11.3: Graphing Linear Equations (Part 1)
- Recognize the relation between the solutions of an equation and its graph
- Graph a linear equation by plotting points
- Graph vertical and horizontal lines
Before you get started, take this readiness quiz.
- Evaluate: 3x + 2 when x = −1. If you missed this problem, review Example 3.8.10 .
- Solve the formula: 5x + 2y = 20 for y. If you missed this problem, review Example 9.11.6 .
- Simplify: \(\dfrac{3}{8}\)(−24). If you missed this problem, review Example 4.3.10 .
Recognize the Relation Between the Solutions of an Equation and its Graph
In Use the Rectangular Coordinate System , we found a few solutions to the equation 3x + 2y = 6. They are listed in the table below. So, the ordered pairs (0, 3), (2, 0), \(\left(1, \dfrac{3}{2}\right)\), (4, − 3), are some solutions to the equation 3x + 2y = 6. We can plot these solutions in the rectangular coordinate system as shown on the graph at right.
Notice how the points line up perfectly? We connect the points with a straight line to get the graph of the equation 3x + 2y = 6. Notice the arrows on the ends of each side of the line. These arrows indicate the line continues.
Every point on the line is a solution of the equation. Also, every solution of this equation is a point on this line. Points not on the line are not solutions!
Notice that the point whose coordinates are ( − 2, 6) is on the line shown in Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\). If you substitute x = − 2 and y = 6 into the equation, you find that it is a solution to the equation.
Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)
So (4, 1) is not a solution to the equation 3x + 2y = 6. Therefore the point (4, 1) is not on the line. This is an example of the saying,” A picture is worth a thousand words.” The line shows you all the solutions to the equation. Every point on the line is a solution of the equation. And, every solution of this equation is on this line. This line is called the graph of the equation 3x + 2y = 6.
The graph of a linear equation Ax + By = C is a straight line.
- Every point on the line is a solution of the equation.
- Every solution of this equation is a point on this line.
The graph of y = 2x − 3 is shown below.
For each ordered pair decide (a) Is the ordered pair a solution to the equation? (b) Is the point on the line?
(a) (0, 3) (b) (3, − 3) (c) (2, − 3) (d) ( − 1, − 5)
Solution
Substitute the x - and y -values into the equation to check if the ordered pair is a solution to the equation.
(a) \[\begin{split} (a)&\; (\textcolor{blue}{0}, \textcolor{red}{-3}) \qquad \qquad \quad \; (b)\; (\textcolor{blue}{3}, \textcolor{red}{3}) \qquad \qquad \qquad \quad (c)\; (\textcolor{blue}{2}, \textcolor{red}{-3}) \qquad \qquad \qquad \quad (d)\; (\textcolor{blue}{-1}, \textcolor{red}{-5}) \\ y &= 2x - 3 \qquad \qquad \quad y = 2x - 3 \qquad \qquad \qquad \; y = 2x - 3 \qquad \qquad \qquad \; \; \; y = 2x - 3 \\ \textcolor{red}{-3} &\stackrel{?}{=} 2(\textcolor{blue}{0}) - 3 \qquad \qquad \; \textcolor{red}{3} \stackrel{?}{=} 2(\textcolor{blue}{3}) - 3 \qquad \qquad \; \textcolor{red}{-3} \stackrel{?}{=} 2(\textcolor{blue}{2}) - 3 \qquad \qquad \; \; \; \textcolor{red}{-5} \stackrel{?}{=} 2(\textcolor{blue}{-1}) - 3 \\ -3 &= -3\; \checkmark \qquad \qquad \quad \; \; 3 = 3\; \checkmark \qquad \qquad \qquad -3 \neq 1 \qquad \qquad \qquad \qquad -5 = -5\; \checkmark \\ (0, -3)\;& is\; a\; solution \ldotp \quad (3, 3)\; is\; a\; solution \ldotp \qquad (2, -3)\; is\; not\; a\; solution \ldotp \qquad (-1, -5)\; is\; a\; solution \ldotp \end{split}\]
(b) Plot the points A: (0, − 3) B: (3, 3) C: (2, − 3) and D: (− 1, − 5). The points (0, − 3), (3, 3), and (− 1, − 5) are on the line y = 2x − 3, and the point (2, − 3) is not on the line.
The points which are solutions to y = 2x − 3 are on the line, but the point which is not a solution is not on the line.
The graph of y = 3x − 1 is shown. For each ordered pair, decide (a) is the ordered pair a solution to the equation? (b) is the point on the line?
- (0, − 1)
- (2, 2)
- (3, − 1)
- ( − 1, − 4)
- Answer 1.
-
a. yes, b. no
- Answer 2.
-
a. no, b. no
- Answer 3.
-
a. no, b. no
- Answer 4.
-
a. yes, b. yes
Graph a Linear Equation by Plotting Points
There are several methods that can be used to graph a linear equation. The method we used at the start of this section to graph is called plotting points, or the Point-Plotting Method.
Let’s graph the equation y = 2x + 1 by plotting points. We start by finding three points that are solutions to the equation. We can choose any value for x or y, and then solve for the other variable.
Since y is isolated on the left side of the equation, it is easier to choose values for x. We will use 0, 1, and -2 for x for this example. We substitute each value of x into the equation and solve for y.
We can organize the solutions in a table. See Table \(\PageIndex{1}\).
| y = 2x + 1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| x | y | (x, y) |
| 0 | 1 | (0, 1) |
| 1 | 3 | (1, 3) |
| -2 | -3 | (-2, -3) |
Now we plot the points on a rectangular coordinate system. Check that the points line up. If they did not line up, it would mean we made a mistake and should double-check all our work. See Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\).
Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)
Draw the line through the three points. Extend the line to fill the grid and put arrows on both ends of the line. The line is the graph of y = 2x + 1.
Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\)
Step 1. Find three points whose coordinates are solutions to the equation. Organize them in a table.
Step 2. Plot the points on a rectangular coordinate system. Check that the points line up. If they do not, carefully check your work.
