PSY352H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Ethology, Comparative Psychology, Natural Selection
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Lecture 1
Evolution: random genetic drift
• a change in the frequency of genes in the population from one generation to the next
• Natural selection is not the only way for evolution to occur
• Genetic drift can also cause evolution
o One disaster that wipes out a specific allele expression and the next generation
does not represent the overall population
What is behaviour
• Behaviour is the subject’s movement in space and time (methodological definition)
o When measuring behavior we quantify it as objectively as possible, eg. Using
visual tracking systems, timing the movement of the animal
o The subject qualification of the behavoiur is the interpretive aspect of monitoring
the behavior
• The organisms response to something
• Behaviour is the window to the brain (experimental neuroscientist’s definition)
• Behaviour is the output of the brain
o How neurons function in the brain
o But before scientists though behavior was much more spiritual in nature
• Even the most complex behavioural phenomena are the result of the functioning of the
nervous system
Psychology and biology
• Psychology deals with numerous aspects of animal and human behaviour.
• Psychology traditionally belonged to Social Sciences and sometimes treated the brain as a
“black box”.
• Nowadays the discipline is regarded as part of Natural Sciences and psychology uses
numerous concepts and methods of biology.
• If you have knowledge about biology it gives you a tool, to see behavior in another way
Two fundamentally distinct questions
• Proximate question (phenogenetic causation)
o Concerns the biological & physiological mechanisms of behaviour.
o That is: “How do things work?”
o Dissecting the mechanisms of begavioru to answer the question how things work
• Ultimate question (phylogenetic causation)
o Concerns the evolution and adaptive aspect of behaviour.
o That is: “How did it come about?”
o What are their adaptive function and why are they there
o How does it allow the organism to cope with their environmental conditions
This course
• This course will explore both the proximate (mechanistic) and the ultimate (evolutionary)
aspects of behaviour.
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