4.8: Exercises
Exercise \(\PageIndex{1}\)
Let \(z = x + iy\) , where \(x, y \in \mathbb{R}\) . For each of the following expressions, find (i) the real part, (ii) the imaginary part, (iii) the magnitude, and (iv) the complex argument, in terms of \(x\) and \(y\) :
-
\(z^2\)
-
\(1/z\)
-
\(\exp(z)\)
-
\(\exp(iz)\)
-
\(\cos(z)\)
Exercise \(\PageIndex{2}\)
Prove that \(|z_1 z_2| = |z_1|\, |z_2|\) , by using (i) the polar representation, and (ii) the Cartesian representation.
- Answer
-
Using the polar representation: let \(z_1 = r_1 \exp(i\theta_1)\) and \(z_2 = r_2 \exp(i\theta_2)\) . Then \[\begin{align} \big|z_1\, z_2\big| &= \left|r_1 e^{i\theta_1} \, r_2 e^{i\theta_2}\right| \\ &= \left|(r_1r_2)\,e^{i(\theta_1+\theta_2)}\right| \\ &= r_1 r_2 \\ &= |z_1|\, |z_2|.\end{align}\] Using the Cartesian representation: let \(z_1 = x_1+iy_1\) and \(z_2 = x_2+iy_2\) . For convenience, we evaluate the squared magnitude: \[\begin{align} \big|z_1\, z_2\big|^2 &= \left|(x_1x_2 - y_1y_2) + i (x_1y_2+x_2y_1)\right|^2 \\ &= (x_1x_2 - y_1y_2)^2 + (x_1y_2+x_2y_1)^2 \\ &= x_1^2x_2^2 + y_1^2 y_2^2 + x_1^2y_2^2 + x_2^2 y_1^2 \\ &= \left(x_1^2 + y_1^2\right)\left(x_2^2 + y_2^2\right) \\ &= |z_1|^2 \, |z_2|^2.\end{align}\]
Exercise \(\PageIndex{3}\)
Prove that \((z_1 z_2)^* = z_1^* z_2^*\) , by using (i) the polar representation, and (ii) the Cartesian representation.
- Answer
-
Using the polar representation: let \(z_1 = r_1 \exp(i\theta_1)\) and \(z_2 = r_2 \exp(i\theta_2)\) . Then \[\begin{align} \big(z_1\, z_2\big)^* &= \left(\left(r_1r_2\right) e^{i(\theta_1+\theta_2)}\right)^* \\ &= \left(r_1r_2\right) e^{-i(\theta_1+\theta_2)} \\ &= \left(r_1 e^{-i\theta_1}\right) \left(r_2 e^{-i\theta_2}\right) \\ &= z_1^* \, z_2^*.\end{align}\] Using the Cartesian representation: let \(z_1 = x_1+iy_1\) and \(z_2 = x_2+iy_2\) . \[\begin{align} \big(z_1\, z_2\big)^* &= \left[\left(x_1x_2 - y_1y_2\right) + i \left(x_1y_2+x_2y_1\right)\right]^* \\ &= \left(x_1x_2 - y_1y_2\right) - i \left(x_1y_2+x_2y_1\right) \\ &= \left(x_1 - iy_1\right) \left(x_2 - iy_y\right) \\ &= z_1^* \, z_2^*.\end{align}\]
Exercise \(\PageIndex{4}\)
Identify the problem with this chain of equations: \[-1 = i \cdot i = \sqrt{-1}\,\sqrt{-1} = \sqrt{-1 \cdot -1} = \sqrt{1} = 1.\]
- Answer
-
The problem arises in this part of the chain: \(i\cdot i = \sqrt{-1}\,\sqrt{-1} = \sqrt{(-1)(-1)}\) . The square root is a non-integer power, and non-integer powers are not allowed to take part in standard complex algebra equations in the same way as addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and integer powers.
As discussed in Chapter 8, square roots and other non-integer powers have multiple values. The definition of the imaginary unit is often written as \(i = \sqrt{-1}\) , but this is misleading. Actually, \(\sqrt{-1}\) has two legitimate values; one of these values is (by definition) \(i\) , while the other value is \(-i\) .
Exercise \(\PageIndex{5}\)
With the aid of Euler’s formula, prove that \[\begin{align} \cos(3x) &= 4[\cos(x)]^3 -3\cos(x) \\ \sin(3x) &= 3\sin(x)-4[\sin(x)]^3 \end{align}\]
Exercise \(\PageIndex{6}\)
For \(z_1, z_2 \in \mathbb{C}\) and \(\theta \in \mathbb{R}\) , show that \(\mathrm{Re}\left[z_1 e^{i\theta} + z_2 e^{-i\theta}\right] = A \cos(\theta) + B \sin(\theta)\) , for some \(A, B \in \mathbb{R}\) . Find explicit expressions for \(A\) and \(B\) in terms of \(z_1\) and \(z_2\) .
Exercise \(\PageIndex{7}\)
In Section 4.4, we saw that the conjugation operation corresponds to a reflection about the real axis. What operation corresponds to a reflection about the imaginary axis?
Exercise \(\PageIndex{8}\)
Consider the complex function of a real variable \(z(t) = 1/(\alpha t + \beta)\) , where \(\alpha, \beta \in \mathbb{C}\) and \(t \in \mathbb{R}\) .
-
For
\(\alpha = 1\)
and
\(\beta = i\)
, show that
\(z(t)\)
can be re-expressed as
\(z(s) = (1+e^{is})/(2i)\)
, where
\(s \in (-\pi,\pi)\)
. Hint: find a real mapping
\(t(s)\)
.
-
Hence, show that the trajectory for arbitrary complex values of
\(\alpha,\, \beta\)
has the form of a circle.
Exercise \(\PageIndex{9}\)
With the help of a computer plotting program, generate complex trajectories for the following functions (for real inputs \(t \in\mathbb{R}\) ). Explain their key features, including the directions of the trajectories:
-
\(\displaystyle z(t) = \left[1+\frac{\cos(\beta t)}{2}\right] \, \exp(it)\)
, for
\(\beta = 10\)
and for
\(\beta = \sqrt{5}\)
.
-
\(\displaystyle z(t) = -it \pm \sqrt{1 - t^2}\)
.
-
\(\displaystyle z(t) = ae^{it} + be^{-it}\)
, for
\(a = 1, b = -2\)
and for
\(a = 1, b = 2\)
.


2.1: Basics of Singing 5- Vocal Health
Anyone who has sung for a while has experienced that dreaded time when a performance is upon you, but you have come down with a sore throat, cold, strep, etc. There are professional singers who use methods to manage their voice in order to perform in any condition. I once saw a singer perform a difficult musical program, and afterwards learned from the person that she had laryngitis! Anytime a singer is sick, it will affect the voice; however, following certain steps will insure the best possible performance under these circumstances.
In my experience as a vocal coach, I have heard every reason why a singer does not sound their best in a performance. The typical reason given is “I have a cold.” There is a standard in the professional world, where if a singer is auditioning for a gig and cites any illness, they are usually disqualified instantly. However, I have also heard full performances of everyday singers, and afterwards they admitted to being sick, which went unnoticed in the performance. This is the preferred method of vocal judges of any kind: to be pleasantly surprised that the singer could even sound better than what was just sung. Here are some specific dos and don’ts for when you have to sing with a sore throat or cold.
First of all, let’s look at what happens to the voice in the case of a sore throat. The cold virus typically begins to manifest itself in the throat, causing dryness and irritation in the back of the throat. The larynx and vocal cords swell a little, and become inflamed. This inflammation either increases over the next few days, or gives way to a congested nose and nasal cavity, sometimes lasting for weeks.
In the first stage of the sore throat, the average person typically drinks less liquid (“it hurts to swallow, so why go through that?”), and clears the throat often. This results in a throat that hurts more, so the person finds the quickest relief in cough drops with menthol, which is a numbing agent. Of course, as soon as the cough drop wears off, the person’s throat seems to hurt more, and so pops another cough drop. This vicious cycle continues for days, eventually giving way to the congestion phase: constant sniffling, sore nose, nonstop mucus, and misery. In the singer’s case, these problems can compound quickly, as singing with a sore throat seems to increase the pain, and the voice sounds more raspy with each passing day. Cold medicine seems to help for a small period of time, but the problems don’t go away for a while. And if there is a performance during this period of time, all the symptoms of the sore throat and cold get even worse, sometimes resulting in no voice at all.
There are several techniques to eliminate the cold with minimal pain and suffering. The first thing to realize is that trying to eliminate the symptoms with medications that numb the throat as a singer is dangerous. Remember, the throat is sore because the vocal cords are dry and inflamed, so the problem must be addressed with decreasing the dryness and irritation. Drinking lots of water is the easiest way to decrease the dryness, and using cough drops that increase lubrication of the vocal cords will assist in the inflammation. An example of these cough drops is Halls Vitamin C drops, which also give the body vitamins to fight the infection.
There is even a good and bad way to cough with inflamed vocal cords. Coughing “naturally” is the best way. The opposite is clearing the throat. When a person clears his or her throat, the process involves closing off the throat and causing an explosion of air across the vocal cords. This just gives temporary relief from the mucus on the vocal cords, but increases the irritation, which in turn causes more coughing.
