© 1975-1979, 2008 Robert A. Freitas Jr. All Rights Reserved.

Robert A. Freitas Jr., Xenology: An Introduction to the Scientific Study of Extraterrestrial Life, Intelligence, and Civilization, First Edition, Xenology Research Institute, Sacramento, CA, 1979; http://www.xenology.info/Xeno.htm

20.2  Xenopsychology

Knowledge of the fundamentals of alien psychology is a "must" in any first contact or culture contact situation. No real comprehension of ET societies is possible without a thorough understanding of the differences between human and alien motivations, goals, and behavioral repertoires. The field of xenopsychology is quite broad, encompassing issues of motives and drives, need hierarchies and goal-directed behavior, personality and "ego" (or "selfness"), perception, subjective time, sleep, circadian rhythms and other natural bodily cycles, "instinct," learning, habituation and conditioning, language, memory, emotions, altruism,³³³¹ awareness, and so forth.¹⁹⁴¹ Unfortunately, it is beyond the scope of this book to deal with all of these fascinating areas in detail. Consequently the emphasis here will be upon the most immediately relevant basics.

We have already discovered that the environment is intimately involved in the process and rate of natural genetic evolution. Xenopsychologists, following modern sociobiologists, believe that a species’ surroundings also shape and direct the evolution of its gross behavioral patterns. Perhaps the single most critical environmental parameter is available bioenergy.

Last updated on 6 December 2008