Relationships and Interactions

      The field of Ecology in general, and the study of pollination in particular, focus on interactions between organisms and their environment.  But the importance of relationships can be seen in many other fields.  Here are some examples where the properties of the relationship transcend the combined properties of the components of the relationship.

Human Genome
Breast Cancer
Human Relationships
Scientific Collaborations
Music  
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Human Genome:  This week it was first reported that the human genome consists of only about 30,000 genes, an amazingly small number considering the diversity of human individuals.  The interpretation is that individual genes by themselves don't account for this diversity.  Rather, it is the interactions between genes, and between genes and their environment, that accounts for this diversity.  The controversy over nature vs. nurture is misguided.  The question is not nature vs. nurture.  The question is how do nature and nurture, i.e., genes and the environment, interact?

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Breast Cancer:  One of the reasons that  it has been so difficult to cure breast cancer is that it is composed of many different types of cancer cells, and each person affected has a different mix of cancer cells.  When studied independently in vitro, one can determine the characteristics of each type of cancer cell, for example, its rate of growth, and its response to chemicals and to radiation.  However, mixtures of cells do not necessarily react in ways that one might predict based on the characteristics of the individual cell types that compose it.  Studying mixtures of cell types is much more complex than studying the individual cell types.

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Human relationships:  Many of us tend to think of other people as having fixed qualities: this friend is generous, that friend is kind, others may be mean or timid or violent.  At the extreme we think of people that we like as "good" and people that we don't like as "bad".  Literature and the media contribute to the view that people can be characterized as having certain qualities, although those qualities can change over time as people develop and learn from new experiences.  We tend to neglect the reality  that our behavior toward others is often a reaction to those others, not just a fixed attribute of our character.  We are kind and friendly to some people (generally because they are kind and friendly to us), and even the nicest of us may be mean, or at least indifferent (which may be misinterpreted as mean) to others.  We may be timid around perceived authority figures but brash around perceived  peers.  Our character depends on who we are relating to.  Groups of people interact in ways that both depend on and transcend the "character" of the individuals in the group, and the way that pairs of people interact.  Anyone who has taught the same subject matter to different classes knows that each class is different even when the subject and the person teaching it are identical .  We often  blame problems on individuals, but rarely is any one individual totally responsible for a problem.  At the same time, any one individual who changes his or her interactions with others has the power to change the entire relationship between those others.

The Alfalfa Seed Parable  
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Scientific Collaborations:  The traditional psychological model describes human development as progressing through stages from connection and dependency toward autonomy and separation.  Early stages of development are viewed as inferior or immature compared with later stages.  The traditional view of graduate student development in the sciences follows this line of development.

In contrast, the idea of "self-in-relation" postulates growth through a continuous process of connection.  The model of self-in-relation makes a paradigm shift that stresses the positive aspects of connection, the mutuality of interactions.  For example, creativity does not inherently require disconnecting from others. Rather, it can be the result of an empowering exchange of ideas.  Empowering interactions increase one's feeling of being capable of action and one's sense of self-esteem.  One is empowered, for example, by getting feedback, such as "What an interesting idea."  Empathy is an important component of empowering relationships, as is the ability to listen to what other people are saying.  In an empowering relationship, one gives up authority only to get it back.

There are important implications of the self-in-relation theory for women interested in careers in science.  The creative process in science is often viewed as requiring an ability to act autonomously, and to move in novel directions.  The importance of mutual interactions is minimized in this view.  Yet most scientists become involved in science as a result of the encouragement of a mentor.  Traditionally, women have had a more difficult time than men in establishing and maintaining such relationships, especially in male dominated scientific fields.  "Unfortunately a man may be hesitant about encouraging a woman as a protégé.  He may be delighted to have her as an assistant, but he may not see her as his successor, or as one who will carry on his ideas, or as a colleague.  He may believe that she is less likely to be a good gamble, a risk for him to exert himself for, or that she is financially less dependent upon a job.  Because of subtle pressures from his wife, he may temper his publicly expressed enthusiasm or interest.  He may fail to introduce her to colleagues or sponsor her for jobs." (White 1970).  A distinguished colleague of mine once told me that he felt more competitive toward his women colleagues than toward other men.  

When women try to express their need for connection to their male advisors and peers, they may be perceived as lacking independence rather than as growing through an alternative developmental process. (Or worse yet, they may be misperceived as having romantic or intimate intentions.)

This is not to say that men do not need encouragement, or that all women need it equally.  Some men particularly value connection as many women do, and/or some men may have a particularly difficult time establishing connections.  Like many women, they may be lost from the scientific pipeline.  Thus, many women, and some men, are in a double bind in that they may value empowering interactions in science, but they are often subtly excluded from them by the culture of science.  This culture has nothing to do with scientific ability.

Modified from Strickler, K. 1987.  Women in entomology: Increasing persistence in the pipeline.  Bulletin of the Entomological Society of America, Spring 1987. pp. 19-21.

White, M.S. 1970.  Psychological and social barriers to women in science.  Science 170:413.

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Music

"Is the music in the touch of the fiddler's hand, or in the fiddle, before he thinks to play?"
-line from the song "Secret Garden" by  C. McComb
Sung by Bill Stains on his album, "Bridges"

Revised Feb. 12, 2001.
Copyright © 2001, Karen Strickler. All rights reserved.