Konrad Lorenz (redirected from Lorenz, Konrad Zacharias)

Lorenz, Konrad 

Born Nov. 7, 1903, in Vienna. Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and animal psychologist.

Lorenz studied at New York University and the University of Vienna. Beginning in 1940, he was a professor in Konigsberg. In 1950 he became director of the Institute for the Physiology of Behavior of the Max Planck Society (Federal Republic of Germany) in Buldern (since 1955 in Seewiesen, Bavaria). Lorenz is one of the founders of the science of animal behavior—ethology. Together with N. Tinbergen he worked out the theory of instinctive behavior and its development in ontogenesis and phylogenesis. He has done basic research on early learning (imprinting) and its importance in shaping the behavior of adult animals and on the origin, development, and “ritualization” of expressive postures, body movements, and other forms of animal communication in phylogenesis. He has also studied the motivation of behavior and the interaction of the internal and external factors responsible for it. In a number of cases he has erroneously applied the biological laws of animal behavior to man and human society. Lorenz was awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine in 1973.

WORKS

Das sogenannte Böse. Zur Naturgeschichte der Aggression. Vienna, 1963.
Über tierisches und menschliches Verhalten, vols. 1-2. Munich [1966].
Evolution and Modification of Behavior. Chicago, 1965.
In Russian translation:
Kol’tso tsaria Solomona. Moscow, 1970.
Chelovek nakhodit druga. Moscow, 1971.

K. E. FABRI