in a timeout or grounding, complete with room or corner time, at home. [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] A tantrum may be expressed in a tirade: a protracted, angry speech. [6] [7] [12]

Contents

In early childhood

Tantrums are one of the most common forms of problematic behavior in young children but tend to decrease in frequency and intensity as the child gets older. [13] For a toddler, tantrums can be considered as normal, and even as gauges of developing strength of character. [14] [15] [16]

Child having a tantrum Kasketaldi haurra 001.jpg
Child having a tantrum

While tantrums are sometimes seen as a predictor of future anti-social behavior, [17] in another sense they are simply an age-appropriate sign of excessive frustration, [18] and will diminish over time given a calm and consistent handling. [19] [20] [21] Parental containment where a child cannot contain themself—rather than what the child is ostensibly demanding—may be what is really required. [22]

Selma Fraiberg warned against "too much pressure or forceful methods of control from the outside" in child-rearing: "if we turn every instance of pants changing, treasure hunting, napping, puddle wading and garbage distribution into a governmental crisis we can easily bring on fierce defiance, tantrums, and all the fireworks of revolt in the nursery". [23]

Intellectual and developmental disorders

Some people who have developmental disorders such as autism, Asperger syndrome, ADHD, and intellectual disability [24] or even a developmental disability, could be more vulnerable to tantrums than others, although anyone experiencing brain damage (temporary or permanent) can suffer from tantrums. [25] Anyone may be prone to tantrums once in a while, regardless of gender or age. [26] [27] However, a meltdown due to sensory overload (which even neurotypical children can experience) is not the same as a temper tantrum. [28]

Aberrations

A Welsh Government video explaining the difference between tantrums and meltdowns.

Freud considered that the Wolf Man's development of temper tantrums was connected with his seduction by his sister: he became "discontented, irritable and violent, took offence on every possible occasion, and then flew into a rage and screamed like a savage". [29] Freud linked the tantrums to an unconscious need for punishment driven by feelings of guilt [30] —something which he thought could be generalised to many other cases of childhood tantrums. [31] [32]

Heinz Kohut contended that tantrums were rages of anger, [33] caused by the thwarting of the infant's grandiose-exhibitionist core. The blow to the inflated self-image, when a child's wishes are (however justifiably) refused, creates fury because it strikes at the feeling of omnipotence. [34]

Jealousy over the birth of a sibling, and resulting aggression [35] , may also provoke negativistic tantrums, as the effort at controlling the feelings overloads the child's system of self-regulation. [36] [37]

In later life

Writer William Makepeace Thackeray claimed that in later life "you may tell a tantrum as far as you can see one, by the distressed and dissatisfied expression of its countenance—'Tantrumical', if we may term it so". [38]

Heinz Kohut contended that "the baby’s core is likely to contain a self-centered, grandiose-exhibitionist part", and that "tantrums at being frustrated thus represent narcissistic rages" [33] at the blow to the inflated self-image. With "a child confronted with some refusal ... regardless of its justifications, the refusal automatically provokes fury, since it offends his sense of omnipotence". [34]

The willingness of the celebrity to throw tantrums whenever thwarted to the least degree [39] is a kind of acquired situational narcissism [40] or tantrumical behavior.

If older people show tantrums, they might often be signs of immaturity or a mental or developmental disability; and often autistic or ADHD meltdowns are incorrectly labelled tantrums. It can also occur in neurotypical people under extreme stress. [41]

See also

Related Research Articles

Psychoanalysis is a set of theories and therapeutic techniques that deal in part with the unconscious mind, and which together form a method of treatment for mental disorders. The discipline was established in the early 1890s by Sigmund Freud, whose work stemmed partly from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others. Freud developed and refined the theory and practice of psychoanalysis until his death in 1939. In an encyclopedic article, he identified the cornerstones of psychoanalysis as "the assumption that there are unconscious mental processes, the recognition of the theory of repression and resistance, the appreciation of the importance of sexuality and of the Oedipus complex." Freud's colleagues Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav Jung developed offshoots of psychoanalysis which they called individual psychology (Adler) and analytical psychology (Jung), although Freud himself wrote a number of criticisms of them and emphatically denied that they were forms of psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis was later developed in different directions by neo-Freudian thinkers, such as Erich Fromm, Karen Horney, and Harry Stack Sullivan.

