To begin, I have three different field studies at Michigan State. I am majoring in Psychology and minoring in Spanish and Law, Justice, and Public Policy. While evolution may not always directly connect to these subjects I can see some similarities to my science classes I have had to take within Psychology. Plus, Law, Justice, and Public Policy also relates to evolution with how our genes work and what is inherited. For my first example, during this previous semester I took Criminology. In criminology, we look at multiple theories as to why people commit crimes. One theory was simply biology. People inherit certain genes and that could be an affect. Furthermore, in the past the population used to categorize criminals with specific facial features. I thought of this specific theory during the second lecture when it was discussed how many genes we inherited from our mothers and fathers. Moreover, specific mutations can affect criminology. Secondly, with psychology we haven’t talked extensively about evolution but of course psychology and evolution play a role in each of each other. Certain genes and mutations can affect the psychology behind a person’s personality. We have talked about how biology affects psychology in many of my psychology courses. Specifically, there has been a debate between different theories that cause personality: biosocial, biology, or social. The three differentiate in the fact that one is a mixture of biology and sociology, one is solely based off of the biology of a person, and the last one is purely the sociology behind the person. To put it more simply, the nature verse nurture debate. In fact, we talked about nature verse nurture even in criminology. To summarize so far, like the DNA is the blueprint for the growth and development of organisms by controlling proteins production; DNA can also be the blueprint for personality, psychology, and criminology.
In addition, I felt that the video “What Genetic Thread Do These Six Strangers Have in Common?” can largely relate to my psychology courses and psychology in general. The video showed how six different people can have the same genetic makeup but categorize themselves as a different race. Plus, although they look they look similar but different at the same time. I related this to psychology because the way one is identified whether by themselves or society it can change the way they were socialized and treated in psychology. For this, relating to the biosocial theory this would affect their personality. Therefore, their DNA and upbringing play a part. Specifically, I thought it was interesting when the one man got choked up when presented with the pictures of the six people because you can tell that he has been affected by feeling as an outsider because he did not know how to classify himself. I believe this shows society and DNA played a part in this since it ultimately his experience came down to his DNA. Finally, at the end of the video it stated “Science defines you by your DNA. Society defines you by the color of your skin”. For this, I took away that both society and DNA affect a person. Ultimately, DNA and psychology play a major role within each other.
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Hey! That is very cool we have the same major. Are you happy that you chose psychology as your major or do you like one of your minors better? Those minors seem very interesting as well and I really think law,justice and public policy classes would be a class I would be fasantiated in. I would love to learn about why crimes are committed and what makes a person commit the crime they did. Do they feel remorse or do they have no guilt is something I would want to ask. Also, evolution and human variability might not be the first thing you would want to connect with psychology but they do have a few connections. Evolutionary psychology is one of the connections that first crosses my mind. As you may know evolutionary psychology is the explanation of mental and psychological traits as the functional products of natural selection. Is simple biology mean that certain people inherit certain genes and that why commit crime or is it the simple basics of biology?I remember last semester learning about simple biology and that discussion was all about cell theory, gene theory, evolution and homeostasis. In a few of the psychology courses I have taken at MSU they talk about the evolution of psychology and how the field of psychology has changed over time. I believe there would be a few courses that start with plato or ancient Egyptians definition of psychology and all the way to now. It could include what people have done for the field, how the field has evolved over time and a full timeline of start to beginning of psychology which would be a very long course but very interesting.
I thought that your blog post was incredibly fascinating and informative. When thinking about the crossover between Anthropology and DNA my first thought would be along the lines of DNA Analysis in the most basic forensic sense (since I really know nothing about this I am sorry, I still find it really interesting) but I love how you explained that DNA can have an affect on Criminology. The line where you told us that DNA can be a blueprint for “Personality, Psychology, and Criminology,” really stood out to me because I felt that it was put into words in a way that really made a proverbial lightbulb go off for me. Anyway, thank you for sharing your post and I had fun learning about Criminology and DNA.
