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
38
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.
We learn from the passage that no identical profiles were found with identical twins ______ .
选项
A、who were born of ambitious parents
B、who are very intelligent
C、who were separate at birth
D、who are both ambitious
答案
C
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/GUhO777K
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
"Governmentsthatwanttheirpeopletoprosperintheburgeoningworldeconomyshouldguaranteetwobasicrights:therighttopr
AmericaLosesaGreatPublicThinkerArthurMiller’sdeathlastweekmeantmorethanthelossofanoutstandingplaywright.
Increasingnumbersofpeoplehavemigratedfromthecountrysideandmovedintotownsandcitiesoverthe【77】.MostareintheTh
Mykneeswereshaking.I【41】afraid【42】withthem,【43】I【44】myselfoutonthepathtofollowthem.Amara’shusband【45】comingbacka
Anumberofarticleshavebeenpublishedbypsychologistsinfavoroftheirprocessionbeingpermittedtoprescribepsychotropic
BeforehighschoolteacherKimberlyRughgotdowntobusinessatthestartofarecentschoolweek,shejokedwithherstudents
Although"namingrights"haveproliferatedinAmericanhighereducationforthepastseveraldecades,thephenomenonhasrecentl
TheuniquenessoftheJapanesecharacteristheresultoftwoseeminglycontradictoryforces:thestrengthoftraditionsandsel
随机试题
下列疾病好发部位的描述中,哪一项是错误的
X线胶片相对感度的计算,最简便的方法是产生密度1.0(Dmin+1.0)的胶片A的曝光量对数(lgEA)与胶片B曝光量对数(lgEB)之差的反对数值乘以100。现有四种胶片A、B、C、D产生密度1.0所需曝光量的对数值分别为0.7、0.55、0.4、0.1
不得用于皮下注射的药物是()
下列有关交通标志施工的表述中,正确的是()。
某炼油厂的塔器分段运至现场后,需要重新组焊,它的安装可以由()承担。
建设工程项目的全寿命周期包括项目的()
根据党的十九大报告内容,下列有关新时代党的建设总要求的说法错误的是:
A.体积最大,8~12个,沿界沟的前方排列成一列B.数目最多,舌尖部较多,体积较小,略呈锥体状C.位于舌侧缘的后部,在人类仅有5~8条平行的皱襞D.呈卵圆形,为味觉感受器E.数目较少,色较红,呈蕈状,顶端圆形关于丝状乳头的描述,正确的是(
下列4种软件中属于应用软件的是
IntheAgeofGenetics,younolongerhavetotrytocutoutsmokingorthinktwiceaboutgobblingthatcandybarinyourdeskd
最新回复
(
0
)