Home - ACU (The Australian Catholic University)

Site Navigation

PSYC405 Comparative Psychology

10 cp
Prerequisites Entry into the BPsychSc (Honours) or PgDipPsych courses
Teaching Organisation 2 hours per week for twelve weeks or equivalent of lectures, seminars and presentations of research papers with the possibility of running via videoconferencing between Brisbane and Melbourne.

Students will be provided with an overview of contemporary theories on the evolution of behaviour. By using an historical perspective on the development of these theories, it will be demonstrated how cultural contexts exist over time to affect the perceptions and analyses of human and non-human behaviour. Students will study the specific applicability of these theories to human behaviour, the behaviour of companion animals, and of some of Australias indigenous species.

Students will be encouraged to develop a greater appreciation of Australian biodiversity and Australian animal behaviour, and a greater awareness of the important theoretical psychological perspectives for human behaviour that are possible through the adoption of an evolutionary paradigm. Significant cross-cultural analyses will be undertaken, including an investigation of European Environmental Psychology and South American research on marsupial learning.

Sub-site navigation