In"Michael Sylvester asked, "Whatever happened to Comparative Psychology?
As one of the owner/editors of the Comparative Psychology Newsletter (on YahooGroups) I think I can answer that question but it's complex. One the one hand, it is often said to be subsumed under the banners of "animal behavior" or "sociobiology" or "ethology. While that is somewhat correct, it's also a bit misleading. I've been amazed at how sparse "animal behavior" texts are on animal learning & cognition, the heart of traditional comparative psychology. When we were hiring for my replacement (I retired last June in case you missed all the celebratory whooping & hollering coming fro my house) and I was amazed to find that very few applicants came from what I would call a comparative psychology program. They came either from biology or physical anthropology programs or they came from (psychology) cognition programs. It turns out that as the Zeitgeist has shifted from Skinnerian-Thorndikean concepts in animal learning to the study of cognition & consciousness, traditional comparative psychology has been absorbed into the fields of cognitive psychology. . Some of the animal behavior texts don't even mention cognitive psychology and basically define ethology as "the study of animal behavior." Of course, these are also the texts that has no chapters on animal cognition and almost nothing on primates. In fact, books such as these tend spend 90% of their time on "inframammalian" species. There are a few "Comparative Psychology" texts but frankly, I find them too narrrow (weak on evolution/sociobiology) and so detail-driven that you lose the beauty that is animal behavior. Just my 2 cents. Edward I. Pollak, Ph.D. Professor Emeritus of Psychology West Chester University of Pennsylvania http://home.comcast.net/~epollak/<http://home.comcast.net/%7Eepollak/> Husband, father, grandfather, bluegrass fiddler, banjoist & biopsychologist............... in approximate order of importance Subject: Whatever happened to From: "mjchael sylvester" <msylves...@copper.net> Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:33:51 -0400 X-Message-Number: 1 Comparative Psychology? --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=17506 or send a blank email to leave-17506-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
