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Comparative psychology is a field of psychology with no clear paradigm. Most of the researchers dealing with problems of animal behavior refer to Tinbergen's four questions about behavior or the proximate/ultimate causation dichotomy. The theory of integrative levels provides an alternative to a reductionistic approach to understanding behavior. This paper discusses these approaches. One potential advantage of the approach based on the integrative levels theory is presented using the example of exploratory behavior.

Studies have been done which have found attachments between people and their pets. The present study was conducted to determine the variables of the elderly-animal friendship bond. The study focused on self-perceived criteria of the aged regarding their intimate association with their
dogs. Results indicated self-perceived variables of companionship, emotional bond, usefulness, loyalty and no negotiation. There were significant differences in responses between the male and female Ss with regard to the variables of loyalty and no negotiation.

In the Late 1960s and early 1970s, a revolution occurred in evolutionary biology when several investigators, including most notably W. D. Hamilton, R. L. Trivers, and G. C. Williams, began to apply Darwin's theory of natural selection to the social behavior of animals. This new approach to behavior, which came to be known as "sociobiology" after the title of E. O. Wilson's influential 1975 book, was rapidly applied to human, as well as nonhuman, animal behavior. These applications often represented a serious challenge to the theories of the social and behavioral sciences, many of which rested on the assumption that behavior could be profitably analyzed in terms of its effects on the group or species. Sociobiologists, in contrast, argued that an adequate understanding of animal, including human, societies can be gained only by viewing selection as operating at the level of the individual (and sometimes at the level of the gene) rather than at the group level. The resultant controversies continue to this day, and sociobiological approaches to human behavior have had an important impact on anthropology, psychology, and other behavioral sciences, including political science.

Ever since Mead, sociology has maintained a deep divide between human and non human animals. In effect, Mead constructed humans as having capacities that he saw lacking in animals. Recent research on animals has challenged the traditional ideas of Mead and others by providing evidence of animal intelligence, adaptability, selfawareness, emotionality, communication and culture. This paper examines the human‐animal relationship as presented in Introductory Sociology Textbooks to see if this new research on animals has allowed us to move beyond Mead. We find outdated information and confused thinking on such topics as the relationship between language and culture, the development of the self in animals, and the role of instinct, socialization and culture in animal behavior. We conclude that, with few exceptions, the main function of the treatment of animals in these texts is to affirm the hard line that sociology has always drawn between humans and other species.

What is the relationship between persons, animals, and machines? The author first presents a form of argument against any attempt to reduce biology to mechanism. He then runs a parallel argument for psychology and biology. But although he tries to resist reduction, he insists that to bring into being a person or an animal requires no more than the construction of a certain sort of machine, or causal engine, such that certain normative standards can be applied to its behavior If to call an entity a machine is to forego such commitments, then, trivially, no animal or person could be a machine. If the term "machine" implies no more than the presence of a causal engine, natural or artificial, then machines can be, and some are, animals or people.

The concept of authoritarianism has been widely misunderstood because of both confusion about values and science and disagreement about a definition of the concept within different areas of psychology. Research in cognitive and social psychology has focused on linking scores on authoritarianism scales with social behavior or information processing, but these efforts have not been very successful at either defining the concept or predicting behavior. In developmental research, authoritarian parenting refers to an emphasis on parental control and decision making. Organizational authoritarianism has been linked to higher productivity and, in some cases, with lower job satisfaction. One way of making sense of the variety of definitions of authoritarianism is in terms of evolutionary personality theory and the concepts of dominance and submission. These biological concepts are relevant to both human and animal behavior, and they can be used to explain authoritarianism in scientific, rather than pejorative, terms.

We show how a Schumpeterian process of creative destruction can induce rational, herd behavior by entrepreneurs across diverse sectors as if fueled by "animal spirits." Consequently, a multisector economy, in which productivity improvements are made by independent, profit-seeking entrepreneurs, exhibits regular booms, slowdowns, and downturns as part of the long-run growth process. Our cyclical equilibrium has higher average growth, but lower welfare than the corresponding acyclical one. We show how a negative relationship can emerge between volatility and growth across cycling economies, and assess the extent to which our model matches several features of actual business cycles.

The main objective of the present study was to characterize sex differences in the temporal discrimination and activity level of an animal model of attention deficit disorder (ADD) using a conjunctive 120-s variable interval 16-s differential reinforcement of low rate (VIDRL) schedule of reinforcement. The results showed that the spontaneously hypertensive (SHR) male was generally hyperactive and that the SHR female was both hyperactive and had severe time discrimination problems. The latter caused relatively fewer reinforcers to be delivered. However, even when a reinforcer was delivered, the SHR female frequently failed to collect it. When the SHR females were in diestrus, their behavior became even less efficient. The present findings with the animal model seem to be in general agreement with the behavior of ADD children when a DRL schedule is used. Most of our results were explained as due to impulsiveness, which is more pronounced in the SHR female than in the male. In addition, the SHR female had attention problems. The present study further supports the usefulness of the SHR as animal model of ADD.

Evolutionary biology of behavior and animal psychology are often regarded as separate disciplines. However, both fields depend strongly on each other. Examples of field studies of an ant navigation system and the fighting behavior of a spider are used to illustrate the interrelatedness of animal psychology and behavioral ecology. Both studies are based on research in the natural habitat. Yet, even one who knows this habitat well cannot analyze the evolution of observed behavior patterns without making basic assumptions about the animal's psychology. These assumptions relate to the animal's capability of information processing and the structural organization of this processing. The concept of strategic analysis in evolutionary game theory makes it an obligatory task to state such assumptions. Strategic analysis at the phenotypic level is well founded in population genetics theory despite its apparent lack of taking genetics into account. It helps to bridge the gap between psychology and evolutionary biology.

This essay critiques the assertion that an appreciation of animal sentience necessarily runs counter to their exploitation as industrial resources. It is argued that the U.S. meatpacking industry has consistently engaged animals as sentient creatures in order to elicit behavior that enhances manufacturing efficiency. This discipline of animals in and around the packing plant is exemplified in Temple Grandin's "humane" slaughter technologies. The author suggests that even as the representation of these innovations tends to obscure the role of labor in industrial meat production, they demonstrate that discipline is a cross‐species regime, recasting the packing plant as a continuum of violence.

Measurements of visitor behavior were collected at selected exhibits in 13 zoos throughout the United States. Percentage of visitors who stopped at each exhibit and the duration of visitor viewing time were obtained at exhibits of various species. Visitor behavior was found to correlate with both the characteristics of animals (animal activity, size of species, presence of infant) and the architectural characteristics of the exhibits (presence of visually competing exhibits, proximity of visitor to animal, visibility of animals, physical features of the exhibit). These finding have several implications for designing zoo exhibits.