首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Anthropologists, psychologists and others have begun seeking the roots of ambition in family, culture, gender, genes and more. T
Anthropologists, psychologists and others have begun seeking the roots of ambition in family, culture, gender, genes and more. T
admin
2013-11-29
67
问题
Anthropologists, psychologists and others have begun seeking the roots of ambition in family, culture, gender, genes and more. They have by no means thrown the curtain all the way back, but they have begun to part it.
If humans are an ambitious species, it’s clear we’re not the only one. Many animals are known to signal their ambitious tendencies almost from birth. Even before wolf pups are weaned, they begin sorting themselves out into alphas and all the others. The alphas are quicker, more curious, greedier for space, milk, Mom--and they stay that way for life. Alpha wolves wander widely, breed annually and may live to a geriatric 10 or 11 years old. Lower-ranking wolves enjoy none of these benefits--staying close to home, breeding rarely and usually dying before they’re four.
Humans often report the same kind of temperamental determinism. Families are full of stories of the inexhaustible infant who grew up to be an entrepreneur, the phlegmatic child who never really showed much go. But if it’s genes that run the show, what explains identical twins--precise genetic templates of each other who ought to be temperamentally identical but often exhibit profound differences in the octane of their ambition?
Ongoing studies of identical twins have measured achievement motivation--lab language for ambition--in identical siblings separated at birth, and found that each twin’s profile overlaps 30% to 50% of the other’s. In genetic terms, that’s an awful lot--"a benchmark for heritability", says geneticist Dean Hamer of the U.S. National Cancer Institute. But that still leaves a great deal that can be determined by experiences in infancy, subsequent upbringing and countless other imponderables.
Some of those variables may be found by studying the function of the brain. At Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, researchers have been conducting brain imaging to investigate a trait they call persistence--the ability to stay focused on a task until it’s completed just so--which they consider one of the critical engines driving ambition.
The researchers recruited a sample group of students and gave each a questionnaire designed to measure persistence level. Then they presented the students with a task--identifying sets of pictures as either pleasant or unpleasant and taken either indoors or outdoors--while conducting magnetic resonance imaging of their brains. The nature of the task was unimportant, but how strongly the subjects felt about performing it well--and where in the brain that feeling was processed--could say a lot. In general, the researchers found that students who scored highest in persistence had the greatest activity in the limbic region, the area of the brain related to emotions and habits. "The correlation was .8 [or 80%]," says professor of psychiatry Robert Cloninger, one of the investigators. "That’s as good as you can get."
It’s impossible to say whether innate differences in the brain were driving the ambitious behavior or whether learned behavior was causing the limbic to light up. But a number of researchers believe it’s possible for the nonambitious to jump-start their drive, provided the right jolt comes along. "Energy level may be genetic," says psychologist Simonton, "but a lot of times it’s just finding the right thing to be ambitious about." Simonton and others often cite the case of Franklin D. Roosevelt, who might not have been the same President he became--or even become president at all--had his disabling polio not taught him valuable lessons about patience and tenacity.
In terms of the roots of ambition, the concluding paragraph puts much emphasis on ______ .
选项
A、temperamental determinism
B、innate differences
C、environmental factors
D、disease and misfortune
答案
C
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/2UhO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
Inatelephonesurveyofmorethan2000adults,21%saidtheybelievedthesunrevolved(旋转)aroundtheearth.An【C1】______7%did
Largecompaniesneedawaytoreachthesavingsofthepublicatlarge.Thesameproblem,onasmallerscale,facespracticallyev
Oflate,therehavebeenseveralpostssuggestingthatAmericahasnocultureorthatwhatcultureithasissomehowinferiorto
Withthepossibleexceptionofequalrights,perhapsthemost【1】issueacrosstheUnitedStatestodayisthedeathpenalty.Many
Withthepossibleexceptionofequalrights,perhapsthemost【1】issueacrosstheUnitedStatestodayisthedeathpenalty.Many
Asindividuals,weareinherentlymorebruitedthanacommunity.Althoughwecanconsultbooksandfriendsandcritics,inthee
Inpromisingtofusemediaasdiverseastelevision,telephonecommunication,videogames,musicanddatatransmission,,theer
Governmenthastraditionallybeenevaluatedintermsoftheireffectsinpromotingseveralprinciples.Wehaveseenthatoneof
21.Everytimeyoutrytoansweraquestionthataskswhy,youengageintheprocessofcausalanalysis--youattempttodetermin
Couplesblessedwithstrengthandaggression______looksarebetteroffhavingboys,asthesecharacteristicsareofmoreuseto
随机试题
设随机变量X在区间[-1,2]上服从均匀分布,随机变量则方差D(Y)=__________.
在下列各式中,极限存在,但不能用洛必达法则计算的是
8个月男孩,母乳喂养,未加辅食,生后6个月内生长发育良好,2个月来面色黄、反应呆滞。查体:面色蜡黄,嗜睡,舌震颤,心肺无异常,肝肋下3cm,腱反射亢进,踝阵挛阳性。血红蛋白68g/L,红细胞1.90×109/L,白细胞6.2×109/L,中性粒细胞有核右移
乳牙根尖周炎常出现瘘管的原因是
检察院以涉嫌诈骗罪对某甲提起公诉。经法庭审理,法院认定,某甲的行为属于《刑法》规定的“将代为保管的他人财物非法占为己有并拒不退还”的侵占行为。对于本案,检察院拒不撤回起诉时,法院的哪种处理方法是正确的?()
A公司承建的某城市高架桥长1.68kin,上部结构为跨径30m的工梁,采用先简支后连续的结构形式共35跨,桥梁最高处9m,为双幅式桥面。桥梁下部结构为钻孔灌注桩,上接混凝土方形承台、八棱形墩柱和预应力钢筋混凝土盖梁。桥梁工程施工受所属快速路的通车限制,工期
下列各项税金中,在计算介业所得税时,不可以作为产品销售税金及附加在税前扣除的是()。
将一箱玫瑰(约合0.5体积吨)从广州运往北京,选用()方式比较合适。
世界上最早颁布义务教育的国家是()
A.Keprike’sresearchtoolB.DangersofhabitualshortagesofsleepC.CriticismonKripke’sreportD.Awayofovercominginso
最新回复
(
0
)