A toddler is a child approximately 1 to 3 years old, though definitions vary. The toddler years are a time of great cognitive, emotional and social development. The word is derived from "to toddle", which means to walk unsteadily, like a child of this age.

Developmental disorders comprise a group of psychiatric conditions originating in childhood that involve serious impairment in different areas. There are several ways of using this term. The most narrow concept is used in the category "Specific Disorders of Psychological Development" in the ICD-10. These disorders comprise developmental language disorder, learning disorders, motor disorders, and autism spectrum disorders. In broader definitions ADHD is included, and the term used is neurodevelopmental disorders. Yet others include antisocial behavior and schizophrenia that begins in childhood and continues through life. However, these two latter conditions are not as stable as the other developmental disorders, and there is not the same evidence of a shared genetic liability.

In psychology, displacement is an unconscious defence mechanism whereby the mind substitutes either a new aim or a new object for things felt in their original form to be dangerous or unacceptable.

In psychoanalysis, cathexis is defined as the process of allocation of mental or emotional energy to a person, object, or idea.

Selma Fraiberg (1918–1981) was an American child psychoanalyst, author and social worker.

Discrete trial training (DTT) is a technique used by practitioners of applied behavior analysis (ABA) that was developed by Ivar Lovaas at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). DTT uses mass instruction and reinforcers that create clear contingencies to shape new skills. Often employed as an early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) for up to 25–40 hours per week for children with autism, the technique relies on the use of prompts, modeling, and positive reinforcement strategies to facilitate the child's learning. It previously used aversives to punish unwanted behaviors. DTT has also been referred to as the "Lovaas/UCLA model", "rapid motor imitation antecedent", "listener responding", errorless learning", and "mass trials".

Repression is a key concept of psychoanalysis, where it is understood as a defense mechanism that "ensures that what is unacceptable to the conscious mind, and would if recalled arouse anxiety, is prevented from entering into it." According to psychoanalytic theory, repression plays a major role in many mental illnesses, and in the psyche of the average person.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA), also called behavioral engineering, is a psychological intervention that applies approaches based upon the principles of respondent and operant conditioning to change behavior of social significance. It is the applied form of behavior analysis; the other two forms are radical behaviorism and the experimental analysis of behavior.

Mind-blindness, mindblindness or mind blindness is a theory initially proposed in 1990 that claims that all autistic people have a lack or developmental delay of theory of mind (ToM), meaning they are unable to attribute mental states to others. According to the theory, a lack of ToM is considered equivalent to a lack of both cognitive and affective empathy. In the context of the theory, mind-blindness implies being unable to predict behavior and attribute mental states including beliefs, desires, emotions, or intentions of other people. The mind-blindness theory asserts that children who delay in this development will often develop autism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Masking (personality)</span> Social process

In psychology and sociology, masking is the process in which an individual camouflages their natural personality or behavior to conform to social pressures, abuse, or harassment. Masking can be strongly influenced by environmental factors such as authoritarian parents, rejection, and emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. Masking can be a behavior individuals adopt subconsciously as coping mechanisms or a trauma response, or it can be a conscious behavior an individual adopts to fit in within perceived societal norms. Masking is interconnected with maintaining performative behavior within social structures and cultures.

Irritability is the excitatory ability that living organisms have to respond to changes in their environment. The term is used for both the physiological reaction to stimuli and for the pathological, abnormal or excessive sensitivity to stimuli.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Play therapy</span> Childrens mental health therapy method

Play therapy refers to a range of methods of capitalising on children's natural urge to explore and harnessing it to meet and respond to the developmental and later also their mental health needs. It is also used for forensic or psychological assessment purposes where the individual is too young or too traumatised to give a verbal account of adverse, abusive or potentially criminal circumstances in their life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Autism therapies</span> Therapy aimed at autistic people

Autism therapies include a wide variety of therapies that help people with autism, or their families. Such methods of therapy seek to aid autistic people in dealing with difficulties and increase their functional independence.

In the psychology of defense mechanisms and self-control, acting out is the performance of an action considered bad or anti-social. In general usage, the action performed is destructive to self or to others. The term is used in this way in sexual addiction treatment, psychotherapy, criminology and parenting. In contrast, the opposite attitude or behaviour of bearing and managing the impulse to perform one's impulse is called acting in.

