In addition to evolution being key to other scientific education courses, it is also key in other academic disciplines. Literature on evolution's role in other academic disciplines emphasizes how it can serve as a scientific foundation for further research.
Fundamental to understanding of psychology is the understanding of evolutionary psychology. Many have understood evolution as a key element of psychology since the inception of the field, labeling Darwin the “father of evolutionary psychology.” Evidence of the connection between psychology and evolution is many prominent psychologists' work such as William James and John Dewey, who were part of the creation of experimental psychology in the United States, and was formed with Darwin’s theory in mind. To illustrate this coupling of evolution and psychology Hendrick (2005) completed a PsychINFO, a prominent database for scholarly psychological sources, searching for the word “evolutionary theory” and found that between 1991 and 2003 “evolutionary theory” appeared 428 times in the articles published. From a different view, genetics is key in the theory of evolution and there is a strong interest in psychologists surrounding genetics, when searching “genetics”, it appeared 15,860 times. Further, the term “evolution” appeared 18,614 times (Hendrick, 2005). This search of a prominent psychological database demonstrates the link between psychology and evolution, illustrating the idea that evolution has a role in other academic fields.
The interdisciplinary nature of evolution is not just a scientific one, research has also drawn a connection between evolution and the field of public relations. Cary A. Greenwood (2010) examined the use of Darwin's evolution theory as a way of forming the thought of public relations. Key to this connection is the emphasis of the concept of relationships in both public relations and evolutionary theory. This research emphasizes that both human and nonhuman primates both develop and utilize relationships, and evolutionary theory is a way of understanding these processes. Public relations includes importance in relationships as well as it is a way of example the 'the ‘interdependence of organizations and others in their environments’” (Greenwood, 2010). By operationalizing evolution and public relations the research draws a connection between the fields of evolution and public relations.
Evolution has an interdisciplinary nature, in that it serves as a conceptual background for many academic disciplines. This role of evolution in other disciplines emphasizes the importance of evolution to society as a whole. By observing evolution’s role across disciplines we are able to understand that evolution is not just key to science, but key to society overall.
References
Greenwood, C.A. (2010). Evolutionary Theory: The Missing Link for Conceptualizing Public
Relations. Journal of Public Relations Research, 22(4), 456-476. https://doi.org/10.1080/10627261003801438
Hendrick, C. (2005). Evolution as a foundation for psychological theories. In S. Strack (Ed.),
Handbook of Personology and Psychopathology (pp. 3-17). John Wiley & Sons, Inc. https://books.google.com/books?id=clrGnwE8mrIC&lpg=PA3&dq=evolution%20foundation%20in%20biology&lr&pg=PR4#v=onepage&q=evolution%20foundation%20in%20biology&f=false