What am I missing?
Many psychology departments already have a course in evolutionary
psychology, but it's probably titled "Comparative Psychology" or "Animal
Behavior." Although many animal behavior texts are thin -- to be kind -- on
the possible links to human behavior, it seems to me as though this "hot new
thing" is a re-purposed very old thing. These courses could, and probably
should, do much more than they do now to incorporate careful and honest
attempts to talk about how evidence from animals' solutions to life's
problems relates to human behavior.
The comparative approach has always been underutilized in psychology, to
psychology's disadvantage, so the cockeyed optimist in me wants to hope that
this is the beginning of a real change in that trend.
On the other hand, my internal cynic says that the social psychologists and
personality psychologists will go on loudly and merrily re-inventing the
wheel, coming up with new rhetoric for old ideas, and wildly
overgeneralizing in the same ways that got the early comparative
psychologists so much egg on their faces.
Gee, am I cranky that the fall semester has already started, or what?
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Michael J. Renner, Ph.D. voice: 610-436-2925
Professor of Psychology fax: 610-436-2846
Institutional Research Fellow e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
West Chester University
West Chester, PA 19383-2112
Office hours for Fall 1999 (Peoples 32):
Tuesday & Thursday 9:15-11:00 am; Friday 1:00-2:30 pm
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