Comparative Psychology: The Animal Part of Psychology

It has long been known that the mental and behavioral life of nonhuman animals is much richer than might be assumed at first glance. Comparative psychology is an effort to understand the logic behind the way of acting, thinking and feeling of these life forms.

Of course, it is also a field of study that is not free from criticism both of its use of the comparative method and its ethical approaches. Let's see what this branch of research in psychology consists of.

What is comparative psychology?

Comparative psychology has been defined as an effort to understand the behavior and mental life of animals in general, starting from the idea that there are certain characteristics of these two areas that have evolved over time.

Thus, comparative psychology is not just a type of research in which the similarities and differences of different types of animals (including our own species here), but assumes that behind these similarities and differences is a story about how life Mental health and behavior of these life forms have evolved through the passing of one generation to the next and through the creation of new species.

Using the comparative method

Thus, comparative psychology use the comparative method, which consists of studying psychological processes in certain species and seeing how these conclusions can be extrapolated to other species.

In general, studies are focused on seeing at what point in evolutionary history certain characteristics appear psychological and, from there, check how they have evolved until reaching the most "evolved" animal species in a certain way. characteristic.

In practice, this means that the species whose behavior and mental processes are intended to be studied by indirectly investigating species related to it is almost always ours. However, many researchers believe that the goal of comparative psychology should not be an excuse to end up talking about the psychology of the human being, but rather the mental life and behavior of nonhuman animal species is self-interested.

Animal experimentation or observation?

In principle, there is nothing in the definition of what comparative psychology is that can be assumed to depend only on the experimental method; It could also be based on field observations made on the natural terrain in which a species lives, just as ethology has traditionally done.

However, in practice, experimentation is the most frequently used option in comparative psychology, for two reasons:

• It is cheaper and faster.

• Possible unforeseen events are avoided.

• It allows you to isolate the variables much better.

• Disregarding the influence of a species-specific natural environment makes it easier to draw conclusions that provide information about human behavior.

Of course, this has made comparative psychology highly criticized for cases of animal abuse, like that of Harry Harlow and the Monkeys experiment who are deprived of contact with their mother during their first weeks of life.

Comparative psychology and behaviorism

Historically, behaviorism has been the stream of psychology that has relied the most on comparative psychology to make discoveries.

This is so because, since behavioral researchers focused on the components of psychology that can be recorded objectively and quantified, they assumed that contingencies, which for them were the basic components of the construction of patterns of conduct, can be studied in their most basic elements in life forms with a less complex nervous system than human.

For example, B. F. Skinner he became well known with his experiments on pigeons, and Edward thorndike, which was one of the precedents of behaviorism, established theories about the use of intelligence by experimenting with cats.

Of course, Ivan Pavlov, who laid the foundation for the development of behaviorism by studying the simple conditioning, experimented with dogs from the field of physiology. Even Edward Tolman, a researcher trained in behaviorism who questioned the assumptions of this psychological current, did so by studying rats.

The possibilities of this branch of psychology

The wild appearance of animals, the absence of human-like facial gestures and a language make us tend to assume that everything related to the psychology of these life forms is simple. Comparative psychology attaches great importance to the way animals behave.

In any case, it is much disputed whether he does it with the eyes of human beings or whether he seeks a genuine understanding of the mental life of these organisms. There are many different animal species, and comparative psychology has traditionally studied basically non-human primates and some animals that can adapt well to domestic life, like rats or guinea pigs.

The possibilities of comparative psychology have to do with a better understanding of the forms of life that surround us and also with a deeper knowledge of behavior patterns inherited for millennia through our lineage evolutionary.

Its limitations have to do with the use of the comparative method and with what you never really know to what extent it is possible to extrapolate conclusions from one species to another. And, of course, the ethical issues raised by animal testing have entered squarely into the debate of whether comparative psychology is useful or not.