Ethology - Animal Behavior

What Is Ethological Theory?
https://www.bioexplorer.net/ethological-theory.html/

Ethological Theory: In biology, behavior is referred to as the way by which living things react to different stimuli in the environment. The study of the behavior of living organisms can be sometimes problematic because it poses numerous practical and theoretical questions that can be answered from different perspectives.

In fact, there have been a lot of theories that attempted to explain behavior yet verifiable and scientific evaluations remained elusive.

In contrast to existing theories of behavior, a popular theory formulated by Frisch, Lorenz, and Tinbergen has succeeded in breaking various stereotypes: the ethological theory.

In this post, we’ll explore what ethological theory is, its development through the years, its evidences and examples, as well as the criticisms it has received. Here, also find out how this theory led to the realization that life, behavior, and survival are all interconnected.

What is Ethology?

The word ethology comes from the Greek word “ethos” meaning character and “logos” meaning “study of“, and from the Latin word “ethologia” which means “mimicry” or the art of depicting characters by copying behaviors. Ethology involves the study of animal behaviors by observing, describing, and evaluating them in the natural setting.

Ethology, unlike any field that study behavior, ethology does not only consider the environmental factors that affect behavior but focuses more on the physiological, genetic, and evolutionary factors that affect these actions.
The theory of ethology was collectively proposed by three European scientists Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz, and Nicolaas Tinbergen. The three won the Nobel in 1973 for such scientific contribution.

Development of The Theory

During the 1950s, the history of the ethological theory can be traced back when Lorenz and Tibergen observed the egg-rolling response of a greylag goose. When a mother goose is incubating and somehow realizes an egg near the nest, its attention is stirred and then tries to roll the egg back to the nest. When the egg is already recovered, the mother goose returns to incubate again.

The two began to observe that such behavior is an example of an innate and stereotype pattern of movement.
In the 1960s, the ethological theory was first applied to study the behavior of children. Since then, the theory has become more influential and has been applied to research on adult behavior as well.

Evidence Used For Theory

The most famous example for the ethological theory is the so-called filial imprinting. In this phenomenon, a young animal inherits most of its behavior from its parents. Again, Lorenz had utilized the greylag geese as his test subject. Check out this awesome video on this experiment.

He observed that not long after the young geese were born, they have a short opportunity to discover who their mother is. He made sure that he would be the first object the young would see. During this period, the learning of these young geese were so sensitive that even when they were exposed to their own biological mother, they would follow Lorenz like he was the parent!.

Examples of The Ethological Theory

In humans, the phenomenon of filial imprinting occurs even earlier. It generally starts when the embryo itself begins to recognize the own voices of its parents. Like the geese, there is also a period in human development where the child is very sensitive to information and the exposure to these bear huge impacts in the course of development.

This is called the critical period. It is believed that the absence of a critical period in a child’s early life can make it hard for him to develop some functions later. One of the most famous examples of “critical period” for human children is the acquisition of language.
“Attachment” is also an evidence since it promotes the survival of infants. Humans and other primates tend to develop certain signalling behaviors that attach themselves to their parents. Some of these include crying, smiling, and even babbling. Studies revealed that these mechanisms are innate and are not learned because children who were born deaf and blind also do the same things.

In addition to this, homosexuality is also believed to be governed by the ethological theory. Scientists in this field believe that the presence of homosexual members in the family increases the availability of resources to their other siblings. This then creates higher probabilities for other children with the same “homosexual gene” to survive better. This phenomenon though is still up for further studies.

Evolution and Ethological Theory

The study of behavior in ethology is based on two principles: changes in behavior to survive and heritable behavioral traits. Clearly, Charles Darwin’s work about evolution has become the foundation of this very theory. Darwin proposed that organismal traits and behavior are adapted to their natural environment in order to determine who will survive.

For instance, this is where the ethological theory can be held in contrast with other theories about behavior: behavior is adapted for survival and is inherited by the succeeding generations.
The ethological theory believes that animal behavior is linked to biological structure. It generally aims to utilize a neo-Darwinian principle by applying his theory in studying biological structures and behavior under the perspective of ecology.

At present, the study subjects of ethological theory involve a wide variety of organisms ranging from the smallest insects to humans. However, for much of its history, ethological theories have been used to evaluate experimental field studies.

