Brain Rules for Baby (John Medina) / quote 63 of 91
Temperament versus personality
Parents have known for centuries that babies come to this world with an inborn temperament. Scientist Jerome Kagan, who studied Baby 19, was the first to prove it. Human temperament is a complex, multidimensional concept—a child’s characteristic way of responding emotionally and behaviorally to external events. These responses are fairly fixed and innate; you can observe them in your baby soon after he or she is born. Parents often confuse temperament with personality, but from a research perspective they aren’t the same thing. Experimental psychologists often describe personality in much more mutable terms, as behavior shaped primarily by parental and cultural factors. Personality is influenced by temperament the same way a house is influenced by its foundation. Many researchers think temperament provides the emotional and behavioral building blocks upon which personalities are constructed.