Comparative psychology
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Comparative psychology usually refers to the study of the behavior and mental life of animals other than human beings. However, psychologists and scientists do not always agree on this definition. Comparative psychology has also been described as branch of psychology in which emphasis is placed on cross-species comparisons—including human-to-animal comparisons.
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Topics of study
- Individual behavior
- General descriptions
- Orientation (interaction with environment)
- Locomotion
- Ingestive behavior
- Hoarding
- Nest building
- Exploration
- Play
- Tonic immobility (playing dead)
- Other miscellaneous behaviors (personal grooming, hibernation, etc.)
- Reproductive behavior
- General descriptions
- Developmental psychology
- Control (nervous system and endocrine system)
- Imprinting
- Evolution of sexual characteristics/behaviors
- Social behavior
- Imitation
- Behavior genetics
- Instincts
- Sensory-perceptual processes
- Neural and endocrine correlates of behavior
- Motivation
- Evolution
- Learning
- Qualitative and functional comparisons
- Consciousness and mind
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Notable comparative psychologists
Noted comparative psychologists, in this broad sense, include:
- Aristotle
- Frank Beach
- F.J.J. Buytendijk
- Charles Darwin
- James Mark Baldwin
- Allen and Beatrix Gardner
- Harry F. Harlow
- Donald Hebb
- Richard Herrnstein
- L.T. Hobhouse
- Clark L. Hull
- Linus Kline
- Wolfgang Köhler
- Konrad Lorenz
- Emil Wolfgang Menzel Jr.
- Neal E. Miller
- C. Lloyd Morgan
- O. Hobart Mowrer
- Robert Lockhard
- Ivan Pavlov
- Irene Pepperberg
- George Romanes
- Thorleif Schjelderup-Ebbe
- Sara Shettleworth
- B.F. Skinner
- Willard Small
- Edward C. Tolman
- Edward L. Thorndike
- Margaret Floy Washburn
- John B. Watson
- Wilhelm Wundt
Many of these were active in fields other than animal psychology; this is characteristic of comparative psychologists.
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Related fields
Fields of psychology and other disciplines that draw upon, or overlap with, comparative psychology include:
- Animal cognition
- Behavioral ecology
- Operant conditioning
- Ethology
- Evolutionary neuroscience
- Experimental analysis of behavior
- Neuroethology
- Physiological psychology
- Psychopharmacology
- Trans-species psychology
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