Product Description
Why do animals--or people--behave as they do? The author examines the main aspects of ethology, believing that an ethological approach is important for many other sciences, both biological sciences and human social sciences. ... Read more

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First published in 1976, this volume is a collection of essays by some of the most prominent and active ethologists. It is organized into four sections: motivation and perception, function and evolution, development, and human social relationships. The first three sections reflect the four questions which are basic to ethology: what were the immediate causes of a behaviour pattern; what is its biological function; how did it evolve; and how did it develop in the individual? The last section involves questions of all four types. The sections are introduced and linked by editorials and the book concludes with an important statement on asking the right questions. The essays are forward looking and identify areas of importance for the study of behaviour. The volume is a source of formative ideas for students, their teachers and research workers in a wide variety of disciplines in the biological psychological and social sciences. ... Read more

Product Description
This dictionary covers the discoveries and theories that have evolved to explain the behavior of nonhuman animals, concentrating particularly on ethological ideas and on studies of animals in their natural habitat. The entries discuss basic organic processes as well as the more social topics, and provide thorough coverage of the development of the ideas and approaches of ethologists, sociobiologists, and learning theorists. There are articles on such topics as conditioning, reinforcement, and preparedness.Dictionary of Animal Behavior and Learning is one of four dictionaries based on the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology, published by The MIT Press in 1983 and cited by American Libraries as an "outstanding reference source" that "speaks to the specialist and nonspecialist alike." They update existing articles while offering many new entries.Rom Narré is a Lecturer in the Philosophy of Science at Oxford University and an Adjunct Professor of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Roger Lamb is a research worker in the Department of Social Psychology at Oxford University. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume is perhaps best characterised by itsinterdisciplinary nature and reliance on an eclectic range ofapproaches. One theme that naturally emerges from the collected essaysis that of causation versus analogy. Phenomena defined at multiplelevels can in principle be studied in two ways -- vertically andhorizontally. The vertical strategy directly specifies causalrelations holding between levels, whereas the horizontal approachlooks for parallels between levels, seeking to isolate shared causalproperties. One of the essays here stands directly for the verticalstrategy, while another warns explicitly against the perils of a looseselectionist analogy among levels. Other parallels between evolutionand culture are probed, calling attention to the general limits ofanalogy, or carefully noting the respects in which the proposedanalogy is expected to break down. The other themes of economics,optimisation, and stability, when not explicitly mentioned, lurk inthe background of any treatment of culture and behaviour in relationto natural selection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Historical interest
Readers should note the 1972 publication date and be aware that this item is primarily of historical interest for students of changing concepts of mental illness. The book is not a useful contribution to modern studies of pervasive developmental disorders, as it was written before genetic factors were strongly suspected and before early detection of autism was considered possible. It should be noted that the Tinbergens, in their later volume on this subject, acknowledged that the ethological approach to treatment of autism was quite speculative.

Definitely a Must Miss!
Suggesting that autistic behavior is akin to bird behavior and the book's equally ridiculous theory of enforced hugging for people with autism is truly for the birds. There are enough holes in the theories presented herein to drive a fleet of trucks through. Enforced hugging is just an emotional elixir in many cases.Donna Williams addresses this issue and rightfully so in her book, "Autism: An Inside-Out Approach" wherein she says that for many people with autism, enforced hugging meets the hugger's need only.Recent works on autism, such as the excellent books Williams has written address the issue of respecting the rights of people who neither like nor want hugs.Hugging/holding then becomes a self-serving method that teaches force and compliance.Those forced to endure this outwardly comply, hoping it will end. It becomes yet another indignity people with autism are forced to endure.

The Tinbergens compare people with autism to birds. The main thrust of their argument is the negative and destractive "blame the mother" routine for failing to bond with the child with autism during the child's first year of life. Baloney! The book also claims that people with autism refuse to speak. That is not true in every case. There are some cases where there are physical limitations that preclude speech; some people with autism find it difficult to synthesize sensory stimuli and sort out sounds of speech into meaningful units; still others find just ordinary speaking tones too loud and confusing.There are also many people with autism who are verbal and conversant. Communication is an inherent part of life; suggesting that anyone chooses to be autistic or makes their child(ren) autistic is to do a grave disservice to all.It also isn't true.

