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ZEITGEIST
History of Biology
Aristotle was the first to systematically study living things
Hippocrates's humoral tradition lasted into the 18th century
Historically, medicine linked to biology
But, medical doctors only recently gained high esteem (19th century)
Microscope
The invention of the microscope revealed previously invisible worlds
Fossils
The discovery of fossils of extinct animals changed the idea of organismic permanence
Geologists and age of universe
The following series and show are especially interesting (to me at least)
They almost make me wish to switch to geology (not really, too many names of rocks to learn)
Spoiler alert:Lord Kelvin thought that the earth was not old enough to allow for the necessary time for evolution to occur. However, he failed to include the heat caused by radioactivity to his calculations of the cooling of the earth over time.
See chapter 2 to get an idea how old the universe is
Franklins crystallographic imagery crucial but downplayed
The science of living things (harder than physical science)
Living things change over time
Exhibit greater variability
Resist underlying theoretical explanations moreso than physics or chemistry
PREVIEW
The scientific study of biology was marked by many breakthroughs. Nearly all of them related to the elucidation of the machinery of the body. Starting with Harvey’s description of the circulation of blood, biologists went on to describe spinal cord organization, how sense organs worked as transducers, the speed of the nerve impulse, and the mechanisms of color vision. The theory of evolution provided biology with a conceptual backbone. It helped to reconcile older speculations about speciation, geological time, taxonomy, and continental drift. Later, the rediscovery of genetics combined with natural selection led to biology’s modern synthesis. Older concepts such as vitalism and Lamarckianism fell to the weight of empirical data as did phrenology. Psychophysics became psychology’s first subdiscipline as researchers identified individual differences in the perception of time, color, and many more variables. Absolute and relative thresholds were discovered, and new methods were developed to study perception: limits, constant stimuli, and adjustment. Psychologists began to study animal thinking and behavior as well, leading to comparative psychology. Galton, nearly singlehandedly, took the first steps in the study of psychometrics, eugenics, forensic psychology, and statistics.
INTRODUCTION
Linking the study of the mind to physiology
Beginning of drawing the border between psychology and biology
Systolic (heart contracts) and Diastolic (heart expands)
Proved that a small amount of blood pumped continuously
Showed that Arterial blood (out of heart) and Venous blood (into heart) were the same substance
He could not see capillaries but used science and logic to infer circulation was a closed system
Later researchers confirmed his findings
Was one of the first scientists to use measurements to discover new facts
Learning Objective: Appraise how Harvey’s methods led to a new view of an old problem, the circulation of blood in the body.
BIOLOGY
BEFORE DARWIN
Biology exhibited slow and fitful progress between the time of Harvey to Darwin
Age of the Earth (6,000 years vs. 4.5 billion years)
Gradually geologists realized the earth was much older than 6,000 years
They now estimate the age at around 4.5 billion years (see chapter 2)
Immutability of species
The discovery of fossilized, extinct animals and plants prompted re-evaluation of the idea that species had not changed since the beginning of time
Continental Drift
Even the surface of the earth itself had changed dramatically over its history
This interactive map allows you to step through what the earth looked like from 750 million years ago to the present
You may locate any modern location on it and see where it would be in the past
Remember what Heraclitus said, "The only constant is change."
Lamarckism: species change in order to match the environment
Lamarck argued that changes that took place in one generation could be passed onto the next
For example, he argued that giraffes's necks increased in length because over the generations giraffes had stretched their necks reaching for fruit and those increases in neck length had been passed on the next generations
No mechanism has yet explained Lamarck's theory
Think of the Jewish tradition of circumcision. For millenia Jewish boys have been born with foreskins. Cutting them off has not caused newer generations of Jewish boys to be born without them
Embryology and differentiation (fetuses of related animals resemble each other, adults do not)
Evolution, of course, predates Darwin. Malik, Ziermann, and Diogo (2017, p. 16) wrote:
"We briefly summarised the evolutionary ideas of eight of the most renowned Muslim scholars between the eighth and fourteenth century, showing that these theories were proposed in a continuum of time during the Islamic Golden Age, well before Charles Darwin’s time. All eight Muslim scholars suggested that humans underwent some type of phenotypic evolution."
Learning Ojective: Briefly review the state of biology before Darwin.
