BIOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS 



chology. Studies in animal behavior are as old as zoological 

 interest; they were not systematized until close to the 

 experimental period. They were preceded by anecdotal 

 accounts of rare intelligence in animals, at times fantas- 

 tically interpreted with a humanized slant; but analysis 

 was lacking. Animal psychology is entitled to a place of 

 esteem in the renaissance of psychology on several counts. 

 It offers the most strictly objective procedure. It studies an 

 organism as a whole; it surveys varied types of mind, all 

 specialized, but on far simpler patterns than the human; 

 the conditions of study can be fairly well controlled, and the 

 observations repeated and confirmed. It illuminates the 

 process of learning, for animals are trainable; it indicates 

 more clearly what is inherent and what is acquired; it 

 makes definite the concept of stimulus and response. 



It is not accidental that the behavioristic (in the liberal 

 sense) and the Gestalt psychologists should find their 

 fundamental data in animal behavior. The results are 

 as important in showing what animals cannot do as in 

 demonstrating their intelligent capacities. That the human 

 response should be interpreted as far as possible on the 

 animal pattern has become an established principle; 

 but it is equally important to set forth the superiorities 

 and differences of the human solutions. We know more 

 of how we came to behave like human beings from the 

 study of the contrasts and limitations of animal behavior 

 than from any other single source. The psychological 

 interest grows as we approach the nearest of kin and study 

 the "Almost Human" behavior of the anthropoid apes, 

 which Yerkes describes. Anthropoid psychology, in the 

 main, is a contribution of one or two decades. It proceeds 

 upon the combined clues of physiology, evolution, the 

 growth processes, and the differential functions of the 

 highest nerve centers. It forms a brilliant example of 

 scientific psychology and brings psychological concepts 



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