Looking at Our Emotions

Human beings are nothing if not emotional animals. Jerome Kagan, one of the country's most prominent psychologists, has spent a lifetime untangling the complexities of our brains.

Now he's out with a fascinating new book looking at our emotions: What's hard wired and what's not; how gender, age, religion, nationality and class all affect our interactions with each other; how we respond to risk, how we live our lives. It's a deep, illuminating picture of what goes on inside our heads.

This hour, On Point: Jerome Kagan and what our feelings are made of.
-Bob Oakes

Guest:

Jerome Kagan, professor emeritus of psychology at Harvard University, where he served as director of the Mind/Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative. His new book is "What is Emotion?".