Ethology

The ethology étymologiquement means “ science of manners ” ( ethos : “manners”, logos : “study/science”). It is acted in fact of the study of the Comportement Animal such as it can be observed in the wild animal in natural environment, of animals in captivity, or in the pet. One locates the origins of this science at the 17th century, but the name goes back to 1854 (first known use by Etienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1772-1844)).
Le restricted and modern direction given to the word ethology refers to a more recent science: it is about the objective and scientific study of the animal behaviors. It is in particular inspired by work of Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) and Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907-1988) in first half of the 20th century.
Il is necessary moreover include in this significance the behavioral study of the human beings and the relations man-animal. The basic principle of the ethology being using a biological prospect to explain the behavior, this science is also called “Biologie of the behavior”. In the field of this discipline appeared or are used the ethology constructivist, the computational ethology, behavioral ecology, which are based in particular on the behaviorism, behaviorism and of many disciplines.

History

See the detailed article History of the ethology.

Principles of the modern ethology

The modern ethology is the heiress of work of Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch (which accepted the Nobel Prize of medicine in 1973). This part into present the principles while following the step exposed by Konrad Lorenz in its work bases of the ethology .

In a sentence, one can say that the ethology is the study of the behaviors common to a species, independent of the training by imitation between congeneric, those of the same species.

At the time where it works out its theory, Konrad Lorenz distinguishes two universities from thought which are opposed radically:

  • the school behaviorist , which insists on the adaptation of the animals to their environment and the acquisition of their behaviors by the training (certain behaviorists deny the existence of innate behaviors);
  • the school of the Psychologie finalist , according to which the behaviors of the animals are entirely instinctive, those pursuing nevertheless a “supra-natural” goal laid down by an infallible instinct.

The starting point of Konrad Lorenz is to make an anatomical study compared of the behavior of the animals (what was new), just like one made at the same time a study morphological characters. It notes whereas there exist driving behaviors (for example movements of Pariade S) of which the similarities or the differences in one species to the other arise same manner exactly as the morphological characters, in spite of the environmental differences or effects of the life in captivity. According to Konrad Lorenz, these Comportement S engines constitutes specific characters of a species and their similarities or differences cannot be explained differently than by their descent of a common ancestral form.

It thus arrives at the conclusion that certain behaviors are registered in the Génome animals; they are instinctive, and even if the animal is able to pursue a certain goal by a behavior adapted and variable (generally survival), that has nothing to do with a significance Téléonomique such as the finalists conceived it.

But it does not summarize either the behavior of an animal to a sequence of Réflexe S, which would be instinctive reactions to external Stimuli. Konrad Lorenz highlights the fact that the behaviors have a base independent Physiologique. According to him, they rest on a mechanism of central coordination and a production Endogène of excitation, which make it possible to answer the stimuli of the environment selectively by filtering them. As long as a behavior is not used, it is inhibited by the physiological apparatus, which one represents in the form of a “threshold of activation”. A behavior starts only by the conjunction of a high internal excitation and an external stimulus correspondent who causes the going beyond of this threshold of activation. It is the innate Mécanisme of release Co-invented with Nikolaas Tinbergen.

To that mechanisms of training are added who modify these thresholds. Indeed, Konrad Lorenz notes that the animals arrive to an adaptive improvement their behavioral mechanisms. The explanation which he proposes is that the reaction conditioned with a stimulus belongs to a regulating cycle, in which the success or the failure of the conditioned behavior acts on its factor release, the threshold of activation. That thus allows the checking of its adaptive value (is favorable or not to the conservation of the species?) and consequently its encouragement or its suppression by modification of the threshold of activation. There is thus a direct link between the success of a behavioral sequence and its future release. One finds here an aspect of the theory darwinienne of the evolution.

The behavior of the animals is thus very complex, and its study should not be based on an opposition between the concepts of Inné (that which a being has with its birth) and of Acquis (what is learned after the birth) as supposed it the majority of the ethologists, but on their coexistence within the Psychisme of the animal.

Methods and means

See the detailed article Methods and means of the modern ethology.

Some precursors of the modern ethology

Doctrines (last and current)

Mechanism (Descartes: the animals are machines)
Comportement controlled by the Instinct (beginning of the XXe century)
Behaviorisme (John Broadus Watson, Edward Thorndike: behavior controlled by reflexes)
Doctrines of Pavlov: the conditioned reflexes
modern Ethology (Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen: observation objectifies under natural conditions)
Behavioral ethology (Amotz Zahavi inter alia)
Théorie of the Social sciences

Methodologies inspired of the ethology

Today, the ethology opens new ways including in the relation between the Men. Bruno Marchal, for example, developed a methodology which allows by observing the man-horse ratio to improve the relationship between the men. It found analogies interesting which allow metaphors making it possible to include/understand and to improve the relations in the company or the couple.

The animal Behavior

the Bases of the behavior in the animals
the Methods of training in the animals
the Behaviors of the individual in the animals
the social Behaviors in the animals
the collective Behaviors in the animals
the social Reports/ratios in the animals
the Aggressiveness in the animals
the social Groups and structures in the animals
the Behaviors relating to the reproduction in the animals
the Relationship between the individuals of animal species

Internal bonds

External bonds

  • Site of the CEHC - Behavioral Human Ethology, rested by Mr. Christian Moreau, neurobiologist.

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