rn or derision. One student of this subject
notes "as early as the fourth month a 'hurt' way of crying
which seemed to indicate a sense of personal slight. It was
quite different from the cry of pain or that of anger, but
seemed about the same as the cry of fright. The slightest
tone of reproof would produce it. On the other hand, if
people took notice and laughed and encouraged, she was
hilarious."[1]

[Footnote 1: Cooley: _Human Nature and the Social Order_, p. 166.]

Man's sensitiveness to praise and blame is paralleled by his
instinctive tendency to express them.

Smiles, respectful stares, and encouraging shouts occur, I think, as
instinctive responses to relief from hunger, rescue from fear, gorgeous
display, instinctive acts of strength and daring, victory, and other
impressive instinctive behavior that is harmless to the onlooker.
Similarly, frowns, hoots, and sneers seem bound as original responses
to the observation of empty-handedness, deformity, physical meanness,
pusillanimity, and defect. As in the case of all original tendencies,
such behavior is early complicated and in the end much distorted,
by training; but the resulting total cannot be explained by
nurture alone.[1]

[Footnote 1: Thorndike: _Educational Psychology_, Briefer Course,
pp. 32-33.]

Man's instinctive tendency to respond to praise and blame
and to exhibit them is, next to gregariousness--through
which men in the first place are able to live together--the
individual human trait most significant for social life. For
while the desire for praise, the avoidance of blame, and the
expression of both are instinctive, the occasions on which they
are called forth depend on the traditions and group habits to
which the individual has been exposed. He soon learns that
in the society in which he is living, certain acts will bring him
the praise of others; certain other acts will bring him their
disapproval. The whole scope of his activity may thus be
profoundly modified by the penalties and prizes in the way
of praise and blame which society attaches to different modes
of action. And the more explicit and outward signs there are
of the approval or scorn of others, the more will individual
action be subject to social control.

As Plato said so long ago and said so well:

Whenever they [the public] crowd to the popular assembly, the
law courts, the theaters, the camp, or any public gathering of large
bodies, and there sit in a dense and uproar