What I would like you to do is to find a topic or person from this week's chapter that you were interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find a video clip that demonstrates something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. Please use at least 3 quality resources.
Once you have completed your search and explorations, a) I would like you to say what your topic is, b) how exactly it fits into the chapter, and c) why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you read or viewed related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about the topic in a knowledgeable manner. At the end of your post, please include working URLs for the three websites. Keep in mind that it will be easier if you keep it to one topic.
Additional instructions: For each URL (internet resource) you have listed. Indicate why you chose it and the extent to which it contributed to your post.
The topic that I chose to dig into more was the topic of serviceable associated habits. This was mentioned in the book as one of Darwin's principles of the emotional expression of animals.
Darwin explains that this principle comes from the idea that when we are in the same state of mind or same emotional state more then once we are bound evolutionarily to make at least a similar emotional expression for similar situations. This can be applied to humans as well. Such as the fact that it could be considered instinctual to scrunch your nose when you smell something that isn't all that pleasant. These are the kinds of reactions that Darwin considered inherited evolutionarily.
Another thought on Darwin's principle was that it was explained very similarly to an operant conditioning standpoint in psychology. Basically stating serviceable associated habits are ones that, if rewarded, will either continue or become more prominent, and if punished could have the possibility of becoming extinguished after a certain amount of time. For example if you were a dog and you barked when there was an intruder, you may be rewarded with a treat, causing you to perform the same action in a similar situation later. This action could (from my understanding of Darwin) then become inherited and possibly passed down so that generations may have the ability to know that when there is an intruder or some similar situation, the correct action is to bark.
Darwin received a lot of criticism for this first principle of emotional expresssion, largely because people weren't ready to admit that emotions were something that could be hereitary and not learned throughout time. This is another example of the nature vs. nurture debate in that it questions whether our emotions come from inheritance and genetics or if they are learned through our nuturing and sociocultural environment.
What made Darwin's theory that emotions are hereditary plausible was the countless studies that were done then and are still being conducted today about how emotions are universal. About how across distance and culture and time emotional expressions have relatively stayed the same. If I was to show you how I express fear and then you were to go over to India and ask someone to do the same you would get a relatively similar expression from both sides of the globe. It's fascinating to me that something that essential to the way of life as we know it today can also be universal and in some ways very simple across so many people.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1279921/
-A review and summary of Darwin's book and 3 principles of emotional expression
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/biology/b103/f00/web2/reineke2.html
-Gave great examples of the topic and included criticism of Darwin's theory
http://blog.oup.com/2009/02/darwin_expression/
-Great examples for better understanding of the topic
I chose to further my knowledge of Galton and eugenics. Galton, the cousin of Charles Darwin, was extremely interested in studying humans and their intellectual and individual differences. He created the term “eugenics.” As defined in the American Journal of Sociology in the article, “Eugenics: It’s Definition, Scope, and Aims,” eugenics is the “science which deals with all influences that improve the inborn qualities of a race; also with those that develop them to the utmost advantage.” So basically, manipulating biological make-up and promoting people with “good” character can create a supreme race created essentially.
In further reading, the question of what determines a person to be supreme? To answer that, we all can agree that it is better to be healthy versus sick and well fitted versus ill-fitted in life. The aim of eugenics is to bring all the best attributes that can be found in each class of people into the future generations.
When Galton created and published his beliefs of eugenics, Darwin agreed with him that intellectual abilities could be inherited. Galton became so in depth though with his belief that he created tests those families had to take and eugenic certificates were given out and eugenic filing buildings were created to store this information. He believed that the insane and “feeble-minded” people should be segregated and restricted from having offspring.
What came to mind as I first read about Galton and eugenics was Adolf Hitler and his belief of having a supreme race? Interesting enough, I found an article that talked exactly about that. Studies have found though that Hitler didn’t associate his social beliefs with Darwinism or eugenics, but based it off of 19th century philosophers.
Eugenics can essentially be thought of as an admirable and logical solution to create a high intellectual population, but further investigation proves otherwise. Today, eugenics can be found in abortion, infanticide, and euthanasia. Women that are pregnant can choose to abort babies that would be born with deformities such as Down syndrome. In China, female infants are secretly murdered because having a male baby is more important to carry on the family name. And although illegal in many countries, killing of a person suffering from an incurable or painful disease is practiced.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/info/2762125#bibInfo
-Definition and the aim of Eugenics
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1377454/
-Darwin's thought on Galton's study and how in depth Galton was with eugenics
http://creation.com/eugenics-death-of-the-defenceless
-Eugenics today
This week I decided to take a further look on the controversy of Darwin’s theory of Evolution vs. Creation. This fits into the chapter because the majority of this chapter was about Darwin himself and what he discovered. I am interested in this topic because I find the controversy very important. This controversy involves what schools teach and it also ties in to peoples’ beliefs. I became very interested in this whole controversy last year when I was in a biology class. We were learning about this topic and we got in a very interesting conversation with our professors. We were able to have this discussion because our class only consisted of 10 people (it was a fast track class) otherwise it probably would not have happened. A student in my class asked our teacher, how could we believe Darwin’s theory to be true but also be Christians at the same time? It is a very interesting question to think about. If someone reads all about Darwin’s research and believes him to be right, then what does that say about their faith beliefs? All my teacher could really answer on the question is she was both. She was a scientist but also a Christian.
Before Darwin, Creation was what was taught and believed. He created much controversy and was very un-liked after he came out with his books even though he did not mention humans evolving at all. His research has had a vast impact on the world. It created a new scientific theory and eventually changed the school system. It challenged Christianity by saying species evolved over time. The first court case to involve this topic was the Scopes Monkey Trial. John Scopes, in Tennessee, tried teaching evolution in his science class which was against the law. Even today it is still an issue in our school systems. Beginning in the 1960s, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a number of decisions that imposed severe restrictions on those state governments that opposed the teaching of evolution. As a result of these rulings, school boards, legislatures and government bodies are now barred from prohibiting the teaching of evolution. Teaching creation science, either along with evolutionary theory or in place of it, is also banned. However in private schools, Creation is strictly taught and nothing about evolution is mentioned. While doing my research, I found this quote from the National Academy of Sciences and it actually shocked me. It read: “Today, many religious denominations accept that biological evolution has produced the diversity of living things over billions of years of Earth's history. Many have issued statements observing that evolution and the tenets of their faiths are compatible. Scientists and theologians have written eloquently about their awe and wonder at the history of the universe and of life on this planet, explaining that they see no conflict between their faith in God and the evidence for evolution. Religious denominations that do not accept the occurrence of evolution tend to be those that believe in strictly literal interpretations of religious texts”. If the National Academy of Science can come out and say this then why is this still such a controversy today? Does it go back to people’s beliefs?
http://www.bucconeer.worldcon.org/contest/2002e_3.htm
Gave insight into the impact of Darwin’s discovery
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation%E2%80%93evolution_controversy
Gave background of the controversy and different insights on it
http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1105/darwin-debate-religion-evolution
Talked about the controversy and the impact it’s having in schools
The topic I found most interesting is Francis Galton and his contribution not only to Psychology but other science fields. Francis Galton is Darwin’s half-cousin and he initiated the study of individual differences. Galton was a man of many trades.
He was a Tropical explorer and geographer, meteorologist, geneticist, psychologist, statisticians, and eugenicist. As a tropical explorer and geographer Galton launched his scientific career with an expedition to tropical Africa and subsequent election to the Royal Geographical Society. As a meteorologist Galton was the first to describe the anti-cyclone and the introduction of weather-maps based on charting data about air pressure.
As a geneticist he studied inheritance statistically. In Psychology Galton founded differential psychology, sometimes called the “London School” of experimental psychology. As a statistician the study of heredity could only be placed on a scientific basis by introducing new statistical concepts like regression and correlation. As a Eugenicist Galton wrote and campaigned about improvement of the human stock (eugenics).
The one thing that Galton is greatly known for is his research on fingerprints. Galton was published in many different areas but one book that is known widely is the one on fingerprints. Galton’s publication is simply called Finger Prints. In this book Galton explains that everyone has their own unique finger prints. This is the basis of individual differences. Galton goes on to hypothesis that people who are smart can be judged by their finger prints, but his research disproved this hypothesis.
http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/Galton.htm
http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Galton.html
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/railton/wilson/galtonfp.html
A close friend and mentee of Charles Darwin, George Romanes set out after Darwin’s death to disprove his work on evolutionary theory and to replace it with his own work. He proposed that natural selection was incomplete and that he wanted to focus on physiological selection and research the possibilities so it could be proven—something he thought was sure to happen. There were not good reactions to Romane’s attempt to make changes to evolutionary theory.