I did not like the pompous claim that enforced hugging was a panacea for all behavioral and communication difficulties. If that were the case, everybody directly involved with someone with autism would be doing this and basking in the 100% claim rate.If indeed that were the case, nobody would have autism today!The sheer illogic and utter audacity of the entire premise is shocking!Autism is NOT psychological, although the behaviors and responses to same often result in pyschological issues. Autism IS a neurobiological condition that affects sensory processing/integration and communication to varying degrees. Not all people with autism are nonverbal and not all people with autism fail to thrive. Not all intelligent people with autism who excel in certain areas or special interests fall into the stereotypical savant category.The same could be said of the neurotypical population.

The topper for me was when mothers were told to vent anger at their children for not responding to them. It sounds so cruel to turn what is supposed to be loving into something punitive and unpleasant. I was thoroughly disgusted with the way people were told to yell at their children and, in effect demand their children patch up their wounded egos. That is not the responsibility of any child. It is only natural for the children involved to view this type of hugging as a punishment replete with blame and restraint. It is hard to justify this as being "loving" when the outward behavior is anything but. That literally made me wince!

The other thing that bothered me is that while mothers are being blamed for their child(ren) having autism, a similar burden is being lain across their shoulders. The enforced hugging routine is purported to be a cure and so by "embracing" this approach, mothers can miraculously "cure" their children. Baloney!Just consider the grandiose claims of this book!

This book and enforced hugging is indeed for the birds. In fact, the expression "for the birds" comes from horses passing seeds through their manure. Birds would peck at the seeds, and so the term "for the birds" has come to mean of minimal value and usually from a very questionable source. This book really is for the birds. ... Read more

Product Description
This book is the result of a collaboration between a biologist and a mathematician. In recent years, different mathematical methods have been used more and more extensively in biology, beyond the applications of common statistical tests that are routinely employed in biological studies. In ecology, for instance, many new measures of diversity have been proposed and used in applications. Some of them are simply proposals without a solid mathematical justification and motivation. Furthermore, when there are too many measures of the same concept, the relationship between these different measures can be confusing. The book deals with the entropic measures of uncertainty, diversity, and interdependence. After all these years, the Shannon entropy, introduced in 1948 as the discrete analogue of Boltzmann's famous H-function from statistical mechanics, has remained the only measure of the amount of uncertainty contained by a probabilistic experiment which not only has all the properties expected from such a measure, but also satisfies a uniqueness theorem proving that its mathematical expression is the only one for which these basic properties hold.More recently, other useful measures, such as the relative or conditional entropy, weighted entropy, and the entropic measure of inner and global connection and interdependence, have been derived from ingenious combinations, extensions, and generalizations of Shannon's absolute discrete entropy. This book combines a rigorous mathematical approach to these entropic measures and their applications to the fields of ecology and ethology with a presentation accessible to readers who are not mathematicians. Those who lack a mathematical background may skip the more detailed justifications of the mathematical statements and formulas. The main concepts and algorithms, however, are meant for all readers interested in using these mathematical tools in ecology and ethology. ... Read more

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In recent years, valuable new insight has been gained into the often complex effects which drugs have on behaviour. Here, an international group of contributors provide an authoritative and interesting account of contemporary studies in the interdisciplinary arena of ethology and psychopharmacology. They describe up-to-the-minute research in many areas where ethopharmacological analysis has made an enormous impactmost particularly in the study of anxiety, depression, aggression and defence. This work will be of value to psychologists and psychopharmacologists at research, graduate and senior undergraduate level and to those wishing to evaluate current work in this important field. ... Read more

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This book is an autobiographical account of many of the personalities and controversies - from the McCarthyism of the 1950s to the socio-biology battles of the 1970s - that have accompanied the development of animal behaviour studies from a mere branch of ecology or psychology into an independent discipline. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: antbase.org in 1908 in 40 pages; Subjects: Drama / General; Fiction / Classics; Language Arts ... Read more

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Contributed articles. ... Read more

Product Description
This is an OCR edition without illustrations or index. It may have numerous typos or missing text. However, purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original rare book from the publisher's website (GeneralBooksClub.com). You can also preview excerpts of the book there. Purchasers are also entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Original Published by: E. Mathews in 1906 in 63 pages; Subjects: Child rearing; Moral education; Education / Aims ... Read more