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The biology of behaviour
BioIogical Psychology, 2,1974, 79-83. 0 North-HoNandPublishing Company
BOOK REVIEWS PETER VAN SOMMERS: 1972, 184pp., U.65).
The Biology of Behaviour (John Wiley, Australasia,
In deliberate contrast to many textbooks written for a ‘typical first year course’, The Biology of Behaviour intends both to bridge the gap between the ‘organismal and populational approaches in biology’ and to bring together results from physiological and comparative psychology. It is also intent on maintaining a ‘balanced view of the implications of biology for human behaviour’ within an evolutionary framework. van Sommers organizes his discussion in a straightforward manner. He begins by examining the most salient constraints which genetic variability and natural selection impose on organisms. He then gives an introductory account of basic neural structures and of the biochemical processes underlying their functions. After discussing the properties of single neurones van Sommers considers the functions of neural networks, entertains several conceptions of the role of higher brain centres in the regulation of food and water intake, and reviews selected aspects of the chemical control of behaviour. These brief outlines constitute the ground for a discussion of a wide variety of behavioural phenomena including sleep, sexual behaviour, aggression, dominance, territoriality, and conflict and stress. Such a topical organization is consistent with the above stated objectives of the book which require a discussion of what may often be loosely connected findings from several remote areas of research. We would like to make three critical comments about the eclectic and cautious way in which the present text attempts to achieve its goal. First, one often finds a worrisome imbalance of emphasis placed on limited aspects of the topics discussed. The chapter on sexual behaviour, for example, presents a discussion of sexual differentiation and copulatory physiology in animals and compares this with human copulation. While mentioning in two sentences that sexual behaviour also includes ‘activities closely related to copulation such as courtship and parental activities’, and while not making any explicitly false generalizations, the chapter could nevertheless lead the uninitiated to the incorrect conclusion that human partner choice, homemaking, sexual division of labour, bond satisfaction, and love are minor offshoots of copulation not requiring special mention. Of even greater concern is the fact that the text consistently ignores all human cognitive behaviour. This enables the author seriously to discuss territoriality as an explanatory cause of man’s behaviour. In light of his repeated attempts to define the essential difference between human and non-human behaviour, this neglect of cognition is quite surprising and is likely to diminish the appeal of the book, at least to psychologists. Such a misleading emphasis is especially hazardous in a book which considers phenomena ranging from microanatomy to subcultures of violence and where it is difficult to forestall subtle interpretational errors. Second, van Sommers carefully stresses both the internal and external determinants of behaviour but fails to recognize the crucial role of their continuous interaction in the regulation of behaviour. This, for one, undermines the value of the book’s evolutionary viewpoint. Thus the section on brain evolution hardly utilizes any of the many examples available of how different environmental demands have led to corresponding differences in neural structures even in closely related species. More79
80
Book reviews
over, the chapter on conflict and stress overlooks the important longterm effects of early environment on the hormonal and neural control of stress response. The only example devoted to neural networks (the mudpuppy retina) could have been used to illustrate how the functional organization of sensory systems is matched to the prevailing conditions of stimulation and how this characteristic of sensory processes is necessary for adapting the organism to given environmental conditions. Third, The Biology ofBehaviour frequently, and often at points crucial to the internal integrity of the argument, overemphasizes the presentation of general hypotheses to the neglect of the basic facts underlying such hypotheses. The chapter on ecology and behaviour is a case in point. It begins with a section called ‘Habitats and Adaptations’, but which in fact is a loose discussion of two dated notions in social anthropology, namely that human behaviour is governed by the ‘conflicting forces of primitive savage drives and the constraints of culture’, and that human social life represents a ‘radical transition from life in a primitive horde’. Little is said about habitat or adaptation. Discussion then moves to the ‘Dual Role of Ecology in Behavioral Development’ where Cullen’s work comparing the behaviour of cliffdwelling kittiwakes with the behaviour of ground-dwelling gulls is cited as an illustration (the only one in the chapter) of how closely habitat and behaviour interrelate. But even this example is dealt with in four short sentences which do little more than assert that such a relationship exists. In contrast to this, there follows a lengthy discussion of various theories relating human social behaviour to man’s early history as a hunter-gatherer and relating this to his ancestral environment. The overall result is that one is immediately plunged into a far-reaching attempt to relate ecology to human behaviour before one is given any real sense of what habitat is, of how it is composed of interrelated environmental features, or of the elegant matching apparent in animals between specific features of the habitat and specific patterns of behaviour. While much of the book is clearly and simply presented and some sections (especially the chapter on sleep) succeed admirably in maintaining the author’s scope while not overlooking the importance of primary facts, the grand design is less clear than the stated aims would have us believe. On the whole the book is rather uneven. While some portions present interesting up-to-date material others become overburdened by organizational difficulties and conceptual confusions. An eclectic and cautious approach often provides the best safeguard against extreme positions and narrow terminology, but in the present context it has failed to yield a sufficiently balanced perspective of the many controversial issues discussed in the book.
Douglas Y. Shapiro Risto Vuorinen
K. H. PRIBRAM and A. R. LURIA (Eds.): Psychophysiology Lobes (Academic Press, New York and London, 1973,332 pp.
of the Frontal
As indicated by K. H. Pribram in the preface, this book comprises the papers presented at a symposium on frontal lobe function held in 1966 in Moscow during the 18th International Congress of Psychology. In spite of the seven-year delay between the original presentation of the material and the appearance of this volume, the text is still capable of eliciting a brisk response in the interested reader. This response is not a delayed response because the editors have added new material to the various chap-
BOOK REVIEWS PETER VAN SOMMERS: 1972, 184pp., U.65).