George Romanes used anecdotes observed by unknown people in his attempt to label certain species in the animal kingdom as having higher intelligence. In his book, Animal Intelligence (1888), he admitted that his sources were not well-known, but suggested that chances of an intelligent animal coming under the observation of an intelligent man were low. Why he chose this odd speculation I cannot say.
To use information from these unknown people, Romanes created certain roadblocks to prevent mistaken information from being published under his name: (1) he made sure that the observation was clearly correct and would be able to be observed by another as proof, (2) he checked the observations against others to make sure that a similar observation had not been completed for other work.
One anecdote from the book was related to ants and the way in which they display empathetic behavior toward each other. According to the observation that was made, an ant will attempt to save another ant which is stuck; if the ant cannot save its fellow ant it will retreat for help and return—the ants will not leave until their fellow ant is freed.
Romanes thought was that each organism from amoeba to human possesses reflex, instinct, and reason—the difference being that they display different levels of ability for each. He understood that reflex action was difficult to account for because it could resemble conscious thought. He attempted to account for reflex actions:
The criterion of mind therefore, which I propose, and to which I shall adhere throughout the present volume, is as follows:-- Does the organism learn to make new adjustments, or to modify old ones, in accordance with the results of its own individual experience? If it does so, the fact cannot be due merely to reflex action in the sense above described, for it is impossible that heredity can have provided in advance for innovations upon, or alterations of, its machinery during the lifetime of a particular individual.
The work on animal intelligence did not end with Romanes, but was added to by C. Lloyd Morgan. It is important to note that Romanes theories on the evolution of animals was mostly ignored due to a lack of empirical evidence in support of it. This is why Morgan mentioned that an action exhibited by an animal should be first conceived to occur due to the lowest possible brain function needed for the action—kind of a bottom up method.
http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/romanes.htm
http://www.igs.net/~pballan/section4(210).htm
www.ghtc.usp.br/server/relat-rm/romanes5.DOC
The topic I chose to write about is Galton and his work on eugenics. I chose this because I am very interested in eugenics. This topic has always interested me because I like learning how and why we would pick out the “best” genes and also not let the “bad” genes reproduce. This fits into our chapter because first, Francis Galton made a lot of contributions to the field of psychology with his work on eugenics and also his work with Darwin. And second, there is a lot of psychology behind eugenics, for example, what makes for these “good” genes and who’s to say that some people aren’t allowed to reproduce?
In 1865, Galton first began studying heredity, and he became interested in this after reading Darwin’s Origin of Species. Galton then found that he was very passionate about studying the variations in humans. He became convinced that success was due to superior qualities which were passed down to offspring through heredity. He began writing several books in which he stated that “human mental abilities and personality traits are essentially inherited. One of his books, entitled Heredity Genius, was his tale about following the lives of several accomplished men. Galton considered these men to be from “good families”, and therefore were more likely to produce intelligent and gifted offspring. Galton’s work sparked the eugenics movement, during which other researchers called for selective parenthood. Selective parenthood is a method by which the biological make-up of humans is improved. Galton himself even suggested and advocated for human breeding restrictions. He wanted to keep the “feeble-minded” from reproducing, therefore improving the biological make-up of the human species. He thought that superior mental and behavioral capacities, as well as physical health were not only advantageous to the individual, but to society as a whole. Galton concluded that he could produce a “highly gifted race of men”, through his process of selective breeding. He later coined the term “positive eugenics”. This whole eugenics movement later led to much controversy in the United States in the early 1900’s. Sterilizations laws were passed after several thousand people were sterilized against their will. We will never have a “perfect gene pool”, and I think this whole eugenics movement was absolutely ridiculous. However, the early work of Galton is very important and started a revolution of the research in eugenics. It is still very interesting to me and I am curious what scientists are researching today in the field of eugenics.
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/galton.shtml This site was very helpful and gave information about Galton’s early work and what led him to start studying heredity.
http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/spring02/holland/Galton.htm This site gave a good description of Galton’s research and the books he wrote. It also explained Galton’s ideas and thoughts about selective breeding.
http://www.hsl.virginia.edu/historical/eugenics/2-origins.cfm This site helped me better understand the history of eugenics, and its influence on society.
For my topical blog I decided to look more into the topic of comparative psychology. Darwin could be considered one of the earliest comparative psychologists to note. Comparative psychology refers to “the scientific study of the behavior and mental processes of non-human animals, especially as these relate to the phylogenetic history, adaptive significance, and development of behavior”(Wikipedia). This discipline of psychology is sometimes seen to emphasize cross-species comparisons, but this is not the case, researchers feel that direct comparisons should not be the sole focus of comparative psychology and that the intense focus on a single organism is just as desirable as studying the whole species itself. Donald Dewsbury concluded that “the object of comparative psychology is to establish principles of generality focusing on both proximate and ultimate causation” (Wikipedia).
Niko Tinbergen developed four unique comparative approaches to studying behavior in the realm of comparative psychology. First, is to question how pervasive the behavior is across the whole species of the animal. Second, is to question how successful the behavior contributes to the lifetime of reproductive activity. Third, what mechanisms are involved in the behavior. Finally, what maturational, learning, social experiences must an individual undergo in order to demonstrate a behavior.
In the early 9th century, an African American named al-Jahiz wrote about the social organization of ants and animal communication. These may be the earliest forms of comparative psychology. In the 11th century, Arabic psychologist Ibn al-Haytham wrote “Treatise on the Influence of Melodies on the Souls of Animals”, which dealt with the effects of music on animals. Darwin, like I said in the first paragraph, was said to be the central developer of comparative psychology. Darwin’s theory led to several different hypotheses, one being that the factors that set humans apart, such as higher mental processes and moral and spiritual faculties, could be accounted for evolutionary principles. George Romanes set out to demonstrate that animals possessed what he called a “rudimentary human mind.” Throughout the 19th century, other biologists and psychologists contributed other findings and studies that drove the success of comparative psychology.
A small subset of comparative psychology is called animal cognition. This is an interest in the understanding of mental processes that control complex behavior within animals. Much of the work of researchers in this field parallel with the research of complex behavior in humans. A lot of this behavior that is studied is in relation to reactions that are important to survival in natural settings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_psychology
-Broadly explained Comparative Psychology
http://www.psychoid.net/comparative-psychology-comparing-studying.html
-Simple explanation of the discipline
http://www.apadivisions.org/division-6/publications/newsletters/neuroscientist/2010/11/historian-column.aspx
-The APA’s explanation of this branch of psychology.
The topic that I would like to discuss into further detail is the concept of inheritance of acquired characteristics. This topic fits into the of Darwin’s belief on evolution that is discussed in this chapter, which incorporated the Lamarckian belief in his hypothesis. Lamarck’s concept of inheritance of acquired characteristics is defined as the idea that an organism can pass on characteristics that it has acquired through it’s lifetime to their offspring. An example that I had read on the website of Lamarckism is when giraffes stretching their necks to reach leaves high in trees and they strengthen and gradually lengthen their necks. These giraffes have offspring with slightly longer necks. This example ties into Darwin’s findings while studying the finches of the Galapagos Islands. He had found how the finches beaks differentiated in accordance with the available food on the different islands that they had flocked to. This topic was especially interesting to me because this concept that was included in Darwin’s original theory was initially discarded. Now it is a fundamental point in our knowledge of evolution.
In Lamarck’s theory, he had considered two separate principles. That these organisms had acquired traits that enabled them to adapt and survive in the environment they are in, and that these acquired traits were passed down to their offspring. Lamarck’s theory strongly emphasizes the changing environment that organisms lived in. Lamarck had believed that the first steps of the organism adaptation were resulted from the environment changing, and that the change the organisms would experience was a result of them in turn trying to adapt to their changing environment. Because the changing environment made it necessary for the organisms to change their behavior, these new behaviors then became routine and “habitual” and allowed for these behaviors to stick.
It is also interesting that Lamarck’s theory was discarded and ignored when it was first released, but when Darwin included it in his evolutionary theory it became noteworthy. A reason that this could be true is that when Lamarck first expressed his views on evolution and his concept heritability of acquired characteristics was a time where creationist views was the overall concensus. There was little to no refuting of the belief that the Divine was the soul creator of our Earth, and any other explanations or beliefs wasn’t even considered.
