History & Chapter 1 class notes (exam1) Flashcards
(87 cards)
Comparative Psychology HOW definition
Comparative psychology involves the analysis of the behavior of organisms, including man, using the comparative method.
Comparative Psychology WHY definition
The search for general principles of behavior
Aristotle
A) Animal kingdom could be ordered from __
B) Suggested the beginning of ___
C) Postulated ___ development and ____ across species (i.e. that ___ organisms ___ from ____ ___)
A) Animal kingdom could be ordered from simple to complex on a ladder of nature (scala naturae), with humans on top.
B) Suggested the beginning of our current classification system, grouping similar animals by genus and species for unique properties.
C) Postulated phylogenic development and continuity across species. i.e. that more complex organisms developed from simple ones.
- Aristotle’s Ladder of Nature
Descartes
A) Separated …
B) Mind / body
A) Separated animals (mechanical function) and man (rational function), eventually allowing study of animals.
B) Mind is separate from body
Linnaeus
A) Who was?
A) Swedish botanist created current biological classification system
Definition of Species
groups that can and do naturally interbreed
Linnaeus’s classification
a) k
b) p
c) c
d) o
e) f
f) g
g) s
h) v
a) Kingdom
b) Phylum
c) Class
d) Order
e) Family
f) Genus
g) Species
h) Variety
Darwin’s grandpa proposed
First proposed evolution in book of poetry
Lamarck (Jean Pierre Antione de Monet de Lamarck) 1) created first... 2) said current species... Proposed ideas of: 3) \_\_ and \_\_\_ 4) \_\_\_ of A\_\_ T\_\_\_
1) First systematic theory of animal evolution, now called the Doctrine of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics.
2) Said current species developed from older species, more complex animals from simpler, by inheriting characteristics ancestors acquired by experience. Proposed ideas of:
3) Use and disuse. Individuals lose characteristics they don’t require and develop those that are useful.
4) Inheritance of Acquired Traits
Thomas Malthus said…
animals exist in greater numbers than can survive and reproduce
Charles Lyell was
Darwin’s geologist friend who observed succession of fossils in rock strata
Charles Darwin
Proposed current theory of evolution. Physical and mental characteristics are based on a continuity of process across species.
Pangenisis Hypothesis proposed by _(1)__
2) describe
3) problems with it
1) Darwin
2) Cells produce gemmules that gather in germ cells and pass on newly acquired traits. This hypothesis did not last long.
3) circumcision: they someday shouldn’t need to do it. 2nd reason: blood from different colors of rabbits transfused - offspring didn’t change color.
Wallace
proposed…
- proposed a theory similar to Darwin’s
- proposed ice ages
got the shaft (no credit)
Romanes A) what did he do? B) What method did he use? C) what did he believe? D) what was his error?
A) formalized use of comparative method to study Animal Behavior and thus understand humans
B) Anecdotal Method: early method collected instances of animal intelligence
C) believed animals just as smart as human beings. (had a horse named HANS.)
D) Anthropomorphism: (projection of your behavior and feelings to animals)
C.C. Lloyd Morgan
A) Used what law to do what?
B) What led him to that?
A) Law of Parsimony to restrict anthropomorphism. “in no case may we interpret and action as the outcome of the exercise of a higher psychical faculty, if it can be interpreted as the outcome of one which stands lower in the psychological scale.”
B) watching his dog escape his picket fence
Law of Parsimony
a principle according to which an explanation of a thing or event is made with the fewest possible assumptions.
Who did early comparative psychology?
Nobles and church people would go study insects.
Who proposed theory of learning?
Thorndike
What happened when Pavlov’s works were translated to English?
Everyone got revved up about learning
Areas contributing to Comparative Psychology
1
2
3
- Animal Behavior
- General experimental psychology (i.e. biologists listening to catfish sounds)
- The Comparative Method
What interest in Animal Behaviors contribute to comparative psychology? 1 2 3 4
- interest in the animal itself
- interest in the animal as an economic element - making money off of buying/selling
- interest in the relation of behavior to evolution (what were the steps along the way? they got started back into studying animal behavior in the 50s and 60s)
- interest in a species as a model (using same learning mechanisms regardless of complexity of species. could be used as a model - i.e. drug testing)
What are Ratner’s two uses of the comparative method?
1
2
- quantitative psychology
2. zoological comparative
Quantitative Psychology (Ratner)
1) applies..
2) used to…
3) does not…
1) applies special methods to psychological subject matter
2) used to analyze and understand behavior and its diversity (when does behavior occur, what influences it)
3) does not emphasize evolution