Another technique to assist in the elimination of the sore throat is to change the environment in the throat to a more hostile one for the virus. This is accomplished in several different ways. One is to gargle with either salt water or mouthwash. Both solutions work to kill the germs. Drinking a tea with lemon and/or honey also changes the acidity level in the throat to one less friendly to the virus. Another effective way is to change the acidity level of the entire body. Biologically, our bodies function the best when the PH level of the blood is not acidic (a PH slightly basic, or just above 7, is ideal). Sadly, most people’s diets involve consuming foods that are acid in nature. The foods that are not acidic are…vegetables. Therefore, changing the diet during a cold to more vegetables and less processed foods will give the body more tools in the fight against the disease.
Breathing properly can also assist the body in the elimination of the disease. The body continuously gets rid of toxins in the cells through the lymphatic system, a fluid system that does not have a pump like the circulatory system (the heart). The lymphatic fluid moves using internal body movement. Generally, people become less physically active when sick, which compounds the problem. Deep breathing techniques give that movement within the body to move the toxins out. I will give one example here, but there are many (check out some in yoga breathing techniques). The ratio of breathing is 1:4:2. Breathe in to a count of 5, then hold your breath for 20, then exhale slowing with a hiss for 10. The base numbers can be higher or lower, depending on your personal breath control. Do this ten times, three times a day. It also increases blood flow and energy level as side benefits.
One other simple technique to relieve a sore throat is to rest the voice and body. In extreme cases, singers will go on what’s known as “vocal rest,” or the total elimination of talking for a period of time. The resting of the voice decreases stress on the vocal cords, allowing the inflammation to subside more quickly. Resting allows the body to fight the disease more efficiently.
With the case of congestion, drinking plenty of water will not add to the mucus, where dairy products increase mucus in the body. If you have heard from a vocal coach not to drink milk before a performance, the reason is the creation of mucus, which coats the vocal cords. Many of the medications to eliminate mucus have the side effect of drying out the throat, adding to the existing irritation. One method of mucus elimination without the side effects is a Neti pot. These can be purchased at your local drug store or chain store such as Walmart or Target. The Neti pot can be used several times a day to flush the mucus out with a salt water solution. Using a Neti pot instead of constantly blowing your nose also deceases inflammation in the nasal passages.  An added advantage to the Neti pot is eliminated the thick mucus in the back of the nasal passage that won’t come out any other way.
Many of the things to avoid are opposites of the above-mentioned solutions. First, do not drink anything that dries out the throat. Examples include beverages with caffeine or alcohol. Second, do not sing forcefully (with any tension), which will increase the inflammation. If necessary, sing lightly (also known as “marking”) until the performance. Any singing without tension will have minimal effect on the inflammation of the throat. Finally, any substance that would increase mucus or inflammation should be avoided. Smoking cigarettes can also increase mucus and inflammation, so if you smoke, try to limit your smoking while sick. On a quick side note, smoking also affects the voice when a person is not sick in a variety of ways (breath control, mucus, a coating on the vocal cords which changes the sound of the voice, and decrease in vocal range, to name a few), so eliminating it altogether would have a positive affect on the voice.
For some people, battling constant sore throats becomes the norm. If you find you are fighting a sore throat on a regular basis, it may be time to see an ear, nose, and throat doctor. You may have a different problem other than a cold virus, such as vocal nodes, or bumps on the vocal cords. There are many levels of vocal nodes, and the earlier a person treats them, the better.
The majority of this lesson on vocal health focused on sore throats and colds, and there are many types of vocal issues for singers. This course is meant as an overview, and not intended to provide medical advise for all types of vocal issues.
Supplemental Videos
Assignment on Videos
After watching the demonstration video, enter the secret number at the top of your assignment.
Write in complete sentences answers to the following questions.
1. In your own words, what was the content of the video?
2. What are two things you found most interesting about the content of the video?
3. Think of a singer you have seen and heard. Who are they, and what do they demonstrate in terms of this concept?
4. Name 3 positive things you do while singing that relate to this concept.
5. What 2 things can you improve on relating to this concept?


3.8: Introduction to Classical Genres
We will begin our study of the Classical era by looking at some of the most important genres from this period of music history. Many of these genres are not new. The concerto, opera, and sonata are all examples of genres that have their origins in the Baroque period, but continue to develop and evolve in the classical era. Two new genres make their debut here in the 18th century, namely the symphony and the string quartet. In this section you’ll find materials for all of these genres.
This section includes the following pages:
- Slide Show: Classical Genres
- Slide Show: Classical Vocal Music
- The Classical Era
- Symphony
- Chamber Music
- String Quartet
- Serenade
- Concerto
- Sonata
- Classical Opera
- Opera Buffa
Contributors and Attributions
CC licensed content, Original
- Authored by : Elliott Jones. Provided by : Santa Ana College. Located at : http://www.sac.edu . License : CC BY: Attribution
- Provided by : Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution


5.12C: The Calvin Cycle
- Describe the Calvin Cycle
The Calvin Cycle
In plants, carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) enters the leaves through stomata, where it diffuses over short distances through intercellular spaces until it reaches the mesophyll cells. Once in the mesophyll cells, CO 2 diffuses into the stroma of the chloroplast, the site of light-independent reactions of photosynthesis. These reactions actually have several names associated with them. Other names for light-independent reactions include the Calvin cycle, the Calvin-Benson cycle, and dark reactions. The most outdated name is dark reactions, which can be misleading because it implies incorrectly that the reaction only occurs at night or is independent of light, which is why most scientists and instructors no longer use it.
The light-independent reactions of the Calvin cycle can be organized into three basic stages: fixation, reduction, and regeneration.
Stage 1: Fixation
In the stroma, in addition to CO 2 ,two other components are present to initiate the light-independent reactions: an enzyme called ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCO) and three molecules of ribulose bisphosphate (RuBP). RuBP has five atoms of carbon, flanked by two phosphates. RuBisCO catalyzes a reaction between CO 2 and RuBP. For each CO 2 molecule that reacts with one RuBP, two molecules of 3-phosphoglyceric acid (3-PGA) form. 3-PGA has three carbons and one phosphate. Each turn of the cycle involves only one RuBP and one carbon dioxide and forms two molecules of 3-PGA. The number of carbon atoms remains the same, as the atoms move to form new bonds during the reactions (3 atoms from 3CO 2 + 15 atoms from 3RuBP = 18 atoms in 3 atoms of 3-PGA). This process is called carbon fixation because CO 2 is “fixed” from an inorganic form into organic molecules.
Stage 2: Reduction
ATP and NADPH are used to convert the six molecules of 3-PGA into six molecules of a chemical called glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate (G3P). This is a reduction reaction because it involves the gain of electrons by 3-PGA. Recall that a reduction is the gain of an electron by an atom or molecule. Six molecules of both ATP and NADPH are used. For ATP, energy is released with the loss of the terminal phosphate atom, converting it to ADP; for NADPH, both energy and a hydrogen atom are lost, converting it into NADP + . Both of these molecules return to the nearby light-dependent reactions to be reused and reenergized.
Stage 3: Regeneration
At this point, only one of the G3P molecules leaves the Calvin cycle and is sent to the cytoplasm to contribute to the formation of other compounds needed by the plant. Because the G3P exported from the chloroplast has three carbon atoms, it takes three “turns” of the Calvin cycle to fix enough net carbon to export one G3P. But each turn makes two G3Ps, thus three turns make six G3Ps. One is exported while the remaining five G3P molecules remain in the cycle and are used to regenerate RuBP, which enables the system to prepare for more CO 2 to be fixed. Three more molecules of ATP are used in these regeneration reactions.
Key Points
- The Calvin cycle refers to the light-independent reactions in photosynthesis that take place in three key steps.
- Although the Calvin Cycle is not directly dependent on light, it is indirectly dependent on light since the necessary energy carriers (ATP and NADPH) are products of light-dependent reactions.
- In fixation, the first stage of the Calvin cycle, light-independent reactions are initiated; CO 2 is fixed from an inorganic to an organic molecule.
- In the second stage, ATP and NADPH are used to reduce 3-PGA into G3P; then ATP and NADPH are converted to ADP and NADP + , respectively.
- In the last stage of the Calvin Cycle, RuBP is regenerated, which enables the system to prepare for more CO 2 to be fixed.
Key Terms
- light-independent reaction : chemical reactions during photosynthesis that convert carbon dioxide and other compounds into glucose, taking place in the stroma
- rubisco : (ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase) a plant enzyme which catalyzes the fixing of atmospheric carbon dioxide during photosynthesis by catalyzing the reaction between carbon dioxide and RuBP
- ribulose bisphosphate : an organic substance that is involved in photosynthesis, reacts with carbon dioxide to form 3-PGA


1.6: Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- Nurses must continually organize patient data to be recorded, either written or electronically. One model for organizing and prioritizing patient care needs is Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is often portrayed in the shape of a pyramid, with the greatest and most fundamental levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the top.
