The book Long Shadow of Temperament by Jerome Kagan and Nancy Snideman and has an influence on a child’s behavior; “The contemporary view is that temperament is a biologically based but evolving aspect of behavior; it evolves as the child's experiences are incorporated into a network of self-perceptions and behavioral preferences that characterize the child's personality,”(Santrock 186). Temperament essentially provides us a set of personality traits that are molded by the environment the person lives in. For instance, those who have high- reactive personalities (uninhibited) are inclined to be extraverted which would aid them into getting elected into public office; however, a child born with the same temperament may have the potential of being a criminal (Kagan & Snideman 5). By classifying an individual as uninhibited or inhibited based on their neurological profiles help psychologist predict a number of possible personalities the individual will have in the future based on the enviroment.
Kagan and Snideman separated these temperamental profiles into two different categories, inhibited and uninhibited based on how reactive an infants was. Infants with a high reactive personality are classified as inhibited. The allocation of infants being high reactive or low reactive is based on their behavior; therefore, high-reactive showed vigorous motor activity and frequently cried (Kagan & Snideman 51). People that are classified as inhibited are more sensitive to their body's reactions. Different traits attributed to uninhibited profiles are: motor tension, serious facial expression, lack of emotional spontaneity in novel events, and soft voice (Kagan & Snideman 120). Because of these traits likely to be introverts, hence they pro...
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...y done by Kagan proved that, “Exceptionally inhibited and fearful 2-year-olds often are still as shy as 8-year-olds; about half will become introverted adolescents,”(Myers 111).
Studying wether someone is inhibited or uninhibited will help psychologist predict if a child will be at risk of social phobia (Journal article) symptoms of this phobia would be avoidance of novel situations and unfamiliar people.
Works Cited
Kagan, Jerome, and Nancy C. Snidman. The Long Shadow of Temperament. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 2004. Print.
Myers, David G. Exploring Psychology. New York: Worth, 2008. Print.
Santrock, John W. Life-span Development. Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill, 2006. Print.
Schwartz, Carl E., et al. "Inhibited And Uninhibited Infants 'Grown Up': Adult Amygdalar Response To Novelty." Science 300.5627 (2003): 1952-1953. PsycINFO. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
One of the most common anxiety disorder is social phobia, which can sometimes be interchangeable with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD). Marc de Rosnay, and others, states that Social Anxiety Disorder is characterized by a clearly noticeable fear and avoidance of most social situations where the individual may be put under scrutiny by others, and by fear in such situations, the individual will behave in an embarrassing manner (de Rosnay). One of the most notable feature of social phobia is that it has an early onset, as early as 7-9 months in most cases. The characteristics of having social phobia, or social anxiety disorder, is that the individuals are shy when meeting new people, quiet in a large group, blush easily, and often avoids making eye contact. There are a lot of concerns/problems with having social anxiety disorder. As a group, individuals with anxiety disorders had the largest burden of role disability compared to other common mental health conditions, exceeding the burden for mood disorders and in some cases, substance abuse (Grigorenko).
In “Understanding the Anxious Mind” we are introduced to Jerome Kagan, a Yale Ph.D. graduate and psychology professor at Harvard University. In 1979 he conducts his first longitudinal study at the school to challenge the idea that children are more than just “difficult” or “easy” based on temperament, and recorded the findings and analyzations of over 400 preschoolers exposed to new stimuli and their reactions. Over the years 107 returned to be reexamined in which he found that very few showed signs of change over a period of 5 years and therefore, not much could be determined due to nature vs. nurture being a factor. Kagan conducted a second longitudinal study on temperament and its effects over time in which his test subjects this time were
Levine, L. E., & Munsch, J. (2011). Temperament. In L. E. Levine, & J. Munsch, Child Development: An active Approach (pp. 342-343). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publishers.
The debate of nature vs. nurture continues today in the world of psychology. The effects of an individual’s genetics and the effects of their environment on their personality and actions is an age old debate that is still inconclusive. However, it is evident that both sides of the argument carry some form of the truth. It can be contended that the major characteristics of an individual are formed by their environment, more specifically, their past experiences. An individual’s past moulds and shapes their identity, if they do not make an effort to move on from it.
