• Admin
    UC Research Repository
    View Item 
       
    • UC Home
    • Library
    • UC Research Repository
    • College of Science
    • Science: Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
       
    • UC Home
    • Library
    • UC Research Repository
    • College of Science
    • Science: Theses and Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Browse

    All of the RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    Experimental investigations of social behaviour in animals: Competitive orders as measures of social dominance

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    syme_thesis.pdf (6.589Mb)
    Author
    Syme, Geoffrey John
    Date
    1972
    Permanent Link
    http://hdl.handle.net/10092/4923
    Thesis Discipline
    Psychology
    Degree Grantor
    University of Canterbury
    Degree Level
    Doctoral
    Degree Name
    Doctor of Philosophy

    Competitive orders are now in common usage as measures of social dominance in laboratory studies. Their use in this capacity is based on the premise that since dominance governs all priorities to resources within a group it is irrelevant as to which of these is chosen as its index. As a result methodological aspects of competitive measures have been neglected and most studies finding reliable orders on competitive tasks have reported these as being dominance orders; often without presenting social validations. The validity of the competitive measure is, therefore, clearly based on the assumption that dominance can be regarded as a unidimensional concept. But many of those laboratory studies which have presented relationships between aggressive and competitive orders or have used more than one competitive test have found evidence that this is not the case. This thesis investigates the validity of competitive measures of dominance in three species: the New Zealand ferret, the laboratory rat, and the domestic fowl. In general it is found that competitive orders for both ferrets and rats should not be regarded as measures of social dominance. Further work is required on the analysis of the competitive behaviour of the fowl before the concept of dominance can be meaningfully applied to the competitive behaviour of this species. The general problems of the validation of competitive orders and the use of the concept of social dominance are discussed.

    Collections
    • Science: Theses and Dissertations [3603]
    Rights
    https://canterbury.libguides.com/rights/theses

    UC Research Repository
    University Library
    University of Canterbury
    Private Bag 4800
    Christchurch 8140

    Phone
    364 2987 ext 8718

    Email
    ucresearchrepository@canterbury.ac.nz

    Follow us
    FacebookTwitterYoutube

    © University of Canterbury Library
    Send Feedback | Contact Us