Some doubts against this belief involved the belief that genetics played a role instead of adaptation and survival Luria's and Delbruk's conducted successful investigations eliminated this doubt, making Lamarck and Darwin’s beliefs on evolution even more concrete.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarckism
Defining Lamarckism and relation to Darwin's theory
http://www.maverickscience.com/lamarck-vindicated.pdf
Definition and Principles of Lamarck's belief
http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Lamarck.html
Arguments refuting Lamarck's belief
This chapter focused a lot on the works of Charles Darwin, and his influence on modern psychological research. So I understandably looked into some of his research. One topic that stuck out to me was individual differences. We all know each of us are unique. Our own body language, speech patterns, physical characteristics are a unique set, even identical twins are two unique people. So I did what most college students do, and used Google. The first item that popped up on my search was an article from the encyclopedia Britannica entitled “Differential psychology.”
The first sentence sums it all up “(a) branch of psychology that deals with individual and group differences in behavior.” It goes on to say that its focus from Darwin is the survival capabilities of a species, as well as research from Sir Francis Galton based on the visual and auditory skills of the individual. Differential psychology emphasizes that we all fall somewhere on a spectrum instead of sharply in one trait (i.e. introverted vs. extroverted), and results can vary passed on personality, intelligence, memory, and biological factors. Such things can change reaction time, preferences, values, answers, and behaviors based on health. All this is important in any field of psychological, because people can’t always match the statistical controls that have been accepted as the norm. But individual characteristics can create a large amount of variation.
Individual differences and differential psychology can be measured (in some ways), by personality, motivation, intelligence, ability, IQ, interests, self-concept, self-efficacy, and self-esteem. Such measurements are used in an experimental or applied setting in a variety of branches of psychology. Including I/O psychology, educational psychology, social psychology, and some developmental psychology subfields. I guess, it seems that differential psychology isn’t exactly it’s own branch per se, but an area field that effects all types of research.
The University of Edinburgh is the self titled “world’s largest group dedicated to Differential Psychology”, and is responsible for taking individual behavioral differences and translates the psychological mechanisms into what our differences in intelligence and personality are based on genetic and environmental differences. What makes this interesting was their mission, “to research healthy ageing, targeting the major determinants of health and wellbeing over the whole life course and reducing dependency in later life.”
http://www.ppls.ed.ac.uk/psychology/groups/differential-psychology
About U. of Edinburgh
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_psychology
On the research of differential psychology
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/162949/differential-psychology
definition and other basic info
Even though I was most fascinated by Charles Darwin in this chapter, I decided to research more into the life of George Romanes. I learned a lot about Darwin, so I became very interested in learning more about his protégé (Romanes), because there wasn’t a lot of information provided about him. Any person considered a protégé to someone like Charles Darwin had to be something special.
George Romanes was born in May of 1848 in Kingston, Ontario Canada. However, when he was only two years old, his family moved to England. He was an ordinary child who attended a prep school in London until he was struck with the measles. Once he recovered from that, he was required to continue his education at home. He didn’t have much experience when it came to formal education, so his parents sent him to a tutor when he was seventeen to prepare for Brasenose College in Oxford. Before he went off to college, his intentions were to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a minister. However, in 1867, one of his friends talked him into going to Gonville and Caius College in Cambridge.
While he was there, he no longer wanted to be a minister. Instead, he began studying medicine and physiology. In 1873, he wrote a letter entitled “Nature”, which caught Charles Darwin’s attention. They began to write each other letters and soon became great friends, which led to Darwin giving Romanes his notebooks on animal behavior. These notebooks could have been what sprung Romanes into coming up with his own theory about animal behavior. In 1879, he got married to Ethel. They had two children together, and they were married until his death in 1894.
In the last twenty years of his life, Romanes became devoted to the study of invertebrate physiology. His purpose was to show the intelligent level of a species based on their placement on the evolution scale. While doing so, he found that the nervous system of a jellyfish was like a network of connected units. If he were to poke an area, it would contract around that point. He published his most famous work in 1881, Animal Intelligence. This was the first book where animals and humans were compared. His goal was to promote animal intelligence to be very similar to human intelligence. He actually made an animal intelligence ladder, where he ranked the animals’ intelligence. The top of the ladder begins with apes and dogs, followed by: monkeys and elephants, birds, bees and wasps, reptiles, lobsters and crabs, fish, snails and squids, starfish and sea urchins, and jellyfish and sea anemones. It’s obvious to see that his ladder goes from mammals and quickly goes down to birds, insects, reptiles, and different animals of the sea.
One of his studies testing his animal intelligence theory was with ants. He put a little stone on one ant and waited to see what the other ants would do. One ant approached and saw the ant trapped under the stone and just kept moving. Romanes thought it was just leaving it behind, but the ant soon returned with a large group of ants to help get the little stone off of the ant. He did the same thing but with a piece of clay. Again one ant passed by and a large group shortly came later. They began to bite pieces of clay off of the chunk until the ant was free. Romanes didn’t think this was instinctive. Instead, he thought this was similar to an action a person would do by helping someone in need.
Shortly after he published Animal Intelligence, Romanes became ill, and it cut his career short. He battled his illness for almost ten years, but he finally lost the fight in May of 1894 due to a brain tumor. A lot of his work is questioned and criticized, because critics didn’t like his methods of collecting data, and they thought his results were biased. However, he is still highly respected, because he was the first person to study comparative psychology. It was him who launched this study, and it flourished once he passed away.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/romanes.htm
-Background info and example of his theory
http://faculty.frostburg.edu/mbradley/psyography/romanes.html
-Background info and info about his theory
http://www.pigeon.psy.tufts.edu/psych26/romanes1.htm
-One of his research methods in Animal Intelligence
This week I chose to research more about the arguments between Darwin’s theory of evolution and that vs. creationism; and what people are really saying about how man came to be on this earth. This fits into the chapter because of the activity we did on the scopes trial last week, which was about a teacher who was “arrested” for teaching evolution in his classroom. It also fits into chapter 5, which is what chapter was mainly about. I find this topic very interesting because one man came out and went against what was the norm and spoke what he thought/thinks to be true. Either man evolved from monkeys or God created earth in seven days and put Adam and Eve on here himself, and I love that it was such a big debate back then and really still is today.
Darwin’s theory comes from many starting points, but one I find to be rather important is where he comes up with natural selection. Natural selection in a nut shell is the process where living things that are better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. This results in better and stronger offspring; which eventually eliminates the weaker animal or insect, etc. The best eventually evolves from the weak, which in this case, we humans are the best.
Also, since there is no scientific evidence that proves Darwin’s theory of evolution, correct or incorrect, why not teach something else. Well because the creationism theory. We look at the Bible as being true and can prove it so why would it lie about how humans came to be on this earth? This is a topic that we may never actually get the right answer, we can only go so far back in history and look up historical artifacts giving us part of a part of an answer. There is only so much research a person can before they come to an end, and frankly it also depends on what the people are willing to believe as well. When a group of people believe in a certain thing and way or living nothing may be able to change their ideas, even if scientifically proven. I know my church group would talk out about the theory of evolution because it goes against what the Bible says. I think this is why I find this so interesting because it is still a big debate today and there are still so many unanswered questions.
http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/creation.shtml - Helped me better understand the creationism view of things.
http://anthro.palomar.edu/evolve/evolve_2.htm - Discussed what natural selection was and the early theories of evolution.
http://www.darwins-theory-of-evolution.com/ - Point blank to what Darwin was saying about the theory of evolution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wReAL9wS2JY – Interesting video to help understand evolution vs. creationism.
The topic that I chose to look into more was the concept of eugenics. Eugenics was covered in the chapter by the works of Francis Galton. He was interested in inherited traits, and he believed that we are able to breed highly gifted people just as you would a dog or a horse. I find this interesting, because it reminds me of Hitler in WWII and how the Nazis were striving for the perfect Arian race.
