BIOL 307 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Behavioral Ecology, Sociobiology, Inclusive Fitness
7 Jun 2019
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Document Summary
History of the field - behavioural ecology: the main current approach to animal behaviour, used to be sociobiology and behavioural ecology. Sociobiology had a bad name (right wing people used i to be racist) Fixed behaviours controlled by "instinctively (pre-programmed genetically at birth) determined drives and stimuli (as opposed to costs and benefits). In their interactions with behaviorsim, ethologists focused on learning that was constrained by genetic pre-programming. Behaviourism: focused on learned responses controlled by association with reinforcers and stimuli. Flexible strategies (based on functional costs/benefits) and its ability to make quantitative predictions. Behaviour - evolved strategies that maximize inclusive fitness (based on costs and benefits: can be energetic in short run, genetic in the long run. "strategies" - focuses on flexible decisions (but not in the conscious sense) adjusted to varying costs/benefits. Anecdotes bad - need experiments: a lot of people: weren"t interested in working in a lab (wanted to be outdoors, ethology: based on different methods.
