Exuberance: The Passion for Life

by Kay Redfield Jamison

  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. Characteri
zed 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.”

  76. A mouse born without the genes: J. B. Eells, “The Control of Dopamine Neuron Development, Function and Survival: Insights from Transgenic Mice and the Relevance to Human Disease,” Current Medicinal Chemistry, 10: 857–70 (2003); R. E. Nally, F. N. McNamara, J. J. Clifford, A. Kinsella, O. Tighe, D. T. Croke, A. A. Fienberg, P. Greengard, and J. L. Waddington, “Topographical Assessment of Ethological and Dopamine Receptor Agonist-Induced Behavioral Phenotype in Mutants with Congenic DARPP-32 ‘Knockout,’ ” Neuropsychopharmacology, 28: 2055–63 (2003).

  77. extraverts are exquisitely sensitive: Larsen and Ketelaar, “Extraversion, Neuroticism and Susceptibility”; Clark, Watson, and Mineka, “Temperament, Personality”; Lucas et al., “Cross-Cultural Evidence.”

  78. thirty-nine countries: Lucas et al., “Cross-Cultural Evidence.”

  79. most pathological manifestation: R. A. Depue and W. G. Iacono, “Neurobehavioral Aspects of Affective Disorders,” Annual Review of Psychology, 40: 457–92 (1989); 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).

  80. Amphetamines promote the release of dopamine: D. Jacobs and T. Silverstone, “Dextroamphetamine-Induced Arousal in Human Subjects as a Model for Mania,” Psychological Medicine, 16: 323–29 (1986).

  81. dopamine precursor L-dopa: F. K. Goodwin, D. L. Murphy, H. K. Brodie, and W. E. Bunney, “L-dopa, Catecholamines, and Behavior: A Clinical and Biochemical Study in Depressed Patients,” Biological Psychiatry, 2: 341–66 (1970); D. L. Murphy, H. K. Brodie, F. K. Goodwin, and W. E. Bunney, “Regular Induction of Hypomania by L-dopa in ‘Bipolar’ Manic-Depressive Patients,” Nature, 229: 135–56 (1971); H. M. Van Praag and J. Korf, “Endogenous Depression With and Without Disturbances in 5-hydroxytryptamine Metabolism: A Biochemical Classification?” Psychopharmacologia, 19: 148–52 (1971).

  82. an antidepressant effect: R. H. Gerner, R. M. Post, and W. E. Bunney, “A Dopaminergic Mechanism in Mania,” American Journal of Psychiatry, 133: 1177–80 (1976); T. Silverstone, “Response to Bromocriptine Distinguishes Bipolar from Unipolar Depression,” Lancet, 1: 903–4 (1984).

  83. therapeutic effect against mania: Summarized in F. K. Goodwin and K. R. Jamison, Manic-Depressive Illness (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990), pp. 419–21, 578–79, 622–23.

  84. Greater activation in the left frontal area: Paradiso et al., “Cerebral Blood Flow Changes”; D. H. Zald, D. L. Mattson, and J. V. Pardo, “Brain Activity in Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex Correlates with Individual Differences in Negative Affect,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99: 2450–54 (2002).

  85. activate the left amygdala: Hammann et al., “Ecstasy and Agony.” In nonhuman studies, the amygdala has been implicated in conditioning and addiction to reward stimuli; see M. Gallagher and P. C. Holland, “Understanding the Function of the Central Nucleus: Is Simple Conditioning Enough?” in The Amygdala: Neurobiological Aspects of Emotion, Memory, and Mental Dysfunction, ed. J. P. Aggleton (New York: Wiley-Liss, 1992), pp. 307–21 B. J. Everitt, J. A. Parkinson, M. C. Olmstead, M. Aroyo, P. Robledo, and T. W. Robbins, “Associative Processes in Addiction and Reward: The Role of Amygdala-Ventral Striatal Subsystems,” in J. F. McGinty, ed., Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences: Advancing from the Ventral Striatum to the Extended Amygdala, vol. 877: 412–38 (1999).

  Amygdalar activation in response to viewing happy faces is significantly correlated with levels of extraversion. The activation was located within the left hemisphere, the one associated with positive emotions and approach behavior: T. Canli, H. Sivers, S. L. Whitfield, I. H. Gotlib, and J. D. E. Gabrieli, “Amygdala Response to Happy Faces as a Function of Extraversion,” Science, 296: 2191 (2002).

  86. damage in the left frontal areas: Goodwin and Jamison, Manic-Depressive Illness, pp. 503–40.

  87. right frontal region: ibid.

  88. reduction in gray-matter volume: W. C. Drevets, J. L. Price
, J. R. Simpson, R. D. Todd, T. Reich, M. Vannier, and M. E. Raichle, “Subgenual Prefrontal Cortex Abnormalities in Mood Disorders,” Nature, 386: 824–27 (1997); V. Sharma, R. Menon, T. J. Carr, M. Densmore, D. Mazmanian, and P. C. Williamson, “An MRI Study of Subgenual Prefrontal Cortex in Patients with Familial and Non-familial Bipolar I Disorder,” Journal of Affective Disorders, 77: 167–71 (2003).

  89. Carl Schwartz, Jerome Kagan, and their colleagues: C. E. Schwartz, C. J. Wright, L. M. Shin, J. Kagan, and S. L. Rauch, “Inhibited and Uninhibited Infants ‘Grown Up’: Adult Amygdalar Response to Novelty,” Science, 300: 1952–53 (2003).

  90. the amygdala is primarily responsive: letter from Jerome Kagan to the author, October 17, 2003.

  91. “A merry heart”: Proverbs 17: 22.

  92. “purgeth the blood”: Robert Burton quoting Vives in The Anatomy of Melancholy, ed. Holbrook Jackson (New York: New York Review Books, 2001), pt. 2, p. 119; first published in 1621.

  93. induced a high-arousal: B. L. Fredrickson and R. W. Levenson, “Positive Emotions Speed Recovery from the Cardiovascular Sequelae of Negative Emotions,” Cognition and Emotion, 12: 191–220 (1998).

  94. positive attitudes such as optimism: S. E. Taylor and J. D. Brown, “Positive Illusions and Well-being Revisited: Separating Fact from Fiction,” Psychological Bulletin, 116: 21–27 (1994); S. E. Taylor, R. L. Repetti, and T. L. Seeman, “Health Psychology: And How Does It Get Under the Skin?” Annual Review of Psychology, 48: 411–47 (1997); S. E. Taylor, M. E. Kemeny, G. M. Reed, J. E. Bower, and T. L. Gruenewald, “Psychological Resources, Positive Illusions, and Health,” American Psychologist, 55: 99–109 (2000).

  See also: Lionel Tiger, Optimism: Biology of Hope (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979); Richard S. Lazarus, Emotion and Adaptation (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991); G. Affleck and H. Tennen, “Construing Benefits from Adversity: Adaptational Significance and Dispositional Underpinnings,” Journal of Personality, 64: 899–922 (1996); P. Salovey, A. J. Rothman, J. B. Detweiler, and W. T. Steward, “Emotional States and Physical Health,” American Psychologist, 55: 110–21 (2000); B. L. Fredrickson and T. Joiner, “Positive Emotions Trigger Upward Spirals Toward Emotional Well-being,” Psychological Science, 13: 172–75 (2002).