{"id":28487,"date":"2022-04-14T16:30:44","date_gmt":"2022-04-14T23:30:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=28487"},"modified":"2022-04-14T16:30:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-14T23:30:44","slug":"orcas-evolution-and-personality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/orcas-evolution-and-personality\/","title":{"rendered":"Orcas, Evolution and Personality"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

I do not know anyone who is a long-time resident of the Puget Sound area that does not have some level of awe and appreciation of Orcas. Whale watching and particularly, searching for the fascinating black and white Killer Whale is a major tourist attraction. Reading Daniel Nettle\u2019s Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are<\/em>, [1] and his explanation of the big five personality [2] spectrums in terms of their evolutionary benefits causes me to look at the changes in Orca viability in Puget Sound. There are two types of Orcas with distinctly different personalities or behaviors.

The resident Orcas inhabit Puget Sound year-round. These salmon eating, slower swimming neighbors could be perceived as agreeable and open. Their agreeableness in mark by them tolerating the more aggressive behaviors of the people who invade their waters with ferries, pleasure crafts, fishing, which impact their survival. Scientist have been concerned for years that there are fewer and fewer Orcas being birthed.

The last year, according to my unofficial and unprofessional observations, seen an increase in regular sightings of transient Orcas in the area. These fast-swimming consumers of small and medium sized water mammals have not only decided to hang around more, but they are reproducing. Could it have something to do with their less agreeable nature? Or maybe they have acquired a particular gene that is more adaptive the environmental changes that have occurred as a result of human encroachment.

Nettle weaves his behavioral, biological, and social science background together to provide the reader with an evolutionary look at the psychological expression of personality. He is an author of a number of books exploring social life, our societal behaviors and their effects. A Professor of Behavioral Science, Nettle, explores the \u201ctrade-off between different fitness costs and benefits,\u201d [3] as they exhibit themselves in human genes and their usefulness for species survival in regard to where they fall in each of the five factor continuums. Throughout the book he emphasizes that while every human being is unique their personality is a composite of their individual spectrums within the big five: extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, agreeableness, and openness.[4] He continues by saying that despite the uniqueness these \u201ctraits are meaningful, stable, partly genetically inherited,\u201d [5] and can be powerful predictors of how a person might behave throughout their life. [6]

The discussion the author explores that \u201cpersonality traits\u2026are heritable\u201d [7] which provide a species the necessary adaptability gene for optimal survival. [8] This is the portion of the book that reminded me of Orcas. Because much like the \u201cbeak of the finch,\u201d [9] the distinct physiological and personality make up of transient and resident Orcas impact or respond to the food supply. In recent years, the sea lion population in Puget Sound exploded. This is problematic because these protected sea mammals eat the same salmon as the residents Orcas. However, the transient Orcas eat those sea lions, possibly demonstrating Nettle\u2019s explanation \u201cfluctuating selection.\u201d In humanity\u2019s, protection policies of one specie, in an attempt to rectify the careless and egocentric environmental damage, did nothing more than disrupting the evolutional balance resulting in the decline of another specie. I am a proponent of wise laws and responsible care of our environment; I just wonder if we are too narrowly focused resulting in the development of a less resilient nature within a specific animal and even people. I am continually remined of the example of diminishing the struggle of the butterfly by helping them out of their cocoon. Only to result in the butterfly\u2019s deformation of wings and certain death. Could this be why the resident Orcas are struggling?

This is all interesting but what does it have to do with leadership in general, leadership in the community of faith, and the role of individual personality.

Over the last century, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, people are able to independently provide for their basic needs without the use of extreme self-preservation behaviors, genes, and personality traits. This is seen in the emergence in the single-family home and the nuclear family prospering without daily assistance of extended family members. [11] It is also reflective in the reasons for procuring products. It is no longer solely for their usefulness but often for the sheer pleasure [12] or dopamine enjoyment of receiving that box from Amazon that is never fully satisfied. [13] The current societal push is more about how we can make life fair rather than how can we release a person\u2019s personal power to develop a character of resilience, with the assistance of the Holy Spirit, creating a story of an overcomer that inspires and strengthens others. [14]

Nettle\u2019s book explains the core of one\u2019s personality and how it manifests itself in the world, but it is lacking in the potential impact of a regenerated & sanctified life of submission to Jesus. He only slightly discusses how family and environment influence the expression of one\u2019s personality.

___________________________________
[1] Daniel Nettle, Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are, 1. publ. in paperback (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009).
[2] Ibid., 29.
[3] Daniel Nettle, \u201cThe Evolution of Personality Variation in Humans and Other Animals.,\u201d American Psychologist 61, no. 6 (2006): 622, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1037\/0003-066X.61.6.622.
[4] Nettle, Personality, 53.
[5] Ibid., 52.
[6] Ibid.
[7] Ibid., 55.
[8] Ibid., 56.
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid., 70.
[11] Vincent Jude Miller, Consuming Religion: Christian Faith and Practice in a Consumer Culture (New York: Continuum, 2004), 47.
[12] Ibid., 57.
[13] Daniel Z Lieberman and Michael E Long, The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity-and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race, 2019, 54.
[14] Jason Paul Clark, \u201cEvangelism and Capitalism: A Reparative Account and Diagnosis of Pathogeneses in the Relationship\u201d (Faculty Publications – Portland Seminary, 2018), 230, https:\/\/ digitalcommons.georgefox.edu\/gfes\/132.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I do not know anyone who is a long-time resident of the Puget Sound area that does not have some level of awe and appreciation of Orcas. Whale watching and particularly, searching for the fascinating black and white Killer Whale is a major tourist attraction. Reading Daniel Nettle\u2019s Personality: What Makes You the Way You […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2291,2292,1043,2268,2269],"class_list":["post-28487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-five-factor","tag-orcas","tag-evolution","tag-nettle","tag-personality","cohort-lgp11"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28487","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28517,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28487\/revisions\/28517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}