Social phobia is “shyness taken to an extreme” (Myers 323). The origins of social phobia can be linked to “traumatic social experiences and social isolation” (Hudson118-120). A traumatic social experience can be “being laughed at or making a mistake in situations such as being called on to talk in class, being on a first date, speaking in public or being at a party”(Hudson 118). Social isolation includes “being teased, bullied, laughed at, rejected, neglected, or isolated from other children. Research from Allison G. Harvey shows that certain events around the time social fears being are when people are changing schools or work at 50.9%, not fitting in with or being ostracized by a p...
Social phobias are fears of being in situations where your activities can be watched and judged by others. People with social phobias try to avoid social functions at all costs and find excuses not to go to parties or out on dates. This avoidance is the difference between having a social phobia and simply just being shy.
Psychodynamic and behavioural approaches are the two major approaches to personality, however, they view personality from different perspectives. Psychodynamic approach makes the argument that personality is caused by forces in the unconscious that are not learned. The individual has little control over their behaviour as it is predetermined, and early childhood plays a crucial part in shaping a person’s personality. Behavioural approach, on the other hand, recognises personality as learned and focuses only on present behavioural matters. Because of
... have come to the conclusion that genetics is very important for the development of personality but even they have to determine how these genes are investigated for the purpose of determining a particular personality. “What scientists have found is that there does not appear to be a single gene for a particular trait, but that genes show their effects by working together in complex combinations. For example, there is no single gene for dancing or music. Whether a child will be musically inclined will be determined by the way that child's genes interact with one another. Some parents would like to believe that by creating an environment rich in music while the child is young will develop the child's talent towards music. However, despite assumptions like this, there is no evidence that shows long term effects of growing up in a particular environment” (Pinker, 2003).
Oliver, K. (n.d.). Family Life Month Packet 2002. Understanding Your Child's Temperament. Retrieved April 2, 2014, from http://ohioline.osu.edu/flm02/FS05.html
Personality involves a blend of characteristics that make one unique. In reviewing personality, we consider the influence of the interactions that one is engaged in, the nature or the environment of one's upbringing and genetics. The characteristic traits may change over time while some of them becoming a lasting part of a person’s personality. In this essay will analyze the theories that relate to the character and the various stages that children undergo during development. We will use the same theories and developmental stages in analysis my progress from childhood up to date.
The notion that people are “born bad” and will eventually develop from misbehaved children into criminal adults, is one popular position with clear policy implications. It ignors the fact that people do change, often in quite significant ways. People are not on a fixed path from deviant child to criminal adult (Wright et al., 2008). There does however seem to be a link between childhood and adult behavior. Caspi, Harrington, Milne, Amell, Theodore, and Moffitt (2003), observed 1,000 3-year-old children and reexamined most of them 23 years later. They identified five temperament groups within the children. These temperament groupings were compared with adult personality traits identified in the 23 year later follow up. There were many colorations between childhood temperament groupings and adult personality traits. For example, children in the under-controlled temperament group showed the highest levels of Negative Emotionality as adults and children in the confident group became the most disinhibited adults. Several other temperament groups show similar correlations at a small to moderate effect level. It would appear that there are meaningful connections between childhood behavioral styles and adult personality ...
Temperament is a personality characteristic which comes from the parents. Child will possess good manners if the parents do have them. Every child has his own energy
Personality is the study of an individual’s unique and relatively stable patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving over time and across situations and it is what distinguishes one individual from another. In the past changes in personality were thought to have only occurred in the developmental stages of childhood and solidifies in adolescence. After the teenage years it was thought to be set like plaster or the change seen to be inconsequential or absent( Srivastava, John, Gosling, and Potter, 2003). However, recent studies have suggested that changes in personality traits continue to occur throughout an individual’s lifespan due to multiple reasons.
Furthermore I find it important to understand exactly what each temperament is. The first temperament that I will discuss is the Supine. Supines usually have many interests in things but the inability to express that desire of something. The supine often wishes that others could just “read their minds” so they will not have to verbally express things. A supine will reject others so that they themselves will not be rejected. They must first be included before they will accept the inclusion. The strengths of this temperament include being a gentle spirit, having a desire to serve others; they are highly dependable, intensely loyal and love pleasing other people. T...
A large part of human behavior is learned, and it is possible for the learned behavior to become unlearned. New behaviors can be learned throughout a person’s lifetime. This is what the behavioral model of personality is all about. Research for the Behavioral Model of Personality was mainly conducted on animals. This was because animals were easier to attain for research purposes than humans. The findings that came from animal research was later put to use with humans’ real life situations. The Behavioral Model of Personality helps determine how behavior is formed in the first place, how to correct bad behaviors, and how to integrate new behaviors in people that produce