Synonyms
Definition
A multidisciplinary field that examines the similarities and differences in the behavior of organisms with special emphases on the development and evolution of the behaviors.
Introduction
Modern comparative psychology, one of the interdisciplinary fields in psychology, developed from the convergence of a number of separate disciplines including ethology, behavioral ecology, psychology, systematics, and genetics (Gariépy 1998). Examining questions of functional adaptiveness, development, and evolution of behavior, comparative psychology incorporates all aspects of a living being: anatomy and physiology, genetics, affect, cognition, and sociality. This diverse field explores questions of behavior, behavioral development, cognition, communication, emotion, learning, mating, memory, motivation, perception, social relationships, spatial navigation and orientation, parental behavior, and many other specific topics. Comparative...
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Suggestions for Additional Reading
Comparative Psychology: Evolution and Development of Behavior, 2nd Edition. By Mauricio R. Papini.
Comparative Psychology: A Handbook. By Gary Greenberg, Maury M. Haraway.
Cognition, Evolution, and Behavior. By Sara J. Shettleworth.
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Hill, H.M., Guarino, S., Dietrich, S. (2017). Field of Comparative Psychology, The. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2637-1
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