Causes of Behavior: Lecture 1

Question 1

Define Behavioral Ecology

Answer 1

A field of study that examines the ecological factors that drive behavioral adaptations

• focus on function (adaptation)
• Hypothesis-driven (theory drives the questions -generality……and test on animal models)

Question 2

Define adaptation

Answer 2

the action or process of adapting or being adapted

Question 3

What were Charles Darwin’s contributions to evolutionary theory?

Answer 3

• Proposed theory about natural selection
• Popularized evolutionary theory
• The unity of life (proposed that all life descended from a single common ancestor)
• Natural selection drives adaptation (but he didn’t understand the genetic basis of inheritance)

Question 4

What are the 4 conditions for natural selection?

Answer 4

1. Variation
2. Heritability
3. variation causes differences in reproduction
4. Reproductive advantage

Question 5

Define Comparative Psychology

Answer 5

the scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of non-human animals

• lab studies
• interested in mechanisms (how things work)
• animals are models to learn about humans

Question 6

Define trait

Answer 6

a distinguishing quality or characteristic

Question 7

Define maladaptive

Answer 7

not providing adequate or appropriate adjustment to the environment or situation

Question 8

Define adaptive

Answer 8

characterized by or given to adaptation

Question 9

What were Charles Darwin’s contributions to animal behavior?

Answer 9

• Behavior responds to natural selection
• humans are part of the continuity of animal evolution (helps to understand human behavior)
• animals have mental processes
• sexual selection (male-male competition, female choice

Question 10

Define differential reproduction

Answer 10

the difference in the reproductive success rate of various individual members or groups within a species
-accessing gametes of the opposite sex influences the evolution of each sex differently, which explains the sex differences in different species.

Question 11

Define Intrasexual selection

Answer 11

members of the same sex attempt to outcompete rivals

Question 12

Define intersexual selection

Answer 12

members of one sex choose members of the opposite sex.

Question 13

List and define the 3 types of contemporary psychology. What is their influence on other fields?

Answer 13

1. comparative psychology (animals as models of human behavior)
2. biopsychology (genetic and physiological mechanisms of behavior)
3. evolutionary psychology (evolutionary theory applied to human behavior)

• learning, cognitive constraints, etc.
• different branches have taught psychology lots

Question 14

Define ethology

Answer 14

evolution-based study of he natural behavior of wild animals (lets find out why animals do the things that they do)

• early 20th century Darwinians
• clever experiments

Question 15

Define evolution

Answer 15

the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth.

Question 16

What are Niko Tinbergen’s four causes of behavior?

Answer 16

1. development
2. mechanism
3. function
4. evolution

Question 17

Define ultimate cause

Answer 17

The producer of an effect, result, or consequence

Question 18

Define proximate

Answer 18

within lifetime

Question 19

Define ultimate

Answer 19

over generations

Question 20

Which of Niko Tinbergen’s fours causes of behavior are proximate and which are ultimate?

Answer 20

Proximate:
- Development (ontogeny)
Mechanism (immediate causation)

Ultimate:

• function (adaptive value)
• evolution

Question 21

What is the reasoning for the (partial) decline of ethology?

Answer 21

-It failed to integrate Modern Synthesis of Darwin and Population Genetics.
- “Good of the species” logic
population genetics took info from Mendel and Darwin’s research and combines them/applied them to each other.
-cultural evolution through learning

Question 22

How is modern animal behavior “integrative”?

Answer 22

Biology and psychology (distinctions are fading)

• psychology integrates evolution
• biology integrates mechanisms, including learning
• different fields integrate into others