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Controversies That Exist When Following The Study Of Animal Psychology

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Animal psychology is a broad sub section of psychology that deals exclusively with nonhuman animals. The scientific name for animal psychology is ethology. This branch of psychology has raised quite a few controversies. Many psychologists do not believe that studying the nonhuman animal mind is a possibility due to their inability to communicate. Others believe that there is not a sentient mind to discover even if communication or understanding were possible. Their arguments only help to restate the goals of animal psychology: to study animal behavior. Studying nonhuman animal behavior works best when following the outline of Behaviorism psychology. Behaviorism can be defined as, “the study of how accumulated experiences shape the behavior …show more content…

Jane Goodall, an animal behaviorist, is famous for using this method in her studies of chimpanzees. “After the chimpanzees were accustomed to Goodall’s presence, she could observe their usual behavior. Using naturalistic observation, Goodall discovered previously unknown facts about chimpanzees” (peace.saumag.edu, 2015). Naturalistic observation is commonly used to observe animals that do not do well in captivity or to observe behaviors only occurring in a wild state. Even though Goodall achieved her goal of discovering new behavior in the chimpanzees, her observation had the extreme possibility of being incorrect. This type of observation is often flawed due to the fact that nonhuman animals are keenly aware of being watched as it is imperative to their survival. “The study of behavior involves the identification of relations between behavior and events inside or outside the organism which precede, accompany, or follow it” (Hinde,1970 p. 4)). If an observer can keep the previous statement in mind, then the observer can separate the actions of the animal from the animal’s realization of their presence. A naturalistic observer can identify the behavior of the nonhuman animal they are observing as different from when the animal is not being

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