Step 3. Draw the line through the points. Extend the line to fill the grid and put arrows on both ends of the line.
It is true that it only takes two points to determine a line, but it is a good habit to use three points. If you plot only two points and one of them is incorrect, you can still draw a line but it will not represent the solutions to the equation. It will be the wrong line. If you use three points, and one is incorrect, the points will not line up. This tells you something is wrong and you need to check your work. See Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\).
Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\) - Look at the difference between (a) and (b). All three points in (a) line up so we can draw one line through them. The three points in (b) do not line up. We cannot draw a single straight line through all three points.
Graph the equation y = −3x.
Solution
Find three points that are solutions to the equation. It’s easier to choose values for x, and solve for y. Do you see why?
List the points in a table.
| y = −3x | ||
|---|---|---|
| x | y | (x, y) |
| 0 | 0 | (0, 0) |
| 1 | -3 | (1, -3) |
| -2 | 6 | (-2, 6) |
Plot the points, check that they line up, and draw the line as shown.
Graph the equation by plotting points: y = −4x.
- Answer
-
Graph the equation by plotting points: y = x.
- Answer
-
When an equation includes a fraction as the coefficient of x, we can substitute any numbers for x. But the math is easier if we make ‘good’ choices for the values of x. This way we will avoid fraction answers, which are hard to graph precisely.
Graph the equation y = \(\dfrac{1}{2}\)x + 3.
Solution
Find three points that are solutions to the equation. Since this equation has the fraction \(\dfrac{1}{2}\) as a coefficient of x, we will choose values of x carefully. We will use zero as one choice and multiples of 2 for the other choices.
The points are shown in the table.
| y = \(\dfrac{1}{2}\)x + 3 | ||
|---|---|---|
| x | y | (x, y) |
| 0 | 3 | (0, 3) |
| 2 | 4 | (2, 4) |
| 4 | 5 | (4, 5) |
Plot the points, check that they line up, and draw the line as shown.
Graph the equation: y = \(\dfrac{1}{3}\)x − 1
- Answer
-
Graph the equation: y = \(\dfrac{1}{4}\)x + 2.
- Answer
-
So far, all the equations we graphed had y given in terms of x. Now we’ll graph an equation with x and y on the same side.
Graph the equation x + y = 5.
Solution
Find three points that are solutions to the equation. Remember, you can start with any value of x or y.
We list the points in a table.
| x + y = 5 | ||
|---|---|---|
| x | y | (x, y) |
| 0 | 5 | (0, 5) |
| 1 | 4 | (1, 4) |
| 4 | 1 | (4, 1) |
Then plot the points, check that they line up, and draw the line.
Graph the equation: x + y = −2.
- Answer
-
Graph the equation: x − y = 6.
- Answer
-
In the previous example, the three points we found were easy to graph. But this is not always the case. Let’s see what happens in the equation 2x + y = 3. If y is 0, what is the value of x?
\[\begin{split} 2x + y &= 3 \\ 2x + \textcolor{red}{0} &= 3 \\ 2x &= 3 \\ x &= \dfrac{3}{2} \end{split}\]
The solution is the point \(\left(\dfrac{3}{2}, 0\right)\). This point has a fraction for the x -coordinate. While we could graph this point, it is hard to be precise graphing fractions. Remember in the example y = \(\dfrac{1}{2}\)x + 3, we carefully chose values for x so as not to graph fractions at all. If we solve the equation 2x + y = 3 for y, it will be easier to find three solutions to the equation.
\[\begin{split} 2x + y &= 3 \\ y &= -2x + 3 \end{split}\]
Now we can choose values for x that will give coordinates that are integers. The solutions for x = 0, x = 1, and x = −1 are shown.
| y = −2x + 3 | ||
|---|---|---|
| x | y | (x, y) |
| 0 | 3 | (0, 3) |
| 1 | 1 | (1, 1) |
| -1 | 5 | (-1, 5) |
Graph the equation 3x + y = −1.
Solution
Find three points that are solutions to the equation.
First, solve the equation for y.
\[\begin{split} 3x + y &= −1 \\ y &= −3x − 1 \end{split}\]
We’ll let x be 0, 1, and −1 to find three points. The ordered pairs are shown in the table. Plot the points, check that they line up, and draw the line.
| y = −3x − 1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| x | y | (x, y) |
| 0 | -1 | (0, -1) |
| 1 | -4 | (1, -4) |
| -1 | 2 | (-1, 2) |
If you can choose any three points to graph a line, how will you know if your graph matches the one shown in the answers in the book? If the points where the graphs cross the x- and y -axes are the same, the graphs match.
Graph each equation: 2x + y = 2.
- Answer
Graph each equation: 4x + y = −3.
- Answer
-
Contributors and Attributions
-
Lynn Marecek (Santa Ana College) and MaryAnne Anthony-Smith (Formerly of Santa Ana College). This content is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution License v4.0 "Download for free at<EMAIL_ADDRESS>."


13.2: Discovering How Populations Change
By the end of this section, you will be able to do the following:
- Explain how Darwin’s theory of evolution differed from the current view at the time
- Describe how the present-day theory of evolution was developed
- Describe how population genetics is used to study the evolution of populations
The theory of evolution by natural selection describes a mechanism for species change over time. That species change had been suggested and debated well before Darwin. The view that species were static and unchanging was grounded in the writings of Plato, yet there were also ancient Greeks that expressed evolutionary ideas.
In the eighteenth century, ideas about the evolution of animals were reintroduced by the naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and even by Charles Darwin’s grandfather, Erasmus Darwin. During this time, it was also accepted that there were extinct species. At the same time, James Hutton, the Scottish naturalist, proposed that geological change occurred gradually by the accumulation of small changes from processes (over long periods of time) just like those happening today. This contrasted with the predominant view that the geology of the planet was a consequence of catastrophic events occurring during a relatively brief past. Hutton’s view was later popularized by the geologist Charles Lyell in the nineteenth century. Lyell became a friend to Darwin and his ideas were very influential on Darwin’s thinking. Lyell argued that the greater age of Earth gave more time for gradual change in species, and the process provided an analogy for gradual change in species.
