- Tinbergen, Nikolaas
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born April 15, 1907, The Hague, Neth.died Dec. 21, 1988, Oxford, Eng.Dutch-born British zoologist, a founder (with Konrad Lorenz) of the science of ethology.Brother of Jan Tinbergen, he received his Ph.D. from the University of Leiden and taught there until 1949, when he took a position at Oxford University. He emphasized the importance of both instinctive and learned behaviour to survival and used animal behaviour as a basis for speculation on human violence and aggression. His observations of seagulls led to important generalizations on courtship and mating behaviour. From the 1970s he and his wife, Elizabeth, studied human behavioral disorders, particularly autism. With Lorenz and Karl von Frisch he shared a Nobel Prize in 1973.
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▪ Dutch zoologistborn April 15, 1907, The Hague, Neth.died Dec. 21, 1988, Oxford, Eng.Dutch-born British zoologist and ethologist (specialist in animal behaviour) who, with Konrad Lorenz (Lorenz, Konrad) and Karl von Frisch (Frisch, Karl von), received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1973.Tinbergen was the brother of the economist Jan Tinbergen. After receiving a Ph.D. degree (1932) from the University of Leiden, he taught there until 1949. He then served on the faculty of the University of Oxford (1949–74), where he organized a research department of animal behaviour. He became a British citizen in 1955.With Lorenz and Frisch, Tinbergen is credited with revitalizing the science of ethology. Their emphasis was on field observations of animals under natural conditions. Tinbergen emphasized the importance of both instinctive and learned behaviour to survival and used animal behaviour as a basis for speculations about the nature of human violence and aggression. He is especially well known for his long-term observations of sea gulls, which led to important generalizations on courtship and mating behaviour.Among his more important writings are The Herring Gull's World (1953; rev. ed. 1961), Social Behavior in Animals (1953), and Animal Behavior (1965). Perhaps his most influential work is The Study of Instinct (1951), which explores the work of the European ethological school up to that time and attempts a synthesis with American ethology. In the 1970s Tinbergen devoted his time to the study of autism in children.* * *
Universalium. 2010.
