The Evolution
Paradigm
Its Influence on Psychology
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
Hegel (1770 - 1831)
 dialectical

understanding of knowledge
leading to a developmental view of





economics,
social conditions,
politics,
culture,
human psychology.
Knowledge as Progression
 Dialectics
(dialogue)
 Any limited truth (thesis) calls forth its
opposite (antithesis).
 From the dialogue between opposites
(dialectics) comes a fuller truth (synthesis).
 A fundamentally optimistic theory: things
get better and better.
Reality as Knowledge
 Social,
political, economic systems,
individual psychological development etc.
all are ways through which people become
progressively more aware of reality.
 Hegel would say: the Idea becomes
conscious of itself in the world.
Reality as Knowledge (2)
 A Christian
might say: we become more
aware of the Word through which and in
which everything was created (John 1)



1 In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without
him nothing was made that has been made..
Reality as Knowledge (3)
 The
progression of events in our lives and
in the events around us reflect the
progress of our understanding.
 History, economics, psychology etc… all
follow the dialectical thesis-antithesissynthesis.
 This progressive development can also be
found in areas such as biology (leading to
the development of species)
 What
are some examples that would
illustrate the dialectic process?
Hegel and Economics
 Left
alone, economic systems will follow
the thesis/antithesis/synthesis progression
and become better overtime: capitalism.
 Social change follows this same
mechanism, class struggle leads to a
better society: marxism
The Evolution paradigm
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Continuity between species
Survival of the fittest (hence, interest in
function: what helps you adapt)
Recapitulation theory
Use of the normal curve, statistics etc…
Interest in individual differences.
Greater use of interdisciplinary data
Evolution paradigm and
Psychology (1)
 The
notion of continuity between the
species:
 Comparative psychology (ex: George John
Romanes 1848-1894: notion of the
"mental ladder")
 Use of animals in experimentation
 Growth of anthropometry, statistics, and
the study of individual differences.
Evolution paradigm and
Psychology (2)
 Theory
of recapitulation (ontogeny repeats
phylogeny) : in the course of development,
the individual went through the various
stages the species followed --an important
but false theory..
 The child of today, in his/her development,
exemplifies modes of thinking existing in
the simpler cultures that preceded.
Evolution paradigm and
Psychology(3)
 The
distribution of human traits follows the
normal curve.


This led to the development of statistics and
the whole tests and measurements area.
An emphasis on function rather than
structure.


How do people adapt?
Behaviorism, functionalism…
That’s all for now…