DARWIN’S INFLUENCE ON BIOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY
Brown (2007, p. 68) stated that Darwin's book was, "one long argument...for evolution and natural selection"
Evolutionary theory transforms psychology and biology
Darwin knew the zeitgeist of his time and it took him many years before he was ready to argue his points
Captain Robert FitzRoy (last captain had committed suicide)
Darwin was supercargo-could talk to Darwin
The rules and regulations of the Royal Navy prohibited captains from engaging in any personal interactions with officers and crew. Because naval captains were the supreme authorities on their vessels, the British Admiralty believed that any personal relationships would undermine discipline. Darwin (or any other civilian) was exempt from that regulation. In fact, Darwin and FitzRoy were amiable dinner companions throughout the Beagle’s nearly five years at sea.
Five year voyage: South America, the Galapagos, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, South America, England
Darwin collected specimens and mailed them back to England when he could
Back in England he tried to make sense of his observations
Could not use creationist or directive mechanisms
creationism: the belief that God created all things in substantially the same form as they presently exist and that they did not evolve from distant ancestors.
Human populations could grow more quickly than food supply
Darwin came up with natural selection
natural selection: the competitive process by which organisms that are better adapted to survive the environmental conditions around them survive, and thus, reproduce more successfully leaving more offspring, and gradually altering the population characteristics of their own species.
variation in the relative frequency of different genotypes in a small population, owing to the chance disappearance of particular genes as individuals die or do not reproduce (Oxford Languages)
The use of extreme characteristics or behaviors by males that improve their fitness but but them at risk for predation.
Kardas PhD Dissertation title (a sexual selection experiment): Female preference for male coloration and size in the guppy, Poecilia reticulata.
Then AND NOW
Evolutionary Theory, Creationism, and Intelligent Design
It might seem logical after reading the account of the origin and rise of Darwin’s theory that it must be nearly universally accepted by now. But that is not the case. Substantial opposition to evolutionary theory does exist, especially in the United States. More than fifty years before Darwin published The Origin of the Species, the English theologian William Paley had made a case for creationism, using his now-famous watch analogy. He argued that if one found a watch in the forest, one would not assume that the many pieces that made it up had come together by chance. Instead, one would assume the existence of a designer, someone who had conceived of and assembled those pieces into a working mechanism. By extension, Paley argued that all animals and plants had been similarly created and that God was their designer. Darwin’s theory provided a new, non-creationist, and non-directed alternative to Paley’s approach.
By the early 20th century, American fundamentalist Protestants revived their Young Earth Creationist theory. Hewing closely to a literal interpretation of Christian Scripture, they denied that the earth was older than 6,000 years or that humans were descended from other species. The climax of that early skeptical approach to evolution peaked at the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” in Tennessee in 1925. John Scopes, a teacher, was tried for teaching evolution, a violation of Tennessee law at that time. Scopes was convicted and fined $100.
After, other states considered passing similar laws, but only Arkansas and Mississippi succeeded. In 1968, the United States Supreme Court invalidated the Arkansas law, writing that it had only been enacted to protect a particular religious view (e.g., Christianity), a violation of the First Amendment. That decision forced opponents of evolution to adopt different tactics. They began to argue that evolution was only a theory. Instead of attempting to outlaw its teaching, they wanted it to be taught alongside “creation-science,” a discipline they claimed was an alternative scientific account to Darwinian evolution. The Supreme Court eventually ruled that creation-science, too, was based upon religion and not a science; they prohibited curricula that taught otherwise.
The most recent chapter in this story, Intelligent Design (ID), revives Paley’s watch metaphor. Those promoting ID argue that a “designer” created all living organisms on earth.
That designer, some believe, was divine, but others believe that it need not have been; it could have been an extraterrestrial alien. The ID “tent” is a large one and houses a wide variety of opinions about whom or what was the designer. All of those under that tent, however, share an intense dislike of evolutionary theory and its implications. One thing that ID proponents lack is hard scientific evidence to back up their theories. Modern evolutionary theorists, on the other hand, contend that natural selection, along with other biological findings, “including gene transfer, symbiosis, chromosomal rearrangement, and the action of regulator genes ... fits the evidence just fine” (Scott, 2002, p. 79). At least one thing is clear: opponents to evolutionary theory will not likely ever be convinced by appeals to rational or scientific argument. The battle between them and evolutionists will rage on for many years to come.
Learning Objective: Discuss the role of multiple sources of evidence from geology and physics contributed to the acceptance of evolutionary theory.
