Kiko Tinbergen stood out for his study of fish instinct.
The study of the behavior of people or animals is called ethology . It is a scientific discipline oriented to the analysis of behavior and character .
In psychology and zoology
Ethology, therefore, can be framed in the work area of psychology or zoology . The expert in these matters is known as an ethologist .
It is important to keep in mind, however, that ethology is usually linked to animal behavior in relation to its environment . Although the human being can be considered an animal and, therefore, is part of the object of study of ethology, in this case human ethology is usually spoken of as a differentiated branch of psychology.
At a general level, ethology investigates instinct , innate actions , learned activities and the relationship between species and the environment . In this way, knowledge can be generated about social bonds, mating and the aggressiveness of animals , to mention a few possibilities.
Objectives of ethology
One of the goals of ethology is to determine the cause of a behavior . This reason can be internal (physiological) or external (social). In this sense, ethology focuses on behavior to discover if it is something given by genetics or, on the other hand, if it is learned. Many times, however, the innate is combined with the result of learning .
Another focus of interest for ethology is the consciousness of animals. Specialists try to define whether the species they study have different levels of consciousness even when they are not human beings. This generates a debate that is so far impossible to conclude, and that many consider unfair, since it only accepts the point of view of our species to judge others.
History
To understand the origins of ethology we must go back to the beginning of the 20th century, when the so-called comparative psychology appeared, which focused on studying the capabilities and behavior of various animal species, including ours. In this framework, we must talk about behaviorism , an experimental study that did not include introspection or consciousness. Specialists in this field used comparative psychology until 1973, when ethology began to gain more importance.
The milestone that changed the view on ethology was the awarding of the Nobel Prize to Kiko Tinbergen, Karl R. von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their work on animal behavior. From then on, comparative psychology began to form part of ethology, which rose to the rank of a full-fledged science . On the European continent, this research focused on instinct and field studies. Among the most notable works we can mention the following: Tinbergen and his study on the instinct of fish; von Frisch and bee communication; Lorenz on geese and imprinting.
Karl R. von Frisch focused on bee communication.
Pillars of ethology
First of all, ethology focuses on the causes that directly influence the behavior of species, which can be internal or external, as mentioned above. These two points of view oppose each other and, depending on the study, "cancel" each other, since they do not take into account the other's motives.
Development is another of the key points of ethology. In this case, it is about including past situations to understand present ones, as an inevitable succession of events. Another pillar is evolution , more precisely the selection of certain behaviors, trying to understand the advantages it represents for the species. Finally we have phylogenetics , which tries to find out at what point in the evolution of a given species each behavior appears.