An Outline of Comparative Psychology

Abstract

IN this work the author gives us a historical account of man's attitude towards the animal kingdom from the earliest ages. Cro-Magnon man appears to have been the first to take an intelligent interest in the animals round him. However, it is not until comparatively recent times that the science of comparative psychology can be said to have become established. Darwin may be looked on as the founder of modern comparative psychology. The author might well have devoted considerably more space to the experimental movement and told us more about the behaviourist school. The most important work of the Russian school under Pawlow dealing with conditioned reflexes is dismissed in a paltry five lines, but the Americans come in for pages of praise. Köhler's work on the mentality of apes might well have received mention if nothing more. Apparently the author is unaware of the results of the study of animal behaviour outside the United States.

An Outline of Comparative Psychology.

Prof.

C. J.

Warden

By. (Psyche Miniatures, General Series No. 20.) Pp. 147. (London: Kegan Paul and Co., Ltd., 1928.) 2s. 6d. net.