Eugenics is aimed at improving to the genetics of a population by using hereditary the application of hereditary laws. It first became popular in the 20th century, but has now lost its appeal due to the human rights movement. Eugenics was popular worldwide and was even promoted by governments. Its supporters thought of it as a social philosophy for the improvement of human hereditary traits through the promotion of higher reproduction of certain people with desirable traits, and the reduction of reproduction of other people with less desirable traits. An example of this would be wanting to eliminate the inherited trait of red hair. To do this there would have to be a higher rate of reproduction for individuals without the red hair gene, and then we would no longer allow people with red hair to produce offspring. Some commonly undesirable traits that were wanted to be eliminated by eugenics were the poor, mentally ill, blind, deaf, developmentally disabled, promiscuous women, homosexuals, and entire racial groups. One major racial group was the Jews in Germany during WWII. The eugenics movement spread to Germany from the U.S., because of California’s forced sterilization laws. This popularity was shown in the 1933 Nuremberg racial hygiene laws. These laws banned people from having sexual intercourse with Jews, and also banned Jews from reproducing. In Germany, Hitler believed that the German bloodline had become corrupted, so he sought out to eliminate all the races that had corrupted the bloodline. He believed that the strong and the racially pure should be encouraged to have more children, and that the weak and the racially impure should be sterilized. During this time, Germany had strict marriage laws in which marriage partners had to be tested for any hereditary diseases before being allowed to wed. Everyone was encouraged to carefully evaluate their prospective marriage partners based on their genetics during courtship.
http://www.eugenics.net/papers/caseforeugenics.html
-Eugenics background and intentions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazi_eugenics
-Eugenics in Nazi Germany
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Laws
-Background of Nuremberg Laws
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics
-Overview of eugenics
I thought the topic on individual differences was very fascinating. I have always really enjoyed reading about twin studies and how nature and nurture play a role in their developmental outcomes. Galton was the first person to do twin studies and correlate heredity and intelligence.
1. The first website describes the importance of individual differences and how it has evolved over the years. Studying individual differences is very crucial because it explains how individuals differ in their behavior. Individual differences include more than just twin studies, but personality, motivation, intelligence, interests, and memory tests. By studying individual differences, it can be effective in therapy or understanding groups of people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Differential_psychology
2. The encyclopedia of evolution has a detailed section on Galton’s use of twin studies. He used his studies to conclude that intelligence was primarily inherited. Galton thought of himself as being an elite superior to other people because of his intelligence and heredity. In his book he fails to notice that environment could play a role in intelligence. Galton strongly believed that intelligence was inherited and that used survey method to complete his research. Galton is one of the most interesting people to learn about so far because he used finger prints and statistics that are very essential in today’s society.
http://books.google.com/books?id=YRcAVvmE6eMC&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&dq=galtons+survey+method&source=bl&ots=o7LpNlmXeh&sig=FUwgpbPzL7h3BNDOu3YFVYltMIA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SalkUJTwOoKCyAGmroCoDQ&ved=0CF0Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=galtons%20survey%20method&f=false
3. The YouTube video is a CBS report that conducts a study on twins to learn if nature or nurture plays a strong role in intelligence and behavior. In today’s society, many would argue that intelligence is not solely inherited like Galton believed. Nurture is a strong influence in each individual’s lives that make the differences in people unique. The research conducted shows that the twins are very similar academically but the brain activity varied just a little bit. Environment may play a role in the small difference, but it is still noted that it plays a part.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egXIk_4-qMY
The above material is based on my interest of individual differences and relates to chapter 5 in which talks about the background of Galton's studies of twins and his method of surveys. Galton is a major part of research in evolution. Individual differences of intelligence,memory,and other features have continued to impact psychology and many other fields of research. Individual differences is important in research because it helps researchers understand why humans behave the way they do. Many people have their strong opinions on nature vs. nurture, and individual difference studies provide evidence on this matter.
The topic I chose to research more about was Charles Darwin. While reading this chapter I found him to much more interesting than I recall. I learned a lot more about his research and theories than I have in the past. I wanted to learn more about him in general as not only a scientist but also as a man. This chapter discussed Darwin and his main theory of evolution for most of the chapter so I wanted to fill in the holes of missing information to better understand his life.
Charles Robert Darwin was born on Feburary 12, 1809in Shrewsbury, Shropshire England. Darwin was the second son of Robert waring Darwin and the fifth of six total children. During darwins younger years his father considered him to be only interested in game shooting. He wanted Charles to be a scholar rather than an under achieving child. In 1818 charles was enrolled in the traditional Anglican Shrewsbury school where he studied until 1825. This school was also problematic to Charles because he strongly disliked the classical methods of teaching in public schools. Darwin was interested in chemistry and science even though it was condemned in English schools. Being interested in chemistry earned him the nickname “gas” from fellow students while being condemned by his headmaster. After this Charles’ father decided to send his son to study medicine at Edinburgh University in 1825. Charles again found it to be a struggle to learn medicine. He didn’t enjoy the surgery experiences he took part in along with several other aspects. The one thing that Charles did enjoy was the intellectual environment and rich variety of people and conversations he took part in. After the two years his father had enough and decided to enroll him at Christ College, Cambridge in 1828. Robert thought that if all else failed he would help Charles become educated as an Anglican gentlemen. After 3 years more of schooling, in 1831 he managed to get his degree in the Bachelor of arts while placing 10th in the class without receiving honors. Upon his graduation in 1831 Adam Sedgwick decided to take Darwin to wales on a geological field trip. Darwins next endeavor was the beagle voyage which set sail from England on December 27, 1831. Darwin got this unique experience as a result of a 26 year old ship captain by the name of Robert Fitzroy. Fitzroy was looking for a companion to have dinner with, have intellectual conversations with and to help pass the time. The journey first started by visiting the cape de Verde and other islands of the Atlantic. The expedition also took him to the South American coasts and adjacent islands which included the Galapagos islands. After they visited each of these locations Darwin went off on his own and collected data such as fossils, drawings, bones, and skins. In reality since Darwin had extreme sea sickness he was only aboard the beagle for a total of 18 months even though he was gone for five years. On the way home Charles was able to stop at several more locations which also allowed him to collect more findings. He visited Tahiti, New Zealand, Australia and Tasmania among other places. This five years of traveling set the basis for his lifes research. When Darwin returned to England he found that geologists, zoologists, and botanists were fascinated by the specimens he had collected. He spent the next ten years cataloging and describing the discoveries he had made on his journey. Of the recorded notes he had 770 pages of diary, 1383 pages of geology notes, 368 pages of zoology notes, 1529 species of animals, and 3907 labeled items ranging from bones to fossils to dried specimens.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/151902/Charles-Darwin?sections=151902main,225881,225882,225883,225884,225885,225886&view=print
Gave an in depth look on Darwin from birth to death including all his major pieces of work. It also gave good pieces of information on his theory of evolution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin
gave me the whole history and life of Darwin. Helped me piece together all the information.
http://www.darwin-literature.com/l_biography.html
gave me several pieces of information about his theory and expanded upon it.
http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/charles_darwin.html
gave me a few famous quotes which I found to be interesting.
The topic I chose to do more research on was comparative psychology, which is a term used in chapter five when comparing human traits to traits of other species. I wanted to look further into this topic because it was something that stood out and interested me when reading the chapter. Technically, humans are just another species so it would be interesting to find out the traits of other species and see if there are any relations. After researching comparative psychology on the internet I found that it is not just comparing human traits with other non-human species traits, but it can also simply be the study of one individual organism and understanding its behavior. A similar term that takes on the same meaning as comparative psychology is ethology. Both study the non-human behavior of animals and also the behavior of humans. The two known for starting this study of animal behavior are Charles Darwin and Georges Romanes. There are many branches or definitions of comparative psychology, but whether it is the study of animal behavior or comparing the similarities and differences among different species, it all encompasses the idea of evolution, helping us understand the relationships involved. Some of the other branches of the topic of comparative psychology are heredity, adaptation/learning, and mating/parenting behaviors. By incorporating the whole meaning of comparative psychology, it allows us to come up with a target behavior. We can come up with this theory by finding a trait that is convincing across all species and contributes to the lifetime reproductive success of the individuals. Studying these traits point out certain behavioral, physiological, and environmental mechanisms that are a necessity for specific generations.
One thing that I really wanted to find out more about was what kind of animals are used as subjects in comparative psychology. Apart from the clear choice of primates, domestic animals such as dogs and cats seem to be popular as well as rats. Other animals that have been or are being used include pigeons, dolphins, and parrots. Some of the biggest similarities were found between human infants and chimpanzee infants.