Ainsworth Attachment Theory

Ainsworth attachment theory (devised by American Psychologist Mary Ainsworth) offers explanations on individual differences in attachment. As adults, when you are attached to some special one and you’re apart from that person, we can express our feelings through words however in infants and young children, the attachment can be observed by a technique created by Mary Ainsworth called SSC (Strange Situation Classification). Here’s an interesting video explaining this experiment:

Other Ethological Theories

Ethological Theory of Aggression: In simpler terms, Lorenz explained that the potential for aggressive behavior is built-in (innate) within all animals, but the actual aggression would be shown by external stimuli or triggers.

Fixed Action Patterns (FAP): Dutch biologist and ornithologist, Niko Tinbergen explained that all members of the same species exhibit the same identical behaviors (with no prior learning involved) no matter where they were raised. Examples: all dogs bark; all cats meow, etc.

Criticisms About The Ethological Theory

Indeed, the ethological theory has greatly expanded the scope of the study about the causes of animal behavior. However, during its early days, it suffered from serious criticisms about its verifiability.

1. The Need For More Evidences

Questions regarding evidences about specific behaviors that ensures survival among species and the generalizations from behavioral patterns of humans likened to animal species arose.

We have learned the answers to those questions. Some behaviors are just universal and generally vary depending on the social context. Additionally, the rise of the concept of “social context” has also brought things into different perspectives.

2. Ethological Theory Does Not Take Development in Consideration.

True enough, the theory does not consider that life occurs in different stages. As a result, no large changes of qualitative development are given attention to. Instead, the theory focuses only on the quantitative development.

3. Critical Period Fails To Explain Everything.

While the identification of the critical period is important in child development, it presents some limitations. One of these limitations includes the lack of explanation on why some humans become more careful to some of their experiences in their life.

After the rise of the ethological theory, most people have generally accepted that behaviors can be heritable in some form. However, we have seen that it still remained as a controversial theory, partly because it was believed to be so vague in explaining the range of observed, inherited, and manifested biological structures and behaviors of living organisms.

In addition to this, even supporters of the theory still hesitate at its seemingly non-progressive range of studies – a view that is seen as the biggest obstacle to the acceptance of its ideas.

Cite This Page

References

– “ethology | Origin and meaning of ethology by Online Etymology Dictionary”. Accessed October 13, 2017. Link.
– “What is ethology? | eNotes”. Accessed October 13, 2017. Link.
– “ETHOLOGY”. Accessed October 13, 2017. Link.
– “PSYSC613 – Ethology”. Accessed October 13, 2017. Link.
– “Fixed Action Patterns Fap in Animals | Actforlibraries.org”. Accessed October 13, 2017. Link.

https://www.bioexplorer.net/ethological-theory.html/

Ethology - New World Encyclopedia

The egg-rolling behavior of the greylag goose is a widely cited example of a fixed-action pattern, one of the key concepts used by ethologists to explain animal behavior.

Ethology is a branch of zoology concerned with the study of animal behavior. Ethologists take a comparative approach, studying behaviors ranging from kinship, cooperation, and parental investment, to conflict, sexual selection, and aggression across a variety of species. Today ethology as a disciplinary label has largely been replaced by behavioral ecology and evolutionary psychology. These rapidly growing fields tend to place greater emphasis on social relationships rather than on the individual animal; however, they retain ethology’s tradition of fieldwork and its grounding in evolutionary theory.

The study of animal behavior touches upon the fact that people receive joy from nature and also typically see themselves in a special role as stewards of creation. Behavior is one aspect of the vast diversity of nature that enhances human enjoyment. People are fascinated with the many behaviors of animals, whether the communication "dance" of honeybees, or the hunting behavior of the big cats, or the altruistic behavior of a dolphin. In addition, humans generally see themselves with the responsibility to love and care for nature.

The study of animal behavior also helps people to understand more about themselves. From an evolutionary point of view, organisms of diverse lineages are related through the process of descent with modification. From a religious point of view, human also stand as “microcosms of nature" (Burns 2006). Thus, the understanding of animals helps to better understand ourselves.

Ethologists engage in hypothesis-driven experimental investigation, often in the field. This combination of lab work with field study reflects an important conceptual underpinning of the discipline: behavior is assumed to be adaptive; in other words, something that makes it better suited in its environment and consequently improves its chances of survival and reproductive success.

Ethology emerged as a discrete discipline in the 1920s, through the efforts of Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch, and Niko Tinbergen, who were jointly awarded the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their contributions to the study of behavior. They were in turn influenced by the foundational work of, among others, ornithologists Oskar Heinroth and Julian Huxley and the American myrmecologist (study of ants) William Morton Wheeler, who popularized the term ethology in a seminal 1902 paper.