- Human needs, listed in order of importance by Maslow, are Physiological; Safety; Love and Belonging; Esteem; and Self-actualization.
- Maslow acknowledged that different levels are likely to be present at the same time. The hierarchy identifies the order of progression when needs are met.
Physiological Needs
Physiological needs are required for survival. If physiological are not met, the body cannot continue to function. The basic physiological needs are:
- Air
- Water
- Food
- Clothing
- Shelter
Safety Needs
Once physiological needs are met, individual safety takes precedence. Safety and Security needs include:
- Personal and family safety
- Financial security
- Health and well-being
Love/belonging Needs
After physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, the third layer of human needs are interpersonal. This involves feelings of belonging. Deficiencies in interpersonal needs, due to neglect, shunning, ostracism, etc., can impact an individual’s ability to form and maintain emotionally significant relationships in general, such as:
- Friendship
- Intimacy
- Family
Humans need to feel a sense of belonging and acceptance, whether it comes from larger community affiliations or simply a few close friends. Without these connections, many people become susceptible to loneliness, social anxiety, and clinical depression. This need for belonging can sometimes overcome physiological and security needs. For example, a person with anorexia may ignore the need to eat and the security of health for a feeling of control and belonging.
Esteem
Esteem represents the normal human desire to be accepted and valued by others. People need to engage themselves to gain recognition and have an activity or activities that give the person a sense of contribution, to feel self-valued, be it in a profession or hobby. Imbalances at this level can result in low self-esteem or an inferiority complex. Many people with low self-esteem will not be able to improve their view of themselves simply by receiving fame, respect, and glory externally, but must first accept themselves internally. Psychological imbalances, such as depression, can prevent one from obtaining self-esteem on both levels.
Self-actualization
This level of need refers to what a person’s full potential is and the realization of that potential. Maslow describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be. Individuals may perceive or focus on this need very specifically. For example, one individual may have the strong desire to become an ideal parent. In another, the desire may be expressed athletically. For others, it may be expressed in paintings, pictures, or inventions. Maslow believed that to acquire this level of need, the person must adequately achieve the previous needs.
Contributors and Attributions
CC Licensed Content, Shared Previously
- Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. Authored by: Boundless. Located at: www.boundless.com/business/textbooks/boundless-business-textbook/motivation-theories-and-applications-11/theories-of-motivation-75/maslow-s-hierarchy-of-needs-356-3204/. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike


45.7: Behavioral Biology - Proximate and Ultimate Causes of Behavior
Skills to Develop
- Compare innate and learned behavior
- Discuss how movement and migration behaviors are a result of natural selection
- Discuss the different ways members of a population communicate with each other
- Give examples of how species use energy for mating displays and other courtship behaviors
- Differentiate between various mating systems
- Describe different ways that species learn
Behavior is the change in activity of an organism in response to a stimulus. Behavioral biology is the study of the biological and evolutionary bases for such changes. The idea that behaviors evolved as a result of the pressures of natural selection is not new. Animal behavior has been studied for decades, by biologists in the science of ethology , by psychologists in the science of comparative psychology, and by scientists of many disciplines in the study of neurobiology. Although there is overlap between these disciplines, scientists in these behavioral fields take different approaches. Comparative psychology is an extension of work done in human and behavioral psychology. Ethology is an extension of genetics, evolution, anatomy, physiology, and other biological disciplines. Still, one cannot study behavioral biology without touching on both comparative psychology and ethology.
One goal of behavioral biology is to dissect out the innate behaviors , which have a strong genetic component and are largely independent of environmental influences, from the learned behaviors , which result from environmental conditioning. Innate behavior, or instinct, is important because there is no risk of an incorrect behavior being learned. They are “hard wired” into the system. On the other hand, learned behaviors, although riskier, are flexible, dynamic, and can be altered according to changes in the environment.
Innate Behaviors: Movement and Migration
Innate or instinctual behaviors rely on response to stimuli. The simplest example of this is a reflex action , an involuntary and rapid response to stimulus. To test the “knee-jerk” reflex, a doctor taps the patellar tendon below the kneecap with a rubber hammer. The stimulation of the nerves there leads to the reflex of extending the leg at the knee. This is similar to the reaction of someone who touches a hot stove and instinctually pulls his or her hand away. Even humans, with our great capacity to learn, still exhibit a variety of innate behaviors.
Kinesis and Taxis
Another activity or movement of innate behavior is kinesis , or the undirected movement in response to a stimulus. Orthokinesis is the increased or decreased speed of movement of an organism in response to a stimulus. Woodlice, for example, increase their speed of movement when exposed to high or low temperatures. This movement, although random, increases the probability that the insect spends less time in the unfavorable environment. Another example is klinokinesis, an increase in turning behaviors. It is exhibited by bacteria such as E. coli which, in association with orthokinesis, helps the organisms randomly find a more hospitable environment.
A similar, but more directed version of kinesis is taxis : the directed movement towards or away from a stimulus. This movement can be in response to light (phototaxis), chemical signals (chemotaxis), or gravity (geotaxis) and can be directed toward (positive) or away (negative) from the source of the stimulus. An example of a positive chemotaxis is exhibited by the unicellular protozoan Tetrahymena thermophila . This organism swims using its cilia, at times moving in a straight line, and at other times making turns. The attracting chemotactic agent alters the frequency of turning as the organism moves directly toward the source, following the increasing concentration gradient.
Fixed Action Patterns
A fixed action pattern is a series of movements elicited by a stimulus such that even when the stimulus is removed, the pattern goes on to completion. An example of such a behavior occurs in the three-spined stickleback, a small freshwater fish (Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)). Males of this species develop a red belly during breeding season and show instinctual aggressiveness to other males during this time. In laboratory experiments, researchers exposed such fish to objects that in no way resemble a fish in their shape, but which were painted red on their lower halves. The male sticklebacks responded aggressively to the objects just as if they were real male sticklebacks.
Migration
Migration is the long-range seasonal movement of animals. It is an evolved, adapted response to variation in resource availability, and it is a common phenomenon found in all major groups of animals. Birds fly south for the winter to get to warmer climates with sufficient food, and salmon migrate to their spawning grounds. The popular 2005 documentary March of the Penguins followed the 62-mile migration of emperor penguins through Antarctica to bring food back to their breeding site and to their young. Wildebeests (Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)) migrate over 1800 miles each year in search of new grasslands.
Although migration is thought of as innate behavior, only some migrating species always migrate (obligate migration). Animals that exhibit facultative migration can choose to migrate or not. Additionally, in some animals, only a portion of the population migrates, whereas the rest does not migrate (incomplete migration). For example, owls that live in the tundra may migrate in years when their food source, small rodents, is relatively scarce, but not migrate during the years when rodents are plentiful.
Foraging
Foraging is the act of searching for and exploiting food resources. Feeding behaviors that maximize energy gain and minimize energy expenditure are called optimal foraging behaviors, and these are favored by natural section. The painted stork, for example, uses its long beak to search the bottom of a freshwater marshland for crabs and other food (Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\)).
Innate Behaviors: Living in Groups
Not all animals live in groups, but even those that live relatively solitary lives, with the exception of those that can reproduce asexually, must mate. Mating usually involves one animal signaling another so as to communicate the desire to mate. There are several types of energy-intensive behaviors or displays associated with mating, called mating rituals. Other behaviors found in populations that live in groups are described in terms of which animal benefits from the behavior. In selfish behavior, only the animal in question benefits; in altruistic behavior, one animal’s actions benefit another animal; cooperative behavior describes when both animals benefit. All of these behaviors involve some sort of communication between population members.
Communication within a Species
Animals communicate with each other using stimuli known as signals . An example of this is seen in the three-spined stickleback, where the visual signal of a red region in the lower half of a fish signals males to become aggressive and signals females to mate. Other signals are chemical (pheromones), aural (sound), visual (courtship and aggressive displays), or tactile (touch). These types of communication may be instinctual or learned or a combination of both. These are not the same as the communication we associate with language, which has been observed only in humans and perhaps in some species of primates and cetaceans.
A pheromone is a secreted chemical signal used to obtain a response from another individual of the same species. The purpose of pheromones is to elicit a specific behavior from the receiving individual. Pheromones are especially common among social insects, but they are used by many species to attract the opposite sex, to sound alarms, to mark food trails, and to elicit other, more complex behaviors. Even humans are thought to respond to certain pheromones called axillary steroids. These chemicals influence human perception of other people, and in one study were responsible for a group of women synchronizing their menstrual cycles. The role of pheromones in human-to-human communication is still somewhat controversial and continues to be researched.
Songs are an example of an aural signal, one that needs to be heard by the recipient. Perhaps the best known of these are songs of birds, which identify the species and are used to attract mates. Other well-known songs are those of whales, which are of such low frequency that they can travel long distances underwater. Dolphins communicate with each other using a wide variety of vocalizations. Male crickets make chirping sounds using a specialized organ to attract a mate, repel other males, and to announce a successful mating.
