News and Information
From Our News and Information blog
We at Hoover and Associates are happy to share information with you about tips for coping, psychology news, and our services. We hope you find this interesting and helpful.
Understanding the Anxious Mind
Jerome Kagan’s “Aha!” moment came with Baby 19. It was 1989, and Kagan, a professor of psychology at Harvard, had just begun a major longitudinal study of temperament and its effects. 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.
No high-reactors among the first 18. They gazed calmly at things that were unfamiliar. But the 19th baby was different. She was distressed by novelty — new sounds, new voices, new toys, new smells — and showed it by flailing her legs, arching her back and crying. Here was what Kagan was looking for but was not sure he would find: a baby who essentially fell apart when exposed to anything new.
At Hoover and Associates we provide a full spectrum of mental health services, including therapy, counseling,psychological testing and consultation. We are a diverse group private practice, with over ten dedicated, highly qualified clinicians. Those coming our way are likely to find a therapist with a wealth of experience and expertise. If you need the services of other helping professionals, we will also assist you in making those connections.
Hoover and Associates is located in Tinley Park, IL — in the southwest suburbs of Chicago, near Orland Park, Oak Forest, Orland Hills, Palos Heights, Mokena, and Frankfort. If you have any questions, of if you’d like to make an appointment, feel free to call us at 708-429-6999.