Читать книгу The Behavior of Animals - Группа авторов - Страница 78

Causal factors for many behavior systems are present at the same time, yet an animal can generally only do one thing at a time. This is a situation of motivational conflict. In this section I consider the kinds of behavior that occur in conflict situations, as well as some mechanisms that have been proposed for switching from one behavior to another. There have been two major ways of studying conflict behavior. One way to classify conflicts is in terms of the direction an organism takes from a goal object: either toward or away. Many psychologists have distinguished three basic kinds of motivational conflict, each designated according to the direction associated with the specific tendencies aroused: approach–approach, avoidance–avoidance, and approach–avoidance (e.g., Miller 1959). Other psychologists have used approach/withdrawal concepts as the basis for a theory of behavioral development (Schneirla 1965). An alternative way to classify conflict situations, used by ethologists, is to look at the specific behavior systems that are activated and analyze the behavior that is actually seen. Four major types of outcome have been studied: inhibition, ambivalence, redirection, and displacement. I will briefly discuss each.