In the early nineteenth century, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck published a book that detailed a mechanism for evolutionary change that is now referred to as inheritance of acquired characteristics. In Lamarck’s theory, modifications in an individual caused by its environment, or the use or disuse of a structure during its lifetime, could be inherited by its offspring and, thus, bring about change in a species. While this mechanism for evolutionary change as described by Lamarck was discredited, Lamarck’s ideas were an important influence on evolutionary thought. The inscription on the statue of Lamarck that stands at the gates of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris describes him as the “founder of the doctrine of evolution.”
Charles Darwin and Natural Selection
The actual mechanism for evolution was independently conceived of and described by two naturalists, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace, in the mid-nineteenth century. Importantly, each spent time exploring the natural world on expeditions to the tropics. From 1831 to 1836, Darwin traveled around the world on H.M.S. Beagle , visiting South America, Australia, and the southern tip of Africa. Wallace traveled to Brazil to collect insects in the Amazon rainforest from 1848 to 1852 and to the Malay Archipelago from 1854 to 1862. Darwin’s journey, like Wallace’s later journeys in the Malay Archipelago, included stops at several island chains, the last being the Galápagos Islands (west of Ecuador). On these islands, Darwin observed species of organisms on different islands that were clearly similar, yet had distinct differences. For example, the ground finches inhabiting the Galápagos Islands comprised several species that each had a unique beak shape (Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\)). He observed both that these finches closely resembled another finch species on the mainland of South America and that the group of species in the Galápagos formed a graded series of beak sizes and shapes, with very small differences between the most similar. Darwin imagined that the island species might be all species modified from one original mainland species. In 1860, he wrote, “Seeing this gradation and diversity of structure in one small, intimately related group of birds, one might really fancy that from an original paucity of birds in this archipelago, one species had been taken and modified for different ends.” 1
Wallace and Darwin both observed similar patterns in other organisms and independently conceived a mechanism to explain how and why such changes could take place. Darwin called this mechanism natural selection. Natural selection, Darwin argued, was an inevitable outcome of three principles that operated in nature. First, the characteristics of organisms are inherited, or passed from parent to offspring. Second, more offspring are produced than are able to survive; in other words, resources for survival and reproduction are limited. The capacity for reproduction in all organisms outstrips the availability of resources to support their numbers. Thus, there is a competition for those resources in each generation. Both Darwin and Wallace’s understanding of this principle came from reading an essay by the economist Thomas Malthus, who discussed this principle in relation to human populations. Third, offspring vary among each other in regard to their characteristics and those variations are inherited. Out of these three principles, Darwin and Wallace reasoned that offspring with inherited characteristics that allow them to best compete for limited resources will survive and have more offspring than those individuals with variations that are less able to compete. Because characteristics are inherited, these traits will be better represented in the next generation. This will lead to change in populations over generations in a process that Darwin called “descent with modification.”
Papers by Darwin and Wallace (Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\)) presenting the idea of natural selection were read together in 1858 before the Linnaean Society in London. The following year Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species, was published, which outlined in considerable detail his arguments for evolution by natural selection.
Demonstrations of evolution by natural selection can be time consuming. One of the best demonstrations has been in the very birds that helped to inspire the theory, the Galápagos finches. Peter and Rosemary Grant and their colleagues have studied Galápagos finch populations every year since 1976 and have provided important demonstrations of the operation of natural selection. The Grants found changes from one generation to the next in the beak shapes of the medium ground finches on the Galápagos island of Daphne Major. The medium ground finch feeds on seeds. The birds have inherited variation in the bill shape with some individuals having wide, deep bills and others having thinner bills. Large-billed birds feed more efficiently on large, hard seeds, whereas smaller billed birds feed more efficiently on small, soft seeds. During 1977, a drought period altered vegetation on the island. After this period, the number of seeds declined dramatically: the decline in small, soft seeds was greater than the decline in large, hard seeds. The large-billed birds were able to survive better than the small-billed birds the following year. The year following the drought when the Grants measured beak sizes in the much-reduced population, they found that the average bill size was larger (Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\)). This was clear evidence for natural selection (differences in survival) of bill size caused by the availability of seeds. The Grants had studied the inheritance of bill sizes and knew that the surviving large-billed birds would tend to produce offspring with larger bills, so the selection would lead to evolution of bill size. Subsequent studies by the Grants have demonstrated selection on and evolution of bill size in this species in response to changing conditions on the island. The evolution has occurred both to larger bills, as in this case, and to smaller bills when large seeds became rare.
Variation and Adaptation
Natural selection can only take place if there is variation, or differences, among individuals in a population. Importantly, these differences must have some genetic basis; otherwise, selection will not lead to change in the next generation. This is critical because variation among individuals can be caused by non-genetic reasons, such as an individual being taller because of better nutrition rather than different genes.
Genetic diversity in a population comes from two main sources: mutation and sexual reproduction. Mutation, a change in DNA, is the ultimate source of new alleles or new genetic variation in any population. An individual that has a mutated gene might have a different trait than other individuals in the population. However, this is not always the case. A mutation can have one of three outcomes on the organisms’ appearance (or phenotype):
- A mutation may affect the phenotype of the organism in a way that gives it reduced fitness—lower likelihood of survival, resulting in fewer offspring.
- A mutation may produce a phenotype with a beneficial effect on fitness.
- Many mutations, called neutral mutations, will have no effect on fitness.
Mutations may also have a whole range of effect sizes on the fitness of the organism that expresses them in their phenotype, from a small effect to a great effect. Sexual reproduction and crossing over in meiosis also lead to genetic diversity: when two parents reproduce, unique combinations of alleles assemble to produce unique genotypes and, thus, phenotypes in each of the offspring.
A heritable trait that aids the survival and reproduction of an organism in its present environment is called an adaptation. An adaptation is a “match” of the organism to the environment. Adaptation to an environment comes about when a change in the range of genetic variation occurs over time that increases or maintains the match of the population with its environment. The variations in finch beaks shifted from generation to generation providing adaptation to food availability.
