Everything I Know About People I Learned From a Cat: Comparative Psychology and the Study of Human Behavior Through Research on Nonhuman Species

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 6-7
Author(s):  
Ethan A. McMahan
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
Nonhuman Species

scholarly journals Simple cephalo-caudal patterns embedded in complex human interpersonal behavior

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valli Kiran Manduva
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
External Genitalia ◽  
Lower Limbs ◽  
Interpersonal Behavior ◽  
The Social ◽  
Secondary Layer

A novel model is presented to explain human social behavior. In recent years, a cephalo-caudal directionality to behavior has been reported in a few mammals including rodents, cattle and cats. This model shows how complex human behavior also follows this rule of cephalo-caudal directionality. The positions of the lower motor neurons mediating the specific acts in the cephalo-caudal neural axis are considered to be an important correlate of the act. The model consists of a primary layer, consisting of the orienting modules – eyes, head and body and a secondary layer consisting of the six transmitting channels – the eyes, facial expression, speech, upper limbs, lower limbs and the external genitalia. The model demonstrates through multiple examples that complex human behavior also follows a cephalo caudal directionality, both in the orienting modules as well as in the transmitting channels. In this paradigm, conciliatory and agonistic communications are examined as prototypes for analysis of more complex dominant and submissive behavior as well as psychiatric conditions such as mania and depression. The model is sensitive to the social context of behavior which is without precedent in the literature. Further, the concept of ‘mobility gradient’ is applied to human behavior to understand motor behavior in depression and mania and catatonic behavior. Finally, certain issues pertinent to difficulties of behavioral description and model building in human behavior are discussed. The model emphasizes the role of objective behavioral description paradigms that borrow from concepts in comparative psychology and animal behavior.

scholarly journals A Place for Comparative Psychology in Undergraduate Curricula

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark A. Krause
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
American Psychological ◽  
Psychology Programs ◽  
Undergraduate Major ◽  
Core Set ◽  
Psychology Majors ◽  
Undergraduate Psychology ◽  
Undergraduate Programs ◽  
The U.S

Establishing a place for comparative psychology within the curricula of undergraduate psychology programs in the U.S. can be challenging. Psychology majors typically take a core set of required classes and select the remainder from a menu of options or from purely elective courses offered by faculty that are primarily focused on human behavior. It is within this context that many of us who teach comparative psychology find ourselves competing for space in our undergraduate programs. In this paper I describe a way to make comparative psychology more visible in undergraduate psychology programs. Specifically, I outline a strategy for mapping undergraduate courses in comparative psychology onto the American Psychological Association’s (2013) guidelines for the undergraduate major. The aim is to bring our unique contributions into focus, offer clarity on common course objectives, and hopefully offer something useful for assessing undergraduate student learning.

Toward a Comparative Psychology of Music Perception

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-452 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart H. Hulse ◽  
Suzanne C. Page
Keyword(s):  
Music Perception ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
Absolute Pitch ◽  
European Starling ◽  
Musical Structure ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
New Information ◽  
Series Of Experiments ◽  
Psychology Of Music ◽  
Nonhuman Species

Musicians and ethnomusicologists have long been interested in the idea of musical universals, the proposition that features of musical structure are common to the music of all human cultures. Recently, the development of new techniques and new theory makes it possible to ask whether the perceptual principles underlying music span not just human cultures but also other nonhuman species. A series of experiments addressing this issue from a comparative perspective show that a songbird, the European starling, can perceive pitch relations, a form of musical universal. However, the species transposes pitch relations across large shifts in tone height with difficulty. Instead, songbirds show a preference for learning pitch patterns on the basis of the absolute pitch of component tones. These results suggest further comparative studies of music perception may be especially worthwhile, not just for gathering new information about animals, but also for highlighting the principles that make human music perception unique.

Pale Horse

World on Fire ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 189-205
Author(s):  
Mark Rowlands
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Emerging Infectious Diseases ◽  
Zoonotic Diseases ◽  
Vertebrate Host ◽  
Tropical Diseases ◽  
Animal Reservoir ◽  
Zoonotic Pathogen ◽  
The Third ◽  
Almost All ◽  
Nonhuman Species

The third benefit of no longer eating animals is a reduction in the prevalence of zoonotic diseases: diseases acquired from a nonhuman, vertebrate host. The majority of temperate diseases, almost all tropical diseases, and probably all newly emerging infectious diseases are zoonoses or they have zoonotic origins. A zoonotic pathogen can go through five stages, in which it transforms from one that afflicts only nonhuman species to one that is exclusively human. There are several factors that determine the likelihood of such a transformation. The most important of these, since it is most under our control, is the frequency of encounters between us and the animal reservoir. Eating animals and disturbing their environment are the two forms of human behavior most likely to increase frequency of encounters. Moreover, most disturbance of the environment is caused by expansion in animal agriculture. Eating animals, therefore, is the most important cause of zoonotic diseases.

