What Temperament Really Is—and Why It Matters for Parenting w/ Dr. Koraly Pérez-Edgar

Raising Good Humans

Dear Media, Aliza Pressman

Toddler, Sinai, Mount, Doctor, Mother, Science, Dear, Baby, Motherhood, Parenting, Psychology, Pressman, Education, Humans, Seedlings, Kids & Family, Adolescence, Children, Child, Childhood, Parent, Good, Raising, Infant, Media, Aliza

4.6 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 5 September 2025

⏱️ 84 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In today’s episode developmental psychologist and temperament expert Dr. Corley Perez-Edgar joins us to talk all about temperament. We dive into the science of temperament—how it develops in early childhood, how it shapes the way kids experience the world, and what it means for parenting. We cover the biological basis of temperament, the difference between shyness and social anxiety, and how parents can support children’s unique traits without trying to “fix” them. We also discuss new research on parent-child synchrony and what it reveals about how children borrow regulation from their caregivers.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The following podcast is a Dear Media production.
0:10.3	Welcome to Raising Good Humans.
0:13.3	I'm Dr. Eliza Pressman, and today is a conversation with developmental psychologist and temperament expert, Dr. Corali Perez-Edgar.
0:25.8	She looks at the connections between temperament and shyness and parent-child interactions,
0:33.1	but we're talking about all of it today. And what's very fun is that we're also doing a masterclass,
0:43.0	you know, those cool masterclasses that, you know, you just pick a topic that you just want to know
0:47.8	about. And they have this beautiful and totally manageable class. Dr. Corley Perez-Edgar, myself, Dr. Lisa DeMore, and Dr. Dave
0:59.7	Anderson all participated in this fabulous master class. Cannot recommend it enough, so I'm excited
1:06.3	to share it with you. And I love this conversation. You know, I could talk about temperament for so long.
1:14.6	What I thought was so interesting is when Corley looks at the research, she's not just looking at the
1:22.1	objective environment that a person is experiencing, but she's looking at the experienced environment.
1:31.6	So even though you have two kids in the same room, eating the same dinner, that can be a
1:39.9	completely different experience depending on their temperament.
1:43.4	If you enjoy this episode,
1:45.5	don't forget to give it a little shout out, a review of some kind on Apple Podcasts, or
1:50.2	wherever you get your podcasts, and I hope you have a wonderful week. We have talked about
1:57.6	temperament before, but just to give everybody a refresher, can you define temperament?
2:04.3	Sure. So if we think about temperament from our modern perspective, we think about it as the
2:11.2	biological basis of personality. It is that first introduction to your child in the first years of life where they show you their,
2:22.8	it's their first introduction where they show you their likes, their dislikes, the ways in which they
2:30.4	interact with the world.
2:32.3	When we think about the scientific definition,
	...

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