Whether or not a trait is favorable depends on the environment at the time. The same traits do not always have the same relative benefit or disadvantage because environmental conditions can change. For example, finches with large bills were benefited in one climate, while small bills were a disadvantage; in a different climate, the relationship reversed.
Patterns of Evolution
The evolution of species has resulted in enormous variation in form and function. When two species evolve in different directions from a common point, it is called divergent evolution. Such divergent evolution can be seen in the forms of the reproductive organs of flowering plants, which share the same basic anatomies; however, they can look very different as a result of selection in different physical environments, and adaptation to different kinds of pollinators (Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\)).
In other cases, similar phenotypes evolve independently in distantly related species. For example, flight has evolved in both bats and insects, and they both have structures we refer to as wings, which are adaptations to flight. The wings of bats and insects, however, evolved from very different original structures. When similar structures arise through evolution independently in different species it is called convergent evolution. The wings of bats and insects are called analogous structures; they are similar in function and appearance, but do not share an origin in a common ancestor. Instead they evolved independently in the two lineages. The wings of a hummingbird and an ostrich are homologous structures, meaning they share similarities (despite their differences resulting from evolutionary divergence). The wings of hummingbirds and ostriches did not evolve independently in the hummingbird lineage and the ostrich lineage—they descended from a common ancestor with wings.
The Modern Synthesis
The mechanisms of inheritance, genetics, were not understood at the time Darwin and Wallace were developing their idea of natural selection. This lack of understanding was a stumbling block to comprehending many aspects of evolution. In fact, blending inheritance was the predominant (and incorrect) genetic theory of the time, which made it difficult to understand how natural selection might operate. Darwin and Wallace were unaware of the genetics work by Austrian monk Gregor Mendel, which was published in 1866, not long after publication of On the Origin of Species . Mendel’s work was rediscovered in the early twentieth century at which time geneticists were rapidly coming to an understanding of the basics of inheritance. Initially, the newly discovered particulate nature of genes made it difficult for biologists to understand how gradual evolution could occur. But over the next few decades genetics and evolution were integrated in what became known as the modern synthesis—the coherent understanding of the relationship between natural selection and genetics that took shape by the 1940s and is generally accepted today. In sum, the modern synthesis describes how evolutionary pressures, such as natural selection, can affect a population’s genetic makeup, and, in turn, how this can result in the gradual evolution of populations and species. The theory also connects this gradual change of a population over time, called microevolution, with the processes that gave rise to new species and higher taxonomic groups with widely divergent characters, called macroevolution.
Population Genetics
Recall that a gene for a particular character may have several variants, or alleles, that code for different traits associated with that character. For example, in the ABO blood type system in humans, three alleles determine the particular blood-type protein on the surface of red blood cells. Each individual in a population of diploid organisms can only carry two alleles for a particular gene, but more than two may be present in the individuals that make up the population. Mendel followed alleles as they were inherited from parent to offspring. In the early twentieth century, biologists began to study what happens to all the alleles in a population in a field of study known as population genetics.
Until now, we have defined evolution as a change in the characteristics of a population of organisms, but behind that phenotypic change is genetic change. In population genetic terms, evolution is defined as a change in the frequency of an allele in a population. Using the ABO system as an example, the frequency of one of the alleles, I A , is the number of copies of that allele divided by all the copies of the ABO gene in the population. For example, a study in Jordan found a frequency of I A to be 26.1 percent. 2 The I B , I 0 alleles made up 13.4 percent and 60.5 percent of the alleles respectively, and all of the frequencies add up to 100 percent. A change in this frequency over time would constitute evolution in the population.
There are several ways the allele frequencies of a population can change. One of those ways is natural selection. If a given allele confers a phenotype that allows an individual to have more offspring that survive and reproduce, that allele, by virtue of being inherited by those offspring, will be in greater frequency in the next generation. Since allele frequencies always add up to 100 percent, an increase in the frequency of one allele always means a corresponding decrease in one or more of the other alleles. Highly beneficial alleles may, over a very few generations, become “fixed” in this way, meaning that every individual of the population will carry the allele. Similarly, detrimental alleles may be swiftly eliminated from the gene pool, the sum of all the alleles in a population. Part of the study of population genetics is tracking how selective forces change the allele frequencies in a population over time, which can give scientists clues regarding the selective forces that may be operating on a given population. The studies of changes in wing coloration in the peppered moth from mottled white to dark in response to soot-covered tree trunks and then back to mottled white when factories stopped producing so much soot is a classic example of studying evolution in natural populations (Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\)).
In the early twentieth century, English mathematician Godfrey Hardy and German physician Wilhelm Weinberg independently provided an explanation for a somewhat counterintuitive concept. Hardy’s original explanation was in response to a misunderstanding as to why a “dominant” allele, one that masks a recessive allele, should not increase in frequency in a population until it eliminated all the other alleles. The question resulted from a common confusion about what “dominant” means, but it forced Hardy, who was not even a biologist, to point out that if there are no factors that affect an allele frequency those frequencies will remain constant from one generation to the next. This principle is now known as the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. The theory states that a population’s allele and genotype frequencies are inherently stable—unless some kind of evolutionary force is acting on the population, the population would carry the same alleles in the same proportions generation after generation. Individuals would, as a whole, look essentially the same and this would be unrelated to whether the alleles were dominant or recessive. The four most important evolutionary forces, which will disrupt the equilibrium, are natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, and migration into or out of a population. A fifth factor, nonrandom mating, will also disrupt the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium but only by shifting genotype frequencies, not allele frequencies. In nonrandom mating, individuals are more likely to mate with like individuals (or unlike individuals) rather than at random. Since nonrandom mating does not change allele frequencies, it does not cause evolution directly. Natural selection has been described. Mutation creates one allele out of another one and changes an allele’s frequency by a small, but continuous amount each generation. Each allele is generated by a low, constant mutation rate that will slowly increase the allele’s frequency in a population if no other forces act on the allele. If natural selection acts against the allele, it will be removed from the population at a low rate leading to a frequency that results from a balance between selection and mutation. This is one reason that genetic diseases remain in the human population at very low frequencies. If the allele is favored by selection, it will increase in frequency. Genetic drift causes random changes in allele frequencies when populations are small. Genetic drift can often be important in evolution, as discussed in the next section. Finally, if two populations of a species have different allele frequencies, migration of individuals between them will cause frequency changes in both populations. As it happens, there is no population in which one or more of these processes are not operating, so populations are always evolving, and the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium will never be exactly observed. However, the Hardy-Weinberg principle gives scientists a baseline expectation for allele frequencies in a non-evolving population to which they can compare evolving populations and thereby infer what evolutionary forces might be at play. The population is evolving if the frequencies of alleles or genotypes deviate from the value expected from the Hardy-Weinberg principle.
