Exuberance: The Passion for Life (45 page)

39.
Among zebra finches and pumpkinseed sunfish: D. S. Wilson, K. Coleman, A. B. Clark, and L. Biederman, “Shy-Bold Continuum in Pumpkinseed Sunfish
(Lepomis gibbosus):
An Ecological Study of a Psychological Trait,”
Journal of Comparative Psychology
, 107: 250–60 (1993); G. Beauchamp, “Individual Differences in Activity and Exploration Influence Leadership in Pairs of Foraging Zebra Finches,”
Behaviour, 13
7: 301–14 (2000).

40.
Melvin Konner: Melvin Konner,
Why the Reckless Survive
(New York: Viking, 1990). See also Marvin Zuckerman,
Behavioral Expressions and Biosocial Bases of Sensation Seeking
(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

41.
“just plain boring”: letter from Joyce Poole to the author, September 27, 2000. All quotes in this paragraph come from Poole’s letter.

42.
study of brown bears: R. Fagen and J. M. Fagen, “Individual Distinctiveness in Brown Bears,
Ursus arctos
L.,”
Ethology
, 102: 212–26 (1996).

43.
“We find it interesting”: ibid., p. 222.

44.
a related personality trait: Bolig et al., “Subjective Assessment of Reactivity Level.”

45.
pleasant affect, and extraversion: P. T. Costa and R. R. McCrae, “Influence of Extraversion and Neuroticism on Subjective Well-Being: Happy and Unhappy People,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 38: 668–78 (1980); G. J. Meyer and J. R. Shack, “Structural Convergence of Mood and Personality: Evidence for Old and New Directions,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 57: 691–706 (1989); D. Watson and L. A. Clark, “On Traits and Temperament: General and Specific Factors of Emotional Experience and Their Relation to the Five Factor Model,”
Journal of Personality
, 60: 441–76 (1992); D. Watson and L. A. Clark, “Extraversion and Its Positive Emotional Core,” in
Handbook of Personality Psychology
, ed. R. Hogan, J. Johnson, and S. Briggs (San Diego: Academic Press, 1997), pp. 767–93; E. Diener and R. E. Lucas, “Personality and Subjective Well-being,” in
Well-being: The Foundations of Hedonic Psychology
, ed. D. Kahneman, E. Diener, and N. Schwarz (New York: Russell Sage, 1999), pp. 214–29; R. E. Lucas and F. Fujita, “Factors Influencing the Relation Between Extraversion and Pleasant Affect,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 79: 1039–56 (2000); W. Fleeson, A. B. Malanos, and N. M. Achille, “An Intraindividual Process Approach to the Relationship Between Extraversion and Positive Affect: Is Acting Extraverted as ‘Good’ as Being Extraverted?”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 83:1409–22 (2002).

46.
the correlation between the two traits: A correlation coefficient, which ranges between —1.00 and 1.00, provides an estimate of the relatedness of two variables. If they are completely and negatively related, the correlation coefficient will be —1.00; if there is no correlation at all it will be 0.00; and if they are perfectly correlated it will be 1.00. A correlation of 0.80 indicates that the degree of relatedness of extraversion and positive emotions is very high.

47.
tend to be happier: Costa and McCrae, “Influence of Extraversion”; R. A. Emmons and E. Diener, “Personality Correlates of Subjective Well-being,”
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
, ii: 89–97 (1985); B. Heady and A. Wearing, “Personality, Life Events, and Subjective Well-being: Towards a Dynamic Equilibrium Model,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 57: 731–39 (1989); W. Pavot, E. Diener, and F. Fujita, “Extraversion and Happiness,”
Personality and Individual Differences
, ii: 1299–1306 (1990); J. A. Averill and T. A. More, “Happiness,” in M. Lewis and J. M. Haviland-Jones,
Handbook of Emotions
(New York: Guilford, 2000), pp. 663–76; E. Diener and M. Seligman, “Very Happy People,”
Psychological Science
, 13: 81–84 (2002).

48.
greater intensity in such moods: E. Diener, R. J. Larsen, S. Levine, and R. A. Emmons, “Intensity and Frequency: Dimensions Underlying Positive and Negative Affect,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 48: 1253–65 (1985).

49.
“We are the ones who gallop”: Eugene Walter, as told to Katherine Clark,
Milking the Moon: A Southerner’s Story of Life on This Planet
(New York: Crown, 2001), pp. 3–4.

50.
An analysis of 24,000 twins: J. C. Loehlin,
Genes and Environment in Personality Development
(Newberry Park, Calif.: Sage, 1992); R. Plomin and A. Caspi, “Behavioral Genetics and Personality,” in
Handbook of Personality: Theory and Research
, ed. L. A. Pervin and O. P. John (New York: Guilford, 2000), pp. 251–76.

