behaviourists

Question 1

what is ethology?

Answer 1

the biological study of behaviour

Question 2

Charles Darwin

Answer 2

• Natural selection (survival of the fittest) & sexual selection
• e.g. giraffes with longer necks more likely to survive as they can reach food

Question 3

George Romanes (1848-1894)

Answer 3

evolutionary biologist who laid foundations of comparative psychology
- created the term neo-darwinism (combines natural selection and Mendelian traits)

Question 4

Conwy Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936)

Answer 4

• avoidance of anthropomorphism
• controlled experiments on chicks improved way experiments were carried out

Question 5

Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

Answer 5

• coined term “stimulus-response theory”
• looked at law of effect in cats - assessed ways cats can escape a box in order to get fish

Question 6

John Watson (1878-1958)

Answer 6

studied what people do & made predictions as a result of those observations
- believer human conditioning comes as a result of inner reactions to stimuli

Question 7

B.F Skinner (1904-1990)

Answer 7

• coined operant conditioning (positive reinforcement = more likely to be repeated, behaviour that isn’t rewarded = likely to extinguish)

Question 8

Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989)

Answer 8

• Grey lag geese & fixed action patterns

Question 9

Jane Goodall

Answer 9

observed chimpanzees and discovered:
- chimpanzees are omnivores
- have a primative language
- can use tools!!!

Question 10

Niki Tinbergen

Answer 10

created Tinbergen’s 4 questions:
- Mechanism (how does the behaviour occur?)
- Ontogeny (Is the behaviour learned, does it change over time?)
- Adaptive Value (How does it benefit the animal?)
- Phylogeny (How did the behaviour evolve?)