Müller believed in a "life force" (or elan vital, in French)
In other words, he believed living things were different from non-living things
His students rebelled against his vitalism
Helmholtz (see below) and three other students signed an anti-vitalist document in their own blood
Here is where I often speculate in class whether I, or anyone else, would be so convinced of certitude that they would do so.
transducer-in physiology, transducers are specialized organs, such as the eye and ear, that convert physical energy into neural information.
vitalism-the doctrine that physical and chemical forces alone are insufficient to explain living things, an additional and unknown life force is required.
Think about it, some totally colorblind people did not realize they were colorblind. They had learned to identify shades of gray with the color names other used.
Traditional assumptions about human perception were in error
Each sensory modality (sight, hearing, etc.) had its own constant, k
Weber's Law ΔI/I = k
Where ΔI was the change in stimulus intensity and Δ was the original stimulus
Notice that the smaller the original stimulus is then the smaller the change needs to be
In class I turn off all of the lights and then pull the blinds up a little. The change in brightness is noticeable. Then, I turn the lights back on and pull up the blinds the same amount. Now, the change in brightness is NOT noticeable. I must pull the blinds up much more when the classroom lights are on.
On those areas the points must be brought very close together before a person can no longer tell whether being touched by one or two points
On the calf, the point might be as wide as 45mm apart and the person might still feel one point not two
Lifted Weights
Weber asked people to discriminate between two identical objects that weighed different amounts
He asked, "Which weighed more?"
The results supported his law
The difference had to be heavier for heavier objects
Another modern example
Until recently, retailers were selling slightly lower wattage incandescent light bulbs and touting them as a way to save energy. They were taking advantage of the Weber fraction for brightness, 0.079 (Teghtsoonian, 1971). Thus, applying the formula ΔI/I = 0.079 yields JND wattages of approximately 92, 69, 56, and 37 for the traditional wattages of 100, 75, 60, and 40, respectively. Consumers buying those lower wattages would save a little energy and not be able to perceive any difference in brightness. Now, however, the incandescent bulb itself is largely history thanks to new federal regulations (e.g., in the USA: the Clean Energy Act of 2007). The only exceptions include special purpose bulbs such as appliance lamps, black lights, colored lights, and a few others. New technologies for lighting include CFL bulbs and LED bulbs. Those lights convert more energy into light than do incandescent bulbs. They last longer but cost more to buy initially.
Gustav Fechner, working independently, devised new methods for psychophysics. When he discovered Weber's earlier research he proposed naming the results "Weber's Law." Today, their results are known as the "Weber-Fechner Law." Psychologists no longer use that law because of more recent research, namely Stevens's Power Law.
He only received 113 responses from the 11,842 visitors
"Fechner wrote in a time before the emergence of psychology as a discipline and a profession.(1) He offered a quantitative theory of pleasure as a computational principle in action, directed toward the goal of stability or equilibrium. (2) Bodies and minds are collections of phenomena in Fechner’s phenomenalism. Mental changes are a function of bodily changes, but not vice versa, an asymmetric relationship. Double-aspect theory can be seen as relating clusters of body phenomena and mental phenomena. Is their relation functional or causal? (3) Fechner’s psychological parallelism contributed a widely-accepted meme to nineteenth-century philosophical and psychological thought. (4) Scholars have anchored his psychophysics in sensitivity, expanded it to a psychophysical worldview, and drawn lessons for memory from the inner psychophysics.(5) Fechner’s experimental aesthetics drew on judgments of beautiful objects by naïve subjects, taking into consideration the proportions of the object as well as the feelings of the subject." (Woodward, 2018, pp. 14-15)
Learning Objective: Demonstrate how and why psychophysics was the first truly scientific subfield of psychology.
ANIMAL INTELIGENCE AND COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Continuity
Controversial idea a the time: all life forms are related in some way
In other words: Humans: just another species
Aristotle's scale of nature posited different categories:
God--Angels--Men--Women--Beasts
Continuity alllowed scientists to study animal psychology as well
"In no case may we interpret an action as the outcome of the exercise of a higher psychical faculty, if it can be interpreted as the outcome of the exercise of one which stands lower on the psychological scale."
Remind you of any medieval philosopher? Think of someone's "razor." (chapter 4)
Comparative Psychology
Grew out of biology
Modern psychology has several terms for scientists who study animals
Comparative Psychologists
Ethologists
Animal Behavior
Animal Cognition
Comparative Psychology fell into disfavor in early 20th century
Today, it is reappearing:
"In my view, there is no psychology as important as comparative psychology. The skills and perspective of a comparative psychologist would make them a highly valued member of any research team. Comparative psychology should be taught not only at the college level but in high school as well." (Abramson, 2018, p. 3)
Learning Objective: Reflect on the history of comparative psychology. Why do you believe there has been such resistance to studying the psychology of animals?
