PSYO 2160 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Optimality Theory, Sociobiology, Ethology
8 Jan 2018
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Sociobiology: mix of ethology (with focus on ultimate questions) looking at animals in natural habitat but also looking at social systems. Look into evolution, genetics, and population biology: how natural selection has selected for social behaviours: mating patterns, hunting behaviour, territoriality, hive behaviour. Look up pg 24: controversial because people tried to compare animal findings with humans then linked with eugenics. Influenced by comparative animal psychology: why animals behaved in a certain way based on their social pressures. Approaches to studying animal behaviour: conceptual approaches (kin selection), empirical approaches (experimental vs observational) (correlation doesn"t equal causation), theoretical approaches uses mathematical model (optimality theory or game theory) Came up with fundamental in animal behaviour (four legs of. For, how behaviour benefits individual"s ability to survive and reproduce). Have to answer all four questions to understand behaviour: ex. Monarch: poikilotherm, ectotherm, take heat from outside, can"t regulate internal temperature. Eat milkweed (poisonous: live in ns due to milkweed abundance.
