Basic Psychology: Comparative psychology

 Contents

Al-Jahiz, a 9th century scholar, wrote works on the social organisation and communication methods of animals such as ants. Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), an 11th century Arabic writer, wrote the Treatise on the Influence of Melodies on the Souls of Animals, an early treatise dealing with the effects of music on animals. In the treatise, he shows how music can be used to speed up or slow down a camel's pace, as well as other examples of how music can affect animal behaviour, including experiments with horses, birds, and reptiles. Until the 19th century, the majority of Western scholars believed that music was a distinctly human phenomenon, but experiments since then have vindicated Ibn alHaytham's view that music does, in fact, have an effect on animals.

Because of the importance of Charles Darwin's contributions to comparative psychology, it is thought that psychology should be divided into "pre-" and "post-Darwin" periods. Darwin's theory gave rise to several hypotheses, one of which was that the characteristics that distinguish humans, such as higher mental, moral, and spiritual faculties, could be explained by evolutionary principles. The "anecdotal movement" led by George Romanes set out to demonstrate that animals possessed a "rudimentary human mind" in response to the vehement opposition to Darwinism.  Romanes' work is best known for two major flaws: anecdotal observations and entrenched anthropomorphism.

Several scientists existed near the end of the nineteenth century whose work was also very influential. Douglas Alexander Spalding was known as the "first experimental biologist," and he studied instinct, imprinting, and visual and auditory development primarily in birds. Sir John Lubbock is credited with the first use of mazes and puzzle devices to study learning, and Conwy Lloyd Morgan is thought to be "the first ethologist in the sense in which we now use the word."

Although the field initially attempted to include a wide range of species, by the early 1950s it had narrowed its focus to the white lab rat and the pigeon, and the subject of study was limited to learning, usually in mazes. Beach brought this stifled state of affairs to light, and while it was widely agreed upon, no real change occurred. He brought the charges again a decade later, with no success. Meanwhile, in Europe, ethology was making significant progress in studying a wide range of species and behaviours. Where there should have been collaboration, there was friction between the two disciplines, but comparative psychologists, for the most part, refused to broaden their horizons. This state of affairs culminated in the triumph of ethology over comparative psychology, culminating in the awarding of the Nobel Prize to ethologists, as well as a flood of informative books and television programmes on ethological studies that became widely seen and read in the United States. In the United States, comparative psychology is currently dormant.

Throughout the long history of comparative psychology, numerous attempts have been made to impose a more disciplined approach in which similar studies are conducted on animals of different species and the results are interpreted in terms of their different phylogenetic or ecological backgrounds. Behavioral ecology in the 1970s provided a more solid foundation for the development of true comparative psychology. However, the broader meaning of the term "comparative psychology" is enshrined in the names of learned societies and academic journals, not to mention in the minds of psychologists of other specialties, so the label of the field is unlikely to vanish completely.

The relative intelligence of different animal species has long been a source of consternation for comparative psychologists. Indeed, some early attempts at genuinely comparative psychology involved assessing how well different species of animals could learn different tasks. These attempts failed because they were not sophisticated enough, either in their analysis of the demands of different tasks or in their choice of species to compare. However, in comparative psychology, the definition of "intelligence" is heavily influenced by anthropomorphism; experiments focusing on simple tasks, complex problems, reversal learning, learning sets, and delayed alternation were plagued with practical and theoretical issues. "Intelligence" is defined in the literature as whatever is closest to human performance while ignoring behaviours that humans are typically incapable of (e.g. echolocation). Comparative researchers, in particular, face challenges related to individual differences, differences in motivation, differences in reinforcement, differences in sensory function, differences in motor capacities, and species-specific preparedness (i.e. some species have evolved to acquire some behaviours quicker than other behaviors).

Species studied

Comparative psychologists have studied a wide range of species. However, only a few have dominated the scene. Dogs were used in Ivan Pavlov's early work; although they have been the subject of occasional studies since then, they have not played a prominent role. The growing interest in the study of abnormal animal behaviour has resulted in a return to the study of most domestic animals. Thorndike began his research with cats, but American comparative psychologists quickly moved on to the more cost-effective rat, which remained the almost invariable subject for the first half of the twentieth century and is still used today. 