51.
Thomas Bouchard and his colleagues: T. Bouchard and M. McGue, “Genetic and Rearing Environmental Influences on Adult Personality: An Analysis of Adopted Twins Raised Apart,”
Journal of Personality
, 68: 263–82 (1990); T. J. Bouchard, “Genes, Environment, and Personality,”
Science
, 264: 1700–1701 (1994); T. J. Bouchard and Y.-M. Hur, “Genetic and Environmental Influences on the Continuous Scales of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator: An Analysis Based on Twins Raised Apart,”
Journal of Personality
, 66: 135–49 (1998).

52.
“Joy, good cheer”: A. Tellegen, D. T. Lykken, T. J. Bouchard, K. J. Wilcox, N. L. Segal, and S. Rich, “Personality Similarity in Twins Reared Apart and Together,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 54: 1031–39 (1988).

53.
Studies of young children: A. Matheny, “Developmental Behavior Genetics: The Louisville Study,” in
Developmental Behavior Genetics: Neural Biometrical and Evolutionary Approaches
, ed. M. E. Hahn, J. K. Hewitt, N. D. Henderson, and R. Benno (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 25–38; J. L. Robinson, J. Kagan, J. S. Reznick, and R. Corley, “The Heritability of Inhibited and Uninhibited Behavior,”
Developmental Psychology
, 28: 1030–37 (1992).

54.
All breeds of dog: John Paul Scott and John L. Fuller,
Genetics and the Social Behavior of the Dog
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965); T. W. Draper, “Canine Analogs of Human Personality Factors,”
Journal of General Psychology
, 122: 241–52 (1995); James Serpell,
The Domestic Dog: Its Evolution, Behaviour, and Interactions with People
(Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1995).

55.
Swedish researchers studied behavior: K. Svartberg and B. Forkman, “Personality Traits in the Domestic Dog
(Canis familiaris),” Applied Animal Behaviour Science
, 79: 133–55 (2002).

56.
nine-week-old wolf pups: K. MacDonald, “Stability of Individual Differences in Behavior in a Litter of Wolf Cubs
(Canis lupus),” Journal of Comparative Psychology
, 97: 99–106 (1983).

57.
little difference in playfulness: B. J. Hart, “Analyzing Breed and Gender Differences in Behaviour,” in Serpell,
The Domestic Dog
, pp. 65–77.

58.
boys are more likely: L. Barnett, “Characterizing Playfulness: Correlates with Individual Attributes and Personal Traits,”
Play and Culture
, 4: 371–93 (1991); Jerome Kagan,
Galen’s Prophecy: Temperament in Human Nature
(New York: Basic Books, 1994).

59.
men are more likely: For the proposition that men have higher rates of hyperthymic temperament, see G. Perugi, E. Simonini, L. Musetti, F. Piagentini, G. B. Cassano, and H. S. Akiskal, “Gender-Mediated Clinical Features of Depressive Illness: The Importance of Temperamental Differences,”
British Journal of Psychiatry
, 157: 835–41 (1990); G. B. Cassano, H. S. Akiskal, G. Perugi, L. Musetti, and M. Savino, “The Importance of Measures of Affective Temperaments in Genetic Studies of Mood Disorders,”
Journal of Psychiatric Research
, 26: 257–68 (1992). Temperaments with depressive features are more common in women, and those with hypomanic features more common in men: R. Depue, J. F. Slater, and H. Wolfstetter-Kausch, “A Behavioral Paradigm for Identifying Persons at Risk for Bipolar Depressive Disorder: A Conceptual Framework and Five Validating Studies,”
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
, 90:381–437 (1981); M. Eckblad and L. J. Chapman, “Development and Validation of a Scale of Hypomanic Personality,”
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
, 95: 214–22 (1986).

60.
In a landmark series: J. Kagan, J. S. Resnick, and N. Snidman, “Biological Basis of Childhood Shyness,”
Science
, 240: 167–71 (1988); J. Kagan, “Temperamental Contributions to Social Behavior,”
American Psychologist
, 44: 688–74 (1989); J. Kagan, J. S. Resnick, and N. Snidman, “The Temperamental Qualities of Inhibition and Lack of Inhibition,” in
Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology
, ed. M. Lewis and M. Miller (New York: Plenum, 1990), pp. 219–26; J. Kagan and N. Snidman, “Infant Predictors of Inhibited and Uninhibited Profiles,”
Psychological Science
, 2: 40–44 (1991); J. Kagan, N. Snidman, and D. M. Arcus, “Initial Reactions to Unfamiliarity,”
Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1
: 171–74 (1992).

