Comparative Psychology in Historical Perspective

Abstract

Comparative psychology entails the search for general principles regarding the immediate control, development, adaptive function, and evolutionary histories of behavioral patterns. It has been a part of the discipline of psychology since its inception as a separate field of inquiry. I trace the history of comparative psychology from the earliest evidence of interest in animals to the present. Although comparative psychology as a subdiscipline can be traced through British origins, as exemplified by Charles Darwin and a group of other British animal behaviorists, it matured in North America during the 20th century. It became a visible part of American psychology prior to WWI but faded during and shortly after the war. Some important psychologists entered the field between the wars and provided the foundation for its development and expansion after WWII. Aided by federal funding, the field thrived after the war. The influences of reformulated European ethology, evolutionary theory, and the so-called cognitive revolution all created important changes in the field. Recent years have seen a return of increased international representation, greater influence of women, and increased collaborative research.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 4 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.