Courtship displays are a series of ritualized visual behaviors (signals) designed to attract and convince a member of the opposite sex to mate. These displays are ubiquitous in the animal kingdom. Often these displays involve a series of steps, including an initial display by one member followed by a response from the other. If at any point, the display is performed incorrectly or a proper response is not given, the mating ritual is abandoned and the mating attempt will be unsuccessful. The mating display of the common stork is shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\).
Aggressive displays are also common in the animal kingdom. An example is when a dog bares its teeth when it wants another dog to back down. Presumably, these displays communicate not only the willingness of the animal to fight, but also its fighting ability. Although these displays do signal aggression on the part of the sender, it is thought that these displays are actually a mechanism to reduce the amount of actual fighting that occurs between members of the same species: they allow individuals to assess the fighting ability of their opponent and thus decide whether it is “worth the fight.” The testing of certain hypotheses using game theory has led to the conclusion that some of these displays may overstate an animal’s actual fighting ability and are used to “bluff” the opponent. This type of interaction, even if “dishonest,” would be favored by natural selection if it is successful more times than not.
Distraction displays are seen in birds and some fish. They are designed to attract a predator away from the nest that contains their young. This is an example of an altruistic behavior: it benefits the young more than the individual performing the display, which is putting itself at risk by doing so.
Many animals, especially primates, communicate with other members in the group through touch. Activities such as grooming, touching the shoulder or root of the tail, embracing, lip contact, and greeting ceremonies have all been observed in the Indian langur, an Old World monkey. Similar behaviors are found in other primates, especially in the great apes.
Link to Learning
The killdeer bird distracts predators from its eggs by faking a broken wing display in this video taken in Boise, Idaho.
Altruistic Behaviors
Behaviors that lower the fitness of the individual but increase the fitness of another individual are termed altruistic. Examples of such behaviors are seen widely across the animal kingdom. Social insects such as worker bees have no ability to reproduce, yet they maintain the queen so she can populate the hive with her offspring. Meerkats keep a sentry standing guard to warn the rest of the colony about intruders, even though the sentry is putting itself at risk. Wolves and wild dogs bring meat to pack members not present during a hunt. Lemurs take care of infants unrelated to them. Although on the surface, these behaviors appear to be altruistic, it may not be so simple.
There has been much discussion over why altruistic behaviors exist. Do these behaviors lead to overall evolutionary advantages for their species? Do they help the altruistic individual pass on its own genes? And what about such activities between unrelated individuals? One explanation for altruistic-type behaviors is found in the genetics of natural selection. In the 1976 book, The Selfish Gene, scientist Richard Dawkins attempted to explain many seemingly altruistic behaviors from the viewpoint of the gene itself. Although a gene obviously cannot be selfish in the human sense, it may appear that way if the sacrifice of an individual benefits related individuals that share genes that are identical by descent (present in relatives because of common lineage). Mammal parents make this sacrifice to take care of their offspring. Emperor penguins migrate miles in harsh conditions to bring food back for their young. Selfish gene theory has been controversial over the years and is still discussed among scientists in related fields.
Even less-related individuals, those with less genetic identity than that shared by parent and offspring, benefit from seemingly altruistic behavior. The activities of social insects such as bees, wasps, ants, and termites are good examples. Sterile workers in these societies take care of the queen because they are closely related to it, and as the queen has offspring, she is passing on genes from the workers indirectly. Thus, it is of fitness benefit for the worker to maintain the queen without having any direct chance of passing on its genes due to its sterility. The lowering of individual fitness to enhance the reproductive fitness of a relative and thus one’s inclusive fitness evolves through kin selection . This phenomenon can explain many superficially altruistic behaviors seen in animals. However, these behaviors may not be truly defined as altruism in these cases because the actor is actually increasing its own fitness either directly (through its own offspring) or indirectly (through the inclusive fitness it gains through relatives that share genes with it).
Unrelated individuals may also act altruistically to each other, and this seems to defy the “selfish gene” explanation. An example of this observed in many monkey species where a monkey will present its back to an unrelated monkey to have that individual pick the parasites from its fur. After a certain amount of time, the roles are reversed and the first monkey now grooms the second monkey. Thus, there is reciprocity in the behavior. Both benefit from the interaction and their fitness is raised more than if neither cooperated nor if one cooperated and the other did not cooperate. This behavior is still not necessarily altruism, as the “giving” behavior of the actor is based on the expectation that it will be the “receiver” of the behavior in the future, termed reciprocal altruism. Reciprocal altruism requires that individuals repeatedly encounter each other, often the result of living in the same social group, and that cheaters (those that never “give back”) are punished.
Evolutionary game theory, a modification of classical game theory in mathematics, has shown that many of these so-called “altruistic behaviors” are not altruistic at all. The definition of “pure” altruism, based on human behavior, is an action that benefits another without any direct benefit to oneself. Most of the behaviors previously described do not seem to satisfy this definition, and game theorists are good at finding “selfish” components in them. Others have argued that the terms “selfish” and “altruistic” should be dropped completely when discussing animal behavior, as they describe human behavior and may not be directly applicable to instinctual animal activity. What is clear, though, is that heritable behaviors that improve the chances of passing on one’s genes or a portion of one’s genes are favored by natural selection and will be retained in future generations as long as those behaviors convey a fitness advantage. These instinctual behaviors may then be applied, in special circumstances, to other species, as long as it doesn’t lower the animal’s fitness.
Finding Sex Partners
Not all animals reproduce sexually, but many that do have the same challenge: they need to find a suitable mate and often have to compete with other individuals to obtain one. Significant energy is spent in the process of locating, attracting, and mating with the sex partner. Two types of selection occur during this process and can lead to traits that are important to reproduction called secondary sexual characteristics: intersexual selection , the choosing of a mate where individuals of one sex choose mates of the other sex, and intrasexual selection , the competition for mates between species members of the same sex. Intersexual selection is often complex because choosing a mate may be based on a variety of visual, aural, tactile, and chemical cues. An example of intersexual selection is when female peacocks choose to mate with the male with the brightest plumage. This type of selection often leads to traits in the chosen sex that do not enhance survival, but are those traits most attractive to the opposite sex (often at the expense of survival). Intrasexual selection involves mating displays and aggressive mating rituals such as rams butting heads—the winner of these battles is the one that is able to mate. Many of these rituals use up considerable energy but result in the selection of the healthiest, strongest, and/or most dominant individuals for mating. Three general mating systems, all involving innate as opposed to learned behaviors, are seen in animal populations: monogamous, polygynous, and polyandrous.
In monogamous systems, one male and one female are paired for at least one breeding season. In some animals, such as the gray wolf, these associations can last much longer, even a lifetime. Several explanations have been proposed for this type of mating system. The “mate-guarding hypothesis” states that males stay with the female to prevent other males from mating with her. This behavior is advantageous in such situations where mates are scarce and difficult to find. Another explanation is the “male-assistance hypothesis,” where males that remain with a female to help guard and rear their young will have more and healthier offspring. Monogamy is observed in many bird populations where, in addition to the parental care from the female, the male is also a major provider of parental care for the chicks. A third explanation for the evolutionary advantages of monogamy is the “female-enforcement hypothesis.” In this scenario, the female ensures that the male does not have other offspring that might compete with her own, so she actively interferes with the male’s signaling to attract other mates.
Polygynous mating refers to one male mating with multiple females. In these situations, the female must be responsible for most of the parental care as the single male is not capable of providing care to that many offspring. In resourced-based polygyny, males compete for territories with the best resources, and then mate with females that enter the territory, drawn to its resource richness. The female benefits by mating with a dominant, genetically fit male; however, it is at the cost of having no male help in caring for the offspring. An example is seen in the yellow-rumped honeyguide, a bird whose males defend beehives because the females feed on their wax. As the females approach, the male defending the nest will mate with them. Harem mating structures are a type of polygynous system where certain males dominate mating while controlling a territory with resources. Elephant seals, where the alpha male dominates the mating within the group are an example. A third type of polygyny is a lek system. Here there is a communal courting area where several males perform elaborate displays for females, and the females choose their mate from this group. This behavior is observed in several bird species including the sage grouse and the prairie chicken.
In polyandrous mating systems, one female mates with many males. These types of systems are much rarer than monogamous and polygynous mating systems. In pipefishes and seahorses, males receive the eggs from the female, fertilize them, protect them within a pouch, and give birth to the offspring (Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\)). Therefore, the female is able to provide eggs to several males without the burden of carrying the fertilized eggs.
Simple Learned Behaviors
The majority of the behaviors previously discussed were innate or at least have an innate component (variations on the innate behaviors may be learned). They are inherited and the behaviors do not change in response to signals from the environment. Conversely, learned behaviors, even though they may have instinctive components, allow an organism to adapt to changes in the environment and are modified by previous experiences. Simple learned behaviors include habituation and imprinting—both are important to the maturation process of young animals.
Habituation
Habituation is a simple form of learning in which an animal stops responding to a stimulus after a period of repeated exposure. This is a form of non-associative learning, as the stimulus is not associated with any punishment or reward. Prairie dogs typically sound an alarm call when threatened by a predator, but they become habituated to the sound of human footsteps when no harm is associated with this sound, therefore, they no longer respond to them with an alarm call. In this example, habituation is specific to the sound of human footsteps, as the animals still respond to the sounds of potential predators.
