Final answer:
A psychologist who conducts research on people and animals to understand behavior is likely a comparative psychologist, a field which uses animal models to gain insights into human psychology.
Step-by-step explanation:
If a psychologist conducts research on people and animals to understand behavior, the psychologist is most likely a comparative psychologist. Comparative psychology is a branch of psychology that involves the study of animal behavior with the goal of understanding human behavior. Researchers in this field may use animal models to experiment on psychological phenomena that would be unethical to study in humans.
The hallmark of scientific research is evidence-based study, where empirical evidence is collected through observation and experimentation. Comparative psychologists, along with ethologists and neurobiologists, contribute to the broader field of behavioral biology by bringing insights from studying animal models which can be applied to the understanding of human psychology. This interdisciplinary research is essential for forming a comprehensive picture of behavior and mental processes.
In instances where it is difficult to determine the reasons behind human behavior directly, such as with infants or non-verbal individuals, comparative psychologists must be creative in their methodology. By using animal research, they can bypass some ethical and practical limitations of human research. Furthermore, studying animals provides a comparatively simpler model to understand complex behavioral and cognitive processes that may also be present in humans.