Charles Darwin Social Influence

1 I have been studying the traits and dispositions of the lower animals (so-called), and contrasting them with the traits and dispositions of man. I find the result humiliating to me. For it obliges me to renounce my allegiance to the Darwinian theory of the Ascent of Man from the Lower Animals, since it now seems plain to me that that theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one, this new and truer one to be named the Descent of Man from the Higher

The theory of evolution through natural selection was proposed by Charles Darwin in the 1800s. This theory shows that our behaviours have changed over time as the result of our physical characteristics adapting to its environment over time. This is a biological approach as our genes are what influence our behaviour. Human’s adaptive social behaviour supports the theory of evolution as cuddling with children creates a feeling of warmth and security which replicates the feeling of being in the womb. Wundt’s introspective experiment had its strengths and limitations. The experiment provided an insight on a human’s personal mental processes. But there could be a problem with the validity of the results because the participant may choose not to be 100% truthful with the content of their thoughts in fear of, for example, embarrassment. Another limitation is that we don’t always learn things the same way so humans can learn from the past. They take a different approach the second time

Outline the Processes Involved in Evolution and Discuss how Evolutionary Psychologists have Contributed to our Understanding of

According to Darwin (Date), there is no fundamental difference between man and the higher mammals in their mental and perceived emotional faculties. In theory, every organism is engrained with complex, useful, and non-arbitrary bits of information that is essential to its survival. Organisms know when it is time to migrate, when it is best to hunt, and when mating should occur. According to Name (Date), these faculties are actually nonrandom parts of our development they must have come from either divine design or natural selection. The notion of whether or not divine design or natural selection is the result of an organisms faculties has sparked significant debate since Darwin first proposed his theory of natural selection

The word instinct according to Cosmides and Tooby, “was used to refer (roughly) to specialized neural circuit that are common to every member of a species and are the product of that species’ evolutionary history.” This statement sums up what human nature is in technical terms.

Although Darwin’s (1809-1882) work in evolutionary observation might appear radically different from those focused on other areas, the theories he developed from these observation lead to such groundbreaking publishing’s as The Origin of Species. These intern caused an upset within the then accepted norms of philosophy and religion, had a profound impact on the academia, and further

The documentary, “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” tells the story of Charles Darwin’s conception of his theory of natural selection, and how it explains the evolutionary process and species adaptation. The story begins with a brief overview of his 5-year stint on the HMS Beagle as the ship's naturalist, during her South American voyage. The film shows how Mr. Darwin collected fossils and many species of animals and birds from many different regions especially the Galapagos Islands. It portrays Mr. Darwin’s return to England and his struggle between the mainstream religious beliefs and his personal beliefs of how different species came to be. Additionally, the documentary covers his presentation of fossils and ideas to the scientific community,

Although Charles Darwin is usually just looked at in the light of purely biology, his work that impacted other fields such as psychology or his work that lead to the rapid expansion of certain fields such as ethology, is often looked over. Darwin’s work impacted these fields both directly and indirectly at such a level of influence that some people believe that psychology should be looked at as pre- and post-Darwin. On the Origin of Species, while being primarily about biological phenomena and theories, was one of these works that impacted psychology indirectly. Other than giving a new perspective for psychologists to possess when contemplating different ideas, Darwin’s work on natural selection lead to the creation of evolutionary psychology.

Biological psychology is the study of how biology affects a number of psychological processes i.e. how the mind affects the body (Schacter, Gilbert, Wegner & Hood 2015). The study of the mind has had many influential figures throughout history that often use each other’s ideas as a stepping stone to further advance psychology, some of the first being Plato and Aristotle. Plato believed in nativism and theorised some skills and characteristics are innate and a person is born with them (Schacter et al, 2015). Aristotle, however, was in favour of philosophical empiricism i.e. that all knowledge is acquired through experience, yet current scientists do not consider that nativism and empiricism are entirely accurate (Schacter et al, 2015). Aristotle also believed that the brain existed to cool the blood, as during that time people were sceptical that an organ could be responsible for behaviour (Kolb, Whishaw & Teskey 2016). The next major advancement in biological psychology was the introduction of phrenology by Francis Gall, Gall’s theory suggested that all psychological capabilities had a specific place in the brain (Schacter et al, 2015). This theory later turned out to be correct, although was overshadowed by Gall’s insistence that he could state a person’s character dependant on the size of lumps and indentations on a person’s skull, which he thought would represent the size of that brain region beneath (Schacter et al, 2015). Due to this, in spite of a large following, phrenology was quickly discredited. Biologist Pierre Flourens, unhappy with Gall’s research, began removing localized areas of the brain in various animals to observe their behaviour (Schacter et al, 2015). Flourens then found that animal’s movements differed to those with intact brains. This mirrored a situation for surgeon Paul Broca with whom one of his patients had damage to the left side of

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, a scientific theory that supported the belief of evolution, was manipulated and applied to different areas of life, and thus it became the shaping force in European thought in the last half of the nineteenth century. Darwin, through observation of organisms, determined that a system of natural selection controlled the evolution of species. He found that the organisms that were most fit and assimilated to the environment would survive. They would also reproduce so that over time they would eventually dominate in numbers over the organisms with weaker characteristics. This new theory was radical and interesting to the scientific world but its effects reach far beyond this small institution of

Darwin’s theories and discoveries caused much controversy to the world and still does today. These controversies occur more in

Here we see Darwin acknowledge our biological relationship to animals that cannot be argued. However, he also extends the relationship between intellectually inferior animals and humans to our behavior. As mentioned in the above quote, natural animal instincts such as the will for individual survival and the protection of children can be found in all animals, including humans. Darwin also acknowledges that humans can sometimes revert to purely animalistic behavior. However

Many scientists believe variations are caused by environmental factors, such as food availability, weather and more; and that species evolve when environmental conditions change to increase the species survival. Darwin censures this idea; he believed that the main cause of variation is due to reproduction (Chapter I). Darwin suggested that parents pass down specific characteristics to their offspring, and those variations are continued on in the following generations. The problem with Darwin’s theory of reproduction is that Darwin did not comprehend how or why some characteristics are perennial and how others are not. Darwin’s inferences on variations also conflict with the idea that God created species independently, which was widely understood by many people in a time where religion was prominent (Chapter II).

Anthropologists and other scientist use different types of method to study the evolution of human behavior, depending on their specific interest and expertise. First approach is the Paleontological Reconstruction; these reconstructions were constructed on the anatomy of existent of hominins and the archaeological remains, which they were connected. They were also found associated among behavior, anatomy, and ecology discovered in non-human primate species and in modern humans. Next is the Biological approach, which is understandable that human cultural behavior has affected human evolution. Biological and evolutionary heritage may have developed several methods behavior that has been discovered by others. Third approach is the Evolutionary Psychology, which emphasize on understanding the behaviors or cognitive modules adaptations. Evolutionary psychologist is convinced that our evolved behavior may indicate or should be explained in terms of theoretical environment of evolutionary adaptedness. Lastly, is the Human Evolutionary Ecology, which emphasize more on psychological experiments and surveys of individuals living in developed countries, also on the ecological factors that impact reproduction success in the few remaining hunter gathered

In the 19th century, Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution provided an impetus for the scientific examination of child development. He emphasis on the survival behavior of different species stimulated an interest in observing children to identify their adaptive behaviors and to learn about the inheritance of human behavior. These studies were of limited scientific value because they lacked objectively and often failed to describe adequately he behaviors being observed, making validation impossible (kroll 1995).