Early Instinct Theories (know all)

  • Some theorists saw animals having rationality + instinctive behaviours and humans having rational mind + instinctively controlled behaviours
  • Nominal fallacy: naming something instinct does not explain behaviour
  • Instinctive behaviours were not clearly separated from learning behaviours

William James

  • Instincts are similar to reflexes: elicited by sensory stimuli and happen automatically for first time, but changes through experience o e. instinctive behaviour of embarrassment by falling in public may not cause embarrassment if one falls often; thus, embarrassment instinct is inhibited by experience
  • Explained variability of instincts through 2 principles: (1) habit (i.e. learning) can inhibit instinct and (2) some instincts are transitory: useful only at certain times or during certain developmental periods
  • Saw instinctive behaviour as intermediate between reflexes and learning
  • Did not explain all behaviour through instinctive processes
  • Did not describe how to distinguish between reflex, instinct and learned behaviour

William McDougal

  • Instincts are more than just dispositions to act in certain way
  • Instincts have 3 components: (1) cognitive: thoughts about goals that will satisfy motive, (2) affective: emotions aroused by behaviour and (3) conative: striving to reach goal
  • Teleology: idea that behaviour serves purpose; but theorists argue even humans sometimes do not know reasons for their behaviour – Instinct can be changed in 4 ways:
    1. By idea of object or by other external objects or ideas i.e. milk may first activate food-seeking in infant, but later on other things may activate this instinct, such as commercial on food
    2. Movements through which instinctive behaviour occurs can be modified i.e. curiosity for infant may involve crawling around vs. curiosity for teen may involve exploring sciences
    3. Many instincts can be triggered at same time, w/behaviour resulting as mix of multiple instincts i.e. sexual behaviour of teens is mix of curiosity and mating instincts

 

  1. Instinctive behaviours may become organized around particular objects or ideas, thus becoming less responsive in other situations i.e. people may be assertive (instinct) at workplace but submissive (instinct) at home
  • Analysis was anthropomorphic: attribution of human characteristics to objects or animals
  • Did not clearly distinguish between instinct and learning (like James)

Criticisms of the Early Instinct Theory

  • Kuo criticisms: (1) no agreement of types or # instincts there are, (2) argues all behaviours called instinctive are learned, not innate and (3) argued instincts are not motive forces underlying behaviour b/c behaviour is aroused by external stimuli
  • Tolman criticisms: (1) instincts are descriptive labels (nominal fallacy) vs.

explanation of causes of behaviour, (2) no clear criteria for determining which behaviours are instinctive and which are not and (3) all knowledge is present in every individual and only awaits discovery o Unlike Kuo, he felt theory could be saved if criticisms were corrected

Classical Ethology (know all)

  • Branch of bio concerned w/evolution, development and function of behaviour; emphasizes instinct; based on Darwin’s theory that instinctive behaviours exist b/c they have/had survival value
  • Lorenz argued we must observe organisms in natural setting to understand their behaviour, which is what ethology did
  • Ethogram: lists of observed behaviours for species studied

Ethological Terms

  • Consummatory behaviour: fixed patterns of responding to specific stimuli
  • Appetitive behavior: searching behaviour adaptive to environment
  • Action specific energy (ASE): each behaviour has own source of energy
  • Innate releasing mechanism (IRM): each behaviour is inhibited from occurring by this; works like lock that can only be opened by certain key
  • Key stimuli/signal stimuli: environmental stimuli o Social releasers: key stimuli involving behaviour of other member of species
  • Key Stimuli
    • Simple (i.e. single) stimuli or simple configurational relationships between stimuli (i.e. dark spots on light black ground)
    • Sometimes normal key stimulus is not optimal stimulus for releasing given behaviour
    • Artificial stimulus may be preferred to natural stimulus

Supernormal key stimuli/super-optimal key stimuli: stimuli that release behaviour more effectively than normal stimuli

o i.e. female birds’ choices of males were large dummy birds, even though they were larger than any natural male bird