61.
“difficult to name”: Kagan,
Galen’s Prophecy
, p. 266.

62.
Characterized by the researchers: N. A. Fox, H. A. Henderson, K. H. Rubin, S. D. Calkins, and L. A. Schmidt, “Continuity and Discontinuity of Behavioral Inhibition and Exuberance: Psychophysiological and Behavioral Influences Across the First Four Years of Life,”
Child Development
, 72: 1–21 (2001).

63.
“From an early age”: letter to the author from Ellen Winner, April 2002.

64.
Infants who gaze more: A review of fifteen samples of infants and young children found a significant association between early preference for novelty and later intelligence; see J. Fagan, “The Intelligent Infant,”
Intelligence
, 8: 1–9 (1984).

65.
Likewise in our primate cousins: S. L. Watson and J. P. Ward, “Temperament
and Problem Solving in the Small-Eared Bushbaby
(Otolemur garnetti),” Journal of Comparative Psychology
, 110: 377–85 (1996).

66.
Children who scored high on stimulation-seeking: A. Raine, C. Reynolds, P. H. Venables, and S. A. Mednick, “Stimulation Seeking and Intelligence: A Prospective Longitudinal Study,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 82: 663–74 (2002).

67.
curious, enthusiastic, and cheerful children: R. Bell and L. Harper,
Child Effects on Adults
(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1977); B. J. Breitmayer and H. N. Ricciuti, “The Effect of Neonatal Temperament on Caregiver Behavior in the Newborn Nursery,”
Infant Mental Health Journal
, 9: 158–72 (1988); S. Scarr, “Developmental Theories for the 1990s: Development and Individual Differences,”
Child Development
, 63: i-19 (1992).

68.
“Nature versus nurture”: Matt Ridley,
Nature via Nurture: Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human
(London: HarperCollins, 2003).

69.
Mice and rats, we know: R. Paylor, S. K. Morrison, J. W. Rudy, L. T. Waltrip, and J. M. Wehner, “Brief Exposure to an Enriched Environment Improves Performance on the Morris Water Task and Increases Hippocampal Cytosolic Protein Kinase C Activity in Young Rats,”
Behavior Brain Research
, 52: 49–59 (1992); A. Fernandez-Teruel, R. M. Escorihuela, B. Castellano, B. Gonzalez, and A. Tobeña, “Neonatal Handling and Environmental Enrichment Effects on Emotionality, Novelty/Reward Seeking, and Age-Related Cognitive and Hippocampal Impairments: Focus on the Roman Rat Lines,”
Behavior Genetics
, 27: 513–26 (1997); G. Kempermann, H. G. Kuhn, and F. H. Gage, “More Hippocampal Neurons in Adult Mice Living in an Enriched Environment,”
Nature
, 386: 493–95 (1997).

70.
Rhesus monkey infants: M. L. Schneider, C. F. Moore, S. J. Suomi, and M. Champoux, “Laboratory Assessment of Temperament and Environmental Enrichment in Rhesus Monkey Infants
(Macaca mulatta),” American Journal of Primatology
, 25: 137–55 (1991).

71.
Dopamine does manythings: R. A. Depue, M. Luciana, P. Arbisi, P. Collins, and A. Leon, “Dopamine and the Structure of Personality: Relation of Agonist-Induced Dopamine Activity to Positive Emotionality,”
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
, 67:485–98 (1994); R. A. Depue and P. F. Collins, “Neurobiology of the Structure of Personality: Dopamine, Facilitation of Incentive Motivation, and Extraversion,”
Behavioral and Brain Sciences
, 22: 491–569 (1999).

72.
Brain imaging studies conducted: A. J. Blood and R. J. Zatorre, “Intensely Pleasurable Responses to Music Correlate with Activity in Brain Regions Implicated in Reward and Emotion,”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
, 98: 11818–23 (2001).

73.
brain’s “pleasure center”: J. Olds and P. Milner, “Positive Reinforcement Produced by Electrical Stimulation of Septal Area and Other Regions of Rat Brain,”
Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology
, 47: 419–27 (1954).

74.
brain’s sensitivity to dopamine: Depue and Collins, “Neurobiology of the Structure of Personality.”

75.
a drug that increases dopamine transmission: S. Florin, C. Suaudeau, J. C. Meunier, and J. Cosentin, “Nociceptin Stimulates Locomotion and Exploratory Behaviour in Mice,”
European Journal of Pharmacology
, 12: 9–13 (1996). For an excellent review of the role of dopamine in behavior, see Depue and Collins, “Neurobiology of the Structure of Personality.”