The Biology of Behaviour (John Wiley, Australasia,
In deliberate contrast to many textbooks written for a ‘typical first year course’, The Biology of Behaviour intends both to bridge the gap between the ‘organismal and populational approaches in biology’ and to bring together results from physiological and comparative psychology. It is also intent on maintaining a ‘balanced view of the implications of biology for human behaviour’ within an evolutionary framework. van Sommers organizes his discussion in a straightforward manner. He begins by examining the most salient constraints which genetic variability and natural selection impose on organisms. He then gives an introductory account of basic neural structures and of the biochemical processes underlying their functions. After discussing the properties of single neurones van Sommers considers the functions of neural networks, entertains several conceptions of the role of higher brain centres in the regulation of food and water intake, and reviews selected aspects of the chemical control of behaviour. These brief outlines constitute the ground for a discussion of a wide variety of behavioural phenomena including sleep, sexual behaviour, aggression, dominance, territoriality, and conflict and stress. Such a topical organization is consistent with the above stated objectives of the book which require a discussion of what may often be loosely connected findings from several remote areas of research. We would like to make three critical comments about the eclectic and cautious way in which the present text attempts to achieve its goal. First, one often finds a worrisome imbalance of emphasis placed on limited aspects of the topics discussed. The chapter on sexual behaviour, for example, presents a discussion of sexual differentiation and copulatory physiology in animals and compares this with human copulation. While mentioning in two sentences that sexual behaviour also includes ‘activities closely related to copulation such as courtship and parental activities’, and while not making any explicitly false generalizations, the chapter could nevertheless lead the uninitiated to the incorrect conclusion that human partner choice, homemaking, sexual division of labour, bond satisfaction, and love are minor offshoots of copulation not requiring special mention. Of even greater concern is the fact that the text consistently ignores all human cognitive behaviour. This enables the author seriously to discuss territoriality as an explanatory cause of man’s behaviour. In light of his repeated attempts to define the essential difference between human and non-human behaviour, this neglect of cognition is quite surprising and is likely to diminish the appeal of the book, at least to psychologists. Such a misleading emphasis is especially hazardous in a book which considers phenomena ranging from microanatomy to subcultures of violence and where it is difficult to forestall subtle interpretational errors. Second, van Sommers carefully stresses both the internal and external determinants of behaviour but fails to recognize the crucial role of their continuous interaction in the regulation of behaviour. This, for one, undermines the value of the book’s evolutionary viewpoint. Thus the section on brain evolution hardly utilizes any of the many examples available of how different environmental demands have led to corresponding differences in neural structures even in closely related species. More79
80
Book reviews
over, the chapter on conflict and stress overlooks the important longterm effects of early environment on the hormonal and neural control of stress response. The only example devoted to neural networks (the mudpuppy retina) could have been used to illustrate how the functional organization of sensory systems is matched to the prevailing conditions of stimulation and how this characteristic of sensory processes is necessary for adapting the organism to given environmental conditions. Third, The Biology ofBehaviour frequently, and often at points crucial to the internal integrity of the argument, overemphasizes the presentation of general hypotheses to the neglect of the basic facts underlying such hypotheses. The chapter on ecology and behaviour is a case in point. It begins with a section called ‘Habitats and Adaptations’, but which in fact is a loose discussion of two dated notions in social anthropology, namely that human behaviour is governed by the ‘conflicting forces of primitive savage drives and the constraints of culture’, and that human social life represents a ‘radical transition from life in a primitive horde’. Little is said about habitat or adaptation. Discussion then moves to the ‘Dual Role of Ecology in Behavioral Development’ where Cullen’s work comparing the behaviour of cliffdwelling kittiwakes with the behaviour of ground-dwelling gulls is cited as an illustration (the only one in the chapter) of how closely habitat and behaviour interrelate. But even this example is dealt with in four short sentences which do little more than assert that such a relationship exists. In contrast to this, there follows a lengthy discussion of various theories relating human social behaviour to man’s early history as a hunter-gatherer and relating this to his ancestral environment. The overall result is that one is immediately plunged into a far-reaching attempt to relate ecology to human behaviour before one is given any real sense of what habitat is, of how it is composed of interrelated environmental features, or of the elegant matching apparent in animals between specific features of the habitat and specific patterns of behaviour. While much of the book is clearly and simply presented and some sections (especially the chapter on sleep) succeed admirably in maintaining the author’s scope while not overlooking the importance of primary facts, the grand design is less clear than the stated aims would have us believe. On the whole the book is rather uneven. While some portions present interesting up-to-date material others become overburdened by organizational difficulties and conceptual confusions. An eclectic and cautious approach often provides the best safeguard against extreme positions and narrow terminology, but in the present context it has failed to yield a sufficiently balanced perspective of the many controversial issues discussed in the book.
Douglas Y. Shapiro Risto Vuorinen
K. H. PRIBRAM and A. R. LURIA (Eds.): Psychophysiology Lobes (Academic Press, New York and London, 1973,332 pp.
of the Frontal
As indicated by K. H. Pribram in the preface, this book comprises the papers presented at a symposium on frontal lobe function held in 1966 in Moscow during the 18th International Congress of Psychology. In spite of the seven-year delay between the original presentation of the material and the appearance of this volume, the text is still capable of eliciting a brisk response in the interested reader. This response is not a delayed response because the editors have added new material to the various chap-