Phylogeny: Evolution and Behavior

Abstract

Chapter 1 introduced Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and its corollary, the principle of common descent, which states that all species evolved from a common ancestor. That chapter also described how Darwin’s theory of natural selection paved the way for a science of behavior, especially human behavior. Specifically, some researchers, including Pavlov, Thorndike, and Skinner, began to study nonhuman behavior in order to learn about human behavior. Doing so was based on the assumption that species differed from one another only by degrees, and not in fundamental ways. As a result, scientific psychologists discovered that humans and nonhumans possesssed similar learning processes confirming the evolutionary relatedness of all species.