Darwinisms Of Evolution

The idea that both living organisms and the earth change consistently can be traced to the ancient Greek (Hergenhahn & Henley, 2014). Despite all these well-known facts it can be claimed that the evolution of living organisms has been considered as a scientific way of thinking concurrently with Charles Darwin (1809-1882) as a result of the fact that Darwin stated the mechanisms of these changes in a systematic and detailed way besides he came up with convenient evidences in his most famous and impressive book On the Origin of Species (1859) (Pickren & Rutherford, 2010). Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection consists of three fundamental principles. First, all living organisms produce offspring as much as they are able
to. Second, genetically different offspring occur as a result of sexual reproduction and mutation. Third, among these different offspring, some of them can survive and reproduce themselves in the given environment in terms of their genetic differences (Greenberg & Haraway, 2002). In this way, natural selection takes place. Organism’s ability for survival and reproduction is called “fitness” by Darwin and fitness is the result of organism’s new features that come from sexual reproduction and mutation. These different features are called adaptive features and being able to survive as a result of these features is called adaptation (Hergenhann & Henley, 2014). Later on, Darwin’s proposal about adaptive features played quite important role in human sciences as well as psychology in the way of taking much more consideration into the individual differences (Schultz & Schultz, 2011). After describe the mechanisms of evolution, Darwin proposed that humans are products of evolution as well.
In his second book, The Descent of Man (1871), Darwin claimed that both humans and great apes came from a common ancestor and this ancestor was a primate (Hergenhann & Henley, 2014). In the next book, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872), Darwin suggested that human emotions are residues of animal emotions that were developed for survival. In addition to this, Darwin proposed that human emotions are cross cultural or universal so we can determine one’s experience anywhere in the world by observing his or her facial expression. Finally, in The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals Darwin compared humans with other animals and he figured out that differences between human and other animals result in only in degree. Therefore, scientists became certain that a lot of phenomena about humans can be learned by investigating nonhuman animals. These claims were strongly and directly related to psychology and they became the cornerstone of a new scientific way of studies in psychology which was later called comparative psychology. (Hergenhann & Henley,
2014). In general, comparative psychology can be defined as the study of animal behavior.
Specifically, comparative psychology is a scientific way of study that investigate the evolution and development of animal behavior in order to obtain general principles that are able to explain the origins of all behavior in all animals. Therefore, comparative psychology indicated a new scientific way of study that was based on comparison of humans to other animals. In this way, comparisons can uncover both the similarities between humans and other life forms and the human characteristics differ from other species that make us unique in the world (Greenberg & Haraway,
2002). Darwin’s influence on psychology cannot be limited to the comparative psychology. Darwin’s four other very important contributions must be taken into account based on the development of psychology (Pickren & Rutherford, 2010). First, as the results of both theoretical and practical evidences that were provided by the works of Darwin people reached a comprehensive understanding about the nature and humans. Since then, people became certain that humans are part of nature and subject to the same natural laws as all other living organisms. Second, Darwin’s theory emphasized the importance of considering the functions of attributes which can be declared as the new subject matter of psychology (Pickren & Rutherford, 2010). Third, emphasis on the individual differences as the result of Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection facilitated measurement of individual differences. Fourth, Darwin used a lot of different sources and techniques such as geology, demography, archeology, economics, observation, and the research on breeding in order to obtain information that are able to support his theory. Darwin and his scientific way of inquiry influenced psychology on the basis of collecting data from different scientific fields and creating a methodology (Schultz & Schultz, 2011).