In operant conditioning, punishment is any change in a human or animal's surroundings which, occurring after a given behavior or response, reduces the likelihood of that behavior occurring again in the future. As with reinforcement, it is the behavior, not the human/animal, that is punished. Whether a change is or is not punishing is determined by its effect on the rate that the behavior occurs. This is called motivating operations (MO), because they alter the effectiveness of a stimulus. MO can be categorized in abolishing operations, decrease the effectiveness of the stimuli and establishing, increase the effectiveness of the stimuli. For example, a painful stimulus which would act as a punisher for most people may actually reinforce some behaviors of masochistic individuals.

Autism, also called autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental disorder marked by restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and deficits in reciprocal social communication. Other common signs include perseverative interests, stereotypic body movements (stimming), rigid routines, hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input, and difficulty with social interaction and verbal and nonverbal communication. Autism is clinically regarded as a spectrum disorder, meaning that it can manifest very differently in each person. For example, some are nonspeaking, while others have proficient spoken language. Because of this, there is wide variation in the support needs of people across the autism spectrum.

Autistic meltdown describes an intense, often uncontrollable response to an overwhelming situations experienced by some individuals on the autism spectrum. Irritability or tantrum is the term used historically to describe the behavior.

Sex and gender differences in autism exist regarding prevalence, presentation, and diagnosis.

Psychodynamic Therapy with Infants and Parents aims to relieve emotional disturbances within the parent(s), the baby, and/or their interaction, for example, postnatal depression and anxiety, infant distress with breastfeeding and sleep, and attachment disorders. It rests on attachment theory and psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud suggested that a modification of his method could be applied to children, and child analysis was introduced in the 1920s by [Anna Freud].., [Melanie Klein], and Hermine Hug von Hellmuth. Klein speculated on infantile experiences to understand her patients' disorders but she did not practice PTIP. Donald Winnicott, a pediatrician and analyst, focused on the mother-baby interplay in his theorizing and his brief parent-child consultations, but he did not work with PTIP.

