APPETITES AND AVERSIONS. 1 03 



(&) Some forms of behavior consist of appetite and satisfaction 

 which are not, in ordinary cases, followed by any distinct aver- 

 sion. For example, the drinking cycle shows clearly: (Phase I.) 

 appetite for water; (Phase II.) the drinking reaction, with expres- 

 sion of satisfaction; (Phase IV.) indifference. The dove when 

 it finishes drinking shows no distinct sign of aversion (Phase III.) 

 except withdrawing the bill from the water. But if the observer 

 takes this dove then gently in the hand and re-submerges its bill 

 in the water, it shows marked aversion, struggling to withdraw 

 the bill and to shake the water out of it. 



(c) On the other hand it may seem that there are some forms 

 of behavior, e. g., fear, in which Phases I. and II. are lacking; 

 that there is no appetite for the fear stimuli and no satisfaction 

 in them; that when the slightest of these stimuli is received it at 

 once arouses (Phase III.) aversive behavior. Yet it is an inter- 

 esting fact that even in these cases a slight degree of appetite and 

 satisfaction may be present. Children seek and enjoy a little 

 fear. A dove, when it hears the alarm cry from other doves, at 

 once endeavors to see the alarming object. Even pain is (in 

 man) to some degree, sought and enjoyed. 



In actual life the cycles and phases of cycles are multiplied 

 and overlapped in very complex ways. 



For example, when a certain satisfaction has been attained, 

 this, instead of leading at once to a state of surfeit and aversion, 

 may lead to further appetite, which leads to a second satisfaction, 

 and so on. Thus Phase I. and Phase II. continue to alternate, 

 constituting a "circular reaction" (Baldwin). I have seen a 

 pair of house sparrows copulate thirteen times in immediate suc- 

 cession, and know by the sound of their voices that I did not see 

 the beginning of the series. In many cases such circular reaction 

 serves to rouse the organism to a high state of appetite and readi- 

 ness for action. 



Smaller cycles are superposed upon larger ones. For example, 

 when a female bird is building a nest, so long as she is in the nest 

 she is in a certain nest-building attitude, a high state of satisfac- 

 tion, which constitutes the consummatory reaction (Phase II.) 

 of a large cycle. But each time she reaches for a straw, seizes 

 it, and tucks it into the nest, she exhibits thus a little cycle con- 

 taining a little appetence followed by its own satisfaction. 



