Research Catalog

Title

Galen's prophecy : temperament in human nature / by Jerome Kagan with the collaboration of Nancy Snidman, Doreen Arcus, J. Steven Reznick.

Author

Kagan, Jerome.

Publication

New York : Basic Books, 1994.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xxiv, 376 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

• . Galen's Prophecy suggests that each of us inherits a physiology that can affect our moods, leaving some adults dour and tense and others content and relaxed. Integrating evidence and ideas from biology, philosophy, and psychology, Jerome Kagan examines the implications of the idea of temperament for aggressive behavior, conscience, psychopathology, and the degree to which each of us can be expected to control our deepest emotions.
• A larger group, about 40 percent of infants, are born with a different physiology that leads them to be more difficult to arouse, but when excited they babble and smile rather than cry. Most of these low-reactive infants become sociable, spontaneous, relatively fearless children.
• Nearly two thousand years ago a physician called Galen of Pergamon suggested that much of the variation in human behavior could be explained by an individual's temperament. Since that time, ideas about inborn dispositions have fallen in and out of favor. Based on fifteen years of research, Galen's Prophecy now provides fresh insights into these complex questions, offering startling new evidence to support Galen's ancient classification of melancholic and sanguine adults.
• Two of the most obvious personality traits in children, as well as adults, are a cautious compared with a spontaneous approach to new people and situations. About 20 percent of healthy infants born to loving families come into the world with a physiology that renders them easily aroused by new experiences and, when aroused, to become distressed. A majority of these high-reactive infants become fearful, cautious children.

Subject

• Children and the environment
• Emotions > Child
• Environment
• Inhibition (Psychology) > Child
• Inhibition in children > Physiological aspects
• Inhibition in children
• Mood Disorders > Child
• Nature and nurture
• Personality > Child
• Temperament > Child
• Temperament in children > Physiological aspects
• Temperament in children

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

• 1. The Idea of Temperament: The Past. The Ancient View in the West. Premodern Conceptions. The Primacy of Experience. Temperament and Politics. Freud's Influence. The Return of Ideas of Temperament. The Contribution of Psychology. Thomas and Chess. The Rise of Neuroscience. An Initial Definition -- 2. What Is Temperament? The Referents for Temperament. Views of Temperament. Temperament in Infants. What Is a Temperamental Category? The Biological Origins of Temperament. The Measurement of Temperament. Continua versus Categories. Perspectives in Describing People. A Caveat -- 3. The Family of Fears. The Meanings of Fear States. Freud's Influence. The Neuroscientist's Conception. Origins of Fear States. One Fear State or Many? Reactions to the Unfamiliar. Individual Variation. Anxiety -- 4. The Beginnings. The First Clues. History of a Word. Strategies of Inquiry. The Advantages of Analysis. The First Study. Preservation of Temperament. The Adolescent Profile. Other Qualities of Inhibited Children.
• 5. The Physiology of Inhibited and Uninhibited Children. Sympathetic Activity. Other Physiological Features. Aggregation of Physiological Measures. Cerebral Asymmetry. Two Case Histories. Other Features of the Two Temperamental Types. Heritability -- 6. Early Predictors of the Two Types. The Infant Assessments. Fear in the Second Year. The Stability and Predictability of Fear. Two Types of Fears. Prediction to Three and One-half Years: Cohort 1. Case Illustrations. Sex Differences. Effects of Birth Order. Affect at Four Months. Later Affect Display: Cohort 2. The Role of the Home -- 7. Infant Reactivity and Sympathetic Physiology. Heart Rate Measures: Cohort 1. Heart Rate Measures: Cohort 2. Asymmetry of Facial Temperature. A Synthesis -- 8. Implications. Temperament and Conscience. Temperament and Psychopathology. Personality and Temperament. Ethnicity and Temperament -- 9. Reflections. What Names Should We Use? What Changes with Development? Categories and Continua Revisited.
• Are There Other Temperamental Categories? Internal Tone. How Much Control Do We Have?

ISBN

0465084052

LCCN

93042664

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries