Persuasive paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

Persuasive paper - Essay Example The basis of this approach is that since all behavior is learned, all behavior can be unlearned. This approach, therefore, sees the human development from childhood to adulthood as a continuous process in which desirable behavior is learned, and undesirable behavior unlearned. The study of animal behavior plays a critical role in knowing how this learning and unlearning of human behavior takes place (Bustamente and Ramo, 1996). Many psychologists and social scientists have used research in animal behavior to understand a broad range of human habits. For example, the Great Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov used animal research to understand conditioned reflexes in animals. Daly and Wilsons work on human homicides is based almost entirely on their evolutionary analysis of animals. A similar approach has been used in understanding child abuse. De Waal’s studies on chimpanzees and monkeys shed insights into the causes of human aggression, reconciliation and cooperation (Snowdon, 2009). A few examples show how research in animal behavior has been instrumental in understanding human behavior. From these studies, it is possible to know the causes of certain behavioral tendencies in humans. This is valuable information because it enables psychologists to devise effective strategies of unlearning behaviors that are undesirable (Snowdon, 2009). My second reason is that the study of animal behavior is critical in the treatment of a number of human behavioral disorders. Most of these disorders like alcoholism, depression and schizophrenia are uniquely human. Even though they are not observed among animals, animal models are crucial in understanding of these behaviors, especially on their genetic origins. Typically, these animal models are used to test a broad range of hypotheses under conditions and methods that are unethical or impossible to apply to human beings. For example, research on areas like mental illnesses, drug addiction, memory disorders, human cognition