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The Temperamental Thread: How Genes, Culture, Time and Luck make Us Who We Are
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.
248 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
21 people are currently reading
428 people want to read
About the author
Jerome Kagan
84 books85 followersJerome Kagan was an American psychologist, who was the Daniel and Amy Starch Research Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, as well as, co-faculty at the New England Complex Systems Institute. He was one of the key pioneers of developmental psychology.
Kagan has shown that an infant's "temperament" is quite stable over time, in that certain behaviors in infancy are predictive of certain other behavior patterns in adolescence. He did extensive work on temperament and gave insight on emotion.
In 2001, he was listed in the Review of General Psychology among the one hundred most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century. After being evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively, Kagan was twenty-second on the list, just above Carl Jung.
Kagan has shown that an infant's "temperament" is quite stable over time, in that certain behaviors in infancy are predictive of certain other behavior patterns in adolescence. He did extensive work on temperament and gave insight on emotion.
In 2001, he was listed in the Review of General Psychology among the one hundred most eminent psychologists of the twentieth century. After being evaluated quantitatively and qualitatively, Kagan was twenty-second on the list, just above Carl Jung.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 4, 2012
The result of a whole life's work, Kagan's book is an outstanding screening of the multiple and heterogeneous influences that lies beyond the facade of every human being.
Contrary to the author's own early and admittedly wrong judgment, biological traits peculiar to each individual do have a fundamental role in defining who we are, as important as genetic inheritance and life experiences. Such undeniable biological substrate plays the background for the private happenings of life. It sets the stage, and the limits. Kagan is never bored to repeat that temperament do not tell what is possible for a person, but rather what is most unlikely to be the case. Then, environment, class identification, history, beliefs and experiences are all involved in sculpting the uniqueness of each person (which goes along with Kierkegaard's remark about the universality of each human because of such unrepeatable combinations of cooperating factors).
Kagan proposes some rough classifications of temperamental classes, particularly for children (e.g., high- and low-reactive), but more interestingly makes clear that all definitions are transient and need to be investigated a lot more in the future, which is a grand admission for such an expert of the field. He reports the results of a large quantity of long-term studies on attitudes of people differentiated by culture, social class, ethnicity, geolocalization and more parameters, with the overarching purpose of showing, above all, how much variation is actually existing and the extent to which patterns can still be found in such variety. The identification of such patterns is, on one hand, in its infancy, on the other has a lot to say on the possibility at all, even in the face of such multilayered construction which is a man, of predicting traits, tendencies and responses from generic classes of properties (an instance is the purported association of psychological traits with physical, apparently unrelated ones). A main trend shown by Kagan with the example of many colleagues, too, is for sure the search for clear neuronal correlates between behaviors and brain states. With this respect, the final remarks on the need of a new vocabulary for neurology that shall be rather distinguished and awash from psychological fuzzy meanings and apparent though misleading inheritances are of remarkable importance. Besides, Kagan's delicate but definite and precise dismissal of Freud's system as son of his time and place within only a few pages is as intellectually enthralling and understanding as it can get.
For those like me interested in behavioral patterns, Kagan's book is a must read. And it comes wrapped within the erudite, gentle, rich, pleasant, moderate yet accurate writing style which by itself tells a great deal about the author's mastery of the field - and particularly of its issues, gaps, limits and significance.
A great piece of gentle decostructivism which, while digging a fair bit beyond apparent correlates proved wrong, and viceversa, and unveiling the supported existence of surprising patterns against the pale resistance of those who would prefer that such things could be unknowable - still leaves the reader more amazed than at the beginning of the dissection.
Contrary to the author's own early and admittedly wrong judgment, biological traits peculiar to each individual do have a fundamental role in defining who we are, as important as genetic inheritance and life experiences. Such undeniable biological substrate plays the background for the private happenings of life. It sets the stage, and the limits. Kagan is never bored to repeat that temperament do not tell what is possible for a person, but rather what is most unlikely to be the case. Then, environment, class identification, history, beliefs and experiences are all involved in sculpting the uniqueness of each person (which goes along with Kierkegaard's remark about the universality of each human because of such unrepeatable combinations of cooperating factors).
Kagan proposes some rough classifications of temperamental classes, particularly for children (e.g., high- and low-reactive), but more interestingly makes clear that all definitions are transient and need to be investigated a lot more in the future, which is a grand admission for such an expert of the field. He reports the results of a large quantity of long-term studies on attitudes of people differentiated by culture, social class, ethnicity, geolocalization and more parameters, with the overarching purpose of showing, above all, how much variation is actually existing and the extent to which patterns can still be found in such variety. The identification of such patterns is, on one hand, in its infancy, on the other has a lot to say on the possibility at all, even in the face of such multilayered construction which is a man, of predicting traits, tendencies and responses from generic classes of properties (an instance is the purported association of psychological traits with physical, apparently unrelated ones). A main trend shown by Kagan with the example of many colleagues, too, is for sure the search for clear neuronal correlates between behaviors and brain states. With this respect, the final remarks on the need of a new vocabulary for neurology that shall be rather distinguished and awash from psychological fuzzy meanings and apparent though misleading inheritances are of remarkable importance. Besides, Kagan's delicate but definite and precise dismissal of Freud's system as son of his time and place within only a few pages is as intellectually enthralling and understanding as it can get.
