The comprehensive research conducted by Jerome Kagan was very interesting but extremely complex regarding the temperamental concepts that contributed to the development of social behavior. I was surprised to learn that based on Freud’s psychoanalysis minds were turned “away from a temperamental category of person who was especially vulnerable to acquiring a symptom to a category of environment that produced systems. The adjective fearful became a continuous dimension on which any person could be placed” (p. 377).
Moreover, I strongly disagreed with the Thomas-Chess temperamental dimensions that were obtained from questionnaires by parents or other adults, as it related to their child. The information obtained could bias the study or research.
However, I strongly agree with the descriptive perspective of observation to define temperament. In addition, I strongly agreed with how Kagan viewed the two profiles of inhibited and uninhibited temperaments: “Qualitative, defined by behavioral observations, influenced by genetic Factors and leading to distinctly different psychological outcomes with growth” (p. 379).
On the other hand, infant reactivity was complex and unclear relative to inhibited and uninhibited temperaments of infants. Are high reactive infants inhibited? Are low reactive infants uninhibited? What about the remaining infants in the research who had high motor arousal with low irritability or low motor arousal with high irritability? In addition, I strongly agreed with Kagan’s concept that inhibited and uninhibited behaviors are heritable. The study by Matheny regarding identical and fraternal twins as it related to inhibited and uninhibited behavior was very informative and clear.
The Essay on Infant Observation
On Wednesday, July 19th, I had a chance to observe carefully an infant for about half an hour in my psychology class at Santa Monica College. The infant, Ali Osman is a healthy, playfull boy, appeared to be of Middle Eastern origin. He is 15.5 months old, 32" tall and weighs about 24 lbs with brown curly hair, dark brown eyes and fairly tanned skin. 1. There were several kinds of toys like blocks, ...
In summary, I strongly agreed that inhibited and uninhibited temperaments play out differently over the life span based on environmental factors. My concept of temperamental contributions to the development of social behavior is linked to the old controversy of nurture vs. nature.