Something interesting that I came across was the effect of animals on humans. The term domestication comes into play when humans started to view animals as property. This made it look like humans and animals were different and unequal. I find this interesting because it is true and just seems normal that humans are so unique and superior to animals. It is easy for us to assume this, but comparative psychology uses science to possibly disprove or lessen this theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_psychology
-definition of comparative psychology, animals studied and their effect on humans
http://www.apadivisions.org/division6/publications/newsletters/neuroscientist/2010/11/historian-column.aspx
-ethology, study of human and non-human species behaviors
http://www.psychoid.net/comparative-psychology-comparing-studying.html
-Charles Darwin, Georges Romanes, branches of comparative psychology, target behaviors
I decided to look into evolutionary psychology since the chapter did not talk about it for more than a paragraph. This gave me the freedom to cover about whatever I wanted to learn about it. I think genetics is an interesting topic and I wanted to learn more how it relates to psychology. I looked on Ancestry.com once to research my own family tree and have thought about my behavior and how it may be similar to my ancestor’s and think this topic would be interesting to many people. This topic fits into the chapter because without an understanding of evolution and Darwin you could not understand evolutionary psychology. Stanford’s encyclopedia of philosophy shares that “Along with cognitive psychologists, evolutionary psychologists propose that much, if not all, of our behavior can be explained by appeal to internal psychological mechanisms. What distinguishes evolutionary psychologists from many cognitive psychologists is the proposal that the relevant internal mechanisms are adaptations—products of natural selection—that helped our ancestors get around the world, survive and reproduce.” So evolutionary psychology seeks to find out not what physical traits have been selected for but what psychological traits have been selected for over the course of our evolution. The areas that are looked at are memory, language, and perception. What is looked at are psychological adaptations so parts of our behavior that were helpful to our ancestors and passed on to us. Researchers want to discover emotional and cognitive adaptations in humans.
There is a lot of research being done in the field of evolutionary psychology. At the University of California Santa Barbara there is the Center for Evolutionary Psychology. Its website says it is one of the largest and most active centers in the field. The center’s goals are “(1) to promote the discovery and systematic mapping of the adaptations that comprise the evolved species-typical architecture of the human mind and brain, and (2) to explore how cultural and social phenomena can be explained as the output of such newly discovered or newly mapped psychological adaptations.” I read one study done at the center titled “What are punishment and reputation for?” In this study they wanted to find out why these behaviors evolved in humans. They wanted to know which was more correct in this instance: Social Exchange Theory or Group Norm Maintenance Theory. I read part of another study titled “Adaptive specializations, social exchange, and the evolution of human intelligence.” This study wanted to find out if people could tell the strength or fighting ability of a male just by hearing his voice and they concluded that humans across cultures are able to do this. The center publishes many of its studies on its website and there is a variety of subjects one might not initially think related to evolutionary psychology.
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/evolutionary-psychology/
An overview of the topic
http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/
UC Santa Barbara’s website, lots of background info on the subject and a lot of current research
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology
Here I just got basic background info
Sir Francis Galton and The Eugenics Movement
As I was reading the chapter, more specifically the section on Francis Galton and Eugenics I found myself getting all fired up. I questioned why he would ever want to pursue such a crazy idea and it made me very upset. After sometime to calm down, I thought about the concept that we learned earlier in the year,on presentism and historicism and began to wonder if he ever wanted eugenics to be twisted the way that it was. With this in mind I began to research the topic with a level head and a goal in mind.
Sir Francis Galton was the youngest of nine children that was born into a wealthy quaker family. It is also important to not that he was the half cousin of Charles Darwin, who was also a member of a well to do family. However as a child, unlike his older cousin Charles, Francis was very good at school and was considered to be somewhat of a child protegy. By the age of four he could write and do multiplication. Galton would initionally begin an education in medicine, which he really did care for. With the help of his cousin Darwin he was able to convince his father to be able to attend Cambridge University and Study Mathmatics. This would lead to what many consider to be the first part of his life.
Galton was a "jack of all sciences" and worked in many fields and would make great contributions to many of them. He was an anthropologist, eugenicist, explorer, geogrpher, inverntor, statistician, psychologist, and many more. In these fields he made contributions like creating the concepts of correlation and regressio, applied statstical analysis to human intellience, psychometrics, and differential psychology, just to name a few. However, the subject that I would like to discuss is that of eugenics.
The idea of eugenics and Nature vs. Nurture can be seen as taking up the majority of time in the second half of Galton's life. Eugenics was term that was first coined my Francis Galton after reading Darwin's "Origin of Species". The concept of eugenics used that concept that Galton had previously discovered that genetic materials can be transferred from one generation to the next. By using this concept ideal charecteristics in humans could be transfered to the next generation through selective breeding and in doing so a superior being could be created.
After studying the hereditary abiltiy of genetics through the use of twin studies, Galton began to have the thoughts of creating a better society through a supreme human race. Whether or not he meant for the eugenics movement to go the way it did is unknown, but is is certain that not long after the idea was out there that people began to twist it to the point that it harmed people on a global scale. Some people began to have to idea that if we can create a supreme species throught the procreation of "fit" individuals than why not make those deamed "unfit" unable to have children. These ideas spread quickly and before long 30 states in the US had laws that allowed the sterlilization of some 60,000 American's who were considedered to be "unfit"
Not long after it began it was clear that the eugenics movement was unethical it began to end as quickly as it began, at least in the United States. However, for one country and particularly for one man the Eugenics movement had just begun. In Germany the rising leader Hitler had begun to spread teh idea of a superior Arian race and would any means necessary to obtain it. One of the most well known of all the Eugenics events is the Holocust, which cost the world millions of lives.
Even though we may think that the Eugenics movement has ended it still remains today. Not in the for that it once was, but intead in the form of preimplimentation diognosis, the abiltiy to select embyos with certain traits, or to detect fetuses with disabilties and the option of termination of the pregnancy. These of course are items that to this day many people are not sure of and wonder what the implmentations are of these techologies. With these new technologies the question remains as to whether it is the right thing to do and is the choice of us to make of should these genetic details be left up to fate.
http://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/human-testing-the-eugenics-movement-and-irbs-724 - Information on the Eugenics movement in general
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Galton - Basic Information on Francis Galton
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=498b12f8-5378-44cd-869c-f83da686c5ad%40sessionmgr115&vid=2&hid=104 - Combines information on Galton and the Eugenics Movement
The topic I am most interested in from this chapter is Charles Darwin. Even though he was not a psychologist, I think that his idea of evolution by natural selection had a tremendous influence on the development of ideas and methods in psychology.
I searched Darwin and psychology and, from several sites, came up with a list of developments that can in some way be traced to Darwin. Some of them were covered in our current chapter (or looks like will be in the next one) and others may be discussed later in the course. Many of them were because of Darwin’s influence. His cousin, Francis Galton, started the study of individual differences which lead to the development of ways of measuring behavior and traits through testing, ways of finding what traits go together (correlation), and ways of deciding how much of a trait may be due to heredity and how much might be due to the environment (study of twins for example). Galton’s work produced a whole field of study that I think can be traced to Darwin.
Here is my list of Darwin’s influences:
1. Functionalism
This was a direct influence of Darwin’s thinking on psychology. It was a new approach to the subject matter of psychology. Wundt had studied immediate experience (or what was in consciousness). Now, the functionalists asked instead: What does conscious do? How does it function to help the individual adapt? This was because adaption of the individual to his or her environment was made important by Darwin’s idea of natural selection.
2. Individual Differences
Galton was Darwin’s cousin and he studied Darwin’s theory. The original theory said the each individual differs in many ways. Some of these differences will be an advantage to an individual in the struggle for survival. Individual differences (for example in strength, or problem solving and/or many others) are at the center of Darwin’s idea of natural selection. Selection operates on these differences. Galton took all the ways in which people differ and made it a subject of psychology. He developed tests to measure differences, he developed measures of how much one difference varied with another, and he asked whether differences were produced by heredity or the environment. He also developed methods to try and answer that question.
3. Animals included in psychology -- comparative psychology
This often uses the comparative method which involves comparing what the differences among species are and what the differences have to gain and understand evolutionary relationships. For example, do animals have language? Can dogs reason? Can a parrot learned to speak? Animal behavior now became part of psychology because Darwin’s theory said that we had evolved as a species and that means that our mental abilities and behavior had evolved from earlier forms.
4. The study of emotional expression
Darwin was interested in the expression of emotions in both humans and animals. He had drawings and photographs made as a way to study emotions. He wondered if emotions were universal, or if different cultures expressed them differently. Since he believed emotions had their origin in evolution there should be similarities between man and animals. And emotional expression should be universal, the same, in all humans. This is now a whole area of research in psychology and in anthropology. So again, Darwin’s ideas started a whole field of study.
