Another principle is that animal models establish a base from which to consider human behaviour. Animal research is useful for the exploration of human behaviour. The third principle is that there are biological correlates of behaviour. The implication of this is that it should be possible to find a link between a specific biological factor (e.g. hormone) and a specific behaviour, and this is the aim of researchers working at the biological level of analysis.
Raine also did this on 'normal subjects' to test if there were any differences. Using this method of experimentation, Raine was able to ignore the external factors and look at the innate factors, such as brain activity, indicating whether or not a person would exhibit different behaviours. Another example that relates the biological factors to the concept of determinism is Lorenz imprinting. The Lorenz concept was supported by the idea of determinism, in a way that the image of the first moving stimuli a baby/newborn animal would be 'imprinted' into their brain. This is related to the biological perspective as 'imprinting' images into a brain links to how the newborn organism would act (innate behaviour).
Firstly the Comparative method different species of animal can be studied and compared. Secondly physiology “how the nervous system and hormones work, how the brain functions, how changes in structure or function can affect behaviour” (McLeod, S. 2007). Thirdly Investigation of inheritance, what an animal inherits from its parents, mechanisms of inheritance (genetics). For example one might want to know whether high intelligence is inherited from one generation to the next. Biological brought scientist like James Olds, with the help of Hess's technique for probing the brain and Skinner's for measuring motivation, have a series of experiments.
Proximal causes refer to environmental, physiological, or internal motivation states that serve as direct causes for behavior. Ontogenetic causes refer to personal experiences or developmental history that may directly influence or rationalize a behavior. Evolutionary causes refer to natural selection and point to changes in genetic variation and differences in fitness over time that have shaped phenotype. In this way, Tinbergen’s theoretical framework works to describe and interpret behavior. In the book A Primate’s Memoir, Sapolsky describes many social behaviors he encountered while conducting fieldwork in East Africa.
Does the chimpanzee have a theory of mind? Theory of mind is a term coined by Premack and Woodruff referring to the ability to attribute mental states and interpret behavior of others. It is the understanding that not everyone knows and thinks the same, highlighting behavior such as deceit, imagination and communication. Research has shown that children display an early understanding of a theory of mind, from around age four. However researchers were also interested in whether close relatives, such as apes, also have a theory of mind.
The nature theory goes further in describing in more detail that intelligence, aggression, and even personality are also in an individual’s DNA. Some scientists believe people act out what they see, as far as their behavior, and everyday life, others believe that people behave in certain ways because of how they are taught, which is a learned behavior. The balance of nature and nurture, in influencing how a child grows up varies depending on where they live. Researchers are now studying the effects of a person’s environment, and how strong certain environmental factors are determining each characteristic. The study is showing the surrounding in which a child is brought up may have different changes on specific biological processes in the body.
Bronfenbrenner Ecology theory has been renamed by some as the bioecological systems theory. The name changed came about so that people will better understand that a child’s own biological surroundings are stimulated by the associations between the child and the environment they are in. For example family/community (Addison 1992). Bronfenbrenner believe that it if you want to learn the development of a child you must not only look at their immediate surrounds and environment you must look at the interaction of their entire environment as well. Bronfenbrenner’s identifies four systems that have a active role in the development of a child the microsystem, the mesosystem, the ecosystems, and the macrosystem.
Article 3(Klinger) Children's Perceptions of Aggressive and Gender-Specific Content in toy commercials. All commercials target a certain audience for either boys or girls. In a study from the article, it said that Both girl and boys rated male toys as the more desirable and most aggressive of toys than female ones. This can be concerning since toys for kids are going to appeal to a child differently. A girl could like boy toys more, where a boy could like girl toys.
* Physiology - _The branch of biology that describes the functions of living organisms and their parts_ * Mirror Neurons: May play a vital role in the ability to learn from and empathize with another person. A neuron that fires when an animal (or person) performs an action or when the animal observes someone else perform the same action. Your mirror neurons fire as though it was you who had actually been doing the action * Gallese (1996)-Mirror Neurons Aim: Conducted research on motor neurons Because neural messages are electrical, they were able to hear the crackle of electrical signal when neuron was activated. Procedure: The isolated the neural response in rhesus monkeys reaching for food. Findings: When monkey reached for food the crackling noise was heard.
According to Charles Darwin theory of evolution by natural selection, the organisms adapt to their environment to become better fitted to survive and passing their genes to the next generation. (As quoted from http://www.sparknotes.com/biology/evolution/darwin/terms.html). In summary adaptation is the way animals get used to their environment. Adaptation has categories namely; physiological, metaphysical and behavioral. Physiological adaptation looks at the body responses of organisms to the conditions in the environment, example, ability to produce venom.