First of all, I’m very impressed with the variety of the fields you are studying. They all are pretty different from each other but I can see how they may complement each other very well. Next, I like how you connected psychology to evolution by using DNA as the explanation, as it is not something that most people would think about when discussing psychology. The amount of the impact of DNA on a person’s behavior is a very important question in the field of psychology, and I wonder if evolution reinforces the importance of DNA or could show that DNA is not as vital as we think it is. Lastly, I also liked how the video about the six people showed how DNA can connect people in a better way than simply the color of their skin. I feel like this needs to be recognized more worldwide, in order for people to understand that they are not that different from each other.
Hey, your blog was very interesting and provided some good insights on the psychology major. I don’t major in psychology but I did take a couple of courses when I dual-enrolled in college courses in high school, and I agree that the video “What Generic Thread Do These Six Strangers Have in Common?’ can relate to the field. In the abnormal psychology course that I took, I learned about a slew of different psychological disorders and diagnoses such as autism spectrum disorder, schizophrenia, and more. As the course went on, I learned that sometimes individuals with some of these disorders, especially children, don’t show full symptoms of the disorders until they go to a doctor and actually get labeled as autistic or schizophrenic; and that it when they either start showing full symptoms and/or family and friends start treating them differently. I just think that kind of related to your point about how the way that one is identified or identifies themselves can alter the way that they are treated and with the video’s depiction of how those people can all have similar genetics, but what is seen on the outside or what they consider themselves to be is how they’re treated.
I really like how you see the connection between the different fields. I am also a psychology major so I understand how you view the connection between evolution and psychology. I agree with your statement that certain mutations can affect the psychology behind someone’s personality. This is important in understanding human behavior and the human mind. This means that mental health and how we treat mental illnesses are best understood if we understand evolution. When it comes to treatment, we can find better solutions by understanding the reason or cause of the illness. This is not just for mental illness though, it is for all illnesses. That is why I think evolution is so important to be taught as it really affects our lives and many do not realize it.
Hello,
Interesting thoughts!
While I do believe that most psychological traits in people are a mix of biological, social and environmental factors, I disagree that genetics or biological factors, play a large part in determining whether or not people commit crimes. I believe behavior like this is more closely related to social factors such as a how a person was raised. The only explainations I can see for there to be a relation to what the person’s face looks like and their likelihood to commit a crime is if they had a black eye or scars or things that might lead people to believe they were frequently involved in criminal activity. I realize this was not your whole point though, and it is interesting to ponder whether it is nature or nurture that has a greater influence on people.
Hello!
Like you I am also majoring in the social science side, but also think that the integration of our courses is what makes them central to our curriculum. I think it is interesting that you brought up genes and how certain traits combined with social aspects will dictate how someone will turn out. This is something that is very interesting to me, and accurately conveys how different sciences can crossover. This is something that is also very adamant in today’s age as more people become aware of what having a mental illness is, or what it is like to have one. I would also be curious to know if this topic would relate to the debate that if your relative was criminal (murderer), does that mean that those traits will be passed onto you as well? Personally I disagree, as I believe that it is mainly nurture that determines if someone will commit a crime, as lot of case studies on serial killers have shown (not in all cases though).
Hi Emily! As a fellow psychology major, I really enjoyed reading about your perspective. One of my interests in criminal justice, (especially criminal theory). I have not heard about the facial features theory before this.
As for psychology, I think that genetics does play a very important like you said in personality. There are many mental health disorders that can be passed on through genes, or have been found to be related to a certain genes. I would really like to take a look at mental health and it’s stigma’s throughout history. I would refer you also to the subfield of evolutionary psychology. I talked about it a bit this week in my blog, and I think this could help you relate genetics to psychology pretty easily!
I think the theories about why people commit crimes is really interesting! I do not think that genes alone can account for crimes. Maybe some genes make a person predisposed to commit crimes but it also depends on their environment and how the two interact. I did not know that criminals used to be categorized by facial features, that seems pretty stereotypical and likely an unproductive approach. What benefit(s) would knowing who is likely to be a criminal have? There might be ways to ensure those people don’t commit crimes but are those ways ethical/practical?
From the video “What Genetic Thread Do These Six Strangers Have in Common?”, I think the way people are treated is based solely on how others identify and categorize them, not how they identify themselves. This is definitely problematic but something I think our society is improving upon.