Darwin identified a special case of natural selection that he called sexual selection. Sexual selection affects an individual’s ability to mate and thus produce offspring, and it leads to the evolution of dramatic traits that often appear maladaptive in terms of survival but persist because they give their owners greater reproductive success. Sexual selection occurs in two ways: through male–male competition for mates and through female selection of mates. Male–male competition takes the form of conflicts between males, which are often ritualized, but may also pose significant threats to a male’s survival. Sometimes the competition is for territory, with females more likely to mate with males with higher quality territories. Female choice occurs when females choose a male based on a particular trait, such as feather colors, the performance of a mating dance, or the building of an elaborate structure. In some cases male–male competition and female choice combine in the mating process. In each of these cases, the traits selected for, such as fighting ability or feather color and length, become enhanced in the males. In general, it is thought that sexual selection can proceed to a point at which natural selection against a character’s further enhancement prevents its further evolution because it negatively impacts the male’s ability to survive. For example, colorful feathers or an elaborate display make the male more obvious to predators.
Footnotes
- 1 Charles Darwin, Journal of Researches into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World, under the Command of Capt. Fitz Roy, R.N , 2nd. ed. (London: John Murray, 1860), http://www.archive.org/details/journalofresea00darw .
- 2 Sahar S. Hanania, Dhia S. Hassawi, and Nidal M. Irshaid, “Allele Frequency and Molecular Genotypes of ABO Blood Group System in a Jordanian Population,” Journal of Medical Sciences 7 (2007): 51-58, doi:10.3923/jms.2007.51.58
Contributors and Attribution
Remixed and/or curated from the following works:
- Fowler, S., Roush, R., & Wise, J. (2013). 11.1 Discovering How Populations Change . In Concepts of Biology . OpenStax (CC BY 4.0; Access for free at https://openstax.org/books/concepts-biology/pages/1-introduction ).


9.13: Key Dimensions of Organizational Culture
- Discuss seven dimensions of culture in the Organizational Culture Profile.
Understanding a set of values that might be used to describe an organization’s culture helps us identify, measure, and manage that culture more effectively. One framework that provides insight into the different types of organizational culture is the seven-dimension Organizational Culture Profile (OCP) . The OCP is an instrument initially developed by consultants Charles A. O’Reilly III, Jennifer Chatman, and David F. Caldwell to assess person-organization fit. In theory, employees should have the same basic cultural assumptions and values as the company for which they work.
According to the OCP, every corporation can be described as one of the following:
Detail-oriented
Not surprisingly, detail-oriented companies are all about meticulous attention to details. These companies tend to be in customer-oriented industries in which such precision is valued. For example, Four Seasons hotels are dedicated to providing customers with exactly the service they prefer, and they keep records on each guest’s experiences, preferences, and expectations. Employees working for Four Seasons must have an eye for detail and thrive on keeping meticulous records.
Innovative
Individuals who want opportunities to invent new products or services should consider working for companies such as W.L. Gore and Associates, maker of GORE-TEX, or 3M. These companies not only encourage innovation but give employees company time to work on their own projects. This approach can result in a wide range of exciting new products developed by engineers or scientists working on their own.
Aggressive
Although some companies value cooperation, others value aggressive competition. Stratasys, a maker of 3D printers, has been willing to make enemies in order to survive and thrive. Stratasys expanded rapidly through growth, takeovers, and mergers to gain a dominant position in the 3D printer industry. Sometimes, Stratasys’ aggressive approach has gotten the company into legal battles—but the company has continued to perform well.
Outcome-oriented
Outcome-oriented businesses are all about results. At RE/MAX, for example, employees are trained to sell products, and they are evaluated on their sales performance. RE/MAX, short for “Real Estate Maximums,” is an American international real estate company that operates through a franchise system. The company has held the number-one market share in the United States and Canada since 1999.
Stable
Employees at a stable corporation know exactly who is in charge, who to report to, and what they are expected to accomplish. Kraft Foods, for example, is a very stable organization with a strong bureaucracy. Although it is consistent, however, Kraft is not known for innovation or creativity.
People-oriented
If you work for a people-oriented corporation, you can expect the company to care about you. They value fairness and are supportive of individuals’ rights and dignity. Software company SAS is a good example of a people-oriented company that offers employees a wide range of individualized benefits, including on-site childcare. CEO Jim Goodnight’s philosophy is, “Treat employees like they make a difference, and they will.” The result: a loyal and dedicated workforce.
Team-oriented
Employees who like to collaborate and cooperate with team members do well in team-oriented companies. Whole Foods, for example, expects its employees to function as members of teams—and to support other members of the team when necessary. This creates strong, solid relationships within working groups.
There is no one “best” type of corporate culture, and many larger corporations actually exhibit more than one culture. For example, the sales department may have an aggressive culture, whereas marketing is more team-oriented. In general, however, corporations can be grouped into the categories mentioned earlier.
Contributors and Attributions
- Key Dimensions of Organizational Culture . Authored by : Lisa Jo Rudy and Lumen Learning. License : CC BY: Attribution
- Image: Employee. Authored by : rawpixel. Located at : https://pixabay.com/en/adu / . License : CC0: No Rights Reserved


In closing, scale (or index) construction in social science research is a complex process involving several key decisions. Some of these decisions are:
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Should you use a scale, index, or typology?
