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Although there is some disagreement as to how to precisely define behaviour in a biological context, one common interpretation based on a meta-analysis of scientific literature states that "behavior is the internally coordinated responses (actions or inactions) of whole living organisms (individuals or groups) to internal and/or external stimuli"[1]

Behaviors can be either innate or learned.

Behavior can be regarded as any action of an organism that changes its relationship to its environment. Behavior provides outputs from the organism to the environment.[2]

Human behavior[edit]

Human behavior is believed to be influenced by the endocrine system and the nervous system. It is most commonly believed that complexity in the behavior of an organism is correlated to the complexity of its nervous system. Generally, organisms with more complex nervous systems have a greater capacity to learn new responses and thus adjust their behavior.[citation needed]

Other fields[edit]

Behavior outside of psychology includes physical property and chemical reactions.

Earth sciences[edit]

In environmental modeling and especially in hydrology, a "behavioral model" means a model that is acceptably consistent with observed natural processes, i.e., that simulates well, for example, observed river discharge. It is a key concept of the so-called Generalized Likelihood Uncertainty Estimation (GLUE) methodology to quantify how uncertain environmental predictions are.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ Levitis, Daniel; William Z. Lidicker, Jr, Glenn Freund (June 2009). "Behavioural biologists do not agree on what constitutes behaviour". Animal Behaviour (78). 
  2. ^ Dusenbery, David B. (2009). Living at Micro Scale, p. 124. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass. ISBN 978-0-674-03116-6.

Further reading[edit]

External links[edit]