Pigeons were introduced by Skinner and are still used in some fields today. There has always been interest in studying various primate species; Harry F. Harlow's studies of maternal deprivation in rhesus monkeys made significant contributions to social and developmental psychology. Cross-fostering research has revealed similarities between human infants and infant chimps. The goal of Kellogg and Kellogg was to investigate the heredity and environmental effects of young primates. They discovered that a cross-fostered chimp named Gua was better at recognising human smells and clothing, while the Kelloggs' infant (Donald) recognised humans by their faces. The study ended nine months after it began, when the infant began to imitate Gua's noises.

Nonhuman primates have also been used to demonstrate language development in comparison to human development. Gardner, for example, successfully taught the female chimp Washoe 350 words in American Sign Language. Washoe later passed on some of her knowledge to her adopted child, Loulis. Washoe's acquisition of sign language was criticised for the degree to which she understood what she was signing. Her signs could have simply been an association to obtain a reward, such as food or a toy. Other research has concluded that apes do not understand linguistic input but can form an intended meaning of what is communicated. It has been reported that all great apes are capable of allospecific symbolic production.

Animal cognition

Disorders of animal behavior

Veterinary surgeons recognise that the psychological state of a captive or domesticated animal must be considered in order to understand and optimise its behaviour and health.

Lack of stimulation, inappropriate stimulation, or overstimulation are common causes of disordered behaviour in captive or pet animals. These conditions can result in disorders, erratic and unwanted behaviour, and, in some cases, physical symptoms and diseases. For example, rats exposed to loud music for an extended period of time will eventually develop unwanted behaviours that have been compared to human psychosis, such as biting their owners.

It is widely assumed that how dogs behave when understimulated is determined by both the breed and the individual animal's personality. Huskies, for example, have been known to destroy gardens and houses if not given enough exercise. Dogs can suffer psychological harm if they are subjected to violence. They can become dangerous if they are mistreated.

The systematic study of disordered animal behaviour is based on comparative psychology research, particularly early work on conditioning and instrumental learning, as well as ethological studies of natural behaviour. However, it also draws on the accumulated experience of those who have worked closely with the animals, at least in the case of familiar domestic animals.

Human-animal relationships

Anthropologists have long been interested in the relationship between humans and animals as one path to understanding the evolution of human behaviour. Similarities in human and animal behaviour have occasionally been used to try to understand the evolutionary significance of specific behaviours. Differences in animal treatment have been said to reflect a society's understanding of human nature and the relative importance of humans and animals in the grand scheme of things. Domestication has piqued people's interest. It has been argued, for example, that as animals became domesticated, humans began to regard them as inferior or fundamentally different from humans.

Ingold remarks that in all societies children have to learn to differentiate and separate themselves from others. In this process, strangers may be seen as "not people", and like animals. Ingold quoted Sigmund Freud: "Children show no trace of arrogance which urges adult civilized men to draw a hard-and-fast line between their own nature and that of all other animals. Children have no scruples over allowing animals to rank as their full equals." With maturity however, humans find it hard to accept that they themselves are animals, so they categorize, separating humans from animals, and animals into wild animals and tame animals, and tame animals into house pets and livestock. Such divisions can be seen as similar to categories of humans: who is part of a human community and someone who is not—that is, the outsider.

The New York Times published an article about the psychological benefits of animals, specifically children and their pets. It has been proven that having a pet improves children's social skills. Dr. Sue Doescher, a psychologist involved in the study, stated in the article, "It made the children more cooperative and sharing." It was also demonstrated that these children were more self-assured and capable of empathising with other children.

Furthermore, it was stated in a issue of Social Science and Medicine,  "A random survey of 339 residents from Perth, Western Australia were selected from three suburbs and interviewed by telephone. Pet ownership was found to be positively associated with some forms of social contact and interaction, and with perceptions of neighborhood friendliness. After adjustment for demographic variables, pet owners scored higher on social capital and civic engagement scales." These findings indicate that owning a pet provides opportunities for neighbourly interaction, in addition to numerous other opportunities for socialisation among people.

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