Commentary "A Crisis in Comparative Psychology: Where have all the Undergraduates Gone?" Collaborating with Behavior Analysts Could Avert a Crisis in Comparative Psychology

Title
Commentary "A Crisis in Comparative Psychology: Where have all the Undergraduates Gone?" Collaborating with Behavior Analysts Could Avert a Crisis in Comparative Psychology
Publication Date
2015
Author(s)
Kyonka, Elizabeth
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7974-6080
Email: ekyonka@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:ekyonka
Subramaniam, Shrinidhi
Bell-Garrison, Daniel
Eckard, Matthew L
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Frontiers Research Foundation
Place of publication
Switzerland
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01743
UNE publication id
une:20209
Abstract
Abramson's crisis is that, due to lack of interest and opportunities, psychology undergraduates are not pursuing advanced study in comparative psychology at a rate sufficient to sustain it as a discipline. However, what Abramson has not considered is that strictly behavioral comparative research happens frequently in psychology departments under the label "behavior analysis." This work is of high quality, frequently relates animal research to human behavior, and is broadly compatible with comparative cognition in spite of conflicting theoretical attitudes. Fostering communication and collaboration between behavior analysts, comparative cognition researchers, and traditional comparative psychologists is another way to avert the crisis of missing undergraduates in comparative psychology, both by tapping a group of undergraduates with established interests in behavior principles and by widening the base of active researchers in comparative psychology who can serve as potential supervisors to the next generation of comparative psychologists.
Link
Citation
Frontiers in Psychology, v.6, p. 1-3
ISSN
1664-1078
Start page
1
End page
3

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