Re: [tips] First use of the term alpha
Alpha was the leading caste of people in Aldous Huxley's _Brave New World_ of 1932. He probably took this usage from naturalists of his day (being a Huxley, after all). Or, even more interestingly, perhaps naturalists adopted the usagefrom his (then very popular) book. Chris Green York U. Toronto sbl...@ubishops.ca wrote: In response to Kathy Morgan's query, I had rashly asserted that the term alpha to indicate the dominant animal in a group must have originated with the primate studies of C.R. Carpenter. I suggested that Carpenter might have used the term as early as 1942 in an article in the Journal of Comparative Psychology. To which David Kreiner helpfully replied: Stephen, first the good news. I was able to access the full text of Carpenter (1942). The bad news: no use of the term alpha male. Uh-oh. Another case of a beautiful theory slain by an ugly fact. I was led astray by comments such as those by Haraway (1978), on Carpenter removing the alpha male from his group and then observing the remaining animals. But after David's bad news, I was able to get to a book of Carpenter's published and unpublished papers dating from the 1930's.(Carpenter, 1964). He never said alpha male there or elsewhere in his writings, instead using such phrases as most dominant male, no. 1 dominant male, and supremely dominant male. Clearly, Carpenter needed but was unaware of the succinct and memorable term alpha male. On the other hand, William Scott set me on the right track by noting the use of the term alpha cock and alpha mouse by the zoologist W.C. Allee as early as 1942. The phrase appears even earlier in Allee's book, _The Social Live of Animals_ (1938), where it seems to be close to a definition, namely A hen which is otherwise the _alpha_ [italics in the original] bird in the pen may be pecked with impunity by some low-ranking member, although the latter is in turn pecked by many birds over which the _alpha_ hen has a clearly established social superiority (p. 179). So my current candidate for the originator of the phrase is W.C. Allee. Interestingly, Allee does not use the phrase in an even earlier paper (Masure and Allee, 1934), instead referring to the despot of the flock, an unsatisfactory and anthropomorphic term. Two final points: In searching the web, I came across an essay by Robert Ardrey on The alpha fish in his book _The Social Contract_ (1970) [ http://www.ditext.com/ardrey/4.html ], where he discusses the history of research on the alpha animal. He suggests, although not sure, that it was G.K. Noble who originated the term as the alpha fish. In my second post, I did cite a 1944 paper by Noble using this term, but nothing earlier. So I'm sticking with Allee in 1938. Second, I was already familiar with Allee through his delightful, brilliant, and disgusting (1933) study providing an early demonstration of the social facilitation effect, that things go better when performed in front of an audience. If I recall correctly, he showed that cockroaches, when in the presence of a bleacher section of enthusiastic roach supporters chanting, Go, roach, go!, performed better on a simple maze than did solitary cockroaches. I am not making this up (ok, maybe just the chanting). Stephen Haraway, D. (1978). Animal sociology and a natural economy of the body politic, part I: A political physiology of dominance. Signs, v. 4, p. 21-- Carpenter, C.R. (1964). Naturalistic behavior of nonhuman primates. Pennsylvania State University Press. Masure, R., and Allee, W. (1934). The social order in flocks of the common chicken and the pigeon. Auk, 51, 306-327 Gates, M. F., Allee, W. C. (1933). Conditioned behavior of isolated and grouped cockroaches on a simple maze: Journal of Comparative Psychology Vol 15(2),331-358. - Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: sbl...@ubishops.ca 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada --- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) -- Christopher D. Green Department of Psychology York University Toronto, ON M3J 1P3 Canada 416-736-2100 ex. 66164 chri...@yorku.ca http://www.yorku.ca/christo/ == --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
Re: [tips] First use of the term alpha
