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Behaviour, Development and Evolution
Patrick Bateson 
Read Patrick Bateson's Introduction to this book on our 
Overall this is a nice read that will appeal to both new and established researchers alike. There are some clear explainations of theoretically and empirically important issues in the study of evolution and development that will arouse interest in the naive and stimulate discussion in the more experienced.
—Clare Cunningham, Animal Behaviour (2017): 131, 57.
The role of parents in shaping the characters of their children, the causes of violence and crime, and the roots of personal unhappiness are central to humanity. Like so many fundamental questions about human existence, these issues all relate to behavioural development. In this lucid and accessible book, eminent biologist Professor Sir Patrick Bateson suggests that the nature/nurture dichotomy we often use to think about questions of development in both humans and animals is misleading. Instead, he argues that we should pay attention to whole systems, rather than to simple causes, when trying to understand the complexity of development.
In his wide-ranging approach Bateson discusses why so much behaviour appears to be well-designed. He explores issues such as ‘imprinting’ and its importance to the attachment of offspring to their parents; the mutual benefits that characterise communication between parent and offspring; the importance of play in learning how to choose and control the optimal conditions in which to thrive; and the vital function of adaptability in the interplay between development and evolution.
Bateson disputes the idea that a simple link can be found between genetics and behaviour. What an individual human or animal does in its life depends on the reciprocal nature of its relationships with the world about it. This knowledge also points to ways in which an animal’s own behaviour can provide the variation that influences the subsequent course of evolution.
This has relevance not only for our scientific approaches to the systems of development and evolution, but also on how humans change institutional rules that have become dysfunctional, or design public health measures when mismatches occur between themselves and their environments. It affects how we think about ourselves and our own capacity for change.
Behaviour, Development and Evolution
Patrick Bateson | February 2017
134 | 22 colour illustration | 6.14" x 9.21" (234 x 156 mm)
ISBN Paperback: 9781783742486
ISBN Hardback: 9781783742493
ISBN Digital (PDF): 9781783742509
ISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781783742516
ISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781783742523
ISBN Digital (XML): 9781783745876
DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0097
BIC subject codes: PD (Science: general issues); BISAC: SCI070060 (Science: Life Sciences, Zoology, Ethology - Animal Behavior)
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Preface
1. Appearance of Design
Design of machines
Conflicts in motivation
Conclusions
2. Imprinting and Attachment
Attachment in humans
Imprinting in the wild
Individual recognition
Conclusions
3. Rules and Reciprocity
Models of development
Alternative pathways
Rules for changing the rules
Coordination in development
Conclusions
4. Discontinuities in Development
Loss of continuity
Conclusions
5. Early Experience and Later Behaviour
Washing the brain
Neurobiology
Continuity and change
Conclusions
6. Communication between Parents and Offspring
Parents and offspring
Conclusions
7. Avoiding Inbreeding and Incest
Early experience and sexual attraction
Incest taboos
Conclusions
8. Genes in Development and Evolution
Genes in development
Heritability
Epigenetics
Selfish genes
Conclusions
9. Active Role of Behaviour
Environmental change
Conclusions
10. Adaptability in Evolution
Behaviour and evolution
Conclusions
11. Concluding Remarks
Index
© 2017 Patrick Bateson
The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for non-commercial purposes, providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:
Patrick Bateson, Behaviour, Development and Evolution. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2017, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0097
Further details about CC BY-NC-ND licenses are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
All external links were active on 20/2/2017 unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web
Cover image: Johannes Itten, ‘Cerchi’ (1916) © Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, all rights reserved. Su concessione del Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e Ambientali e del Turismo. Photo by Anna Gatti.
The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for non-commercial purposes, providing attribution is made to the author (but not in any way that suggests that he endorses you or your use of the work). Attribution should include the following information:
Patrick Bateson, Behaviour, Development and Evolution. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2017, https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0097
Further details about CC BY-NC-ND licenses are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
All external links were active on 20/2/2017 unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at https://archive.org/web
Cover image: Johannes Itten, ‘Cerchi’ (1916) © Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, all rights reserved. Su concessione del Ministero dei Beni e delle Attività Culturali e Ambientali e del Turismo. Photo by Anna Gatti.