5. Evolutionary psychology.
This was the last influence of Darwin because evolutionary psychology as it is used today only started a few decades ago. It tries to identify how our ancient environment and behaviors that were reinforced in it are still affecting us today. So in social psychology we read about evolutionary theories of mate selection, food preferences, and why some landscapes may be preferred over others. Cognitive psychology has also taken up the evolutionary psychology view to explain why we have some of the problem solving systems we have and to understand why some abilities in humans are universal.
Websites used:
http://www.brocku.ca/MeadProject/Angell/Angell_1909.html
This article has a lot of information about Darwin’s influence in psychology.
http://www.christs.cam.ac.uk/darwin200/pages/index.php?page_id=e2
A website based in the U.K. it gives an overview of the impact of Darwin on modern psychology.
http://suite101.com/article/the-origins-of-evolutionary-psychology-a169588
This article discusses how “Evolutionary psychology seeks to understand human behavior and cognition in the context of evolutionary history”. The field of evolutionary psychology is one I find very interesting.
Charles Darwin was the father of evolution and astounding psychologist, geologist, zoologist, and doctor. His life was very influential to psychology and may be one of the most controversial and influential scientists of all time. I choose to learn more about Darwin’s biography and his other theories along with evolution as we have already learned so much about him in other classes. Darwin acquired all of his research on accident when he was asked to accompany a ship captain on the way to the Galapagos Islands as a naturalist. He noted the many different species of Finches on the island according to the landscape and concluded that animals thrive if they adapt to their surroundings and die if they aren’t made for the environment. Darwin called this natural selection after writing a book on evolution explaining how animals base their existence on survival of the fittest. Darwin’s work became controversial when he went on to say that humans derived from apes because of evolution which stirred up various religious views.
This topic also got me to thinking about our conversation in class about how Darwinism affects today’s society. I watched a video about President Obama and his view towards science and free thinking. He explained how science is a gift and innovation is the only way to improve our country as we have in the past. He made a great point in stating that without people like Darwin are world would not be the way it is today and for that I understand how important any theory especially controversial theories like Darwin’s is.
The process of natural selection is a very interesting topic as well. To me it seems very logical that the best fit organism for its habitat will thrive and in the reading that I did it gave some great examples of moths and snakes. The color of an animal can mean the difference between and one color may flourish because of a certain habitat. The example explained how one species increased in population when ww2 was going on as the soot changed the habitat to a darker color from soot. I think natural selection defiantly makes sense to improve the chance of survival of a species. This was a very interesting topic as I truly believe in creationism, but it helped me to be much more open minded to the subject that is so controversial.
http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/selection/selection.html - Examples of natural selection.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOl0tHVV6Ck – Video of Darwin’s work and concept of Natural Selection.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFsB1Jk1OQ0 – Barack Obama’s speech on the importance of science and Darwin.
I wanted to learn more about who Jean Baptiste de Lamarck was. Lamarck was born in northern France and was the eleventh child in his family. He was a French naturalist, soldier, biologist, and was one of the first people to support and propose part of the theory of evolution.
He like several of his brothers and his father were soldiers. He got an accidental injury and he was made to leave the army. After the army Lamarck worked in a bank office and then once finished with that he went to school to study medicine for four years. Later he became a teacher of zoology. When people think of him they usually think of the theory called inheritance of acquired characteristics. He also studied invertebrates which few naturalists wanted to study. He began out as an essentialist and believed that organisms were unchanging. Later in his work he got convinced that change happened over time.
During his life many people ignored his theories and attacked it. This was because many people believed in Creation, so they weren’t excepting of Lamarck’s theory of evolution. The mechanisms he had for evolution were different from Darwin’s, but they both had the same predicted results, which was that organisms were changed by the environment over time. And in 1829 he died in poverty.
He was briefly discussed in the chapter and I wanted to learn a little more about him because when ever I hear about the theory of evolution I think about Darwin, and this man according to the book was pre-Darwinism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Lamarck
I chose this site because it talked about where he was born and his family also many of the things he did with his life.
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/lamarck.html
This site told how many people ignored his theories and what all he did with his life.
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_09
Told why people ignored and attacked his theory of evolution.
My topic is the Galapagos Island. Other than just a quick overview in the book, I wanted to branch out and read and watch videos on evolution specifically in a good area to show it such as the Galapagos Island. Darwin focused most of his time on the tortus’ and the birds. He noticed that the animals he has been seeing in south America look similar to the ones he was seeing on the Galapagos Islands. He didn’t make the theory until two years later, but they were discussing the finches which are now called Darwin’s finches. This was just showing the different birds changing to fit to their own environment. In the birds’ case, the beaks vary from big to small to skinny and think. These were all changing based on the location of the birds. Biologists went to daphne major every year to measure and observe the birds to prove evolutionary theory. The Galapagos island was considered to be the best place in the world to study evolution, and Darwin just so happened to stop there on his world tour. Because this island was blocked off by large amounts of water, it showed that the animals did in fact have to change to fit their environment which is a big supporter of the evolutionary theory. Everything there is so isolated that the animals and plants are unique and not found much of anywhere else in the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3265bno2X0
I chose this video because it was a different way to obtain some new information.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/evotourism/Evotourism-World-Tour-Galapagos-Islands-Ecuador.html
I chose this website because it showed relevant information that was equivalent or similar to the books facts.
http://www.probe.org/site/c.fdKEIMNsEoG/b.4218207/k.6ACE/The_Galapagos_Islands_Evolutions_Sacred_Ground.htm
relevant information about the island.
We greatly want a brief word to express the science of improving stock, which is by no means confined to questions of judicious mating, but which, especially in the case of man, takes cognisance of all influences that tend in however remote a degree to give to the more suitable races or strains of blood a better chance of prevailing speedily over the less suitable than they otherwise would have had. The word eugenics would sufficiently express the idea; it is at least a neater word and a more generalised one than viviculture, which I once ventured to use.
— Sir Francis Galton
I found it amazing that someone so brilliant could not realize the far reaching consequences of the idea of eugenics. When reading this chapter the work of Galton was very intriguing. He had many great findings with genetics, meteorology and forensics to name a few. I personally have a difficult time considering him beyond what many consider his very irresponsible study of nature/nurture and eugenics.
Galton believed that traits regarding things like inheritance were inherited. He encouraged the men of families who showed the most promise to procreate. I hardly think that as his cousin was studying and forming the theory regarding the origins of life that this is what he expected to become of his conclusions. What Galton did not seem to consider was that there were other things like environment that played a role in what he considered to be worthy traits. Galton did a lot of work in comparing twins especially those raised in different families. I do think that he is right in that some things are inherited but didn’t count the fact that humans do have will and choice.
As I looked more into it I found many acts that occurred based upon this theory of selective breeding. Who gets to decide what qualities make a worthy human being? Is it intelligence? Beauty? Health? Perhaps it is our weaknesses that make us unique and makes the world more interesting? I really tried to keep an open mind as I read through various articles, but I really didn’t find anything that led me to think that there was anything valuable with this theory. It certainly would not be able to outweigh the horrible acts that have resulted because of Galton’s idea.
http://galton.org/
This site had a lot of information on Galton beyond eugenics and had more positive than most.
http://www.victorianweb.org/science/galton.html
This site had some good information on Galton’s life
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufqOe0_pres
This was a really good video that stressed the consequences of those who promoted eugenics.
I wanted to learn more about the voyage of the Beagle. The book describes this journey as a big turning point in Darwin's life. He was studying some random topics that interested him until he found this opportunity and it completely changed his life. I need to find my Beagle! He wasn't even supposed to do research but he decided to capitalize on his free time and make the best out of it. I spend time watching T.V. but maybe I should be studying the species in my backyard instead.
So Wikipedia describes the beagle as a journey taken for the purpose of producing nautical charts. BORING but necessary. Darwin was basically along just to make small talk with the captain. He was tremendously seasick so any opportunity to land was amazing for him. He spent any and all time on land collecting samples and studying. Talk about discipline and passion!
After reading some excerpts from the actual journal he wrote, it was clear that he was passionate about science. He described every creature he saw with such detail and such awe. I have never described butterflies like he has. Or insects! He describes even ants with such grace and care.
