What do proximate explanations of behavior focus on? a. how displays and other types of behavior have changed through time, or evolved b. the 'adaptive significance' of a behavior c. genetic, neurological, and hormonal mechanisms of behavior d. appropriate experimental methods when studying behavior

Video transcript

Hi everyone. Here's our next question. It says which of the following factors is not involved in the proximate causation of behavior. And here approximate can be kind of a confusing word. That would mean sort of like close nearby related. So a biology word can actually help you with this. If you think of um on the on the body of an organism, you think of proximal versus distal proximal meaning closer to the inner part of the body and distill meaning further away from the center of the body. So we're thinking of proximate causation of the behavior of a behavior. We're thinking about proximate versus ultimate causation. And in terms of biology here, what we're talking about is, well, how does the behavior arise in an animal? Is it an innate behavior genetically programmed? Is it a learned behavior? Is it affected by hormones that would be proximate causes this sort of immediate, closest cause. Reason for that behavior to occur. Um When we're thinking about ultimate cause um how did that behavior arise? You've been talking about the evolutionary history and the adaptive oops, qualities of the behavior as part of that evolutionary history. So this behavior arose in this species because it gave it greater fitness, helped to adapt to its environment and be better able to pass on its genes. So that's what we mean here by approximate cause. Um And it's contrasted to the ultimate cause of behavior. So let's look at our answer choices. Um Keeping these two this contrast in mind. So choice A is genetic, Well genetic would be a proximate cause. Um think about innate behaviors. Those are often usually genetically programmed. We're looking for factors not involved. So genetic would not be our answer. As that would be a proximate cause. Choice B. Would be neurological um That would also be part of a proximate cause of behavior, something in the brain um causing this behavior. So choice C. Is evolutionary history. So evolutionary history, as we discussed, is talking about the ultimate cause of behavior. Over the course of this species evolution, how did this behavior arrive and help this animal adapt to its environment? So that would be more or more ultimate cause versus proximate cause. So choice C. Would be our answer here. Finally, let's just look at Choice D. Choice D. Is hormonal again, hormonal factor. Say a hormone causing aggression or mating behaviors um would be a proximate cause of a behavior. So not our answer. So again, which of the following factors not involved in the proximate causation of behavior? Choice C. Evolutionary history. See you in the next video