  • Fixed Action Patterns (FAP)
    • Response that key stimulus releases; not influenced by learning o 4 properties:
      1. Stereotyped: behaviour is usually rigid
      2. Independent of immediate control: once FAP is activated, it continues even if external environment changes
    • Taxes: behaviour that is unlearned like FAPs, but responsive to environmental changes, unlike FAPs
      1. Spontaneous: when enough energy builds up, behaviour may occur in vacuo/vacuum activity: without being released by key stimulus
      2. Independent of learning: FAPs cannot change through learning

Intention Movements and Social Releasers

  • Intention movements: low-intensity, incomplete responses, indicating energy is beginning to build up in instinctive behaviour system; observed before FAP occurs o Can become social releasers over evolutionary history of species
  • Ritualization: intention movements begin to serve communicative function through this process
  • Believed that humans make intention movements i.e. in beginning of social interaction, people stand w/weight in = distribution, but in the end, we slouch to one side  seen as intention movement for departure o Adaptive b/c recognizing motivational intent for person is advantageous

Motivational Conflict

  • Conflict behaviour: which FAP occurs if 2 key stimuli are present at same time; 4 categories:
  1. Successive ambivalent behaviour: alternation of incomplete responses showing 2 motivational states i.e. bird alternating between attack and escape when approached by predator
  2. Simultaneous ambivalent behaviour: both motivational states are expressed in behaviour at same time i.e. bird runs to escape and attacks at same time
  3. Redirected behaviour: appropriate responses (i.e. attack) occur, but not to appropriate object b/c of conflicting motive (i.e. fear) i.e. child punished by parent takes it out on pet
  4. Ethological displacement: 2 equally strong motives are in conflict and inhibit each other i.e. motives of attack and escape balance each other out and may lead to displacement

Reaction Chains

Alternating key stimuli and FAPs in certain sequence until behaviour comes to end; release of FAP  next stimuli appears

o i.e. female appears (stimuli)  male dances (response)  female enters nest (stimuli)  male trembles (response)- eventually fertilize eggs

  • Instinct-conditioning intercalation: sometimes there are gaps in chains of behaviour that are filled by learning behaviours i.e. imprinting: series of instinctive and learned behaviours

Imprinting

  • Socialization process where young organism forms attachment to parents
  • Includes instinctive and learned components i.e. child follows parents = learned vs. child gets attached to parents = instinctive
  • Characteristics of imprinting by Lorenz: (1) sensitive period: attachment process only occurs in this limited period, (2) permanent and irreversible and (3) occurs automatically: independent from reward

Criticisms of the Classical Ethological Approach

  1. Distinction between learned and instinctive behaviours is not clear (like w/early instinctive theories)
  2. Criticize energy concepts: argued that displacement and vacuum activity can be explained by assuming hierarchy of responses, w/some responses more likely than others

Some Modifications to the Basic Ideas of Ethology

  • According to Mayer, program is a series of genetically determined behaviours; open program: can be modified by experience vs. closed program: cannot; it is instinct
  • Open program concept is similar to preparedness concept o Prepared behaviours: not instinctive nor easily learned; organisms with these genes are favoured to survive

o Contraprepared behaviours: almost impossible to learn b/c they were

“prepared against” during evolutionary history of organism o Unprepared behaviours: involve associations between events in environment and appropriate responding

Human Ethology (know all)

  • Eibl-Eibesfeldt: did much of research on human instinctive behaviour patterns
  • Facial Expressions
    • Many are universal and not learned i.e. smiling, laughing, frowning, etc.
    • Eyebrow flick: brief lifting of eyebrow when greeting someone; shown in 3 cultures o Example of appeasement gesture: behaviours that prevent aggressive behaviour in social situations between more dominant and less dominant animal

Of 6 facial expressions, happiness and surprise were easiest to recognize; observers’ judgments were more accurate for M than F expressions

 

  • Shyness
    • Has genetic basis expressed in differences in arousability o Children w/low threshold of arousability: more likely to be inhibited in social situations

o Inherited tendency toward shyness needs some form of chronic environmental stress to cause it to develop: being born later = exposed to stress of older siblings (may take toys, tease or sell) = sufficient stress to trigger behavioural inhibition