Darwin was incredibly passionate about his work. So much that he was able to produce results that changed the game forever. I can only hope to find a subject that I am that passionate about so that I can leave a lasting impact on the world.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Voyage_of_the_Beagle
Perfect resource for knowledge.
http://www.literature.org/authors/darwin-charles/the-voyage-of-the-beagle/
BOOM! Nothing like going right to the source.
http://darwin-online.org.uk/EditorialIntroductions/Freeman_ZoologyOfBeagle.html
Second opinion? I think so.
The topic I decided to research more was Lamarck’s idea of the chain of being. I chose this topic because it was kind of overshadowed after Darwin’s evolution findings came about. This fits into the chapter because it sheds a light on the thoughts/ideas that were in the same mind-set of evolution before Darwin hit the scene with evolution.
Another word for the chain of being was the transmutation of species also used by Jean Baptiste Lamarck. The chain of being was a belief that all the species on earth could be arranged on a linear scale with reference to their complexity. Lamarck didn’t think all living things came from one common ancestor, but he believed that simple forms of life were created repeatedly by spontaneous generation. He believed species became more complex over time, moving up the linear ladder of complexity which related to the chain of being. He believed the changes in the species over time would be inherited by the next generation. Lamarck believed species acquired a determination for being perfect meaning they become more adaptive to their environments. At the top of the evolving chain is man- though not completely perfect. Man is the goal most species want to reach.
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-70637955.html
-this site touched on the idea of man being the goal for species
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transmutation_of_species
-general definition of chain of being
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/fgregory/Lamarck.htm
-Lovejoy extends on the temporalization of the chain of being
My topic is the Galapagos Islands. The islands fit into the chapter because they’re where Darwin made the connection of evolution and later explained it in his book, “Origin of Species”. I’m interested in the Galapagos Islands because I thought it really fascinating that they housed species untainted by humans. I also found it interesting that they housed finches whom showed signs of evolution. Different islands contain different finches, however, it was deemed that they all originated from the same species when they first migrated to the islands.
The Galapagos Islands were discovered well before Darwin arrived on the islands by Spanish sailors by sheer accident. The islands were used as ambush points for the English and other pirates. Once the wildlife was discovered to be easy prey, many people came to the islands to harvest its wildlife for furs and food. This period almost led to the extinction of fur seals. Sperm whales around the region were also highly sought after but lost a majority of their value after petroleum oil was discovered later on. So, the islands were used for their resources for awhile. The islands now belong to Ecuador and contain protected parks to ensure the preservation of their wildlife.
The islands were formed by volcanic lava vents, just like Hawaii. It’s also worth noting that the islands are now a popular vacation spot. There are also great locations for scuba diving around the islands. Lastly, the wildlife on the islands are still not scared of people, so, it’s easy to spot turtles and what not on your next visit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal%C3%A1pagos_Islands -- I chose wiki because I think its a great site for people to share knowledge on a subject. The site contributed a great deal to the history of the island.
http://www.geographia.com/ecuador/galislands.htm -- I picked this site because it gave relevant information on what the Galapagos Islands are like today.
http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/GalapagosWWW/Discovery.html -- This site gave me all my information on who was at the islands before Darwin, and what the islands were used for during that time.
A topic that I found interesting from the reading was Charles Darwin’s education. It made me want to look into what education was like in the 1800s and if that has something to do with why Darwin wasn’t very interested in school. It seems like there are a lot of very talented people like Darwin who don’t excel in school because they are not interested or engaged. I found out that the institution of public examination forced Cambridge and Oxford to improve their teaching during the 18th and early 19th century. This interesting because Darwin went to Cambridge and found his interest in education at this vocational school. An intelligent kid, who created and made up secret codes for fun as a kid. First though, he went the University of Edinburgh, where he was completely bored. He found the lectures stupid and dull. Schools have had to come a long way over the years. During the 1600s to early 1800s they barely existed. It became an informal activity to participate in, when it should be a meaningful thing and spark an interest in the person to want to learn. It should not suppress the individuality or creativity of the children. In the 1800s schools started to provide basic education to children. The problem is that it was just BASIC education. It wasn’t really taken into account if a child was advanced or needs more to learn than what was given to them. Vocational training was seen as more important than academic education. Religion was a big part of most people’s lives and it was cheaper to do than academic education. It was not until there were parental pressures and more required examinations that schools started to improve their ways. It is crazy to think in some way school was holding people like Darwin back when normally all we think about is how school pushes us forward in our lives.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Darwin’s_education - This gave me a more detailed background of Charles Darwin.
http://www.quebecoislibre.org/younkins19.htm - This showed me how far education has come since the 1800s.
http://www.educationengland.org.uk/history/chapter02.html - This website explains what was seen as important during the 1800s.
In chapter 5 the area that I was most interested in was the Galapagos Islands where Darwin was able to research and ultimately come up with his theory of evolution. The Galapagos Island consists of 13 main islands. They were discovered in 1535 when a Spaniard, Fray Tomas de Berlanga’s ship sailed off course on its way to Peru. According to more recent research, the finding of artifacts from several islands suggests that they may have been visited earlier by South American’s. Charles Darwin visited the islands in 1835 aboard the HMS Beagle. His most famous discovery while visiting these islands was Galapagos finches or Darwin’s finches.
Darwin’s finches consist of about 15 species of birds. The term “Darwin’s finches” was first popularized in in 1947 by David Lack. The difference that Darwin studied most between these different species was beak size and shape. This was due to the fact that these characteristics changed depending on the species food source. Research on Darwin’s finches is still going on. Darwin only spent 5 weeks on the Galapagos Islands and so other researchers have decided to visit these islands to continue studying mainly the bird species. Two such researchers are Peter and Rosemary Grant who have been visiting the island for roughly 30 years.
While the Galapagos Islands are most famous for containing Darwin’s finches they are also home to many other animals like: penguins, giant tortoise, flamingos, seahorses and many more. I think that the Galapagos Islands would be a fascinating place to visit and see all the different kinds of animals that can live in a small area that is for the most part untouched by man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gal%C3%A1pagos_Islands
-Here is where I learned of the history of the Galapagos Islands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Island
-Here is where I learned of the different animals that live on the Islands.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin's_finches
-Here is where I learned more about Darwin’s finches.
posted for KN:
Week 6 RA
After reading chapter 5, the topic I found to be most interesting was under the heading Charles Darwin’s’ theory of evolution. I find evolution to be interesting, but reading about Darwin’s’ background was something I would never have guessed. He lived a normal life, spoiled by his wealthy parents. Unlike his father, Charles didn’t have a lot of ambition and had a poor attitude toward school which led to bad performance. Charles was sent to study medicine at Edinburg, one of Europe’s best medical schools. Due to anesthesia not being invented yet and having to sooth a patient until the procedure was complete, Darwin decided medicine was not for him. The next stop for Darwin was Christ’s College, where he studied clergy. Even though it was not something he did for long, he did however find his calling there. He had a close relationship with geologist Reverend Adam Sedgwick. He taught Darwin basic tools of the geologic trade and sharpened his ability to make precise observations by taking him on geological trips with him. This eventually brought on the Voyage of the Beagle, which is something Darwin is still known for. This goes into something else I found interesting in this chapter, Darwin the geologist. Darwin’s prime interest was geology. He wrote a book called the Principles of Geology, which was destined to have the same effect on geology that this book would have on biology. There was some argument on the theory of geological change, called catastrophism, which is the attempt to maintain the supremacy of God and the Bible while accounting for what scientists were discovering about nature. I find this interesting because I have understood the theory of evolution (basic level) for a couple years due to many classes covering this topic. I have never really gone into depth though of his early years, never really learned about what kind of person he was. It surprised me to learn about his background, where he came from, and the different subjects he studied. Another topic I found interesting was After the Origin of Species, what the reaction was to Darwin’s theory. Because he didn’t mention humans in the Origin, it was thought to be a threat to the Church of England. Darwin decided to let other people argue over this and stayed out of the debates. This theory caused and still causes several concerns with the religious community, and the reaction to the scientific community was general acceptance. Which is how it is today, the religious community stills looks at this theory as wrong and harmful while the scientific community looks at this the opposite. There wasn’t a topic I found to be not interesting, one topic that was a little confusing was George Romanes and the anecdotal method. Romanes combined Darwin’s data with information he had collected, and shortly after Darwin’s death he published Animal Intelligence. A book with great discussion on animal behavior. Romanes was later credited for the founder of comparative psychology. This was something that was interesting just slower, and the wording didn’t make it very clear. I feel as if understanding the people who helped with a study or combined data with someone is important to know who all was involved. Making sure you are aware of all the aspects of something will help better understand what you are learning. Something I would like to learn more about would be the nature of intelligence, more basic information from the early years. Not just what is being said or what was said then but what they said before.
