Short Essay: Darwinism in Psychology

Once the reluctant revolutionary, Charles Darwin, published his scientific findings in his book, On the Origin of Species, he forever changed and for centuries later shaped the world we live in. One of Darwin’s theories, supported by a large amount of evidence, which he published in this book, was that humans, along with all other living species, over time, are subject to evolve and change. This theory would later give birth to an entire new field, evolutionary psychology. Today, evolutionary psychology is an emerging, and still growing, field. Darwin’s evolutionary theory provided the framework to develop a new perspective, and thus field, in psychology. By applying Darwin’s approach and theories to psychology, we have created a new way at looking at the evolution of humanity and human behavior

Evolutionary psychology is the study of psychological human adaptions to physical or social changes in the environment. Researches in this field focus on change in the brain structure, behavior differences among people, and their cognitive mechanisms. Scientists and psychologists built off of Darwin’s ideas and teamed up to work together in the early 1950’s in order to establish research on the evolution of humans. Their work introduced a new perspective on the study of growth or change in humanity. The center of evolutionary psychology focuses on questions like: How does a trait develop and evolve in an individual, Are all traits subject to change or are there certain unchanging human traits? By asking these sorts of questions, evolutionary psychologists, thanks to Darwin, can understand if a certain trait is shaped by natural selection and how a trait can contribute to a beings survival. In other words, the world has gained a new persp...

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... Although one hundred and fifty five years have passed since Charles Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species was published his influence is still felt today. Despite the fact that the focus of his book was on what would turn into evolutionary biology, he perhaps knowingly, influenced and indirectly created many other fields, evolutionarily psychology one of them. Although Darwin could not have imagined the impact his work would have on psychology, he did write in On the Origin of Species, 
”In the distant future I see open fields for more important researches. Psychology will be based on a new foundation, that of the necessary acquirement of each mental power and capacity by gradation.” In a sense, Darwin was aware that his theory would not only change science, but also influence other fields like psychology. After all, Darwin did find a new way at looking at life.