{"product_id":"three-seductive-ideas-9780674890336","title":"Three Seductive Ideas","description":"\u003cp\u003eDo the first two years of life really determine a childs future development? Are human beings  like other primates  only motivated by pleasure? And do people actually have stable traits  like intelligence  fear  anxiety  and temperament? This book  the product of a lifetime of research by one of the founders of developmental psychology  takes on the powerful assumptions behind these questions--and proves them mistaken. Ranging with impressive ease from cultural history to philosophy to psychological research literature  Jerome Kagan weaves an argument that will rock the social sciences and the foundations of public policy. Scientists  as well as lay people  tend to think of abstract processes--like intelligence or fear--as measurable entities  of which someone might have more or less. This approach  in Kagans analysis  shows a blindness to the power of context and to the great variability within any individual subject to different emotions and circumstances. \"Infant determinism\" is another widespread and dearly held conviction that Kagan contests. This theory--with its claim that early relationships determine lifelong patterns--underestimates human resiliency and adaptiveness  both emotional and cognitive (and  of course  fails to account for the happy products of miserable childhoods and vice versa). The last of Kagans targets is the vastly overrated pleasure principle  which  he argues  can hardly make sense of unselfish behavior impelled by the desire for virtue and self-respect--the wish to do the right thing. Written in a lively style that uses fables and fairy tales  history and science to make philosophical points  this book challenges some of our most cherished notions about human nature.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45529673236533,"sku":"ByrdShop_0674890337","price":69.82,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780674890336.jpg?v=1780941308","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/three-seductive-ideas-9780674890336","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}