CHAPTER XLIV 



ANIMAL BEHAVIOR 

 (By Ina Cox Gardner)* 



Introduction 



To most people the study of either human behavior or the behavior 

 of other animals means a study of the mind. This conception came 

 from the early definition of psychology, which meant the science of 

 soul or mind. The term mind is an abstract one, and whether or not 

 any animals including human beings have what we call mind, is a 

 matter of inference. In the past we have sought to explain behavior 

 by the use of such terms as instinct, consciousriess, mind, intelligence, 

 memory, and many others. These abstract terms became supposedly 

 concrete entities and much valuable time was spent in a search for 

 them. Psychologists in the modern period reject these nouns and make 

 use of adjectives such as conscious or mental, which have more precise 

 meaning in the description of behavior. 



The movement which led to the development of animal psychology 

 into a distinct scientific discipline began with the work of Darwin. 

 This does not mean that the field had been altogether neglected up to 

 that time. Even prehistoric man must have been interested in the 

 behavior of animals that supplied him his daily food. The ancient 

 Greeks observed animal activities intensively with the definite aim of 

 attempting to understand and explain them. From this time onward 

 the problem of the nature of infrahuman behavior has attracted the 

 serious attention of scientists. In fact, this problem has led to almost 

 endless controversy from age to age. 



Two extreme views have grown out of this controversy. They are 

 antipodal — at one end of the pole animal behavior is interpreted in 

 the best possible light. The higher, nonhuman animals are often re- 

 garded as almost human in intelligence. This view arises from the 

 use, more or less uncritically, of anthropomorphic analogy. The basic 

 inference in such analogy seems to be that if an animal acts like a 

 man it must also feel and reason as a man does. While at the other 



♦Acknowledgment is made to Warden, Jenkins, and "Warner, and the Ronald 

 Press of New York for permission to use certain of the materials included in 

 this chapter. 



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