Imprinting
Imprinting is a type of learning that occurs at a particular age or a life stage that is rapid and independent of the species involved. Hatchling ducks recognize the first adult they see, their mother, and make a bond with her. A familiar sight is ducklings walking or swimming after their mothers (Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\)). This is another type of non-associative learning, but is very important in the maturation process of these animals as it encourages them to stay near their mother so they will be protected, greatly increasing their chances of survival. However, if newborn ducks see a human before they see their mother, they will imprint on the human and follow it in just the same manner as they would follow their real mother.
Link to Learning
The International Crane Foundation has helped raise the world’s population of whooping cranes from 21 individuals to about 600. Imprinting hatchlings has been a key to success: biologists wear full crane costumes so the birds never “see” humans. Watch this video to learn more.
Conditioned Behavior
Conditioned behaviors are types of associative learning, where a stimulus becomes associated with a consequence. During operant conditioning, the behavioral response is modified by its consequences, with regards to its form, strength, or frequency.
Classical Conditioning
In classical conditioning , a response called the conditioned response is associated with a stimulus that it had previously not been associated with, the conditioned stimulus. The response to the original, unconditioned stimulus is called the unconditioned response. The most cited example of classical conditioning is Ivan Pavlov’s experiments with dogs (Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\)). In Pavlov’s experiments, the unconditioned response was the salivation of dogs in response to the unconditioned stimulus of seeing or smelling their food. The conditioning stimulus that researchers associated with the unconditioned response was the ringing of a bell. During conditioning, every time the animal was given food, the bell was rung. This was repeated during several trials. After some time, the dog learned to associate the ringing of the bell with food and to respond by salivating. After the conditioning period was finished, the dog would respond by salivating when the bell was rung, even when the unconditioned stimulus, the food, was absent. Thus, the ringing of the bell became the conditioned stimulus and the salivation became the conditioned response. Although it is thought by some scientists that the unconditioned and conditioned responses are identical, even Pavlov discovered that the saliva in the conditioned dogs had characteristic differences when compared to the unconditioned dog.
It had been thought by some scientists that this type of conditioning required multiple exposures to the paired stimulus and response, but it is now known that this is not necessary in all cases, and that some conditioning can be learned in a single pairing experiment. Classical conditioning is a major tenet of behaviorism, a branch of psychological philosophy that proposes that all actions, thoughts, and emotions of living things are behaviors that can be treated by behavior modification and changes in the environment.
Operant Conditioning
In operant conditioning , the conditioned behavior is gradually modified by its consequences as the animal responds to the stimulus. A major proponent of such conditioning was psychologist B.F. Skinner, the inventor of the Skinner box. Skinner put rats in his boxes that contained a lever that would dispense food to the rat when depressed. While initially the rat would push the lever a few times by accident, it eventually associated pushing the lever with getting the food. This type of learning is an example of operant conditioning. Operant learning is the basis of most animal training. The conditioned behavior is continually modified by positive or negative reinforcement, often a reward such as food or some type of punishment, respectively. In this way, the animal is conditioned to associate a type of behavior with the punishment or reward, and, over time, can be induced to perform behaviors that they would not have done in the wild, such as the “tricks” dolphins perform at marine amusement park shows (Figure \(\PageIndex{8}\)).
Cognitive Learning
Classical and operant conditioning are inefficient ways for humans and other intelligent animals to learn. Some primates, including humans, are able to learn by imitating the behavior of others and by taking instructions. The development of complex language by humans has made cognitive learning , the manipulation of information using the mind, the most prominent method of human learning. In fact, that is how students are learning right now by reading this book. As students read, they can make mental images of objects or organisms and imagine changes to them, or behaviors by them, and anticipate the consequences. In addition to visual processing, cognitive learning is also enhanced by remembering past experiences, touching physical objects, hearing sounds, tasting food, and a variety of other sensory-based inputs. Cognitive learning is so powerful that it can be used to understand conditioning in detail. In the reverse scenario, conditioning cannot help someone learn about cognition.
Classic work on cognitive learning was done by Wolfgang Köhler with chimpanzees. He demonstrated that these animals were capable of abstract thought by showing that they could learn how to solve a puzzle. When a banana was hung in their cage too high for them to reach, and several boxes were placed randomly on the floor, some of the chimps were able to stack the boxes one on top of the other, climb on top of them, and get the banana. This implies that they could visualize the result of stacking the boxes even before they had performed the action. This type of learning is much more powerful and versatile than conditioning.
Cognitive learning is not limited to primates, although they are the most efficient in using it. Maze running experiments done with rats by H.C. Blodgett in the 1920s were the first to show cognitive skills in a simple mammal. The motivation for the animals to work their way through the maze was a piece of food at its end. In these studies, the animals in Group I were run in one trial per day and had food available to them each day on completion of the run (Figure \(\PageIndex{9}\)). Group II rats were not fed in the maze for the first six days and then subsequent runs were done with food for several days after. Group III rats had food available on the third day and every day thereafter. The results were that the control rats, Group I, learned quickly, and figured out how to run the maze in seven days. Group III did not learn much during the three days without food, but rapidly caught up to the control group when given the food reward. Group II learned very slowly for the six days with no reward to motivate them, and they did not begin to catch up to the control group until the day food was given, and then it took two days longer to learn the maze.
It may not be immediately obvious that this type of learning is different than conditioning. Although one might be tempted to believe that the rats simply learned how to find their way through a conditioned series of right and left turns, E.C. Tolman proved a decade later that the rats were making a representation of the maze in their minds, which he called a “cognitive map.” This was an early demonstration of the power of cognitive learning and how these abilities were not just limited to humans.
Sociobiology
Sociobiology is an interdisciplinary science originally popularized by social insect researcher E.O. Wilson in the 1970s. Wilson defined the science as “the extension of population biology and evolutionary theory to social organization.” 1 The main thrust of sociobiology is that animal and human behavior, including aggressiveness and other social interactions, can be explained almost solely in terms of genetics and natural selection. This science is controversial; noted scientist such as the late Stephen Jay Gould criticized the approach for ignoring the environmental effects on behavior. This is another example of the “nature versus nurture” debate of the role of genetics versus the role of environment in determining an organism’s characteristics.
Sociobiology also links genes with behaviors and has been associated with “biological determinism,” the belief that all behaviors are hardwired into our genes. No one disputes that certain behaviors can be inherited and that natural selection plays a role retaining them. It is the application of such principles to human behavior that sparks this controversy, which remains active today.
Summary
Behaviors are responses to stimuli. They can either be instinctual/innate behaviors, which are not influenced by the environment, or learned behaviors, which are influenced by environmental changes. Instinctual behaviors include mating systems and methods of communication. Learned behaviors include imprinting and habituation, conditioning, and, most powerfully, cognitive learning. Although the connection between behavior, genetics, and evolution is well established, the explanation of human behavior as entirely genetic is controversial.
Footnotes
- 1 Edward O. Wilson. On Human Nature (1978; repr., Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2004), xx.
Glossary
- aggressive display
- visual display by a species member to discourage other members of the same species or different species
- behavior
- change in an organism’s activities in response to a stimulus
- behavioral biology
- study of the biology and evolution of behavior
- classical conditioning
- association of a specific stimulus and response through conditioning
- cognitive learning
- knowledge and skills acquired by the manipulation of information in the mind
- conditioned behavior
- behavior that becomes associated with a specific stimulus through conditioning
- courtship display
- visual display used to attract a mate
- distraction display
- visual display used to distract predators away from a nesting site
- ethology
- biological study of animal behavior
- fixed action pattern
- series of instinctual behaviors that, once initiated, always goes to completion regardless of changes in the environment
- foraging
- behaviors species use to find food
- habituation
- ability of a species to ignore repeated stimuli that have no consequence
- imprinting
- identification of parents by newborns as the first organism they see after birth
- innate behavior
- instinctual behavior that is not altered by changes in the environment
- intersexual selection
- selection of a desirable mate of the opposite sex
- intrasexual selection
- competition between members of the same sex for a mate
- kin selection
- sacrificing one’s own life so that one’s genes will be passed on to future generations by relatives
- kinesis
- undirected movement of an organism in response to a stimulus
- learned behavior
- behavior that responds to changes in the environment
- migration
- long-range seasonal movement of animal species
- monogamy
- mating system whereby one male and one female remain coupled for at least one mating season
- operant conditioning
- learned behaviors in response to positive and/or negative reinforcement
- polyandry
- mating system where one female mates with many males
- polygyny
- mating system where one male mates with many females
- reflex action
- action in response to direct physical stimulation of a nerve
- signal
- method of communication between animals including those obtained by the senses of smell, hearing, sight, or touch
- taxis
- directed movement in response to a stimulus


5.2: Mothers Acting Up Online
- Identify and analyze gender and parental social roles.
- Distinguish between backstage and front-stage behaviors and impression management using Goffman’s dramaturgical method.
- Interpret the rise of the Mommy Wars as a result of both technological change and unachieved feminist goals.
