Title:

Breeding Analysis of Natural Units in Behavior Genetics

Creator:

Hirsch, Jerry

Date:

1964

Periodical:

American Zoologist

Publisher:

Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology

Location:

Box: 19. Folder: 144

Rights:

Reproduced with permission of American Zoologist.

Genre:

Articles

Format:

Text

Extent:

7 pages

Relation:

Letter from Jerry Hirsch to Joshua Lederberg, 1965

Language:

English

Legacy Source Citation:

Periodical. Hirsch, Jerry. "Breeding Analysis of Natural Units in Behavior Genetics." American Zoologist 4, (1964): 139-145. Article. 7 Images.. American Zoologist

Legacy ID:

BBAJEN

NLM ID:

101584906X6151

Profiles Collection:

The Joshua Lederberg Papers

Shareable Link:

https://profiles.nlm.nih.gov/101584906X6151

Annotation:

Author: Joshua Lederberg. Date Written: March 14, 1999. KW: Hirsch, Jerry , article, American Zoologist 4:139-145 1964 Cites JL query "how define behavior"; CASBS; BREEDING ANALYSIS OF NATURAL UNITS IN BEHAVIOR GENETICS JERRY HIRSCH Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, Urbana On receiving my assignment for this refresher course, my self-appointed task became an examination of the term behavior, and consideration of the kind of knowledge genetic analysis has to contribute to the understanding of behavior and behavior analysis has to contribute to understanding in biology. At a reception following a conference two summers ago, Joshua Lederberg asked me "How d o you define behavior?" It' s a disconcerting experience at any time to be caught off guard harboring an unanalyzed premise. It's doubly so when it happens on one's first encounter with a Nobel laureate. A survey of textbook and dictionary definitions proves very unsatisfactory and suggests a possible reason for his question. In one form or another, most definitions hinge upon response to stimulation. As Skinner (1938) has so appropriately pointed out, while response to stimulation certainly does occur, so does behavior occur in the absence of antecedent events that bear an easily demonstrable stimulating relation to a given behavior. jl 3/14/99

Lederberg Grouping:

CD. Correspondence D.