References

  1. ↑ Album, Cabinet (1830). "The Cabinet Album A Collection of Original and Selected Literature". The. Hurst, Chance and Company: 92.
  2. ↑ Foote, Samuel (1765). "The Dramatic Works Volume 1". The Dramatic Works. 1. P. Vaillant: 40–41.
  3. ↑ Payn, James (1869). Married Beneath Him. A novel. By the author of "Lost Sir Massingberd" James Payn. The British Library. p. 369.
  4. ↑ O'Hara, Kane (1770). "Midas An English Burletta. As it is Performed at the Theatre-Royal, in Covent-Garden". Midas an English Burletta. As It is Performed at the Theatre-Royal, in Covent-Garden: 20.
  5. ↑ GOMBERT, A. J. (1825). "The French Drama ... with Notes Critical and Explanatory, by A. G. Volume 2 of The French Drama ... with Notes Critical and Explanatory, by A. G". The French Drama... 2. The British Library: 47.
  6. 1 2 Penelope Leach. "What is a tantrum?". BabyCentre. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  7. 1 2 "Temper Tantrums". KidsHealth. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  8. ↑ Karisa Ding (July 26, 2017). "Tantrums". BabyCenter. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  9. ↑ Jan Hunt. "When a Child Has a Tantrum". The Natural Child Project. Retrieved 2011-03-20.
  10. ↑ Mullen, J.K. (1983). "Understanding and managing the temper tantrum". Child Care Quarterly. 12 (1): 59–70. doi:10.1007/BF01258080. S2CID   144110786.
  11. ↑ Geelerd, E.R. (1945). "Observations on temper tantrums in children". American Journal of Orthopsychiatry. 15 (2): 238–246. doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.1945.tb04937.x.
  12. ↑ Daniels, Elizabeth; Mandleco, Barbara; Luthy, Karlen E. (2012). "Assessment, management, and prevention of childhood temper tantrums". Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners. 24 (10): 569–573. doi: 10.1111/j.1745-7599.2012.00755.x . PMID   23006014.
  13. ↑ Banham Bridges, Katharine M. (1932). "Emotional Development in Early Infancy". Child Development. 3 (4): 324–341. doi:10.2307/1125359. JSTOR   1125359.
  14. ↑ Robin Skynner; John Cleese (1993). Families and how to survive them. p. 177.
  15. ↑ Isaacs, S. (1940). "Temper tantrums in early childhood in their relation to internal objects". The International Journal of Psychoanalysis. 21: 280–293.
  16. ↑ Solter, A. (1992). "Understanding Tears and Tantrums". Young Children. 47 (4): 64–68. JSTOR   42725308.
  17. ↑ Potegal, Michael; Davidson, Richard J. (June 2003). "Temper Tantrums in Young Children". Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics. 24 (3): 140–147. doi:10.1097/00004703-200306000-00002. PMID   12806225. S2CID   23682833.
  18. ↑ Green, J.A.; Whitney, P.G.; Potegal, M. (2011). "Screaming, yelling, whining, and crying: Categorical and intensity differences in vocal expressions of anger and sadness in children's tantrums". Emotion. 11 (5): 1124–1133. doi:10.1037/a0024173. PMC   3192404 . PMID   21707157.
  19. ↑ Roy Benaroch (2008). Solving Health and Behavioural Problems from Birth Through Preschool. p. 157.
  20. ↑ Kopp, C.B. (1989). "Regulation of distress and negative emotions: A developmental view". Developmental Psychology. 25 (3): 343–354. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.25.3.343.
  21. ↑ Levine, Linda (1995). "Young Children's Understanding of the Causes of Anger and Sadness". Child Development. 66 (3): 967–709. doi:10.2307/1131944. JSTOR   1131944. PMID   7789196.
  22. ↑ Patrick Casement (1990). Further Learning from the Patient. pp. 113–4.
  23. ↑ Selma H. Fraiberg (1987). The Magic Years. p. 65.
  24. ↑ Luiselli, J.; Murbach, L. (2002). "Providing Instruction from Novel Staff as an Antecedent Intervention for Child Tantrum Behavior in a Public School Classroom". Education and Treatment of Children. 25 (3): 356–365. JSTOR   42899711.
  25. ↑ Lancioni, G. E.; Smeets, P. M.; Ceccarani, P. S.; Capodaglio, L.; Campanari, G. (1984). "Effects of gross motor activities on the severe self-injurious tantrums of multihandicapped individuals". Applied Research in Mental Retardation. 5 (4): 471–482. doi:10.1016/S0270-3092(84)80039-9. PMID   6240965.
  26. ↑ Sandra Ketcham. "Temper Tantrums and Autism". LoveToKnow. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
  27. ↑ Osterman, Karin; Bjorkqvist, Kaj (April 1, 2010). "A Cross-Sectional Study of Onset, Cessation, Frequency, and Duration of Children's Temper Tantrums in a Nonclinical Sample". Psychological Reports. 106 (2): 448–454. doi:10.2466/pr0.106.2.448-454. PMID   20524545. S2CID   43291154.
  28. ↑ Bennie, Maureen (2 February 2016). "Tantrum vs Autistic Meltdown: What Is The Difference?". Autism Awareness. Autism Awareness Centre Inc. Retrieved 9 June 2017.
  29. ↑ Sigmund Freud. Case Histories II (PFL 9). p. 242.
  30. ↑ Sigmund Freud. Case Histories II (PFL 9). p. 257.
  31. ↑ Sigmund Freud. Case Histories II (PFL 9). pp. 242 & 257–8.
  32. ↑ M., R.J, Potegal, Davidson (1997). "Young children's post tantrum affiliation with their parents". Aggressive Behavior. 23 (5): 329–341. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1098-2337(1997)23:5<329::AID-AB3>3.0.CO;2-D .{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  33. 1 2 H. Goldenberg; I. Goldenberg (2007). Family Therapy. p. 172.
  34. 1 2 Edmund Bergler in J. Halliday/P. Fuller eds., The Psychology of Gambling (London 1974) p. 182
  35. ↑ J., H.A., Kagan, Moss (1962). "The stability of behavior: II. Aggression. In J. Kagan & H. A. Moss, Birth to maturity: A study in psychological development". Birth to maturity: A study in psychological development. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: 85–119.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  36. ↑ Selma H. Fraiberg (1987). The Magic Years. p. 152.
  37. ↑ Dennis, Tracy A. (2006). "Emotional self-regulation in preschoolers: The interplay approach reactivity, and control capacities". Developmental Psychology. 42 (1): 84–97. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.42.1.84. PMID   16420120. S2CID   14692506.
  38. ↑ William Makepeace Thackeray (1848). The Irish Sketch Book. J. Winchester. p.  138.
  39. ↑ Cooper Lawrence, The Cult of Celebrity (2009) p. 72
  40. ↑ Simon Crompton, All About Me (London 2007) p. 176
  41. ↑ "North Jersey". North Jersey. Retrieved 25 March 2018.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.