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How do you plan to analyze the data?
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What is your desired level of measurement (nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio) or rating scale?
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How many scale attributes should you use (e.g., 1 to 10; 1 to 7; −3 to +3)?
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Should you use an odd or even number of attributes (i.e., do you wish to have neutral or mid-point value)?
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How do you wish to label the scale attributes (especially for semantic differential scales)?
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Finally, what procedure would you use to generate the scale items (e.g., Thurstone, Likert, or Guttman method) or index components?
This chapter examined the process and outcomes of scale development. The next chapter will examine how to evaluate the reliability and validity of the scales developed using the above approaches.


5: Gender and Sexuality
By far, sex and gender have been two of the most socially significant factors in the history of the world and the United States. Sex is one’s biological classification as male or female, which is biologically determined at the moment the sperm fertilizes the egg. Sex can be precisely defined at the genetic level with females having two X chromosomes (XX), while males posses an XY pairing. The female’s eggs contain only an X chromosome, while the male’s sperm contains half X and half Y chromosomes. Therefore, the sperm that fertilizes the egg determines whether a person has XX (female) or XY (male) pairing of chromosomes. The main difference between sexes is the reproductive body parts assigned to each (including their functions and corresponding hormones).
Gender is culturally-based and varies in a thousand subtle ways across the many diverse cultures of the world. Gender has been shaped by social norms, politics, religion, philosophy, language, tradition and other cultural forces for many years. Gender identity is our personal internal sense of our own maleness or femaleness. Every society has a slightly different view of what it means to be male/masculine and female/feminine. Masculine traits are those we associate with being male, such as aggressiveness, directness, independence, objectiveness, and leadership. Feminine traits are being talkative, submissive, nurturing, emotional, and illogical. Androgyny is when a person shares both masculine and feminine traits. They fit their behavior to the situation; so an androgynous person might cry at a wedding or funeral, but can also change the tire on a car.
Thumbnail: Gender symbols intertwined. The red (left) is the female Venus symbol. The blue (right) represents the male Mars symbol. (CC BY-SA 2.0 unported; pschemp ).


7.2: Texting Ruins Literacy Skills
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- Cheryl E. Ball & Drew M. Loewe ed.
- West Virginia University via Digital Publishing Institute and West Virginia University Libraries
Author: Christopher Justice, University of Baltimore
Text messaging, or texting, refers to the communicative practice of sending brief messages on cell phones, other personal digital devices, or online instant messaging services using conventional, but more often abbreviated, graphic, or otherwise non-conventional uses of language. One who texts is generally referred to as a texter, and although texts are often composed with alphabetic letters, texters are using an increasingly more sophisticated range of visual and sonic media to communicate through this medium.
Texting became commercially available for the public in the mid-1990s, and since then, its popularity has skyrocketed. According to the Pew Research Center, approximately 75% of Americans in 2011 sent and received text messages. Due to this popularity and the unconventional ways texters use language, a potent public backlash against texting has emerged, propagated further by the media and other cultural elites. As David Crystal points out in his book Txtng: The gr8 db8 , headlines like these from the mid-2000s have become the norm for how many people understand texting: “Texting and Emailing ‘Fog Your Brain like Cannabis’”; “Texting Does Not Influence Literacy Skills”; and “Texting Deprives Children of Sleep.”
Unfortunately, the myth has continued into the present: In a 2012 Baltimore Sun article, the author reports on a study from Pennsylvania State University that found texting negatively affects students’ grammar skills. More troubling, the article begins with these words, “It probably comes as no surprise to those of us who have read our kids’ composition papers,” and ends with these, “OMG! One more challenge to teaching our kids to write!” Both comments suggest that texting is a major problem causing students to write poorly, a position that oversimplifies and overlooks numerous other important factors that influence how people, especially students, write. Additionally, in a 2014 Los Angeles Times article, a columnist argues that texting produces linguistic and intellectual laziness, predictability, and desperation.
The examples of these doomsday scenarios are too pervasive to fully review here. Nevertheless, according to these positions, texting causes people, especially children, teenagers, and college students, to misspell words, poorly punctuate sentences, and grammatically pollute sentences. (For a counterargument to this bad idea, see Scott Warnock’s chapter elsewhere in this collection.) Given the often-limited space texters have to compose messages (like Twitter’s 140-character limit), many argue that texters’ abilities to compose complex, well-supported arguments is dwindling. Texting also shortens attention spans and distracts significantly when engaging in otherwise important, necessary activities such as reading, working, or driving.
In general, these arguments make this clear: Texting is a major threat to our literacy skills. However, as linguist John McWhorter claims, texting is a “miraculous thing” that marks “an emergent complexity” with how we use language. Texting is a “new way of writing” that we can use alongside traditional writing and “an expansion of [our] linguistic repertoire,” marking a new type of bilingualism that reflects a positive development in our constantly evolving linguistic selves. Or, as Crystal states, “Texting is one of the most innovative linguistic phenomena of modern times.” Texting should be respected and taken more seriously as a sophisticated form of discourse that has the potential to revolutionize how we write and our overall relationship to language.
Texting offers society many positive benefits. For starters, texting’s economic impact is significant: The industry that supports texting’s infrastructure is a lucrative business that employs many people. In general, texting offers efficiency and convenience in how we communicate. Texting allows us to receive information quickly in catastrophic or dangerous situations or when conditions are not conducive to speaking, such as in loud settings or when privacy is needed. Texting offers us useful reminders along with advice, tutelage, and help. As Crystal notes, texting also offers intimacy while preserving social distance. Moreover, Crystal argues, texting cultivates a playfulness in how we use language and communicate with others. Play, as many who study ludology (the study of play) note, can have a powerful, positive impact on communication, creativity, self-esteem, and other behaviors.
