- "Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to examine and explain social behavior in terms of evolution."
Studies social behavior and how it influences group dynamics, including mating rituals, communication styles, and territory marking.
Social Structure: This topic covers the organization of social groups, including hierarchies, roles, and relationships.
Cultural Transmission: Cultural transmission is the process of passing on learned behavior, beliefs, and attitudes from one generation to the next.
Group Dynamics: This topic discusses how individuals interact within groups, such as the formation of alliances, competition, and cooperation.
Communication: Animal communication is central to ethology, and this topic covers the different modes of communication- vocal, visual, and chemical- and how signals are used and received.
Aggression: Aggression is a critical aspect of social structure and explains how individuals compete for access to resources, mates, or territory.
Parental Investment: This topic discusses the costs and benefits of parental investment for offspring and parents, and how this shapes social structure.
Kin Selection: Kin selection is the theory that individuals behave altruistically towards close relatives because it increases their own genetic survival.
Cooperation: Cooperative behavior often emerges in social species, and this topic covers the various ways that individuals work together to achieve common goals.
Mate Choice: Mate choice is a critical component of social structure and explores how individuals choose and compete for mates.
Dominance: Dominance is the concept that one individual or group can control access to resources, such as food or mates, and the ways in which this affects social hierarchy.
Xenophobia: Xenophobia is the fear or hatred of strangers or outsiders and how it affects social structure.
Socialization: Socialization is the process by which individuals learn and adopt the behaviors and attitudes of their culture.
Prosocial Behavior: Prosocial behavior is voluntary behavior intended to benefit other individuals or groups, such as altruism or helping.
Conflict Resolution: Conflict is a common feature in social groups, and this topic covers the various strategies that individuals and groups use to resolve disputes.
Sociobiology: Sociobiology is the study of the biological basis for social behavior, such as the role of genes, hormones, and brain structures.
Solitary: Animals that live by themselves, without any social interactions with others of their own kind, are considered solitary. Examples of this include most felines, such as tigers and jaguars, and some primates like orangutans.
Monogamous: A monogamous social structure involves the pairing of one male and female, which lasts for an extended period, or for the duration of the mating season. Examples of such animals include some bird species, beavers and some primates.
Polygamous: A polygamous social structure involves one male with several females, or vice versa, usually seen in species with high sexual dimorphism. Examples of such animals include elephants, lions, and gorillas.
Harems: This social structure features one male in a breeding/territorial group with several females. It is typically found among herbivorous mammals like buffalo, sheep, and goats.
Pack: A group of animals, usually of the same species, that cooperatively hunt and defend their territory. Examples include wolves, hyenas, and wild dogs.
Colony: A colony contains many individuals of the same species, living together in a defined area, sharing resources and performing specific tasks. Social insects like ants, bees, and termites live in colonies.
Herd: This is a group of animals, usually prey animals, that live in large groups to protect themselves from predators. Examples include bison, wildebeest, and sheep.
Troops: A troop refers to a group of animals, usually primates or mammals that live together, sharing territories and resources. Examples include monkeys, baboons, and chimpanzees.
Flocks: Seen in birds, a flock is a group that lives together and cooperates to perform daily activities like feeding and defense. Examples include crows, sparrows, and pigeons.
Pods: These are groups of marine mammals like dolphins, whales, and porpoises that live and swim together, communicating with each other for hunting, mating, and defense purposes.
- "It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics."
- "Sociobiology investigates social behaviors such as mating patterns, territorial fights, pack hunting, and the hive society of social insects."
- "It argues that just as selection pressure led to animals evolving useful ways of interacting with the natural environment, so also it led to the genetic evolution of advantageous social behavior."
- "Sociobiology is closely allied to evolutionary anthropology, human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, and sociology."
- "While the term 'sociobiology' originated at least as early as the 1940s..."
- "...the concept did not gain major recognition until the publication of E. O. Wilson's book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis in 1975."
- "Critics, led by Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould..."
- "...argued that genes played a role in human behavior, but that traits such as aggressiveness could be explained by social environment rather than biology."
- "Sociobiologists responded by pointing to the complex relationship between nature and nurture."
- "The new field quickly became the subject of controversy."
- "The new field quickly became the subject of controversy."
- "Sociobiologists responded by pointing to the complex relationship between nature and nurture."
- "Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to examine and explain social behavior in terms of evolution."
- "Sociobiology investigates social behaviors such as mating patterns, territorial fights, pack hunting, and the hive society of social insects."
- "It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics."
- "It argues that just as selection pressure led to animals evolving useful ways of interacting with the natural environment, so also it led to the genetic evolution of advantageous social behavior."
- "Sociobiology is closely allied to evolutionary anthropology, human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, and sociology."
- "Critics, led by Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould..."
- "...the concept did not gain major recognition until the publication of E. O. Wilson's book Sociobiology: The New Synthesis in 1975."