2014考研英語：閱讀經(jīng)典試題及詳解(二十五)_跨考網(wǎng)

　　2014考研英語：閱讀經(jīng)典試題及詳解(二十五)

　　Investigators of monkey’s social behavior have always been struck by monkeys’ aggressive potential and the consequent need for social control of their aggressive behavior. Studies directed at describing aggressive behavior and the situations that elicit it, as well as the social mechanisms that control it, were therefore among the first investigations of monkeys’ social behavior.

　　Investigators initially believed that monkeys would compete for any resource in the environment: hungry monkeys would fight over food, thirsty monkeys would fight over water, and, in general, at time more than one monkey in a group sought the same incentive simultaneously, a dispute would result and would be resolved through some form of aggression. However, the motivating force of competition for incentives began to be doubted when experiments like Southwick’s on the reduction of space or the withholding of food failed to produce more than temporary increases in intragroup aggression. Indeed, food deprivation not only failed to increase aggression but in some cases actually resulted in decreased frequencies of aggression.

　　Studies of animals in the wild under conditions of extreme food deprivation likewise revealed that starving monkeys devoted almost all available energy to foraging, with little energy remaining for aggressive interaction. Furthermore, accumulating evidence from later studies of a variety of primate groups, for example, the study conducted by Bernstein, indicates that one of the most potent stimuli for eliciting aggression is the introduction of an intruder into an organized group. Such introductions result in far more serious aggression than that produced in any other types of experiments contrived to produce competition.

　　These studies of intruders suggest that adult members of the same species introduced to one another for the first time show considerable hostility because, in the absence of a social order, one must be established to control interanimal relationships. When a single new animal is introduced into an existing social organization, the newcomer meets even more serious aggression. Whereas in the first case aggression establishes a social order, in the second case resident animals mob the intruder, thereby initially excluding the new animal from the existing social unit. The simultaneous introduction of several animals lessens the effect, if only because the group divides its attention among the multiple targets. If, however, the several animals introduced a group constitute their own social unit, each group may fight the opposing group as a unit; but, again, no individual is subjected to mass attack, and the very cohesion of the groups precludes prolonged individual combat. The submission of the defeated group, rather than unleashing unchecked aggression on the part of the victorious group, reduces both the intensity and frequency of further attack. Monkey groups therefore seem to be organized primarily to maintain their established social order rather than to engage in hostilities per se.