More specifically, the myth that texting leads to illiteracy must stop for several reasons. One reason is that in many contexts, texting allows writers more time than speech to formulate their thoughts, and like other types of electronic media, texting also allows ample opportunities to revise and organize one’s thoughts. Second, the sudden and rapid popularity of texting is radically disproportionate to illiteracy rates. If texting causes illiteracy, and if so many people are texting, why are literacy rates not rapidly declining?
Additionally, while abbreviations are popular in texting, they are not a new linguistic phenomenon; one need only read a government contract issued through agencies such as the National Science Foundation or Environmental Protection Agency to realize how useful and ubiquitous abbreviations are. Our language is filled with abbreviations such as a.m. or p.m. to denote time; B.A., M.A., J.D., Ph.D. to denote degrees; Mr., Sgt., VP, CEO to denote titles; HIV, DNA, LSD, and others to denote scientific language; and MD, JAN, or W to denote states, months, or directions. Acronyms (abbreviations with vowels that spell new words) are equally popular: scuba, laser, NATO, OSHA, and AWOL are just a few examples. Contractions are equally popular. Moreover, many of the abbreviations and otherwise truncated uses of language are instigated by efficient uses of the keyboard, which is a provocative and clever use of media and an important hallmark of literacy. Ultimately, the abbreviated language that characterizes texting discourse is a continuation of a historical trend that reveals how people have creatively used language for conciseness and efficiency.
A common criticism levied against texting points to how texters’ literacy skills supposedly decline after texting; however, what more people need to realize are the impressive literacy skills texters possess before texting. To some degree, texting is a magnet for the literate. For example, the ability to text already suggests relative media savvy. You can’t text without having a basic understanding of how texting, cell phones, keyboards, and other media work. Also, when people use informal language in their texts, many understand there are already levels of formality appropriate for different communicative contexts. Try abbreviating or truncating language when you don’t already know the correct spelling of a word or syntax of a phrase.
Moreover, texting positively exercises texters’ rhetorical skills. Since texts are written in various styles, people must know how to match the style of a text with its message, audience, and tone, which for many is a sophisticated rhetorical act that we too often take for granted. For example, texters often already have a sophisticated sense of audience when texting because the medium facilitates frequent communication with vastly different audiences: spouses, parents, bosses, friends, health professionals, grandparents, colleagues, lovers, and so on. Texting also requires people to understand the rhetorical context of a situation: where they will receive the message, what their location is. Understanding these factors is critical in rhetorical communication. Tone is also important in texting since the medium allows for different ways to present tone through punctuation marks, attached photos, and emoticons. Additionally, given the instantaneous nature of texting, many frequent texters are often engaged in kairos , or the rhetorical concept of understanding when the timing and overall context for making an argument is ideal. In fact, Crystal even speculates that perhaps a new branch of linguistics will be needed to study texting. Such a field would acknowledge texting’s many complexities and draw from fields such as pragmatics, discourse analysis, socio-linguistics, orthography, and others.
Since texting typically occurs on devices with access to multiple forms of media, texting also can cultivate and encourage texters to utilize various modes of communication. For example, instead of relying only on alphabetic letters, texters can include voice messages, images, photographs, music, emoticons, web links, and other types of multimodal elements to make their points. More importantly, determining which type of modality to use given one’s audience and message is an important rhetorical skill. Texting enhances this skill, and given the popularity of cell phones, many students have easy access to platforms that emphasize texting, which enables them to quickly apply lessons learned about rhetoric and communication to their personal, academic, and professional lives.
In fact, several researchers have found positive correlations between texting and people’s literacy skills. For example, Kate Fox finds that texting improves texters’ summarizing skills and their overall ability to write more concisely along with their diplomacy skills. A group of researchers at Coventry University discovered that the more pre-teenage children used text abbreviations, the more likely they were to score higher on reading and vocabulary tests. Conversely, in that same study, students with higher-level spelling and writing skills tended to use the most texting abbreviations. Another researcher at the City University of London found that texters’ spelling or grammar skills were no better or worse than that of non-texters’, suggesting that texting itself doesn’t specifically affect one’s literacy skills. Another group of Finnish researchers concluded that texting’s often informal style allowed texters to engage in more creative uses of language. Other researchers found that texting enhances students’ ability to write collaboratively. Another set of researchers argue that texters use paralinguistics – or additional written or scriptive cues—to clarify their meaning, thus potentially enhancing communication. Or, as Clare Wood, a scholar who studies children’s literacy development and who has been at the forefront of texting research for years, states, “Overall, there is little evidence that ungrammatical texting behavior is linked to grammatical understanding or knowledge of orthographic representations of language in children.”
Texting may even be particularly useful for helping people of various ages specifically improve their writing skills. McWhorter argues that when people think of language, they usually are referring to speech, not writing. Because writing and speech are radically different, the two should be distinguished. However, McWhorter argues that as writing—a far more recent phenomena than speech—advanced, some speech emulated writing, but some writing also emulated speech. That’s where texting first emerged. For McWhorter, texting is a unique hybrid of speech and writing because it is loose and informal, like speech, although texters still rely on the “brute mechanics” of writing to communicate through this type of “fingered speech.” McWhorter points to how texting is changing our conceptions of writing and speech because new linguistic structures are emerging such as LOL or the use of a slash ( / ) to denote what linguists call pragmatic particles. These particles are usually spoken, but with texting, new forms of written communication are used to socially negotiate meaning among texters. Within the context of linguistics and writing studies, this is an important development.
New technologies have consistently threatened old ones, so cries that “texting is killing civilization” are part of a long history of trashing new media. In fact, even writing was despised by philosophers such as Plato in ancient Greece. In the 20th century, when film threatened radio, movies were demonized. When television threatened film, according to film historian Virginia Wright Wexman, the word “television” was forbidden in some studios. And the same backlash is currently directed toward texting, video games, social media, and other forms of digital media.
