Chapter Summary<\/summary>\nThis chapter explores how evolutionary theory and scientific naturalism shaped the development of psychology from the late nineteenth century onward. Using naturalism as a critical thinking tool, students are introduced to the idea that human actions, emotions, and cognitions came to be studied using the same principles that govern the natural world. Beginning with Charles Darwin\u2019s theories of natural selection, emotional expression, and human descent from common ancestors, the chapter examines how these ideas led to the formation of new psychological areas and principles, such as comparative psychology, psychometrics, and functionalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Influential figures such as Herbert Spencer, Francis Galton, William James, and G. Stanley Hall are discussed alongside under-recognised psychologists such as Leta Stetter Hollingworth and Margaret Floy Washburn. The chapter offers a critical analysis of how evolutionary ideas were used to justify gender, racial, and class hierarchies. It also briefly considers the rise of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology in the late twentieth century.<\/p>\n<\/details>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Chapter 2 – Quiz<\/h2>\n\n\n\n