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
61
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
Evenplantscanrunafever,especiallywhentheyareunderattackbyinsectsordisease.But【71】humans,plantscanhavetheirt
Increasingnumbersofpeoplehavemigratedfromthecountrysideandmovedintotownsandcitiesoverthe【77】.MostareintheTh
"Thereisasenselessnotionthatchildrengrowupandleavehomewhenthey’re18,andthetruthisfarfromthat,"sayssociolo
Governmenthastraditionallybeenevaluatedintermsoftheireffectsinpromotingseveralprinciples.Wehaveseenthatoneof
BetweentheinventionofagricultureandthecommercialrevolutionthatmarkedtheendoftheMiddleAges,wealthandtechnology
Herremarks____acompletedisregardforhumanrights.
Theinfluenceofthemoralstandardsofthehomeisevident.Ifthereisnorecognitionofthedifference【B1】______rightand
Aninvestigationofthecirculationofbloodintheeyesofdiverhasproducedthestrongestevidencethattissuedamagecaused
Mailservicewillbetemporarily______becauseofthestrikeofthepostalworkers.
ThomasEdison,______,seemedtobeawkwardinhischildhood.
随机试题
简述被继承人债务的清偿方法。
心室肌细胞动作电位与骨骼肌细胞动作电位的主要区别是
有关人工流产并发症,错误的是
公开招标与邀请招标,在程序上的主要差异之一表现为()。
关于民航机场不停航施工的说法,错误的是()。
( )属于流动资产项目。
Theeffectofthebabyboomontheschoolshelpedtomakepossibleashiftinthinkingabouttheroleofpubliceducationinthe
利用E-R模型进行数据库的概念设计,可以分成3步:首先设计局部E-R模型,然后把各个局部E-R模型综合成一个全局的模型,最后对全局E-R模型进行()。
某Word文档中有一个5行×4列的表格,如果要将另外一个文本文件中的5行文字拷贝到该表格中,并且使其正好成为该表格一列的内容,最优的操作方法是()
Thepolicehavereceived_______informationthatthewantedmurdererisstillontherun.
最新回复
(
0
)