title: Consciousness, social heredity, and development: the evolutionary thought of James Mark Baldwin.
abstract: James Mark Baldwin is one of the most important and least known early American scientific psychologists. Drawing inspiration from Charles Darwin and other evolutionists of the period, Baldwin developed a biosocial theory of psychological development that influenced both Jean Piaget and Lev S. Vygotsky; and he proposed a mechanism relating learned adaptations in the individual to phylogenesis (frequently termed the "Baldwin effect") that is of considerable interest to those currently modeling processes of learning and evolution. After a brief introduction to Baldwin's career, this article describes the intellectual context within which his evolutionary thinking developed. Three of his most important contributions are then discussed: his theory of individual adaptation or learning, his concept of "social heredity," and his articulation of the "Baldwin effect." The article concludes with a brief evaluation of the contemporary importance of Baldwin's ideas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010, USA. rwozniak@brynmawr.edu
authors.forename: Robert H
authors.initials: RH
authors.lastname: Wozniak
mesh_terms: D005075:Biological Evolution; D003243:Consciousness; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006803:Human Development; D006801:Humans; D011582:Psychological Theory; D011584:Psychology / Q000266:history*; D012919:Social Behavior; D014481:United States