In response to Kathy Morgan's query, I had rashly asserted that the term alpha to indicate the dominant animal in a group must have originated with the primate studies of C.R. Carpenter. I suggested that Carpenter might have used the term as early as 1942 in an article in the Journal of Comparative Psychology. To which David Kreiner helpfully replied: Stephen, first the good news. I was able to access the full text of Carpenter (1942). The bad news: no use of the term alpha male. Uh-oh. Another case of a beautiful theory slain by an ugly fact. I was led astray by comments such as those by Haraway (1978), on Carpenter removing the alpha male from his group and then observing the remaining animals. But after David's bad news, I was able to get to a book of Carpenter's published and unpublished papers dating from the 1930's.(Carpenter, 1964). He never said alpha male there or elsewhere in his writings, instead using such phrases as most dominant male, no. 1 dominant male, and supremely dominant male. Clearly, Carpenter needed but was unaware of the succinct and memorable term alpha male. On the other hand, William Scott set me on the right track by noting the use of the term alpha cock and alpha mouse by the zoologist W.C. Allee as early as 1942. The phrase appears even earlier in Allee's book, _The Social Live of Animals_ (1938), where it seems to be close to a definition, namely A hen which is otherwise the _alpha_ [italics in the original] bird in the pen may be pecked with impunity by some low-ranking member, although the latter is in turn pecked by many birds over which the _alpha_ hen has a clearly established social superiority (p. 179). So my current candidate for the originator of the phrase is W.C. Allee. Interestingly, Allee does not use the phrase in an even earlier paper (Masure and Allee, 1934), instead referring to the despot of the flock, an unsatisfactory and anthropomorphic term. Two final points: In searching the web, I came across an essay by Robert Ardrey on The alpha fish in his book _The Social Contract_ (1970) [ http://www.ditext.com/ardrey/4.html ], where he discusses the history of research on the alpha animal. He suggests, although not sure, that it was G.K. Noble who originated the term as the alpha fish. In my second post, I did cite a 1944 paper by Noble using this term, but nothing earlier. So I'm sticking with Allee in 1938. Second, I was already familiar with Allee through his delightful, brilliant, and disgusting (1933) study providing an early demonstration of the social facilitation effect, that things go better when performed in front of an audience. If I recall correctly, he showed that cockroaches, when in the presence of a bleacher section of enthusiastic roach supporters chanting, Go, roach, go!, performed better on a simple maze than did solitary cockroaches. I am not making this up (ok, maybe just the chanting). Stephen Haraway, D. (1978). Animal sociology and a natural economy of the body politic, part I: A political physiology of dominance. Signs, v. 4, p. 21-- Carpenter, C.R. (1964). Naturalistic behavior of nonhuman primates. Pennsylvania State University Press. Masure, R., and Allee, W. (1934). The social order in flocks of the common chicken and the pigeon. Auk, 51, 306-327 Gates, M. F., Allee, W. C. (1933). Conditioned behavior of isolated and grouped cockroaches on a simple maze: Journal of Comparative Psychology Vol 15(2),331-358. - Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: sbl...@ubishops.ca 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada --- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
Re: [tips] First use of the term alpha
The first use was made by a gorilla pounding on his chest uttering Allppph.Reference available upon request. Michael --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
Re: [tips] First use of the term alpha
Stephen, first the good news. I was able to access the full text of Carpenter (1942). The bad news: no use of the term alpha male. David Kreiner Professor of Psychology University of Central Missouri Lovinger Warrensburg MO 64093 krei...@ucmo.edu --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
Re: [tips] First use of the term alpha
The use of alpha and omega to describe the animals at the extremes of dominance hierarchies was common in describing bird and rodent social structures in 1942. Here's an article by Allee in 1942 describing social hierarchies based on decades of previous research, much of it his own. Group Organization among Vertebrates, W. C. Allee , Science, Vol. 95, No. 2464 (Mar. 20, 1942), pp. 289-293 ���the alpha cock ��� would charge [the other cock] and drive him to the roosts whenever [the other cock] approached.��� The same article refers to a description of an alpha mouse. Before 1942, Yerkes studied dominance and sexual relations in chimpanzees and one of the animals was named Alpha (a female who was not consistently dominant), although I don't think Yerkes used the term alpha to describe the dominant animal. In fact, I believe both Yerkes and Carpenter were of the mind that primate social structures rarely had a single consistent alpha animal. On the other hand, Yerkes believed that evolution had handed the dominant role largely to the male gender. Bill Scott David Kreiner krei...@ucmo.edu 08/28/09 10:47 AM Stephen, first the good news. I was able to access the full text of Carpenter (1942). The bad news: no use of the term alpha male. David Kreiner Professor of Psychology University of Central Missouri Lovinger Warrensburg MO 64093 krei...@ucmo.edu --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