One thing I did realize while reading the chapter was over evolution, how it never really talked about how Darwin’s theory is that us humans evolved from monkeys. I wonder why? It did discuss the difference of the theories and why the scientific side and the side church had a problem, if they did, but never went into much discussion about the actual evolution of humans from monkeys. I would say I was disappointed to not learn about this as well, I have an idea of what Darwin was saying but for it not to be in the book still surprises me.
Posted for KN:
Week 6 TB
This week I chose to research more about the arguments between Darwin’s theory of evolution and that vs. creationism; and what people are really saying about how man came to be on this earth. This fits into the chapter because of the activity we did on the scopes trial last week, which was about a teacher who was “arrested” for teaching evolution in his classroom. It also fits into chapter 5, which is what chapter was mainly about. I find this topic very interesting because one man came out and went against what was the norm and spoke what he thought/thinks to be true. Either man evolved from monkeys or God created earth in seven days and put Adam and Eve on here himself, and I love that it was such a big debate back then and really still is today.
Darwin’s theory comes from many starting points, but one I find to be rather important is where he comes up with natural selection. Natural selection in a nut shell is the process where living things that are better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring. This results in better and stronger offspring; which eventually eliminates the weaker animal or insect, etc. The best eventually evolves from the weak, which in this case, we humans are the best.
Also, since there is no scientific evidence that proves Darwin’s theory of evolution, correct or incorrect, why not teach something else. Well because the creationism theory. We look at the Bible as being true and can prove it so why would it lie about how humans came to be on this earth? This is a topic that we may never actually get the right answer, we can only go so far back in history and look up historical artifacts giving us part of a part of an answer. There is only so much research a person can before they come to an end, and frankly it also depends on what the people are willing to believe as well. When a group of people believe in a certain thing and way or living nothing may be able to change their ideas, even if scientifically proven. I know my church group would talk out about the theory of evolution because it goes against what the Bible says. I think this is why I find this so interesting because it is still a big debate today and there are still so many unanswered questions.
http://www.clarifyingchristianity.com/creation.shtml - Helped me better understand the creationism view of things.
http://anthro.palomar.edu/evolve/evolve_2.htm - Discussed what natural selection was and the early theories of evolution.
http://www.darwins-theory-of-evolution.com/ - Point blank to what Darwin was saying about the theory of evolution.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wReAL9wS2JY – Interesting video to help understand evolution vs. creationism.
Before Darwin’s contributions to psychology, most psychologists were interested in similarities between human beings rather than differences. One of Darwin’s many contributions to psychology was research that led to the research of individual differences. Psychologists were mainly interested why humans act the way that they do. After Darwin’s research, many psychologists around the world began to study individual differences. Not long after, a psychologist in France (Binet) developed the first intelligence test. Intelligence is one main area in which individual differences. Psychologists at this time were also starting to investigate what traits make some people more successful than others.
Darwin contributed to this part of psychology by first studying species differences. He was among the first to be interested in differences rather than similarities. Darwin published a book called “The origin of species” which discusses variation in species. The book focuses mainly on differences in strains in pigeons, dogs, and sheep, which Darwin believes shows partially how new species are formed. He explains that individual differences become so extreme that eventually a variety of new species comes from the single species. This made me think a little bit about races in homo sapiens. Is it possible that humans were all once the same race? Did the individual differences become so extreme that a variety of different races developed? This could be an evolutionist point of view, and I’d like to research it more. This would also be a good question for people that deny evolution. Typically, in the Christian religion, Adam and Eve are portrayed as Caucasian. If evolution is in fact incorrect, I’d like to hear how people taking the “religious” side of it would explain how different races came to be from two Caucasians.
Psychologist after Darwin’s time were interested in evolutionism very much and viewed psychology as a natural process. Darwin viewed these individual differences as heritable. Besides individual differences, Darwin sparked an interest in natural selection. This was also based on hereditary factors. It was soon very evident that Psychological characteristics were just as heritable as physical characteristics. Galton called this new study “eugenics”. Darwin’s work with natural selection is something we still learn about today. “The Survival of the Fittest” was a term coined by Herbert Spencer, but was derived from Darwin’s natural selection. Natural selection is believed to explain why humans are attracted to other humans; or better said, what characterizes attractiveness and why? Why are females with bigger breasts and curvier hips deemed “more attractive” in a general sense? Psychologists believe this is because these are signs of “fertility”. This is also thought to explain why “masculine” men are deemed “more attractive” (unfortunately for me), because they are better able to protect the female and the children. Of course in modern day this isn’t quite the same, but our ancestors may have seen it this way.
In short, Darwin contributed to Psychology in more ways than I had ever previously known. In fact, I don’t remember really learning about Darwin in my Introduction to Psychology course, which is quite odd. I think that natural selection is an interesting topic that I’d like to further explore. In fact, I think it would be an interesting process to observe in modern day society. Is this a view that is held cross-culturally? I think it would be a great research topic, which I’m sure has already been researched.
http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v21/v21n2p20_whitney.html
This website was great to explain some of the history behind Darwin and how he began to slowly influence psychology.
http://www.brainybehavior.com/blog/2008/02/darwins-role-in-psychology/
This website simply accented the first website, providing more detail about natural selection as well as provided more information on how Darwin began to believe what he did.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-fair-society/201201/darwin-s-psychology
This website helped me translate Darwin’s theories into thoughts we hold today.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbgwSEuK5ng
I stumbled upon this short youtube video. I found it to be although short, very to the point and interesting.
I was interested in looking more at Darwin’s personal religious beliefs and what his personal religion was. I wanted to see the spiritual perspective he had or at least the perspective with which he was raised. This fits with the chapter as it talked about Darwin and evolution. However, this also fits with Friday’s assignment about the Scopes Monkey Trial. I thought this topic would help to connect everything together as it seemed to look at the philosophical perspective. It also expands on the controversy that is around the evolution vs. creation issue by taking into account where Darwin may have been coming from and what the actual facts are. The chapter was largely about Darwin, why not explore even more into his life.
I am interested in this topic as I believe that it will give me even more of an understanding and appreciation for Darwin and his evolutionary beliefs. Essentially, I enjoy picking people brains and learning about them and their interests. I am interested because I want to know about Darwin’s personal or perhaps moral struggles with the publication or his work or even just the studies in general.
As I read about Darwin, it turns out that he was very religious! (Before, During and After his research). Darwin did make an interesting comment that, “Everything in nature is the result of fixed laws”, however, he constantly related those laws to religious views. Darwin stated in his autobiography that he spent a large amount of time on the Beagle thinking about religion and his creation. He also expressed that he was annoyed by those who quoted the bible incorrectly. Darwin originally when to school with the aim to be a clergyman. He attended Cambridge to achieve a BA in Anglican theology. Darwin also attended the Church of England school and was raised a non-conformist. Needless to say, Darwin was a man largely influenced by religion.
I found it incredibly interesting that Darwin fought to support both creation and evolution. It’s interesting because most people make it seem like you have to choose one or the other and you can’t have any other opinion. One of the best points Darwin made in regard to this was that divine design in nature is simply adaptation. Further, adaptation is an example of God acting through laws of nature. I really appreciate the fact that Darwin was able to step back and look at things from multiple view points. Still, it was also interesting that Darwin viewed religion as less accredited as he continued his research.
To answer my questions from the beginning: Darwin was raised religious. He also continued pretty religious and talked about how “God” takes a seat in the process of evolution as he controls everything and is just as poweruful. Whether or not Darwin agreed with the different views of creationism and talked about them in agreeance with the people merely to protect himself from public ridicule and dangers or whether he actually believed the things that he said cannot be proven with 100% certaintay. I enjoyed learning more about this topic and I find it cool and refreshing that Darwin fought to maintain both extremes of his beliefs. He held onto and agreed with creationism, but he introduced it as still being able to work and have some positive regard with creationism while studying evolution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Charles_Darwin -Basics about Darwin’s religious upbringing.
http://www.update.uu.se/~fbendz/library/cd_relig.htm -Autobiography= Darwin’s religious views at the beginning of his research (on the Beagle).
http://www.aboutdarwin.com/darwin/whowas.html -Questions, answers, and paragraphs all about Darwin.