The Temperamental Thread: How Genes, Culture, Time and Luck make Us Who We Are by Jerome Kagan Ph.D. (PDF)

Description

Temperament is the single most pervasive aspect of us and our fellow human beings. We notice it; we gossip about it; we make judgments based on it; we unconsciously shape our lives around it.In The Temperamental Thread, developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan draws on decades of research to describe the nature of temperament—the in-born traits that underlie our responses to experience. Along the way he answers such questions as, How does the temperament we are born with affect the rest of our lives? Are we set at birth on an irrevocable path of optimism or pessimism? Must a fussy baby always become an anxious adult?Kagan paints a picture of temperament as a thread that, when woven with those of life experiences, forms the whole cloth of an individual’s personality. He presents solid evidence to show how genes, gender, culture, and chance interact with temperament and influence a mature personality. He explains how temperament sets the stage for the many personality variations that we see all around us.Research into temperament, powered by the new tools of neuroscience and psychological science, is enriching our understanding of others in every context, from our closest relationships to those in workplaces, schools, and even casual encounters. Jerome Kagan shows us how.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Anyone who still believes that our psychological dispositions are due largely to our genes will learn a lot from this book. The same goes for those who think they are predominantly shaped by our environment. Jerome Kagan, an emeritus professor of psychology at Harvard University, has spent much of his career unpacking the complexities behind human personality and behaviour. In The Temperamental Thread he navigates a path through the conflicting evidence with great skill and eloquence.” –Michael Bond, NewScientist, April 23, 2010″Kagan has an uncanny knack for making people think about science in a deeper way, and he inspires scientists to ask new research questions and keep moving forward.” -Kristin A. Buss, PsycCRITIQUES, APA, October 13, 2010″In this marvelous book, one of the world’s most distinguished psychologists synthesizes cutting-edge research to illuminate how biology and environment jointly shape human psychology. The book reveals deep erudition, yet is written in an engaging and accessible style. Anyone keen to learn what science has revealed about human nature will be captivated.” –Richard J. McNally, Ph.D., author of Panic Disorder: A Critical Analysis and Remembering Trauma About the Author Jerome Kagan, Ph.D., has been called “one of the most influential developmental psychologists of the twentieth century.” He is a Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Harvard University and a member of the Institute of Medicine, National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has written or contributed to more than 30 books, including TheThree Cultures: Natural Sciences,Social Sciences, and the Humanities in the 21st Century (Cambridge University Press), and The LongShadow of Temperament (Harvard University Press).

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐I was led to this book I think from a brief review in The New Scientist. I thought more evidence would be presented regarding how specific behaviors found in infants would persist into adulthood, demonstrating the basic thesis that temperament is inborn and cannot be changed. Unfortunately the book is a little short on the scientific side, being as the first reviewer said, quite chatty in tone. Coming from a medical background I find the psychological style a little offputting since so many behaviors are described along the lines of: (not a quote) anorexics become stressed in university and control their eating in reaction to this– that is, statements that are bordering on the banal. The initial chapters of the book discuss 4 simple temperamental types (it is understood there must be many many more) in infants, then discuss what happens to these as they get older. A lot is made of high-reactive and low-reactive, which is those babies who react strongly versus those who are more placid. Unfortunately his own quoted evidence suggests that the more emotional, fussy, harder to soothe babies, in the majority don’t become anxious adults, only 20 percent (I think that’s the number quoted) do. Same problems with the other types. It’s debatable whether observation of how a baby reacts in this setting can be formalized since there might be many reasons for a baby behaving in this way, and whether it has any connexion at all with temperament (ie genetic predisposition).Later in the book he goes off into quite wild tangents regarding the whole populational temperament, for ex., caucasians are more self-directed and chinese people more other-directed. This is usually dismissed on the grounds that intra-race variability is far greater than that inter-race, swamping any statistical difference between the two. It’s questionable in what way you can meaningful info on this since answers to a survey can be culture-driven, unless you’re relying on your own stereotypes. Thank god he doesn’t discuss black temperamental difference! I’ll quote another example of a wild, wild tangent I couldn’t believe when I read: “The erosion in the quality of instruction in urban schools due partly to the abandonment of teaching as a career by well-educated dedicated women who could become lawyers… led to a rise in the proportion of youth who were unable to read, write, or solve arithmetic problems.” As an opinion there’s nothing wrong with this sentence, but it is scientifically impossible to defend for many reasons hopefully obvious to all those reading.Another muddled chapter attempts to transcend DSM by suggesting a better way to classify mental illnesses, but again the thinking sounds like just another psychological theory completely divorced from fact, science, or evidence. Neurologically we don’t know anything about the true causes of attention deficit, schizophrenia, etc., but that doesn’t mean it’s ok to invent a classification de novo. We just don’t know how the brain fails in these disorders, so going by symptomatology is the best we can hope for.

⭐This book has contributed significantly to my understanding of what makes us who we are.

⭐In his book, The Temperamental Thread, Harvard developmental psychologist Jerome Kagan summarizes his findings from decades of painstaking research and hundreds of clever experiments. He describes two basic inborn temperaments: low-reactive and high-reactive. While low-reactive individuals are relaxed, high-reactives are uptight perfectionists who are easily disturbed by sights, sounds, and even minor incidents. In a couple of places Dr. Kagan expresses sympathy for the high-reactives whose lives seem to be one unending torture. “I confess to some sadness,” he says, “when I reflect on the fact that some adults, because of the temperament they inherited, find it difficult to experience on most days the relaxed feeling of happiness that a majority in our society believe is life’s primary purpose.” And since high-reactives tend to be deeply introverted, Dr. Kagan expresses sorrow that they “miss the joys that come from meeting new people and visiting new places.” Well, they do “have the advantage of living a few years longer than extroverts.” But how can this compensate for all the cheerless suffering they are destined to endure? And what if some high-reactives find their own life satisfying at some deeper level? Dr. Kagan thinks they should know better. He gives the example of Ludwig Wittgesnstein who suffered many personal misfortunes, “never put roots down in any one place,” and “was profoundly depressed and anxious his entire life.” At one low point he even confessed “that he could not imagine a future with any joy or friendship.” Yet, on his deathbed he said to an attending relative: “Tell them I’ve had a wonderful life.” Dr. Kagan’s verdict? “This comment provides sufficient reason to question the meaning and accuracy of what people say about their moods and behaviors.” So, Wittgenstein wasn’t really in his right mind. I wish Dr. Kagan could fathom what it means to lead a truly intense life like Wittgenstein’s; to say nothing of the lives of all those poets, philosophers, mathematicians, etc. who have descended into madness, committed suicide, or narrowly escaped such a fate. A book with an evocative title, Living with Intensity, offers a good introduction to this tricky issue once addressed by Polish psychologist Kazimierz Dabrowski. But reading a book, or piles of psychological “findings” for that matter, won’t help you appreciate that extatic mode of “being-in-the-world” unless you can feel some of its emotional intensity in your own gut. Judging by the unfailingly reserved and even tone of Dr. Kagan’s writing, he has successfully avoided that developmental curse. He does recognize the usefulness of all those wretched high-reactives in his own work, though. He has regularly hired them as research assistants because they are oh so conscientious.

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