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  3. General Psychology: the Study of Behavior Introduction General psychology is concerned with the study of human behavior. How

General Psychology: the Study of Behavior Introduction General psychology is concerned with the study of human behavior. How

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问题                 General Psychology: the Study of Behavior
Introduction
    General psychology is concerned with the study of human behavior. How man acts in public and in private, how he responds in certain situations, and even how he feels may be considered behavior. Part of man’ s behavior comes from heredity, and is therefore common to all men: when faced with what considered to be a fearful situation, all men will tremble. Most of our behavior, however, is learned. If two people are shown the snake, for example, their reactions might be very different. One person might curiously watch the snake twist and turn. The other person might run away as quickly as possible. The distinction between the types of behavior, hereditary and learned, is not always clear, for the effect of environment begins immediately after birth. One can also speak of a mixture of learned and learned, is not al ways clear, for the effect of environment begins immediately after birth. One can also speak of a mixture of learned and hereditary behavior. In fact none of our behavior is completely free of society’ s influence.
    Most animals are born with the capacity to live independently in the world soon after birth. Fish are born able to swim, and, within moments of birth, are behaving as miniature adult fish. Chicks start pecking at the ground for food shortly after leaving the egg. Although its legs are shaky at first, a pony can stand and walk soon after birth. While a kitten is born blind and helpless, within a month it fearlessly at tacks everything in its path. In comparison with other animals, man is born helpless and remains that way for an extended period of time. A human child must be protected from cold, cared about, and cannot even suckle without his mother’ s help. One could hardly imagine a child of three totally independent, having to feed and care for himself. Yet, after living three years most other animals are mature. Why is man’s maturation so much slower than that of most other animals?
Limitations of Animal Behavior
    The behavior of animals is largely what we call "automatic" or "instinctive". Given certain environ mental conditions a female bird will start building a nest. Other female birds of the same species will carry out the identical activity at the same time. This behavior happens when there is a proper stimulus, that is, something in the environment automatically stimulates the bird to act in a certain way. A great deal of a bird’ s life is controlled by patterns of behavior which are built into its biological system much as information is programmed into a computer. If the stimulus the present, the behavior will automatically follow. For example, a female bird knows she must sit on her eggs until they hatch. If china eggs are substituted for her own eggs, she will continue to sit on them, waiting for the artifical eggs to hatch. She cannot be have in any other way.
Adaptability of Man
    Instinct allows little freedom of behavior. A bird cannot "decide" to build an innovative nest, but must build according to the fixed plan. The fixed plan is suitable for the environment in which the animal lives, but does not permit the animal to choose a new environment nor to change its environment. Man, however, is found in a wide variety of environments ranging from the very hot to the very cold, from the very humid to the extremely dry. He is found where caves provide natural shelter, where wood can be used to build houses, and where he must shape and bake the earth into bricks before he can use it to build a shelter. This is possible because most of man’ s behavior is not based on instinct and is therefore more adaptable. Instead of having the solutions to life’ s problems programmed into his biological system, man has the intelligence to solve these problems and the motivation to seek the solutions. While other animals have strength or swiftness, man has his mind. This intelligence allows man to adapt himself to his environment and even to change it.
Drives
    Motivation to satisfy man’ s needs is provided by "drives". These drives do not determine behavior, but rather direct man’ s energy towards certain goals. For example, man’ s body requires food, this is a biological need. When this need comes up, man feels uncomfortable and his thoughts turn to getting food or satisfying that need. If this hunger is severe, it will be difficult for him to concentrate on anything but his need for food.
    While all men feel hunger, there is more than one method for relieving this uncomfortable feeling. How needs are satisfied depends upon solutions we have been taught by others or learned from our own experiences. As we grow and mature, we learn what foods our society considers acceptable,’ and how they should be prepared and eaten, In some societies, for example, pork is considered a special food and is eaten on festive occasions, while in other societies it is strictly forbidden. In some societies fish is always cooked, but in other societies raw fish is preferred. The way in which we satisfy a drive is, therefore, a learned response. Nature has not built an automatic food-getting response into man. He can not just eat whatever he wants or whenever food is available; his satisfaction of the hunger drive, for example, is restricted by society’ s rules. Although we are hungry, according to society’ s rules, we should not steal food, even if it belongs to someone weaker than we are.
Drive Control
    Some people are better able to control their responses to needs than others, While engaged in a very interesting task, one person might find it necessary to look for food as soon as he felt hungry. Another person might delay eating for hours if he were busy. In other words, some people require immediate satisfaction, even if they must give up a greater, long-term satisfaction for short-term pleasure. Other people resist quick pleasures for the greater, long-term satisfaction. Our early experiences determine to a great extent whether we view the environment as trust-worthy or not. If we have felt secure as children, and feel our efforts have been rewarded, we will be able to delay satisfaction, knowing that it will eventually come. Whenever we turn down food which is offered, saying "No, thank you. I’ll -cat later", we are acting on the assumption that food will be available later. We are showing trust in the environment. If, however, the environment has appeared to be unstable and non-rewarding, we will try to get satisfaction whenever and wherever we can. By experience we learn what we can expect from the environment and in this way we are able to adjust our behavior accordingly. Man is able to do this to a degree not found among other animals.
Most animals aren’ t born with the capacity to live independently in the world soon after birth.
选项 A、Y
B、N
C、NG
答案B
解析 本题的关键词是Most animals和capacity及live independently，由此定位到文章第二段。第二段首句即告诉我们， Most animals are born with the capacity to live independently in the world soon after birth．”可见题目意思相反，所以断定为N。
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