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Putting Comparative Psychology into a History and Systems of Psychology Course

Abstract

For several reasons, a Comparative Psychology course has been absent from our curriculum since 2005, so students have had very little exposure to how and why psychologists study animals, and the place of animal research in the history of psychology. In the fall of 2015, out of necessity, five faculty in our department team-taught a History and Systems of Psychology course, which was our capstone at that time. My module focused the study of animals in psychology, including Comparative Psychology. One purpose was to highlight this side of Psychology, but also to show how the study of animals has led to current interest in Evolutionary Psychology. The content of this module is described here, as is a comparison of several journals, using number of pages published as a dependent variable, to show changes over time, as included in this module. It is intended that the information presented here might be of use to others seeking a way to incorporate more about animal research into their respective curricula in the absence of a course specifically about animal behavior research.

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