In this chapter, the author explores the competitive nature of the fishbowl culture in upper-middle-class communities in the northeastern United States and the ways that online forums mediate idealized parenting performances. The author addresses how these sites are used to help mothers with “impression management,” allowing women to practice their performances and improve the impressions they will provide for their real-life audiences in the future.
This chapter discusses research done with upper-middle-class cisgender heterosexual mothers in New York City who participate in the anonymous online discussion boards UrbanBaby.com (UB) and YouBeMom.com (YBM). In the age of “intensive parenting,” the social status of these mothers is inexorably tied to their parenting. Many in this social arena believe that if a mother is unwilling to give up (almost) everything in her previous life, then she should not have children. There are few who achieve this ideal, but many feel pressure to present this image to the world. This creates a tension between the social role of mother and the private reality of wanting to complain and have another identity. A social role is the expected behavior of a person who holds a known status. These boards are where female posters can drop the “perfect” façade and be their more “authentic” selves. These online spaces allow them to express insecurity when they should appear confident, to be rude when they are expected to be polite, and to be clueless when they are looked to for answers. In other words, these boards allow them to be more authentically human. On YBM and UB, it is possible to see some of the social tensions around the role of mother not changing as much as the role of a female employee. This leads to heated debates regarding parenting choices in paid employment versus maternal-only childcare that is part of the “Mommy Wars.”
the expected behaviors of a person who holds a known status.
DESCRIPTION OF BOARDS
There are many websites with discussion boards devoted to the topics of pregnancy and childhood. Patricia Drentea and Jennifer Moren-Cross (2005) found these parenting boards to be places of both emotional and instrumental support that create and maintain social capital. The 2011 book Motherhood Online , edited by Michelle Moravec, discusses websites where mothers can get support regarding their personal lives. BabyCenter.com is currently the largest and most popular parenting site, serving over forty-five million users ( babycenter.com/about ). It has usernames and images that identify every post with a user. Those users are expected to be warm and supportive, giving virtual hugs “((((((HUGS))))))” when someone is having trouble.
UB and YBM do not provide this gender-specific comfort and loving support. They are believed to be populated by mean and nasty women. Even asking about how to change one’s eating patterns to more healthy ones can lead to a poster being told: “You sound fat.” John Suler coined the phrase “online disinhibition effect” for how people behave online in ways that might be hurtful to others, while they would not in real life (IRL). People act this way because of anonymity, invisibility (those being attacked cannot be seen), solipsistic introjection (lack of face-to-face cues), dissociative imagination (online is not “real life”), minimization of status and authority, individual differences, and predispositions and shifts among intrapsychic constellations (individuals showing a “true self” that they would typically hide) (Suler 2004). It happens to both genders but is more shocking to the viewer when the verbally abusive posters are female, never mind mothers.
Susan and John Maloney founded urbanbaby.com in August 1999. The site provided articles and information to expectant and new parents across the country. The most popular feature was the message board because it was an anonymous place for parents to speak without negative repercussions IRL. CNET bought the site in 2006 (Benkoil 2013) and is run by CBS. UB was ranked the 63,435th most popular website in global internet engagement in 2008 but fell to 314,048th in 2019 ( Alexa.com 2019). This popularity came with notoriety as well. Jen Chung (2004) of Gawker.com said that it is a “must read if you’re about to have a kid in the five bouroughs [ sic ].” Journalist Emily Nussbaum (2006) called UB “the collective id” of some groups of New York City mothers and a “snake pit.” The site is famous not only for the snark but also as an anonymous and free resource on parenting in the New York area.
UB’s design is currently a relatively straightforward discussion board.
In 2008, UB changed its format to what you see in figure 16.1 . Anyone can read the content, but commenting requires a username and password. The “Search Box” is not functional since a second reorganization in 2012. The “Most Popular” posts, listed on the right, are the ones that get the most responses. The gray links underneath the black posts allow a user to reply to a post, click on “watch” to create a personalized list, and “more” for the time stamp and ability to “flag” a post. Flagging is an effort to get CBS.com moderators to delete inappropriate (offensive or spam) posts.
The 2008 changes upset many longtime UB users, claiming the site was slower and less agile. Several New York–based news outlets reported users’ anger; in fact, the New York Times titled their article “Don’t Mess with Mom’s Chat” (Kaufman 2008). The negative fallout indicated how popular the site was in New York City and how UB members are politically and socially well connected. Mondeep Puri and an anonymous other former UB user founded a new website called YouBeMom.com . It has been called “the 4chan for mothers” (O’Conner 2014). The user demographic is similar and overlapping, and some move fluidly from one to the other, as verbatim questions appear within minutes of each other.
On YBM, only the first 180 characters are visible, and a user must click to see the remainder. It became possible to “delete” posts in mid-June 2017, a feature that posters have been using as a hedge against embarrassment. If three other users hit “dislike,” a comment will be “hidden” from view but not deleted. The “hide—like—dislike—reply” buttons are visible when a user clicks on a post. There is a “most liked” category and “most discussed” on the top navigation bar as well as a search box.
GEOGRAPHIC SETTING—VIRTUAL OR NEW YORK CITY?
The research setting is a virtual community . It is a social network of people interacting using technology to pursue shared interests and goals that cross boundaries of geography, time, and politics (Rheingold 1993). The issue with saying UB and YBM are exclusively virtual communities is that it ignores the geographic grounding to the participants and their knowledge bases. These boards are used to communicate about parenting in a geographic location—the stores, schools, playgrounds, activities, etc.—that community members access regularly. Therefore, these virtual communities have a tie to the locations where their participants live. Posters are not looking for someone to tell them that they are insane to spend up to $50K a year for kindergarten. Instead, they want to know about the admissions process for a particular school. The geographic base of knowledge is small, and some people are only interested in getting recommendations close to their own homes.
a social network of people interacting using technology to pursue shared interests and goals that cross boundaries of geography, time, and politics.
“WHO ARE THESE WOMEN?”
It is virtually impossible to know the exact demographics of the users of these sites because their personal data are not collected. In various articles about the users of these sites, community members are described as rich and mean women with too much time on their hands. Nolan (2012) says the site is “home to some of the most self-loathing, wealthy, haughty, and miserable parents in all of America.” I have a sense of demographics based on personal experience from 2009 to 2012 and official research between 2012 and 2019. YBM and UB populations skew heavily female, parents, geographically in the boroughs (counties) of Manhattan and gentrified Brooklyn with a significant subset of former Manhattanites and residents of the greater Tri-State Area commutable to New York City (meaning southern New York State, northern New Jersey, and much of Connecticut). They also are significantly wealthier than the median income (over $71,897 in 2018; see datausa.com ) college-educated, Democratic political leanings, and white/Caucasian. There are indications of different lengths of tenure on each of the sites, longer on YBM and shorter on UB. One of my interviews was with a woman who said she was a former resident of Manhattan who moved to New Jersey, had two children, and stayed at home with them. She had initially gone to the site (as many informants reported) to find out about New York City’s competitive preschool application process. Although her children were in middle school by the time we talked, she enjoyed the ability to speak her mind and engage in “the drama” from the safety of her own home. In fact, she may enjoy it too much as she said she was “addicted” and had to ask her husband to block the website from their router most of the time in order to have a strict limit on her usage.
MOTHERHOOD AND IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT
Most people can recognize that a job interview is a performance. Job seekers research the organization, get business attire ready in advance, prepare answers to potentially tricky questions, and ensure that they show their best selves at the interview. Parenting has increasingly become a performance as well. Since Sharon Hays reported the rise of “intensive parenting” in 1998, pregnancy, birth, childhood, and parenthood have become part of a carefully executed show requiring parental (read: maternal) supervision. Aspects of this have been true for centuries. The competitive nature of the culture in upscale parts of the northeastern United States shows how UB or YBM can become an invaluable lifeline. One of the primary reasons posters ask questions about UB and YBM is to poll others “like me.” They may ask, “What would you think if—” followed by a variety of parenting (or nonparenting) questions to shield themselves from judgment IRL. The anonymity allows people to give and get advice without harm to an individual’s reputation as a “good mother.”
The boards demonstrate the dramaturgical method, developed by Erving Goffman (1959) in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life . He suggested that humans interact differently depending on the time, place, and audience present to view that “performance” or action. It indicates that people are actors playing (social) roles during their daily lives. The status that a person has is the part in the play, while the role is the script. The script informs the person of the appropriate words and movements for the part they are playing at this moment. Individuals can present themselves and create an impression in the minds of others ( impression management ) by changing status and role depending on social interaction. For example, most people present a different “self” to an in-law than to a spouse in terms of behaviors and expressions.
the manner in which individuals present themselves and create a perception in the mind of others by changing status and roles depending on social interaction.
Goffman says that daily interactions in which people know there is an audience for his/her status and role are called front-stage behaviors. People are aware that they are performing in the front stage. There is a set of observers for whom a performance is being put on and a series of behaviors that social actors are expected to demonstrate. The performance has a goal of infallibility as “errors and mistakes are often corrected before the performance takes place, while telltale signs that errors have been made and corrected are themselves concealed” (Goffman 1978, 52). Those errors are discussed and fixed in backstage areas with compatriots who want to help you perfect your performance.
a social or physical space where people are aware that they are performing a role for observers and a series of behaviors that social actors are expected to demonstrate.
a social or physical space where people get help putting together a performance. Others help them perfect their portrayal of a particular role that they will demonstrate at another time or place.