Unnatural Selection: Comment on the “Teaching Comparative Psychology” Symposium

1987 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 151-155 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas K. Candland
Keyword(s):  
Natural Selection ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
Professional Associations ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Core ◽  
Proximate Causation

In this discussion of symposium papers, I examine why comparative psychologists do not consider professional associations of psychology to represent the core of the discipline. I review textbooks in terms of their contribution to comparative psychology and argue that psychology avoids its natural epistemology, that of natural selection and ultimate causality, in preference for the meretricious offerings provided by proximate causation. I also examine why many psychologists consider evolution to be dehumanizing and state three goals for the teaching of comparative psychology: (a) its reliance on a central epistemological premise, (b) its demonstration of the historical ways in which comparative psychology has changed our views of human behavior, and (c) its duty to compel the student and the public to examine the ethical standing and rights of animals.

scholarly journals Simple cephalo-caudal patterns embedded in complex human interpersonal behavior

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valli Kiran Manduva
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
External Genitalia ◽  
Lower Limbs ◽  
Interpersonal Behavior ◽  
The Social ◽  
Secondary Layer

A novel model is presented to explain human social behavior. In recent years, a cephalo-caudal directionality to behavior has been reported in a few mammals including rodents, cattle and cats. This model shows how complex human behavior also follows this rule of cephalo-caudal directionality. The positions of the lower motor neurons mediating the specific acts in the cephalo-caudal neural axis are considered to be an important correlate of the act. The model consists of a primary layer, consisting of the orienting modules – eyes, head and body and a secondary layer consisting of the six transmitting channels – the eyes, facial expression, speech, upper limbs, lower limbs and the external genitalia. The model demonstrates through multiple examples that complex human behavior also follows a cephalo caudal directionality, both in the orienting modules as well as in the transmitting channels. In this paradigm, conciliatory and agonistic communications are examined as prototypes for analysis of more complex dominant and submissive behavior as well as psychiatric conditions such as mania and depression. The model is sensitive to the social context of behavior which is without precedent in the literature. Further, the concept of ‘mobility gradient’ is applied to human behavior to understand motor behavior in depression and mania and catatonic behavior. Finally, certain issues pertinent to difficulties of behavioral description and model building in human behavior are discussed. The model emphasizes the role of objective behavioral description paradigms that borrow from concepts in comparative psychology and animal behavior.

scholarly journals Simple cephalo-caudal patterns embedded in complex human interpersonal behavior

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valli Kiran Manduva
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
External Genitalia ◽  
Lower Limbs ◽  
Interpersonal Behavior ◽  
The Social ◽  
Secondary Layer

A novel model is presented to explain human social behavior. In recent years, a cephalo-caudal directionality to behavior has been reported in a few mammals including rodents, cattle and cats. This model shows how complex human behavior also follows this rule of cephalo-caudal directionality. The positions of the lower motor neurons mediating the specific acts in the cephalo-caudal neural axis are considered to be an important correlate of the act. The model consists of a primary layer, consisting of the orienting modules – eyes, head and body and a secondary layer consisting of the six transmitting channels – the eyes, facial expression, speech, upper limbs, lower limbs and the external genitalia. The model demonstrates through multiple examples that complex human behavior also follows a cephalo caudal directionality, both in the orienting modules as well as in the transmitting channels. In this paradigm, conciliatory and agonistic communications are examined as prototypes for analysis of more complex dominant and submissive behavior as well as psychiatric conditions such as mania and depression. The model is sensitive to the social context of behavior which is without precedent in the literature. Further, the concept of ‘mobility gradient’ is applied to human behavior to understand motor behavior in depression and mania and catatonic behavior. Finally, certain issues pertinent to difficulties of behavioral description and model building in human behavior are discussed. The model emphasizes the role of objective behavioral description paradigms that borrow from concepts in comparative psychology and animal behavior.

scholarly journals Simple cephalo-caudal patterns embedded in complex human interpersonal behavior

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valli Kiran Manduva
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Motor Neurons ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Motor Behavior ◽  
Comparative Psychology ◽  
External Genitalia ◽  
Lower Limbs ◽  
Interpersonal Behavior ◽  
The Social ◽  
Secondary Layer

A novel model is presented to explain human social behavior. In recent years, a cephalo-caudal directionality to behavior has been reported in a few mammals including rodents, cattle and cats. This model shows how complex human behavior also follows this rule of cephalo-caudal directionality. The positions of the lower motor neurons mediating the specific acts in the cephalo-caudal neural axis are considered to be an important correlate of the act. The model consists of a primary layer, consisting of the orienting modules – eyes, head and body and a secondary layer consisting of the six transmitting channels – the eyes, facial expression, speech, upper limbs, lower limbs and the external genitalia. The model demonstrates through multiple examples that complex human behavior also follows a cephalo caudal directionality, both in the orienting modules as well as in the transmitting channels. In this paradigm, conciliatory and agonistic communications are examined as prototypes for analysis of more complex dominant and submissive behavior as well as psychiatric conditions such as mania and depression. The model is sensitive to the social context of behavior which is without precedent in the literature. Further, the concept of ‘mobility gradient’ is applied to human behavior to understand motor behavior in depression and mania and catatonic behavior. Finally, certain issues pertinent to difficulties of behavioral description and model building in human behavior are discussed. The model emphasizes the role of objective behavioral description paradigms that borrow from concepts in comparative psychology and animal behavior.

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