PSYCHOMETRICS
Francis Galton
Highly intelligent and child prodigy
Cared for by his older sister
Learned to read by age 3
Mastered Latin and Greek at school
Did not enjoy the school in France his parents sent him to
BTW, when I lived in Santiago, Chile I spent a few weeks at the Alliance Français school. I was waiting for admission to the English Grange School there so my parents sent me to the French school until that happened. Like Galton, I did not enjoy my brief stay there. For one thing, I spoke no French. I spoke Spanish fine (then better than now). Interestingly, I did learn some French later at the Grange School.
Eventually earned mathematics degree from Cambridge University
Inherited a substantial amount and began to travel extensively
Did not need to work for money (similar to Darwin in that respect)
The 19th century was a fertile period for the development of probability and statistics (Verduin, n.d.). Friedrich Gauss demonstrated the utility of the normal distribution for predicting observational errors. Adolphe Quetelet described the “average man” for the first time. Francis Galton originated the quartile, or the division of a group into four equally sized smaller groups. Karl Pearson built upon Galton’s concept of regression to introduce the correlation coefficient. Later, he developed the chi-square statistic. So, many of the familiar statistical tools and concepts so vital to psychology had their origin during this period.
Galton’s pioneering efforts in the measurement of human abilities evolved into one of psychology’s largest applied areas: psychometrics. The first breakthroughs came through the work of Alfred Binet, Theodore Simon, and later, Lewis Terman. Their work with measuring the IQ of children led the way toward additional IQ tests for adults and preschoolers designed by David Wechsler. Today the testing industry produces thousands of psychological tests for uses including marital satisfaction, personality, attitudes, neuropsychology, and many more. Most students now are accustomed to taking professionally designed standardized tests.
Learning Objective: Recall your experiences with psychometrics; what standardized tests have you taken?
SUMMARY
Biology possesses another old, long, and deep border with psychology. Progress in biology was slow and fitful despite its ancient origins in Greek medicine and the work of Aristotle. Harvey was the first modern biologist, but even his pioneering work was not appreciated until long after his death. Slowly, biology became a science following the work of Linnaeus. But, it was Darwin who set biology on its current course. After his voyage on the HMS Beagle, and inspired by Malthus’s essay, Darwin slowly put together the pieces that became evolutionary theory. Spurred on by Wallace’s letter, Darwin hurriedly published the Origin of the Species and completely altered biology, and later, psychology. By the 20th century, biologists used Darwin’s theory to explain many of the mysteries of their discipline. They were aided by the modern synthesis of biology, which combined Darwin’s work with Mendel’s. During the 19th century, much progress also took place in neuroanatomy, specifically in the areas of understanding the action of the spinal cord and how the senses communicated with the brain. Helmholtz, especially, contributed much to the understanding of both areas with his research on the speed of nerve conduction and perception. Another area with rapid progress in the 19th century was psychophysics. There, Weber and Fechner measured physical stimuli (e.g., touch, vision) and their corresponding effects on perception. Each independently developed the first psychophysical laws along with research methods still used today. Two other areas near biology also developed in psychology during the late 19th century: comparative psychology and psychometrics. Comparative psychology extended the discipline into the animal kingdom and helped lay the groundwork for Behaviorism. Galton, nearly singlehandedly, developed psychometrics, which is now one of the largest areas of 21st century psychology.
GLOSSARY
psychophysiology the scientific study of the relationships between the physiological mechanisms of the body and corresponding cognitive states.
taxonomy the discovery, naming, and classification of animals, plants, and other living things.
natural selection the competitive process by which organisms that are better adapted to survive the environmental conditions around them survive, and thus, reproduce more successfully leaving more offspring, and gradually altering the population characteristics of their own species.
creationism the belief that God created all things in substantially the same form as they presently exist and that they did not evolve from distant ancestors.
Intelligent Design the theory that all living things on earth were created by a designer because no other mechanisms can account for the observed complexity of nature.
transducer in physiology, transducers are the specialized organs, such as the eye and ear, that convert physical energy into neural information
vitalism the doctrine that physical and chemical forces alone are insufficient to explain living things, an additional and unknown life force is required.
continuity the idea that all living things are related to each other to some degree.
