Honor your self

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” – Dr. Seuss 

 

“Now I become myself.
It’s taken Time, many years and places. 

I have been dissolved and shaken,  
Worn other people’s faces…” 

– May Sarton, “Now I Become Myself”

Recently I’ve enjoyed reading about some research on temperament differences; in this month’s early January blog post hopefully you too might appreciate reading the following as you think on some of your tendencies.



Some research.
Author Susan Cain, in her book “Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking,” discusses the work of Jerome Kagan, a developmental psychologist and researcher with the Laboratory for Child Development at Harvard. At the beginning of his longitudinal study – launched in 1989 and still ongoing – Kagan and his team gathered 500 four-month old infants and predicted they’d be able to tell, on the strength of a 45-minute evaluation, which babies were more likely to turn into introverts or extroverts.

They exposed the babies to a carefully chosen set of new experiences and found wildly varying reactions to the new stimuli.

About 20% cried lustily and pumped their arms and legs (Kagan called this group “high-reactive”); about 40 percent stayed quiet and placid, moving their arms or legs occasionally (“low-reactive”); and the remaining 40% fell between these two extremes. Kagan’s prediction: the infants in the high-reactive group were most likely to grow into quieter teenagers, corresponding to introverted qualities such as more reflective or careful.

Follow up testing and interviews happened at ages 2, 4, 7, 11, and as teenagers. 
     **Some specifics on Kagan’s longitudinal experiment:
At 4 months, infants heard tape-recorded voices and balloons popping, saw colorful mobiles dance before their eyes, and inhaled the scent of alcohol on cotton swabs.
At 2 years, the children met a lady wearing a gas mask and a lab coat, a man dressed in a clown costume, and a radio-controlled robot.
At 7 years old, they were asked to play with kids they’d never met before.
At 11, an unfamiliar adult interviewed them about their personal lives.
Kagan’s team measured heart rates, blood pressures, finger temperatures and other nervous system indicators. They observed the children’s body language and recorded how often and spontaneously they laughed, talked, and smiled. They also interviewed the kids and their parents about what the children were like outside the laboratory.

Cain writes,
“Many of the children turned out exactly as Kagan had expected. The high-reactive infants, the 20% who’d hollered at the mobiles bobbing above their heads, were more likely to have developed serious, careful personalities. The low-reactive infants – the quiet ones – were more likely to have become relaxed and confident types. High and low reactivity tended to correspond, in other words, to introversion and extroversion.”


Intriguing physiology
Kagan’s predictions were based on observations of physiologies (heart rates, blood pressure, finger temperature: measurements believed to be controlled by the amygdala in our brain’s limbic system), and a hypothesis that infants born with an especially excitable amygdala would wiggle and howl with exposure to the unfamiliar and grow up to be children who were more likely to feel vigilant with meeting new people or situations. In contrast, the quiet infants were less rattled by novelty (and were more likely to exhibit extroverted tendencies).

The more reactive a child’s amygdala, the more jangled he’s likely to feel when confronting something new (the higher his heart rate, more widely dilated his pupils, the tighter his vocal cords, more stress hormone cortisol in his saliva). The sensitivity of the high-reactive’s nervous system seems to be linked not only to noticing scary things, but to noticing in general: they literally use more eye movements than others to compare choices before making a decision (possibly processing the input more, considering all the alternatives).


Our physiologies are different.

-          In another experiment from 1967, Hans Eysenck placed lemon juice on the tongues of adults; the introverts, being more aroused by sensory stimuli, were the ones who salivated more. [“The biological basis of personality” Springfield, IL: Thomas Publishing]

-          Yet another study looked at noise levels during a challenging word game, with the study participants adjusting the volume of the headsets emitting random bursts of noise. On average, the extroverts chose a noise level of 72 decibels, while the introverts selected only 55 decibels. At this level chosen by each – louder for the extroverts, quieter for the introverts – the two types were about equally aroused (as measured by heart rates and other physiological markers) and played equally well.

An invitation.
Our differing physiologies affect our way of being in this world: our preferences, our approaches. But it’s not the whole picture. Though studies indicate that personality traits like introversion and extroversion are about around 40-50% heritable, there’s still much room for environmental influence and intentional choice.

In 2013 we can embrace our genetic neuro-chemical ‘nature’ and enjoy that; additionally we can explore ways of being that are other than our inborn temperaments and ‘nurture’ those.

In this new year, which to me invites new beginnings, we GET to step into ways of living that enlarge us rather than diminish us. And so may you be enlarged -- honor your self: both your innate tendencies, and your ability to experiment and expand into ways of being that are not as familiar. May you enjoy this journey of observing and listening to your life. 

"Listen to your life. See if for the fathomless mystery that it is.  In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness:  Touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it, because in the last analysis all movements are key moments, and life itself is grace."   - Frederick Buechner

“If, as I believe, we are all made in God’s image, we could all give the same answer when asked who we are: “I AM who I Am.” One dwells with God by being faithful to ones’ nature. One crosses God by trying to be something one is not. Reality – including one’s own – is divine, to be not defied but honored.” – Parker Palmer, “Let Your Life Speak”

I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking! Body and soul, I am marvelously made!  - Psalm 139:14, The Message paraphrase