Ethology of motivation

Abstract

Behaviourists are interested in the analysis of observations on animal activities in terms of behavioural concepts which encompass both physiological mechanisms (Chapter 3) and functional considerations (Chapter 4) but which also stand by themselves as descriptive and explanatory ideas. While psychologists have tended to collect data from animals in experimental situations, ethologists have generally made their observations on relatively unrestrained individuals in natural surroundings. Over the past number of years, these two traditions have come much closer in their techniques and aims, to produce a richer and more fruitful science of animal behaviour. Notwithstanding the anticipations of E.O. Wilson (1975), it is clear that physiology and sociobiology will not gobble up ethology from above and below.