There are several signs to indicate that someone is in a backstage region or engaging in backstage behavior. First, they are among people for whom status does not depend on a positive review, or where one can “let down [their] hair.” Goffman quotes feminist writer Simone de Beauvoir who stated the following:
With other women, a woman is behind the scenes; she is polishing her equipment, but not in battle; she is getting her costume together, preparing her make-up, laying out her tactics; she is lingering in a dressing-gown and slippers in the wings before making her entrance on the stage; she likes this warm, easy, relaxed atmosphere … for some women this warm and frivolous intimacy is dearer than the serious pomp and relations with men. (Goffman 1959, 113, ellipses in original)
This sort of informality and willingness to challenge authority is what Goffman called “backstage language,” which might be taken as disrespectful for people and places considered “front stage.” Posters on UB and YBM use atypical “female” language, including profanity or aggressive, opinionated speech patterns, further indicating that this is a backstage area.
Rebecca Tardy (2000) provided a Goffmanesque analysis of a playgroup of mothers in a college town. Tardy discusses the social pressure put on mothers to prove they are “good” moms. If they meet this standard, they should be able to protect their children from getting sick, which is impossible. She suggests that these mothers have two front stages. The first is in front of the “regular” world of mixed genders and representations of themselves as successful stay-at-home mothers. The next is the playgroup, which on the surface appears to be backstage because they can get information about being a mother, discuss their parenting issues, and talk about the messy biology of motherhood. However, Tardy found that in this backstage, the women were playing the role of a devoted mother. Tandy found that only in the activities associated with “Mom’s Night Out,” where the children were not present, could the women drop the role of mother and engage in less “good mom” impression management.
Drew Ross analyzed the benefits of using anonymous people as backstage resources to achieve goals. He researched an online community of people trying to pass a difficult test to become a London taxi driver. The average applicant spent two to four years studying over three hundred routes on twenty-five thousand streets as well as over twenty thousand landmarks within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross (TheKnowledgeTaxi). As studying for this test is an isolated and competitive situation, a website was created by test takers and those who have passed by test takers and those who have passed the test to assist others. People would post questions before or after they went out to learn one of the routes. Ross’s discussion of expertise pooling shows how these boards are learning networks based on active participation and communication between those who know and those who do not. Both future cabbies and these mothers need a space where more experienced learners mentor those less experienced ones by answering questions.
FEMINISM ON DISPLAY
Gender and gender roles (see introduction) in the United States support the idea that women are viewed primarily as caregivers and that their contribution to the household is valued less than that of males. The idea of these discussion boards being a place for women to communicate about the problems and to assist each other, harkens back to First Wave feminism. Feminism is the idea that there should be economic, social, and political equality between people regardless of sex or gender. Feminist critique in anthropology was defined by Henrietta Moore (1988) as the analysis of gender and how gender is a structuring principle in society. Carol Hanisch (1969) stated that “the personal is political.” The “political” was not referring to elected office but a way to show that women do not have unique problems in society. Women who experience disrespect and discrimination have a set of challenges that can be addressed politically. First-wave feminism focused on earning the right to vote and other legal protections, while second-wave feminism looked at discrimination and equality with the slogan “the personal is political.” The idea behind this slogan is that if all housewives (typically white, middle-class, and heterosexual) discussed their personal issues they would become conscious of their common oppression. Third-wave feminism was to address the class and racial biases of the preceding two movements. In theory, YBM and UB could function as such consciousness-raising environments. There are elements of this where women get help in determining how to manage a tough workplace, “I just reached out to a former boss.  How do I phrase it?” Yet when women admit to taking time to themselves, they are flamed (criticized) for maternal neglect. “My child just drew a picture of me sitting on my computer YBMing” resulted in a huge backlash. The pressures of the expectations of female behavior are demonstrated in the various ways that educated and wealthy women bicker and defend their choices. In theory, these backstage spaces should provide a greater awareness of the common problems of a single gender. Instead, there is anger and criticism. The division of women into warring factions rather than as a united whole has been a significant failing of the feminist movement. Nussbaum (2006) said, “If you read UrbanBaby, it’s hard not to be unsettled by the same conclusion that hit Friedan when she surveyed the mothers of America: that what seem like women’s private struggles can be seen as an expression of their shared experience.”
the set of culturally and historically invented beliefs and expectations about gender that one learns and performs (e.g., masculine, feminine). Gender is an “identity” one can choose in some societies, but there is pressure in all societies to conform to expected gender roles and identities.
the tasks and activities that a specific culture assigns to a gender.
the idea that there should be economic, social, and political equality between people regardless of sex or gender.
from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth century, focusing on earning the right to vote and emancipation of women from fathers and husbands.
focused on gender-based discrimination in the 1960s–1980s
brought up the idea that feminism and gender-based needs and oppressions differ based on class, race/ethnicity, nationality, and religion.
MOMMY WARS
Mommy Wars refers to the idea that choices that women make in their roles as mothers line them up on opposing sides of a battlefield. It starts with the decisions around birth, to have an unmedicated childbirth, an epidural (a shot in the spine to stop the pain) or a cesarean section, continues with circumcising male babies or leaving them “intact,” to co-sleep or put a baby in a separate crib. Breastfeeding or formula feeding, letting a six-month-old baby “learn to sleep” by “crying it out” or if a child is rocked to sleep until he or she learns how to “go to sleep” is worthy of arguments with strangers. Daycare for socialization or a private nanny is not only a status signifier but can be seen as setting a child up for a lifetime of success or failure, depending on the individual’s opinion. One of the most hotly debated topics is that of a mother’s employment status. A woman’s different decision in this arena is taken as a personal affront on another woman’s choice. Here it is important to note that it is not a question of a woman working or not impacting women or the feminist movement as a whole. Instead, it is a questioning of the other woman’s individual choice as being “wrong” or “right” in a grander scheme.
the idea that choices that women make in their roles as mothers line them up on opposing sides of a battlefield.
Historically, two people would meet face to face and talk behind the back of the individual. They were engaging in “gossip” while criticizing another person known to them. It was considered a shameful thing for the other person to know that the busybodies had discussed him or her. With the internet, these conversations are not only more public, but also people are more ready to directly confront another person about the choices that they are making with their children. An example arose in October 2019 when a mother was talking about how “outrageous” she thought it was that her children expected her to provide regular childcare to her grandchildren, calling her daughter-in-law “entitled.” After being flamed (criticized) on one thread in YBM, she started another where she was told, “Don’t tell us. Tell them.” But that is a harder thing to do, particularly with criticism of another woman’s lifestyle.
The Mommy Wars are about a social system that pits women against each other rather than focusing on raising their children to be productive adults. As Steiner said, “Motherhood in America is fraught with defensiveness, infighting, ignorance, and judgment about what’s best for kids, family, and women—a true catfight among women” (2007, x). A 2013 Quester poll stated that 64 percent of mothers believed the Mommy Wars exist, but only 29 percent of them have experienced it. This statistic implies that the Mommy Wars are about stereotypes of different styles of mothering, rather than the reality of mothering. Women appear to only engage in the sort of competitive discussions or direct attacks in situations where the “other” is not personally known to them. It is difficult to criticize one’s sister-in-law to her face for her parenting choices. It is far easier to do it to a close friend one has little to no contact with by saying, “She’s so lazy. My brother works so hard, and she just sits at home.” But even more comfortable is to post comments on UB or YBM where no one can defend this friend (they can only support a stereotype of her). More importantly, no one can trace this criticism back to either her or you.
The Stay at Home/Work Out of the Home [SAH/WOH] debate is almost a daily “Most Discussed/Popular” on UB and YBM. Some posters go online to the boards to argue their side of an issue they have in real life, but others may be genuinely looking to understand the “opposing” points of view better. Many posters believe these choices indicate what sort of a mother you are—kind or cruel, selfish or selfless. The decision for a mother to stay at home with her child(ren) includes her desires, her spouse, as well as gender roles and economics. Many women on the boards suggest that their posttax salaries were not significantly higher than that of the nanny. According to Gold (2018), nannies earned $17.63 per hour for an average of fifty hours a week totaling just over $45,000 per annum. This is the take-home salary of a pediatric nurse (Ward 2017). While in college, women are not as strongly encouraged as men to think about the economic impact of their career choices. Also, they are encouraged implicitly or tacitly toward the more “feminine” careers of teaching, social work, or human resources. These are often believed to be more suited to a woman’s interests in relationships and interactions with people or a desire to help. They also pay significantly less than being a professor, psychologist, or accountant. Even if a husband and wife are both on career tracks to be corporate lawyers, the woman’s role as a “litigator” takes a back seat to that of “mother” and often not by choice. Johnston and Swanson’s 2006 research indicates that many mothers must plan their work around their duties as a mother.
