indecisiveemu Posted November 16, 2015 Posted November 16, 2015 Having always been really interested in animal behavior and having a bachelors in psychology, I've decided I want to eventually go back to school to study animal behavior. I'm finding that there seem to be many different areas of animal behavior and approaches from different fields, and I was wondering if anyone could explain some basic differences? For instance, I've seen animal behavior, ethology, animal psychology, behavioral psychology, behavioral ecology, sociobiology, applied animal behavior science, etc. And of course graduate programs in these can be found in every department- biology, ecology, zoology, psychology, wildlife biology. So I'm not sure where to even start. My background is mainly psychology and evolutionary anthropology (though I'm working on improving my background in biology and chemistry over the next year) so as of right now I'm especially interested in behavior, cognition and social interactions from an evolutionary perspective. I'm especially interested in primates and canines. Most of the research I'm seeing from possible schools though is at the molecular level, dealing with fish and insects. Not sure if that's just the schools I'm looking at (I'm looking at mostly state schools in NC and CA for financial reasons). Careerwise, I think I'd like to eventually work for a zoo, conservation center, national park or u.s. forest service. So I'm not sure whether to focus more on zoology or wildlife. Does one encompass the other? Would a degree in one be better for working in either field? Is a thesis degree even necessary for these careers? (how would the application process for non-thesis degrees even work?) I'm starting to wonder if my career interests, my research interests, and my budget just don't overlap and I need to make some sacrifices somewhere. Or perhaps instead of a master's I should just get a second bachelor's instead. I'm not exactly sure what the difference would be in career options between a bachelor's and master's. Thank you so much for any sort of advice or input whatsoever!
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