Introduction: Influences and Motivation

1. What is behaviour?
2. Causes of behaviour (e.g., genetics, learning, external and internal influences)
3. Reactive, active and cognitive behaviour
4. Conditioning

Genetics and Behaviour

1. Understanding biology
2. Natural selection
3. Genetic variation
4. Development of behaviour
5. Behavioural genetics

Animal Perception and Behaviour

1. How animals perceive things
2. What stimulates them and how do those stimuli function
3. Instinct
4. Neural control
5. Sensory processes, sight, sound, hearing, etc.

Behaviour and the Environment

1. Coordination
2. Orientation
3. Homeostasis
4. Acclimatisation
5. Circadian rhythms
6. Biological clocks
7. Reproductive cycles, etc.

Social Behaviour

1. Animal societies
2. Aggression
3. Social constraints
4. Social order
5. Play
6. Biological clocks
7. Communication

Learning

1. Instinct and learning
2. Conditioning and learning
3. Extinction and habituation
4. Instrumental learning
5. Reinforcement
6. Operant behaviour
7. Biological and cognitive aspects of learning

Handling Animals

1. Psychological effects of different handling techniques
2. Training animals (horses, cats, dogs, etc.)
3. The student has a choice of which types of animals to focus on, though a variety will still be covered

Behavioural Problems

1. Abnormal behaviour (e.g., psychotic, neurotic)
2. Domestication of animals
3. Reducing human contact
4. Reducing human dependence