Important concepts

One of the key ideas of classical ethology is the concept of fixed action patterns (FAPs). FAPs are stereotyped behaviors that occur in a predictable, inflexible sequence in response to an identifiable stimulus from the environment.

Kelp Gull chicks peck at a red spot on their mother's beak to stimulate the regurgitating reflex, another example of a fixed action pattern.

For example, at the sight of a displaced egg near the nest, the greylag goose (Anser anser) will roll the egg back to the others with its beak. If the egg is removed, the animal continues to engage in egg-rolling behavior, pulling its head back as if an imaginary egg is still being maneuvered by the underside of its beak. It will also attempt to move other egg-shaped objects, such as a golf ball, doorknob, or even an egg too large to have been laid by the goose itself (Tinbergen 1991).

Another important concept is filial imprinting, a form of learning that occurs in young animals, usually during a critical, formative period of their lives. During imprinting, a young animal learns to direct some of its social responses to a parent or sibling.

Despite its valuable contributions to the study of animal behavior, classical ethology also spawned problematic general theories that viewed even complex behaviors as genetically hardwired (i.e., innate or instinctive). Models of behavior have since been revised to account for more flexible decision-making processes (Barnard 2003).

Methodology

Tinbergen's four questions for ethologists

The practice of ethological investigation is rooted in hypothesis-driven experimentation. Lorenz's collaborator, Niko Tinbergen, argued that ethologists should consider the following categories when attempting to formulate a hypothesis that explains any instance of behavior:

Function: How does the behavior impact the animal's chance of survival and reproduction
Mechanism: What are the stimuli that elicit the response? How has the response been modified by recent learning?
Development: How does the behavior change with age? What early experiences are necessary for the behavior to be demonstrated?
Evolutionary history: How does the behavior compare with similar behavior in related species? How might the behavior have arisen through the evolutionary development of the species, genus, or group?

The four questions are meant to be complementary, revealing various facets of the motives underlying a given behavior.

Using fieldwork to test hypotheses

As an example of how an ethologist might approach a question about animal behavior, consider the study of hearing in an echolocating bat. A species of bat may use frequency chirps to probe the environment while in flight. A traditional neuroscientific study of the auditory system of the bat would involve anesthetizing it, performing a craniotomy to insert recording electrodes in its brain, and then recording neural responses to pure tone stimuli played from loudspeakers. In contrast, an ideal ethological study would attempt to replicate the natural conditions of the animal as closely as possible. It would involve recording from the animal’s brain while it is awake, producing its natural calls while performing a behavior such as insect capture.

Key principles and concepts

Behaviors are adaptive responses to natural selection

Because ethology is understood as a branch of biology, ethologists have been particularly concerned with the evolution of behavior and the understanding of behavior in terms of the theory of natural selection. In one sense, the first modern ethologist was Charles Darwin, whose book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872) has influenced many ethologists. (Darwin’s protégé George Romanes became one of the founders of comparative psychology, positing a similarity of cognitive processes and mechanisms between animals and humans.)

Note, however, that this concept is necessarily speculative. Behaviors are not found as fossils and cannot be traced through the geological strata. And concrete evidence for the theory of modification by natural selection is limited to microevolution—that is, evolution at or below the level of species. The evidence that natural selection directs changes on the macroevolutionary level necessarily involves extrapolation from these evidences on the microevolutionary level. Thus, although scientists frequently allude to a particular behavior having evolved by natural selection in response to a particular environment, this involves speculation as opposed to concrete evidence.

Animals use fixed action patterns in communication

The honeybee's figure-eight dance is a fixed-action pattern that communicates information to other members of the group: the angle from the sun indicates the direction of a food source; the duration signifies its distance.

As mentioned above, a fixed action pattern (FAP) is an instinctive behavioral sequence produced by a neural network known as the innate releasing mechanism in response to an external sensory stimulus called the sign stimulus or releaser. Once identified by ethologists, FAPs can be compared across species, allowing them to contrast similarities and differences in behavior with similarities and differences in form (morphology).

An example of how FAPs work in animal communication is the classic investigation by Austrian ethologist Karl von Frisch of the so-called "dance language" underlying bee communication. The dance is a mechanism for successful foragers to recruit members of the colony to new sources of nectar or pollen.

