Zoology

[Ready for Fall 2026]

Modified: 2026-07-27 3:00 PM CDST

• Zoology is the study of the biology of animals.
  • Animals behave, so some zoologists study behavior in the context of biology.
  • Humans are animals too, so, strictly speaking, some zoologists study humans and their behavior too.
  • It is useful at this point to remind ourselves that we are animals, and that the study of animals often generalizes to human studies.

• Theoretically, zoology is dominated by the theory of evolution.
  • Zoologists' nearly single-minded devotion to the theory of evolution makes zoology quite different than psychology.
  • Specifically, zoologists tend to be much more likely to search for functional explanations of behavior than are most psychologists.
  • For example, the question of why two sexes exist is one that hast received considerable attention in the literature of theoretical biology.
  • The two sexes evolved from a single sex, and then two sexes came to be the dominant pattern; there are many more sexually reproducing species than there are asexually reproducing ones.
• Theoretical questions about why two sexes evolved and then succeeded so mightily are hotly debated.
  • However, at least until only very recently, most social psychologists studying human sexual behavior would never have stopped to consider the question of why two sexes exist.
  • Recently, some social psychologists have been framing their research questions in a more biological way, and they have produced some very interesting research.
• Another difference between zoologists and psychologists is the stature of Charles Darwin.
  • In psychology, there is no person with the equivalent intellectual stature that Darwin has in zoology.
  • There are good reasons for that difference.
    • Darwin's theory transformed biology and thus zoology nearly completely.
    • Before Darwin, biology was mostly concerned with collecting and counting specimens, and there was no underlying theoretical foundation.
    • After Darwin and his evolutionary theory, the data in biology began to make theoretical sense.
  • In other words, Darwin gave biology and zoology its marching orders, and they have been following those orders since 1859.