Major Contributions, Awards, and Honors
A famous writing of Lorenz's is "On Agression". It argues that aggression in animals is motivated by a survival instinct but aggression in humans can be modified and controlled.
He won a Nobel Prize in 1973 along with Karl Von Frisch and Niko Tinbergen. They shared this prize for their studies on human and animal behavior. It was the first of its kind to be awarded to behavioral psychologists. (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1973/lorenz-autobio.html)
He won a Nobel Prize in 1973 along with Karl Von Frisch and Niko Tinbergen. They shared this prize for their studies on human and animal behavior. It was the first of its kind to be awarded to behavioral psychologists. (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1973/lorenz-autobio.html)
Imprinting, Geese and Innate Skills
Konrad observed newly hatched ducklings and goslings and found that they behaved in strange ways if they were exposed to abnormal environments during the few critical hours after birth. (http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/lorenz.htm)
His observations were not completely natural as he played with the hatchlings as he observed them He found that they become socially attached to the first moving object that they see immediately after they are born. This is called imprinting. Even when these animals matured, they attempted to mate with and and court humans if they were imprinted to them. (http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/ewaters/552/PDF_Files/lorenz.pdf)
Throughout his career, Lorenz believed that adaptation was a key factor in the evolutionary development of an animal, rather than instinct. He stated in his work that animal behavior is a result of genetic and environmental factors working together. We all have innate traits and skills that we are born with according to Lorenz but we must have an external influence help us to learn how to use and develop them.
His observations were not completely natural as he played with the hatchlings as he observed them He found that they become socially attached to the first moving object that they see immediately after they are born. This is called imprinting. Even when these animals matured, they attempted to mate with and and court humans if they were imprinted to them. (http://www.psychology.sunysb.edu/ewaters/552/PDF_Files/lorenz.pdf)
Throughout his career, Lorenz believed that adaptation was a key factor in the evolutionary development of an animal, rather than instinct. He stated in his work that animal behavior is a result of genetic and environmental factors working together. We all have innate traits and skills that we are born with according to Lorenz but we must have an external influence help us to learn how to use and develop them.