For those like me interested in behavioral patterns, Kagan's book is a must read. And it comes wrapped within the erudite, gentle, rich, pleasant, moderate yet accurate writing style which by itself tells a great deal about the author's mastery of the field - and particularly of its issues, gaps, limits and significance.
A great piece of gentle decostructivism which, while digging a fair bit beyond apparent correlates proved wrong, and viceversa, and unveiling the supported existence of surprising patterns against the pale resistance of those who would prefer that such things could be unknowable - still leaves the reader more amazed than at the beginning of the dissection.
November 21, 2018
هل أمزجتنا هي نتاج ما ورثناه من جيناتنا ؟
أم هي نتاج التربية والبيئة وتجارب الطفولة ؟
هذا هو السؤال الذي يطرحه الكتاب ليحاول الاجابه عنه في ثناياه
مستعرضا العديد من التجارب والدراسات التي توضح العوامل المؤثرة في تشكيل بنيتنا المزاجية
ومستعرضا القضايا الاخلاقية والتبعات القانونية لتلك الأفكار
الكتاب سلس ورائع ومفيد علي العديد من الأصعده
أم هي نتاج التربية والبيئة وتجارب الطفولة ؟
هذا هو السؤال الذي يطرحه الكتاب ليحاول الاجابه عنه في ثناياه
مستعرضا العديد من التجارب والدراسات التي توضح العوامل المؤثرة في تشكيل بنيتنا المزاجية
ومستعرضا القضايا الاخلاقية والتبعات القانونية لتلك الأفكار
الكتاب سلس ورائع ومفيد علي العديد من الأصعده
September 3, 2018
كتاب جميل غني بالمعلومات ..
يولد الإنسان وهو يحمل صفاته وسماته و الغريب هنا ان يرث حتى مزاجه ولكن تلعب العوامل الخارجية في كبح او تفعيل ما ورثه من جينات ..
ايضا يلعب الضوء اثناء حمل الجنين دوره في مزاج الفرد والذي كان يعتقد انه ارتباط بالنجوم والفلك .
ردات الفعل ايضا موروثة .. فهناك من يأتي الى الدنيا خجولا واخر جرئيا .. وهذا حتى في عالم الحيوان .
الكتاب يستحق القراءة وكيف لا ومؤلفه ثابر و عمل فيه قرابة عشرين عاما علاوة على انه مبحث جديد في علم النفس .
ربما تباين صفات البشر الا لاجل التنوع الذي حتما هو مفيد اكثر مما لو كان متطابق او متوافق او متناظر
ايضا دور الاباء له اهمية كبرى في مزاج المرء .
على كل .. هذا كتاب مفيد وجميل .
يولد الإنسان وهو يحمل صفاته وسماته و الغريب هنا ان يرث حتى مزاجه ولكن تلعب العوامل الخارجية في كبح او تفعيل ما ورثه من جينات ..
ايضا يلعب الضوء اثناء حمل الجنين دوره في مزاج الفرد والذي كان يعتقد انه ارتباط بالنجوم والفلك .
ردات الفعل ايضا موروثة .. فهناك من يأتي الى الدنيا خجولا واخر جرئيا .. وهذا حتى في عالم الحيوان .
الكتاب يستحق القراءة وكيف لا ومؤلفه ثابر و عمل فيه قرابة عشرين عاما علاوة على انه مبحث جديد في علم النفس .
ربما تباين صفات البشر الا لاجل التنوع الذي حتما هو مفيد اكثر مما لو كان متطابق او متوافق او متناظر
ايضا دور الاباء له اهمية كبرى في مزاج المرء .
على كل .. هذا كتاب مفيد وجميل .
April 2, 2018
It has all the oomph of the facts and research, with a good amount of speculation. It’s a good manual, if a bit bland.
January 18, 2024
libro x tesi mi ha aiutato devo dire
March 5, 2020
هنا معلومات وأتجهات و أفكار جديدة، قادرة على تغيير مجرى حياتك وصناعة حياة مختلفة لأبنائك.
September 5, 2015
This is written by a man who was a pioneering scientist in the field of temperament research, now in his 80's. His results were replicated in other labs, which gives what he has to say a lot of credibility.
The book has some very, very interesting observations, and reports some findings from biology as well as psychology that every parent should be aware of.
The book has some very, very interesting observations, and reports some findings from biology as well as psychology that every parent should be aware of.
December 3, 2010
Outstanding achievement. This is by far the best written and most compreehensive book to touch the ever problematic topic of human nature. And the author does ir wonderfully by examining the way on which science works itself into understanding our minds and behaviour.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews