Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can\'t Stop Talking pdfdrive com

Atlantic
article. “They’ll have all sorts of experiences that other kids won’t.
Chuck Yeager (the first pilot to break the sound barrier) could step down
from the belly of the bomber into the rocketship and push the button not
because he was born with that difference between him and me, but
because for the previous thirty years his temperament impelled him to
work his way up from climbing trees through increasing degrees of
danger and excitement.”
Conversely, high-reactive children may be more likely to develop into
artists and writers and scientists and thinkers because their aversion to
novelty causes them to spend time inside the familiar—and intellectually
fertile—environment of their own heads. “The university is filled with
introverts,” observes the psychologist Jerry Miller, director of the Center
for the Child and the Family at the University of Michigan. “The
stereotype of the university professor is accurate for so many people on
campus. They like to read; for them there’s nothing more exciting than
ideas. And some of this has to do with how they spent their time when
they were growing up. If you spend a lot of time charging around, then
you have less time for reading and learning. There’s only so much time
in your life.”
On the other hand, there is also a wide range of possible outcomes for
each temperament. Low-reactive, extroverted children, if raised by
attentive families in safe environments, can grow up to be energetic
achievers with big personalities—the Richard Bransons and Oprahs of
this world. But give those same children negligent caregivers or a bad
neighborhood, say some psychologists, and they can turn into bullies,
juvenile delinquents, or criminals. Lykken has controversially called
psychopaths and heroes “twigs on the same genetic branch.”
Consider the mechanism by which kids acquire their sense of right and
wrong. Many psychologists believe that children develop a conscience
when they do something inappropriate and are rebuked by their
caregivers. Disapproval makes them feel anxious, and since anxiety is

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unpleasant, they learn to steer clear of antisocial behavior. This is known
as internalizing their parents’ standards of conduct, and its core is
anxiety.
But what if some kids are less prone to anxiety than others, as is true
of extremely low-reactive kids? Often the best way to teach these
children values is to give them positive role models and to channel their
fearlessness into productive activities. A low-reactive child on an ice-
hockey team enjoys his peers’ esteem when he charges at his opponents
with a lowered shoulder, which is a “legal” move. But if he goes too far,
raises his elbow, and gives another guy a concussion, he lands in the
penalty box. Over time he learns to use his appetite for risk and
assertiveness wisely.
Now imagine this same child growing up in a dangerous neighborhood
with few organized sports or other constructive channels for his
boldness. You can see how he might fall into delinquency. It may be that
some disadvantaged kids who get into trouble suffer not solely from
poverty or neglect, say those who hold this view, but also from the
tragedy of a bold and exuberant temperament deprived of healthy
outlets.
The destinies of the most high-reactive kids are also influenced by the
world around them—perhaps even more so than for the average child,
according to a groundbreaking new theory dubbed “the orchid
hypothesis” by David Dobbs in a wonderful article in 
The Atlantic
. This
theory holds that many children are like dandelions, able to thrive in
just about any environment. But others, including the high-reactive types
that Kagan studied, are more like orchids: they wilt easily, but under the
right conditions can grow strong and magnificent.
According to Jay Belsky, a leading proponent of this view and a
psychology professor and child care expert at the University of London,
the reactivity of these kids’ nervous systems makes them quickly
overwhelmed by childhood adversity, but also able to benefit from a
nurturing environment more than other children do. In other words,
orchid children are more strongly affected by all experience, both

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positive and negative.
Scientists have known for a while that high-reactive temperaments
come with risk factors. These kids are especially vulnerable to challenges
like marital tension, a parent’s death, or abuse. They’re more likely than
their peers to react to these events with depression, anxiety, and shyness.
Indeed, about a quarter of Kagan’s high-reactive kids suffer from some
degree of the condition known as “social anxiety disorder,” a chronic
and disabling form of shyness.
What scientists 
haven’t
realized until recently is that these risk factors
have an upside. In other words, the sensitivities and the strengths are a
package deal. High-reactive kids who enjoy good parenting, child care,
and a stable home environment tend to have 
fewer
emotional problems
and more social skills than their lower-reactive peers, studies show.
Often they’re exceedingly empathic, caring, and cooperative. They work
well with others. They are kind, conscientious, and easily disturbed by
cruelty, injustice, and irresponsibility. They’re successful at the things
that matter to them. They don’t necessarily turn into class presidents or
stars of the school play, Belsky told me, though this can happen, too:
“For some it’s becoming the leader of their class. For others it takes the
form of doing well academically or being well-liked.”
The upsides of the high-reactive temperament have been documented
in exciting research that scientists are only now beginning to pull
together. One of the most interesting findings, also reported in Dobbs’s
Atlantic
article, comes from the world of rhesus monkeys, a species that
shares about 95 percent of its DNA with humans and has elaborate social
structures that resemble our own.
In these monkeys as well as in humans, a gene known as the
serotonin-transporter (SERT) gene, or 5-HTTLPR, helps to regulate the
processing of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that affects mood. A