Imprinting is a type of learning behavior

Imprinting describes any kind of phase-sensitive learning (i.e., learning that occurs at a particular age or life stage) during which an animal learns the characteristics of some stimulus, which is therefore said to be "imprinted" onto the subject.

The best known form of imprinting is filial imprinting, in which a young animal learns the characteristics of its parent. Lorenz observed that the young of waterfowl such as geese spontaneously followed their mothers from almost the first day after they were hatched. Lorenz demonstrated how incubator-hatched geese would imprint on the first suitable moving stimulus they saw within what he called a critical period of about 36 hours shortly after hatching. Most famously, the goslings would imprint on Lorenz himself (more specifically, on his wading boots).

Sexual imprinting, which occurs at a later stage of development, is the process by which a young animal learns the characteristics of a desirable mate. For example, male zebra finches appear to prefer mates with the appearance of the female bird that rears them, rather than mates of their own type (Immelmann 1972). Reverse sexual imprinting has also observed: when two individuals live in close domestic proximity during their early years, both are desensitized to later sexual attraction. This phenomenon, known as the Westermarck effect, has probably evolved to suppress inbreeding.

Relation to comparative psychology

In order to summarize the defining features of ethology, it might be helpful to compare classical ethology to early work in comparative psychology, an alternative approach to the study of animal behavior that also emerged in the early 20th century. The rivalry between these two fields stemmed in part from disciplinary politics: ethology, which had developed in Europe, failed to gain a strong foothold in North America, where comparative psychology was dominant.

Broadly speaking, comparative psychology studies general processes, while ethology focuses on adaptive specialization. The two approaches are complementary rather than competitive, but they do lead to different perspectives and sometimes to conflicts of opinion about matters of substance:

Comparative psychology construes its study as a branch of psychology rather than as an outgrowth of biology. Thus, where comparative psychology sees the study of animal behavior in the context of what is known about human psychology, ethology situates animal behavior in the context of what is known about animal anatomy, physiology, neurobiology, and phylogenetic history.
Comparative psychologists are interested more in similarities than differences in behavior; they are seeking general laws of behavior, especially relating to development, which can then be applied to all animal species, including humans. Hence, early comparative psychologists concentrated on gaining extensive knowledge of the behavior of a few species, while ethologists were more interested in gaining knowledge of behavior in a wide range of species in order to be able to make principled comparisons across taxonomic groups.
Comparative psychologists focused primarily on lab experiments involving a handful of species, mainly rats and pigeons, whereas ethologists concentrated on behavior in natural situations.

Since the 1970s, however, animal behavior has become an integrated discipline, with comparative psychologists and ethological animal behaviorists working on similar problems and publishing side by side in the same journals.

Recent developments in the field

In 1970, the English ethologist John H. Crook published an important paper in which he distinguished comparative ethology from social ethology. He argued that the ethological studies published to date had focused on the former approach—looking at animals as individuals—whereas in the future ethologists would need to concentrate on the social behavior of animal groups.

Since the appearance of E. O. Wilson's seminal book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis in 1975, ethology has indeed been much more concerned with the social aspects of behavior, such as phenotypic altruism and cooperation. Research has also been driven by a more sophisticated version of evolutionary theory associated with Wilson and Richard Dawkins.

Furthermore, a substantial rapprochement with comparative psychology has occurred, so the modern scientific study of behavior offers a more or less seamless spectrum of approaches—from animal cognition to comparative psychology, ethology, and behavioral ecology. Evolutionary psychology, an extension of behavioral ecology, looks at commonalities of cognitive processes in humans and other animals as we might expect natural selection to have shaped them. Another promising subfield is neuroethology, concerned with how the structure and functioning of the brain controls behavior and makes learning possible.

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/ethology

Chapter 8: Animal Behavior and Cognition

Part One: Early Comparative Psychology

Part Two: Classic Ethology

Part Three: Social Ethology

Part Four: Animal Cognition

https://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch08-animals/index.html

Animal Behavior

A guide to the hows and whys of animals interacting with each other and with the world around them.

A Free Online Textbook

Contributors

Notes to Contributors

Textbook cover

This textbook explores the mechanisms and evolution of animal behavior, including neural, hormonal, and genetic substrates of behavior; foraging; anti-predator defenses; mating systems and sexual selection; social behavior; communication; parental care; kin selection and recognition; and territoriality. Associated laboratory exercises will provide hands-on experience for many of these concepts.