Many of these culturally defined choices restrict how mothers can behave in the workplace, much more so than in the case of men. Men are fathers if they have a child, but women are only mothers if they meet specific social standards.  If they provide financial support for their children, they are considered acceptable fathers, but the reverse is not always true for mothers. Women who work for a salary twelve hours a day may be derided on the boards as “auntie mommy,” implying that they are only partially in their children’s lives. Conversely, fathers can travel to another city for work from Monday through Friday and still be “good fathers” because they are “providing.”
The dynamic of the man earning more than the woman is expected. The economic provision to the family is believed to be biologically male work while child-rearing or home-making is female work. As Enobong Hanna Branch (2016) points out, these dichotomies are not as strong in the African American culture, which is a further indication that members of these boards are culturally Caucasian. In truth, there are no male or female childrearing tasks (other than breastfeeding); there are only tasks around the house and money that needs to be earned.
There is a sizable portion of the UB/YBM population who believe that women are uniquely and biologically destined to be caregivers. These posters not only talk about their own choices as being “natural” and “normal” but also denigrate those women who do not make the same ones. When asking a woman why she chose to go part time, she said “because I want to raise my own children.” This is coded language implying that those mothers who work are no longer the ones raising their kids. Instead, the “mother” role has been transferred to the (often) nonwhite and less educated nanny. This attitude is reflected in the core belief that women are born nurturers and the current cultural obsession of protecting children to the point at which they become “snowflakes.” To call a person a “snowflake” means that they are sheltered and coddled (or they might “melt” easily). To maintain protection of these precious children, a parent (read: mother) is necessary, as a paid help is often not as careful or nurturing.
One of the things that drives many women to quit good jobs and that many posters discuss is that they are expected to take care of the second shift . Hochschild and Machung’s (1989), “second shift” refers to the time spent on household and childrearing tasks that mothers feel constitutes unacknowledged work. It is the time spent on these domestic chores that her social status of “mother” depends on. The second shift of work is unrecognized by the first paid job, as employers do not allow for flexibility regarding family demands on their employees. This means that as long as the idea of “caregiver” remained female, women feel this second shift as being their responsibility. When discussing a poster’s decision to move from a work-at-home job to work in an office, another said, “It’s not as easy as outsourcing and forgetting about it [childcare]. It’s still a lot of work to manage plus a commute and a full-time new job” (UB 2019, errors in original). This reflects a difference in expected “responsibility” for the children. This feeling of responsibility leads to a great deal of mental labor, which M. Blazoned (2014) labeled the “default parent.” This is a gender-neutral term for what most Americans would say is the “mom.” If a woman on YBM or UB tries to complain that her husband “has no idea when our son has to go to his therapies” or “out of town and husband didn’t send our daughter with a packed lunch for her trip. So the teacher called me” instead of receiving support for a common issue, she is often chastised. Typical responses might be, “Well, you married him” a reaction reflective of a patriarchal tone that continues to assign women the primary responsibility for family care, according to economist Nancy Folbre (2012). She suggests that one of the keys to an equal society is to define “family care as a challenging and important achievement for everyone rather than a sacred obligation for women alone.”
the time parents spent on household and child-rearing tasks after the paid work has ended.
Women on UB and YBM have the education and means to reject that these stereotypical social roles of mothers are for women only, but they are deeply internalized. If these women accept the social norms of men as financially supporting the family, they are criticized by those on the opposite side, namely those who work. If a woman laments that she cannot afford to buy something, she is told: “Well then get a job.” The most virulent arguments happen when a divorce is on the horizon, and the SAH spouse is told that she has to support herself. The soon-to-be-divorced poster will argue that she and her husband made the decision together, so he should continue to support her and the children financially. The argument against her is that once she became “dependent on a man” that she was running the risk of this happening. One of the advantages of these boards is that your “backstage helpers” can provide clear and actionable advice before women are ready to tell people in real life. This can include the need to collect financial documents, set up a separate bank account, and obtain the names of good local divorce attorneys.
These rigid roles are reflected in discussions of an SAH dad or those husbands who are unemployed. Some posters say that the family decided that the mother’s career was more lucrative, so the father stayed home. This works for them, but their posts are often tinged with defensiveness and guilt, likely representing their experiences going against the cultural norm. The husbands who are out of work often claim that the nanny needs to continue her work because he cannot both care for the children and look for a new job. The reverse is not true because SAH mothers report that they are able to get interviews and are hired before they get a nanny to replace their household labor. The SAH fathers who achieve the female ideal are still not given the same respect expected by the SAH mothers. They are described as “beta” men, meaning that they were SAH because they were not strong enough to dominate with the alphas in the workplace.
DISCUSSION
While YBM and UB can help mothers present better offline impressions, they can also be harsh and accusatory, criticizing these women’s perceived internalized lack of respect for their roles in a family, employment, and society as a whole. As such, the Mommy Wars and the conversations around them provide a critical window into American feminism that has not yet been addressed. Online disinhibition explains the angry backstage behaviors but not the particular virulence that arises when discussing topics that surround the Mommy Wars. Based on the participant observation research, it is possibly due to three potentially interrelated reasons. First, the required changes in social roles have not occurred. Although girls have been taught that they “can be anything,” this related only to the workplace. If they choose to be mothers, that social status of all-encompassing love and protector of children with a father as a provider has not changed. Second is the internet. Online disinhibition and the increased contact through discussion boards (such as UB and YBM), social media (Facebook and Instagram), and the proliferation of online information sources have brought people the means of expressing opinions to people with different points of view. Parents (indeed everyone) can find an echo chamber that reinforces their particular worldview, which leads to hardened opinions and stronger adverse reactions to “the other.” Third, there remains a good deal of internal misogyny that is revealed in these anonymous backstage spaces. Women attack each other’s choices, not only to bolster their own decisions but because there is seemingly no choice a woman can make that is the correct one. Both working outside the home and staying at home with children are “wrong” choices that either hurt the family, the children, or all women. Conversely, fathers can get social support for working hard or finding work/life balance, and they only experience social backlash if they engage in the female task of SAH parenting. This is the paradox of so-called choice feminism being accepted before basic respect for women was achieved.
A research methodology used in cultural anthropology. It consists of a type of observation in which the anthropologist observes while participating in the same activities in which her informants are engaged.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
- What social roles do you play in a typical day?

- What was your thought process in deciding on your major (or prospective major)? Did gender play a role? Did future career earnings? Why or why not?
- Why have gender roles in the workplace changed more readily than those of mother and father?
- The author puts forth several possible reasons for the Mommy Wars. Which is most convincing to you? Why?
RESOURCES FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION
- Ammari, T., S. Schoenebeck, and D. M. Romero. 2018. “Pseudonymous Parents: Comparing Parenting Roles and Identities on the Mommit and Daddit subreddits.” In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (April): 1–13.
- Collett, J. L. 2005. “What Kind of Mother am I? Impression Management and the Social Construction of Motherhood. Symbolic Interaction 28, no. 3: 327–347.
- Marshall, Debra. “Erving Goffman’s Dramaturgy.” YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VpTSG6YtaeY .
- Scarborough, W. J., R. Sin, and B. Risman. 2019. “Attitudes and the Stalled Gender Revolution: Egalitarianism, Traditionalism, and Ambivalence from 1977 through 2016.” Gender & Society 33, no. 2: 173–200.
KEY TERMS
backstage: a social or physical space where people get help putting together a performance. Others help them perfect their portrayal of a particular role that they will demonstrate at another time or place.
feminism: the idea that there should be economic, social, and political equality between people regardless of sex or gender.
first-wave feminism: from the late nineteenth through the early twentieth century, focusing on earning the right to vote and emancipation of women from fathers and husbands.
front stage: a social or physical space where people are aware that they are performing a role for observers and a series of behaviors that social actors are expected to demonstrate.
gender: the set of culturally and historically invented beliefs and expectations about gender that one learns and performs (e.g., masculine, feminine). Gender is an “identity” one can choose in some societies, but there is pressure in all societies to conform to expected gender roles and identities.
gender roles: the tasks and activities that a specific culture assigns to a gender.
impression management: the manner in which individuals present themselves and create a perception in the mind of others by changing status and roles depending on social interaction.
Mommy Wars: the idea that choices that women make in their roles as mothers line them up on opposing sides of a battlefield.
participant observation : A research methodology used in cultural anthropology. It consists of a type of observation in which the anthropologist observes while participating in the same activities in which her informants are engaged.
second-wave feminism: focused on gender-based discrimination in the 1960s–1980s
second shift : the time parents spent on household and child-rearing tasks after the paid work has ended.
social role: the expected behaviors of a person who holds a known status.
third-wave feminism: brought up the idea that feminism and gender-based needs and oppressions differ based on class, race/ethnicity, nationality, and religion.
virtual community: a social network of people interacting using technology to pursue shared interests and goals that cross boundaries of geography, time, and politics.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to acknowledge the academic support of Roger Sanjek, Julie Gedro, Cynthia Ward, and Ruth Goldberg and the personal support of my parents (Alan and Irene Warshauer), my husband (Matthew Tratner), children (Ian and Miles) as well as friends and family. I would like to dedicate this work to my mother, a trailblazing woman in the legal profession who found her own way as a wife and mother, and my father, a feminist in word and deed.
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