ETHOLOGY and SOCIOBIOLOGY EEB / Psych 370

1. . ETHOLOGY and SOCIOBIOLOGYEEB / Psych 370

2. SUBJECT MATTER: WE ARE PURSUING insight into the causes and consequences of behavioral patterns ... GOALS: 1. Understand the NEEDS served by the study of animal behavior -- the "hierarchy of needs" in contemporary as well as historical terms LINK to quick review of NEEDS that all organisms must meet

3. GOAL 2. Understand the KEY CONCEPTS that inform the INTEGRATIVE BIOLOGICAL approaches to gaining insight into the causes and consequences of behavioral patterns. • "proximate" and "ultimate" causes and consequences • "validity" ("internal" and "external" validity) and "reliability" as sources of confidence in beliefs • "DETERMINISM" as underlying sources of behavior (as in "genetic" and "environmental" or "innate and "acquired" or "instinct" and "acquired") • "open" and "closed" genetic programs and "epigenesis“ • Anthropomorphism (anthropocentrism) • LINK to overview of causes /consequences, determinism, epigenesis

4. 3. Understand the ELEMENTS of the biological perspectives that are INTEGRATED to engender creative ETHOLOGICAL understanding • "DEEP ethology" is a nickname for the integrative approach to gaining insight and solving problems related to the causes and consequences of behavior. • It begins with an understanding of the central subject matter of sciences that emphasize the • development, • ecology, • evolution, and • physiology • of behavior. • LINK to "integrative ethology and the DEEP approach“

5. ETHOLOGY: An Integrative Approach to Animal Behavior PERSPECTIVES: Determinism involves establishing “what is more-or-less fixed and flexible in the expression of a behavioral pattern?”

6. DETERMINISM Variables determining behavior are rarely exclusively Biological (“genetic” or “nature”) or Environmental (“ecology” or “nurture”) They are usually a combination: Epigenetic: reflecting the cascade of interacting genetic and environmental variables

7. ETHOLOGY: An Integrative Approach to Animal Behavior PERSPECTIVES: • Genes respond to specific aspects of their internal environments: • These can be due to developmental change, or change in the environment affecting the body. • Epigenetics is the science that addresses the interaction of these biological and environmental variables. • A SEQUENCE of genetic responses (the “genetic programme”) can be more-or-less OPEN or CLOSED

8. ETHOLOGY: An Integrative Approach to Animal Behavior PERSPECTIVES: Causes and consequences of behavior are both “proximate” and “ultimate” “Why are you taking notes?” Proximate causes and consequences are generally within the body as it develops and responds to meeting needs Ultimate causes and consequences generally involve the transgenerational origins and destinies of traits that help organisms meet needs

9. ETHOLOGY: An Integrative Approach to Animal Behavior PERSPECTIVES: DEEP ethology: the converging of disciplines that ask complementary questions involving relevant biological variables

10. DEEP Ethology When the best possible Description is developed THEN the questions and methods of several biological disciplines can be used: • Development • Ecology • Evolution • Physiology

11. DESCRIPTION • DESCRIPTION can begin with MORPHOLOGY: The structures –from cells to systems to body form that act in the world • Anatomy, cytology . . . • The structural “phenotype” • Objective description of behavior emphasizing the parts of the body involved

12. Development • The progressive changes in the nature of an organism often occurs in phases. • Ontogeny: The delicate stages requiring great stability occurs in a protected environment (egg, womb) • Experience: The flexible stage that must adjust to the vagaries of a less protected environment (the world with which one must cope) The TIMING of transitions (e.g., surges in brain growth or musculature, birth, sexual maturation …), both CAUSE and are CAUSED by “programmed” development and/or experiences in the environment.

13. Development • All changes in organisms (including their development) can be traced back to the activation or suppression of genes. • Genomics: Between the activation of a gene and the consequences for the organism, there are typically many steps, most of which involve protein synthesis. • Proteomics: There are far more proteins than genes. Activating a gene initiates a cascade of effects some of which are “collateral” effects, side-effects.

14. Ecology • The environment generally thought of as INTERNAL as well as EXTERNAL to the organism … • EXTERNAL: • ABIOTIC: ecosystem: geology, climate . . . • BIOTIC: , competitors within and between species, predators, prey, conspecifics … family • INTERNAL: physiological variables that sustain growth and maintain internal stability (homeostasis) • EPIGENESIS: genes and the ENVIRONMENT interact, resulting in the manifest form (morphology) and behavior of the living organism

15. Ecology • THE ENVIRONMENT is the “editor” of traits (“natural selection”); “selection pressure” It is the context in which animals MEET THEIR NEEDS: traits will determine success of an organism in coping (or not) with challenges to meeting needs. • The environment in which the organism is born develops, prospers, and dies. • Context of life: internal (the milieu interieur) and external(climate and geology) • Determines “Fitness” (direct, indirect, inclusive)

16. Evolution • The ultimate causation (and consequence) of behavior. • Involves transmission of information across generations. • Genetics:Genes are biological units of inheritance. The program by which they are translated into manifest “phenotype” can be “open” or “closed” with respect to the influence of the environment. Most traits are “polygenic,” most genes are “pleiotropic.” • Memetics: Memes are “cultural units of inheritance” such as words, ideas fashions . . . A key idea of SOCIOBIOLOGY • Epigenetics: interaction of genes and environment

17. Evolution • Darwin’s observations: • 1. overproduction. Species overproduce young • 2. stability. Populations in nature remain stable • 3. limited resources. Resources are limited • 4. variability. Individual young are variable • 5. inheritability. Variability can be inherited • Inferences: • Struggle for survival among individuals (or between individuals and their environments) • DIFFERENTIAL SURVIVAL and REPRODUCTION (=natural selection) • Changes accrue over many generations

18. Physiology • Neurobiology • Endocrinology • Their interactions The nervous systems work with the endocrine system to help the organism cope with its NEEDS –most of which are created by the changing internal and external environments INPUT – INTEGRATION OUTPUT

19. Physiology • The proximate causation (and consequence) of behavior. • In the long run, this requires a stabile milieu interieurmaintained by homeostasis –the dynamic balance of multiple systems • Maintaining this stability a a common cause of behavior • Neurology: Central and peripheral nervous systems • Endocrinology: The glands and hormones that can be stimulated by the nervous system but also feed back to affect the nervous system

20. QUESTIONS Insight into the causes and consequences of behavior is derived from attempting to answer questions. Each of the biological disciplines that converge in DEEP Ethology ask different questions and investigate mechanisms in different ways. Good ethology is a matter of asking good questions !

21. QUESTIONS TRICK QUESTIONS: • Where do questions come from? • Where do GOOD questions come from? Hint: mystery comes knowledge: the more you know, the more you are aware of what you do not know! Science is an “engine of mystery.”

22. "Our life is an appenticeship to the truth that around every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in nature, but every end is a beginning, and under every deep a lower deep opens" --Ralph Waldo Emerson