1. The Social Use of Space 161 



coincided with the initial post-weaning integration of these young rats into 

 the society when they ranged between 4") and 90 days of age. 



All the males going berserk belonged to the high velocity, generally 

 dominant, segment of the society, and so belonged in the "sanguine" 

 most desirable first quadrant of the life-space circumplex. This meant that 

 dominant d-genes predominated in their target diameter. The juvenile 

 rats emerging into the society, being less dilTerentiated, were therefore now 

 prototypic and therefore resembled dominant adult males in their posses- 

 sion of mostly dominant d-genes. And yet these juveniles would still possess 

 traits lost during maturation by most adults. 



Due to the typical response of rejecting strange objects, the young would 

 be rejected while still being permitted autonomy of action due to domi- 

 nant c?-genes shared with high-ranking adults. There being more juveniles 

 in the population than adults belonging clearly in the first quadrant of the 

 life-space circumplex, the general response of rats to these adults would 

 be to react to them as they did to juveniles by rejection. This rejection 

 triggered the release of the muted aggressive capacities of dominant males 

 to the extent that it was expressed with great intensity even toward others, 

 such as juveniles and adult females, who normally were not bitten. 



Such an origin of an aberrant behavior in a rat society is patently an 

 interpretation lacking the complete documentation to carry the conviction 

 of its reality. Yet my intensive studies of rat societies permit identification 

 of so many behavior-personality types as to suggest that rats are equally 

 as complex as humans in this regard. The eight societies previously studied 

 have been commented upon in general terms elsewhere (Calhoun, 1962a, b) . 



In the early history of a rat society, while its numbers and density are 

 low, most individuals seem rather clearly to fall into quadrants one and 

 three of the circumplex. This is a typical expectation when a straight-line 

 hierarchy develops, as it always does in initial stages of social organization. 

 Later on, histories and situations become more complex. Other types 

 develop which may clearly be assigned to the second and fourth quadrant. 



For example, there is the type I call a "prober," which appears to repre- 

 sent a rat having shifted from the third to the fourth circumplex quadrant. 

 Earlier in their history they clearly belong within the lower echelons of the 

 social hierarchy. Later on they are generally ignored by dominants with 

 whom they live most closely. In consequence, they develop a marked per- 

 sistent state of hyperactivity indicating autonomy of action. They seem 

 to generalize this autonomy of action as permitting them freedom of ac- 

 tion anywhere. Consequently, they persist in invading the domains of 

 territorial males whenever members of their harems are in estrus. During 

 such invasions they rarely contest the status of the territorial male, but 

 in the process of being rejected by him receive wounds. These are received 