  • Genetically determined predispositions to behave in certain way usually still need appropriate environmental circumstances for their expression
  • Some monkeys are genetically predisposed to react to separation w/depressed behaviours and high levels of stress o Presence of supportive friends and mothers can reduce stress make by separation from biological mother
  • Additional Innate Behaviours
    • Key stimuli that release instinctive behaviour: infant’s facial features (i.e. chubby cheeks) release “cuddling” (nurturing behaviours)
    • Neoteny: retention of juvenile traits into adulthood o Adult humans are more neotenous when compared to other primates; adaptive b/c increases likelihood of helping behaviour from others
    • In many animal species, infants look very diff than adult- appearance of young happens b/c it was adaptive b/c differences help young animals survive o e. differences in color from adult: help protect young from predators b/c camouflage
      • e. differences in physical characteristics from adults inhibit aggression by adults toward young b/c provide them safety from conflict they cannot win
      • e. differences in appearance of young elicit caretaking behaviour from adults where parental care is necessary for survival of young
    • Flirting behaviour: ritualized foreplay involving flight; common in mating o Example is “hair flipping”: behaviour in females to get male attention to female hair, which is signal of youth and fertility
    • Kissing: ritualized form of feeding behaviour derived from feeding of infant o In past, it was common for parents to chew food and put it into child’s mouth w/tongue (b/c no packaged food at the time)
    • Baby talk: how lovers sometimes talk to each other b/c it elicits cherishing behaviour, like with child = strengthens bond between lovers
    • Humans use same basic behaviour used by chimps when threatening attack or making fighting movement o e. chimps and humans stamp feet when angry
  • Staring
    • Type of eye contact
    • Innate threat gesture as it is used in primates as threat gesture
    • Considered rude b/c we innately recognize it as an intention movement indicating potential attack
    • Eye contact has many functions (not just threat) i.e. communicates feelings
    • There are patterns of behaviour specific to depression i.e. social behaviours are low before treatment
    • Ethological behaviours could be useful for assessing maladaptive behaviours (i.e. depression) and providing objective alternative method of assessment separate from clinical interview, which can be useful for determining effects of diff treatments
  • Speech
    • May be genetic component to speech b/c sensitive periods are genetically controlled
    • Language is biologically constrained: children only imitate sounds in speech (not all sounds they hear)
    • Phonetic module: evolved to analyze auditory info and extracts info needed for determination of phonetic gestures/segments
    • Certain speech cues are innate and serve as key stimuli
    • Phonetic social releaser system: allows us to “read between the lines

Ethological Concepts Concerning Sex and Aggression

  • Sexual activity and aggressive behaviour (adaptive) are viewed by ethologists as innate
  • 2 major types of aggressive behaviour:
  1. Interspecific: between members of diff species; categories:
  2. Predatory attack: food-getting behaviour characterized by lack of emotionality o Equilibrium usually occurs between predator and prey so extinction is not common
  3. Mobbing behaviour: prey turn tables on predator and attack it as a group
  4. Critical reaction: intense behaviour motivated by fear and instigated by inability to escape; occurs when cornered animal is approached closer than a critical distance
  5. Intraspecific: aggressive behaviour between members of same species – 3 advantages of intraspecific aggression:
  6. Spread out members more evenly over given area: gives better chance of survival for each member

o Most important advantage b/c gives enough territory for breeding and food-gathering

  • Provides strongest animals w/best territories and first choice of mates
  • Protection of the young from predators

–     Ritualized tournaments: conflicts between conspecifics are involved in this

Modern Ethological Approaches

Behavioral Ethology

  • Relationship between behaviours and environments where they occur; usually behaviours are partly under genetic control, but sometimes learned behaviours are studies too

Cognitive Ethology

  • How animals interpret info/study of animal mind – 2 approaches:
  1. Emphasizes cognitive info processing capabilities of animals without making assumptions about whether processing is conscious and intended
  2. Animals have some limited conscience of what they do, although that awareness may not be equivalent to human
  • e. marking test: after practicing viewing themselves in a mirror, chimps touch mark placed on their head that is only visible from the mirror

Evolutionary Psychology

  • Analysis of human mind as collection of evolved mechanisms

Adaptive problems: evolved mechanisms help resolve these