Quiet by Susan Cane Part I

Your Biology, Your Self?

Nature, Nurture, and Orchid Hypothesis

“Some people are more certain of everything than I am of anything.”- Robert Rubin, In an Uncertain World

In chapters four, five, six, and seven, Cane reveals that introversion and extroversion may be an inborn biological thing.  She reviews a study done by Jerome Kagan at Harvard, and the Orchid Hypothesis by David Dobbs.

Jerome Kagan is an eighty-two year old developmental psychological researcher at Harvard.  One of his many studies have been to see and follow a set of five hundred children at various ages, beginning at four months, and seeing if he can put them through a series of test and determine if they will grow up to be introverts or extroverts.  In these tests they determined the babies that reacted more to the tests, such as balloon popping and tape recorded voices, were going to be introverts.  At the beginning of reading this part I thought it was far fetched and interesting, but did not expect it to be a fruitful experiment.  Little did I know, the scientific findings of this experiment explained why these could determine this dominant trait in babies.  The amygdala of the brain in introverts is more active.  This means shocks such as balloon popping and strange un-tethered voices would be more significant to these babies for real biological reasons- their brains literally react more.  These babies made up twenty percent of the five hundred babies.  The other eighty percent were either not reactive at all,known as low reactive, or simply slightly startled and did not pay any more mind to the sound or new experience.  This means one hundred of these babies were introverts and the other four hundred were hypothesized as extroverts.  This is a pretty large difference in number, and if it is a true measurement of every five hundred only one hundred are introverts- this is a strange image of population scaling.

The Orchid Hypothesis by David Dodds:

“Most of us have genes that make us as hardy as dandelions: able to take root and survive almost anywhere. A few of us, however, are more like the orchid: fragile and fickle, but capable of blooming spectacularly if given greenhouse care. So holds a provocative new theory of genetics, which asserts that the very genes that give us the most trouble as a species, causing behaviors that are self-destructive and antisocial, also underlie humankind’s phenomenal adaptability and evolutionary success. With a bad environment and poor parenting, orchid children can end up depressed, drug-addicted, or in jail—but with the right environment and good parenting, they can grow up to be society’s most creative, successful, and happy people.” – David Dobbs

So, in essence, this supports the information previously aquired through the texts of the book.  The books writing style is very factual so this was the first account using imagery or similarity charting to explain the topic better- but this was David Dodds talking and not Susan Cane.  The point of this following Kagan’s experiment is that the intro or extro-version of people are inborn.  They are predetermined, and can be as dominant or recessive as brown and blue eyes in a family.

This part in the book was a strong limb to the argument that introversion and extroversion is a trait pattern ultimately predetermined in humans.

One last quote for the road:

A shy man no doubt dreads the notice of strangers, but can hardly be said to be afraid of them. He may be as bold as a hero in battle, and yet have no self-confidence about trifles in the presence of strangers.”–Charles Darwin

Author: Marley Roberson

When days leave you they roll off in a way hard to catch, hard not to let them drawl away. I find myself wondering if i have ever lived without that static in the background of my mind where memory lapse has no time scale or visual screen. So, to combat the delusion that my memory has no eyes, i write. I write more or less to prove to myself that my mind can speak, my memory can video tape, and my hands have more purpose than just picking things up that I never hold too long.