Informational Interview Donna K. Lane Animal Behaviorist Psych3210 Summer, 2014 HYPERLINK mailtoDlane21@capellauniversity.edu Dlane21@capellauniversity.edu Dr. Celeste Hill Introduction When I started my courses in the field of Psychology, I had no idea how much it went side by side with the field of employment I hope to obtain in the future. Animals and Psychology have always been my two favorite studies. I didnt realize until after doing research and an informational interview, just how much Psychology is intertwined with the position of an Animal Behaviorist. After conducting an informational interview with Dr. Katherine Leighty, Science Operations Manager over Walt Disneys Animal Kingdom, and doing further research, I found that …show more content…
She then realized that she was more interested in how and why animals act the way they do and just started concentrating on the Animal Behavior part through Psychology (Dr. K. Leighty, informational interview, September 2, 2014). Dr. Leighty also told me that when she was doing an internship working with Chimps, learning how to collect behavioral data, to have a comparative model she also worked with human children collecting the same types of data (Dr. K. Leighty, informational interview, September 2, 2014). Dr. Leightys interview gave me so much more to go on in my pursuit of becoming an Animal Behaviorist. She enlightened me on the courses I should be thinking about taking in college. She also told me I was on the right path with taking Psychology and continuing with the different Psychology courses in relation to Animal Behavior. I have always thought Psychology was needed in the study of animals. I just didnt realize just how much until this paper and interview. Psychology is the study of the mind..be it in humans or animals. Throughout my research I found many ways Animal Behaviorists and Psychologists use the same research methods and observational studies. One of the ways the two study/and or research is through Naturalistic Observation. As Charles Darwin used Naturalistic Observation on his journey aboard the HMS
Alper, L. S. (1993). The Child-Pet Bond. Progress in Self Psychology, 9, 257-270. Retrieved March 13, 2014, from the Progress in Self Psychology database.
There are 2 versions of Call of the wild, there is a movie version and a book version.
Studies and research performed by biologists, neurologists, psychologists and geneticists, noted are the researchers who took the opportunity to analyze behavior in all sorts of environments.
will be presented, as well as assumptions made about the theory. Furthermore is addressing the relations of the theory to the main character Nick and how his behavior fits with labeling theory.
The thematic statement, “Ambition may lead to negative outcomes” is very true and unfortunately has applied to me. In the summer of 2010, I found myself to be very ambitious and I wanted to learn how to swim, so i asked my grandma to sign me up for swimming lessons. I was very excited, but I was also very nervous. When she finally agreed to sign me up, i was was bursting with excitement. The anticipation was growing and my swimming class were only a week or so away, and I was extremely excited.
Taste Aversion Learning by Birds in Colchester, Vermont on the Saint Michael’s College campus: A Study of Batesian Mimicry
Animals behave in response to their environments just like humans. Behavior can be simply broken down into emotions, thoughts, and psychological responses. These fall under three categories: reflexes, instincts and learned behaviors, which all have a role in helping us to survive in this world. A reflex is an involuntary reaction to stimuli. Our reflexes are controlled by our nervous system. When we go to the doctor for a checkup and the doctor uses an object similar to a hammer and taps its on your knee, he is checking your reflexes. Reflexes are usually fast responses to something such as resting your hand on a hot stove and then lifting it quickly because you did not realize it was on. Instincts are natural behavioral patterns prompted by
This experiment in my opinion was useful to psychology. But I don’t agree with the methods that were applied. The researchers taught some behaviours to the monkeys that unless humans never show them how to do they will never do it by themselves, like
Traditionally, stereotypic behaviors, or repeated behaviors that do not appear to have a function, like pacing, head-bobbing, and swaying are common in zoos and aquaria, which was an extreme red flag to those facilities about thirty years ago. After seeing these behaviors, professionals in animal fields began suggesting that captive environments were largely not meeting the needs of captive nonhuman animals. Further, they began suggesting that stereotypies arose from captive environments that were too understimulating, which negatively affected captive animals well-being. In turn, zoos and aquaria
Biological psychology is the study of how biology affects a number of psychological processes i.e. how the mind affects the body (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner & Hood 2015). The study of the mind has had many influential figures throughout history that often use each other’s ideas as a stepping stone to further advance psychology, some of the first being Plato and Aristotle. Plato believed in nativism and theorised some skills and characteristics are innate and a person is born with them (Schacter et al, 2015). Aristotle, however, was in favour of philosophical empiricism i.e. that all knowledge is acquired through experience, yet current scientists do not consider that nativism and empiricism are entirely accurate (Schacter et al, 2015). Aristotle also believed that the brain existed to cool the blood, as during that time people were sceptical that an organ could be responsible for behaviour (Kolb, Whishaw & Teskey 2016). The next major advancement in biological psychology was the introduction of phrenology by Francis Gall, Gall’s theory suggested that all psychological capabilities had a specific place in the brain (Schacter et al, 2015). This theory later turned out to be correct, although was overshadowed by Gall’s insistence that he could state a person’s character dependant on the size of lumps and indentations on a person’s skull, which he thought would represent the size of that brain region beneath (Schacter et al, 2015). Due to this, in spite of a large following, phrenology was quickly discredited. Biologist Pierre Flourens, unhappy with Gall’s research, began removing localized areas of the brain in various animals to observe their behaviour (Schacter et al, 2015). Flourens then found that animal’s movements differed to those with intact brains. This mirrored a situation for surgeon Paul Broca with whom one of his patients had damage to the left side of
Charles Darwin was the first scientist to ever study animals in a systematic way (Bekoff “The Emotional Lives” 6). In his book The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Darwin discussed the
One of the most prominent and influential psychologists of the twentieth century, B.F. Skinner was known as a behavioral psychologist, philosopher of science, and an educational innovator. Throughout his life he did experimental work with animals to discover how patterns of behavior are learned. His initial work was primarily conducted with animals, and later in life he started to work with humans and apply his learning from his pigeon studies to human behavior. He focused on the individual and wrote about how to restructure social systems to improve the quality of life.
Psychologists have been focused on observing and understanding human behavior for centuries, dating back to the Greek philosophers when psychology and philosophy were considered one.Today, Psychology is the study of human behavior, beginning before birth and lasting until death. It is clear that the observance human behavior is a vast and profound source of data for psychologists. Early philosophers relied on methods of observation and logic. A physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt in the 1800’s began using scientific research methods in his study of mental processes. However, the situation was totally different in the beginning of 20th century when psychology still struggled to be regarded as a separate discipline with practical value(Mastering,2011). Psychologists had only begun to be accepted as a science. It was John B. Watson who established the school of Behaviorism and inspired many other psychologists to study patterns of human behavior and their mechanisms. Watson 's contribution to psychology is important not to underestimate; he studied animal and human behavior to come up with a methodology that would give Psychology a respected status among other scientific disciplines. This essay will focus on the biography and works of John B. Watson with a purpose to show why his works are important for Psychology today(Hergenhahn & Henley, 2013).
Psychology is made up of many perspectives, such as, behavioural, biological, cognitive, social, humanistic and finally, psychodynamic. This essay will focus on the behavioural perspective and the biological perspective. According to J Walker (2012) the behavioural perspective is based on behaviourism and is the study of observing behaviour when in certain contexts and events. The biological perspective however, explains behaviour by focusing on the function of the nervous system, genes and the brain.
I have always been intrigued by the mental processes of humans and animals. As a young child and into adolescence, as a student and teacher and as a caregiver, I have always been interested in psychology in one form or another. This essay will reflect not only the development of my interest in psychology, but the development of myself as a person.