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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.
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.
- 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.
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Previews available in: English
Subjects
Physiological aspects, Temperament in children, Inhibition in children, Children and the environment, Physiological aspects of Inhibition in children, Physiological aspects of Temperament in children, Nature and nurture, Prophecy, Temperament, Children, Infants, Inhibition, Social ecology, Physiology, Child, Infant, Psychological Inhibition, Social Environment, Tempérament chez l'enfant, Inhibition chez l'enfant, Aspect physiologique, Enfants et environnement, Hérédité et milieu, Tempérament, Enfants, Nourrissons, Écologie sociale, Children (people by age group), Human ecology, Kind, Kinderen, Personality, Emotions, Mood Disorders, EnvironmentShowing 5 featured editions. View all 5 editions?
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Galen's Prophecy: Temperament in Human Nature
September 1, 1997, Westview Press
Paperback
in English
0813333555 9780813333557
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2
Galen's Prophecy: Temperament in Human Nature
June 1995, Basic Books
Paperback
in English
0465026125 9780465026128
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5
Galen's prophecy: temperament in human nature
1994, Westview Press
in English
0813333555 9780813333557
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Book Details
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"Every age has a preferred explanation of the obvious differences among people that are always a focus of curiosity and a topic for gossip."
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First Sentence
"Every age has a preferred explanation of the obvious differences among people that are always a focus of curiosity and a topic for gossip."
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- Created April 29, 2008
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August 6, 2010 | Edited by IdentifierBot | added LibraryThing ID |
April 24, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Fixed duplicate goodreads IDs. |
April 16, 2010 | Edited by bgimpertBot | Added goodreads ID. |
April 14, 2010 | Edited by Open Library Bot | Linked existing covers to the edition. |
April 29, 2008 | Created by an anonymous user | Imported from amazon.com record |