Charles Darwin - Evolutionary Theory - The Survival of the Fittest

Dear Readers

Marine Iguana
of Galapagos Islands

During my secondary school, I was very interested in biology and my favourite topic was Evolutionary Theory, The Origin of Species, Survival of the Fittest, and of course, my dream holiday destination was Galapagos Islands, my idol --- Charles Darwin!

I gave up biology while I was in college because I just could not digest all the names of the plants while attending the compulsory botany classes!

Well, back to Charles Darwin, I never know I will go through so many lessons in Psychology Counselling Course with his name appearing over and over, in almost all subjects! Charles Darwin's theory is applicable in both science and art faculties! 

When I was studying biology, all that I have learned about Charles Darwin was the Evolution of Species, how species evolved themselves due to their basic needs of food and shelters. Those species of animals best adapted to the environment survived and prospered, while those poorly adapted, died out. The strongest, the smartest, the fittest survived and continued on.

Yet now when I am studying "counseling", the same theory is interpreted from various perspectives that really fascinated me!

I read it in "Introduction to Learning and Behavior", the authors say that "a lot of people misunderstand evolutionary theory. The real driving force behind evolution is not survival of the fittest, but the reproductive advantage that accrues to those individuals possessing traits that are best suited to the environment".  The successful individuals are more likely to have offspring who inherit the successful traits from their parents, and are also more likely to survive and reproduce. As this process continues, generations after generations, the percentage of individuals possessing the successful traits increases while that with unsuccessful traits decreases. In this manner, the changed population differs so much from the initial population that it becomes a new species.

In Sociology, it is reasoned out as "people who could not successfully compete in modern society were poorly adapted to their environment and therefore inferior". The capitalists view that "those who rule do so because they are the most "fit" to rule, having won the evolutionary struggles that promote the 'survival of the fittest'".  The dominant concern of social change disciplines read "the continuous change from a simpler condition to a more complex state", this is a belief of biological evolutionary process that move populations of organisms toward increasing levels of biological complexity; and "survival of the fittest" means "struggle for existence".

Harriet, Charles Darwin's tortoise
(1830 - 2007)

In Psychology, the functionalists presume that creatures evolve in ways that favour survival. According to Charles Darwin's Natural Selection, physical features that help animals adapt to their environments are retained during evolution. Additionally, psychologists believe that emotional expressions evolved to communicate our feelings to others, which helps in survival.

The story of Charles Darwin's Evolutionary theory never ends here, I do hope that you can share your views on this topic with me.