Classifications of Behavior - Instincts


See Rick Duhrkopf on animal behavior.

The problem of instinctive versus learned behavioral classifications

One of the oldest debates in philosophy is the relative roles of instinct and experience in determining human behavior. Darwin was the first to propose an objective definition of instinct . Lorenz and Tinbergen's concepts of instinct were derived from Darwin's Innate behavior Learning. The distinction between instinct and learning implies nothing whatsoever about the relative importance of heredity and environment in the development of behavior.
 

A better system of classification of behavior involves the extent to which the development of the behavior is restricted by the interactions of an individual with the environment:


Restricted developmental programs result in behavior patterns that are the developmental outcome of a process that appears to be highly channeled, requiring a minimum of sensory experience. These behaviors appear fully formed and functional at the first occurrence of the appropriate stimulus.

Innate releasing mechanisms are a classical concept of Lorenz and Tinbergen .

Lorenz and Tinbergen established ethology as a recognized subdiscipline of biology with its own journal, Ethology (originally called by its German name Zeitschrift fur Tierpsychologie), professional meetings, and a body of researchers who considered themselves specialists in ethology. (See Colin Allen on the rise of ethology)


 

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