Understanding the Anxious Mind

The NY Times reports on a 20-year study done by research professor, Jerome Kagan, on the development of temperament from childbirth to adulthood.

Temperament is a complex, multilayered thing, and for the sake of clarity, Kagan was tracking it along a single dimension: whether babies were easily upset when exposed to new things. He chose this characteristic both because it could be measured and because it seemed to explain much of normal human variation. He suspected, extrapolating from a study he had just completed on toddlers, that the most edgy infants were more likely to grow up to be inhibited, shy and anxious. Eager to take a peek at the early results, he grabbed the videotapes of the first babies in the study, looking for the irritable behavior he would later call high-reactive.

As a logical and seemingly simple conclusion, it becomes more interesting as Kagan interviewed children at different stages of adolescence and adulthood to see how nuances of their anxiety manifested itself and in what manner it affected them. One baby, Baby 19, in particular, had shown signs of anxiety at birth and continued to question her every decision.

Her voice trails off. She wants to make a difference, she says, and worries about whether she will. “I can’t stop thinking about that.”

I can definitely relate to this near-debilitating anxiety when I try to complete important tasks.