The component of temperament associated with voluntary self-regulation is effortful control (EC), defined as “the efficiency of executive attention—including the ability to inhibit a dominant response and/or to activate a subdominant response, to plan, and to detect errors” (Rothbart & Bates, 2006, p. 129). Measures of EC often tap attentional control (i.e., the abilities to maintain attentional focus upon task-related channels or to shift one’s focus as needed to deal with task demands) and inhibitory control (the capacity to plan and effortfully suppress inappropriate approach responses under instructions or in novel or uncertain situations; Derryberry & Rothbart, 1988; Kochanska, Murray, & Harlan, 2000; Muris & Ollendick, 2005; Rothbart et al., 2001). Dispositional differences in EC appear to have a substrate in the heritable aspects of temperament (Saudino, 2005), have been observed in the early years of life, and seem to exhibit some stability across childhood (Martel et al., 2007; Murphy, Eisenberg, Fabes, Shepard, & Guthrie, 1999; Pedlow, Sanson, Prior, & Oberklaid, 1993), as well as some change with age, likely due to environmental influences such as socialization (see Eisenberg, Zhou, et al., 2005; Nigg, 2006; Rothbart & Bates, 2006).
