Animal psychology is similar to animal behavior. Both shed light on how animals interact amongst themselves with the objects in their surroundings. The study of animal behaviors identifies how animals behave the way they do (Dhont et al., 2019). Psychologists have determined that by studying how animals interact, humans can have to understand their behavior, comparative psychology. Though, it only applies when preservation of species in the course.
Thoughts and Emotions of Animals
Researchers argue that animal cognition/thoughts perceive and react to their environment and also experienced varied emotions, including stress or fear. Many questions have been asked whether animals are as conscious as humans. Such debates are found in both the fields of psychology or ethology, which is the study of animal behavior.
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Historical Development of Animal Psychology
Over the past 50 years, the history of animal psychology research, there has been a decline in traditional ethology with the dominance of behavioral research (Thompson, 2019). In several research materials, the changes associated with animal behavior in the past years have been determined. Darwin's historical approach identifies a gradual evolution of animal ecology, which involves the behavior of the animal and its surrounding, the biological perspective of animal behavior, and ethology. According to Thompson (2019), the behavior of an animal can be identified from centuries when research on selected animal species, dogs, rodents, and pigeons was conducted. From then, the questions concerning psychological cases were matters of concern.
The ecological approach, since its existence in 1930, embraced a variety of behaviors found in animals as far as their interaction is concerned. It also explains animal behavior in the biological view. Thus all the approaches are highly effective. Animal psychology addresses four significant categories, including function, ontogeny, causation, and evolutionary. They all contribute to understanding the concept of animal behavior and why they behave as they do.
From a long-term experience, dogs wagging their tails is the nearest illustration to the description framework. For example, dogs feel an approaching companion. They stand still, raise their tails, and fixate on the approaching parties. The determination for the reasons why dogs wag their tails is based on the following address or explanations (Golden et al., 2019). The explanations related to cognitive and physiological mechanisms, which give the entire understanding behind tail-wagging behavior. Hormonal system of the dog alternates its reactions to stimuli. The nervous system communicates signals from the dog's brain to its tail.
However, causation is the perspective of cognitive involvement. It is when a dog interconnects information using tail wagging to connect with the next companion. It is a sense of determining how a dog approaches an individual as a friend, its awareness, and the knowledge of self-become (Dagutkin, 2020). Ontogeny, on the other hand, is focused on the development of the tail wagging behavior. About the "function," it is a genetic course as evolutionary history is concerned with tail wagging behavior development from the traditional form to present.
The most interesting part of the field of history of the development of animal behavior was the cognitive process. It gives an insight into the reason behind the development of a specific behavior. An animal is easy to realize or develop uprising behaviors. They can recognize their companions at some point and create knowledge of their selves. It is hugely important in terms of processing information and developing a sense of encountering a particular situation.
References
Dhont, K., Hodson, K., Leite, A. C., & Salmen, A. (2019). The psychology of speciesism. Why We Love and Exploit Animals: Bridging Insights from Academia and Advocacy. Abingdon: Routledge .
Dugatkin, L. A. (2020). Principles of animal behavior . University of Chicago Press.
Golden, S. A., Jin, M., & Shaham, Y. (2019). Animal models of (or for) aggression reward, addiction, and relapse: behavior and circuits. Journal of Neuroscience , 39 (21), 3996-4008.
Thompson, D. N. (2019). A history of developmental psychology in autobiography . Routledge.
