(eBook) James, William The Principles of Psychology Vol. II

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.Animals,for example, awaken in a child the opposite impulses of fearing and fondling.But if a child, inhis first attempts to pat a dog, gets snapped at or bitten, so that the impulse of fear is stronglyaroused, it may be that for years to come no dog will excite in him the impulse to fondle again.On the other hand, the greatest natural enemies, if carefully introduced to each other when youngand guided at the outset by superior authority, settle down into those 'happy families' of friendswhich we see in our menageries.Young animals, immediately afterbirth, have no instinct of fear,but show their dependence by allowing themselves to be freely handled.Later, however, theygrow 'wild,' and, if left to themselves, will not let man approach them.I am told by farmers in the[p.396] Adirondack wilderness that it is a very serious matter if a cow wanders off and calves inthe woods and is not found for a week or more.The calf, by that time, is as wild and almost asfleet as a deer, and hard to capture without violence.But calves rarely show any particularwildness to the men who have been in contact with them during the first days of their life, whenthe instinct to attach themselves is uppermost, nor do they dread strangers as they would ifbrought up wild.Chickens give a curious illustration of the same law.Mr.Spalding's wonderful article on instinctshall supply us with the facts.These little creatures show opposite instincts of attachment andfear, either of which may be aroused by the same object, man.If a chick is born in the absence ofthe hen, it"will follow any moving object.And, when guided by sight alone, they seem to have no moledisposition to follow a hen than to follow a duck or a human being.Unreflecting lookers-on,when they saw chickens a day old running after me," says Mr.Spalding, "and older onesfollowing me for miles, and answering to my whistle, imagined that I must have some occultpower over the creatures: whereas I had simply allowed them to follow me from the first.Thereis the instinct to follow; and the ear, prior to experience, attaches them to the right object." [7]But if a man presents himself for the first time when the instinct of fear is strong, the phenomenaare altogether reversed.Mr.Spalding kept three chickens hooded until they were nearly fourdays old, and thus describes their behavior:Get any book for free on: www.Abika.comTHE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY272"Each of them, on being unhooded, evinced the greatest terror tome, dashing off in the oppositedirection whenever I sought to approach it.The table on which they were unhooded stood beforea window, and each in its turn beat against the window like a wild bird.One of them dartedbehind some books, and, squeezing itself into a corner, remained cowering for a length of time.We might guess at the meaning of this strange and exceptional wildness; but the odd fact isenough for my present purpose.Whatever might have been the meaning of this marked change intheir mental constitution-had they been unhooded on the previous day they would have run to meinstead of from me -- it could not have been the effect of experience; it must have resultedwholly from changes in their own organizations." [8] [p.397]Their case was precisely analogous to that of the Adirondack calves.The two opposite instinctsrelative to the same object ripen in succession.If the first one engenders a habit, that habit willinhibit the application of the second instinct to that object.All animals are tame during theearliest phase of their infancy.Habits formed then limit the effects of whatever instincts ofwildness may later be evolved.Mr.Romanes gives some very curious examples of the way in which instinctive tendencies maybe altered by the habits to which their first 'objects' have given rise.The cases are a little morecomplicated than those mentioned in the text, inasmuch as the object reacted on not only starts ahabit which inhibits other kinds of impulse toward it (although such other kinds might benatural), but even modifies by its own peculiar conduct the constitution of the impulse which itactually awakens.Two of the instances in question are those of hens who hatched out broods of chicks after having(in three previous years) hatched ducks.They strove to coax or to compel their new progeny toenter the water, and seemed much perplexed at their unwillingness.Another hen adopted a broodof young ferrets which, having lost their mother, were put under her.During all the time theywere left with her she had to sit on the nest, for they could not wander like young chicks.Sheobeyed their hoarse growling as she would have obeyed her chickens' peep.) She combed outtheir hair with her bill, and "used frequently to stop and look with one eye at the wrigglingnestful, with an inquiring graze, expressive of astonishment." At other times she would fly upwith aloud scream, doubtless because the orphans had nipped her in their search for teats.Finally, a Brahma hen nursed a young peacock during the enormous period of eighteen months ,and never laid any eggs during all this time.The abnormal degree of pride which she showed inher wonderful chicken is described by Dr.Romanes as ludicrous." [9] [p.398]2.This leads us to the law of transitoriness , which is this: Many instincts ripen at a certain ageand then fade away.A consequence of this law is that if, during the time of such an instinct'svivacity, objects adequate to arouse it are met with, a habit of acting on them is formed, whichremains when the original instinct has passed away; but that if no such objects are met with, thenno habit will be formed; and, later on in life, when the animal meets the objects, he willaltogether fail to react, as at the earlier epoch he would instinctively have done.No doubt such a law is restricted.Some instincts are far less transient than others -- thoseconnected with feeding and 'self-preservation' may hardly be transient at all, end some, afterfading out for a time, recur as strong as ever, e.g., the instincts of pairing and rearing young.TheGet any book for free on: www.Abika.comTHE PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY273law, however, though not absolute, is certainly very wide-spread, and a few examples willillustrate just what it means [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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