However, if we consider the National Council of Teachers of English’s definition of 21st-century literacy, we see a notable emphasis on the role technology plays in literacy. Two specific goals stand out: In this century, literate citizens should be able to “develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology” and “create, critique, analyze, and evaluate multimedia texts.” A third goal—“manage, analyze, and synthesize multiple streams of simultaneous information”—challenges the notion that texting distracts us. In the mediaand information-saturated worlds we live in, preventing distractions seems anachronistic; managing them seems the wiser, more contemporary goal. We should consider texting as not replacing formal writing, but instead, as a complex complement to formal writing that allows people to augment their existing writing skills in fresh, complex ways. Instead of perceiving texting as a threat to literacy, we should start understanding texting as an ally. Scholars who study writing and language should investigate more rigorously texting’s many complex dynamics.
Encouraging students to use texting to communicate with each other while working on group projects seems logical. Using examples in class about language usage that relates to texting is relevant to students’ lives. Comparing texting’s conventions to those found in other types of writing is valuable. Asking students to reflect on their texting behaviors will raise their awareness of texting’s strengths and weaknesses. Cultivating within students the notion that texting is one useful medium within a spectrum of various communications media will only help them discern when it’s best to text and when it’s not. In a world rife with alternative discourses and media, embracing the diverse opportunities for communication marks the best path to literacy.
Further Reading
See David Crystal’s book Txtng: The gr8 db8; Jessica Gross’s TED blog post, “Texting as a ‘Miraculous Thing’: 6 Ways our Generation is Redefining Communication”; a YouTube clip by John McWhorter titled “A Surprising new Language—Texting”; and Lucy Ward’s article in The Guardian, “Texting ‘is no Bar to Literacy’.”
Keywords
colloquial language, digital literacy, digital rhetoric, linguistics, nonstandard language, orthography, standard language, texting
Author Bio
Christopher Justice is a writer and lecturer at the University of Baltimore and a doctoral candidate at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. From 2007–2012, he helped establish UB’s University Writing Program and served as its writing program administrator. His research and scholarship focuses on writing theory and non-traditional writing systems such as texting and different forms of animal communication. His writing has appeared in numerous publications and presses. For more information about his work, please visit http://christopherjustice.weebly.com .


9.3: Post-test
- True or False: Using a patient’s money in any way other than that directed in the Care Plan or for which they have specifically instructed you to do so is considered stealing and could result in losing your job or going to jail.
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Which of the following best describes income?
- The amount of money coming in to the household.
- The expenses that a family has.
- The amount of money in a person’s savings account.
- The amount of money a person owes after borrowing.
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A fixed income means which of the following?
- That people need to plan expenses to fit into the amount of money they make.
- That people can spend as much as they want regardless of how much money they make.
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Which of the following best describes debt?
- The amount of money coming in to the household.
- The expenses that a family has.
- The amount of money in a person’s savings account.
- The amount of money a person owes after borrowing.
- True or False: HHA/PCAs should never be judgmental about sources of a patient’s income and how they choose to spend their money.
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Figure out if the family has enough money to meet their expenses. Total monthly income=$1200. Total monthly expenses= $1700. How much money is leftover?
- -$750
- +$750
- -$500
- +250
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Which of the following are ways a HHA/PCA can help a family save money on groceries?
Select
all
that
apply
.
- Encourage patients and families to pack lunches.
- Never use a grocery list when shopping.
- Purchase only name brand products.
- Buy food and supplies in bulk when space allows.
- Purchase processed, packaged, and foods from salad bars instead of foods that must be prepared.
- Use coupons.
- Plan meals for the week, using items that will expire soonest.
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Which are good energy saving strategies to reduce energy costs?
- Turn lights off in rooms when not in use.
- Clean the lint trap in the dryer frequently.
- Wash clothing using the cold setting whenever possible.
- Use fans instead of air conditioners.
- Turn faucets off while brushing teeth.
- Use a programmable thermostat.
- Wash only full loads of clothing and line dry clothes when possible.
- Answer
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1. True
2. A
3. A
4. D
5. True
6. C
7. A, D, F, and G
8. All are ways to save on energy costs.


4: Animals
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Introduction
Animals, such as lions, that eat many pounds of meat in a single meal can spend fifteen hours a day sleeping. Compare this to plant-eating animals, like giraffes, which sleep an hour or less each day (Figure 4.1). If you were to make a hasty survey, it appears predators sleep more than other animals. However, there are exceptions to that generalization and others like it (such as that smaller animals sleep less than larger ones).  Even within groups of animals that are similar genetically, there are sometimes more pronounced sleep duration differences than between vastly dissimilar animals. We do know all creatures studied so far have a period of something similar to sleep. Even unicellular organisms have stretches of time, linked to the earth’s light-dark cycle, when they barely move and have a decreased reaction to stimuli.
Since it is not possible to hook up a bug to EEG, EOG, and EMG to verify sleep physiologically, for many life-forms, we must rely on this more behavioral definition of sleep—for example, a stereotypical resting posture combined with reduced response to the external environment. And let’s be sure to add that sleep is a reversible state—one of the hallmarks of sleep, thank goodness. In the absence of polysomnography, an additional factor to add to the equation for verifying sleep is to note the strong drive the organism exhibits to return to that “sleeping” state when deprived of it. But how would you know a sleep-deprived insect is trying harder to sleep? Scientists record the baseline level of stimulation required to awaken the sleeping creature when it is left to its normal rhythm for a few days. Then the creature is kept awake during what would be its sleeping time. In this sleep-deprived condition, more intense stimulation is required to rouse the creature from sleep.  Compare that to the jab required if you have at long last dozed off after pulling an all-nighter. This exemplifies one aspect of sleep rebound: sleeping more deeply after being kept awake too long. The other aspect is falling asleep during what are normally waking hours.
In lieu of physiological measurements to verify that an organism is sleeping, the behavioral definition proves helpful. Upon observation of behaviors, even insects will provide additional clues—beyond just a resting posture—to let us know they are sleeping.
Insects
Like humans, fire ants have different stages of sleep. They start with their mouths open and antennae retracted or drooping (Figure 4.2). Then the antennae begin quivering as the fire ant moves into rapid antennal movement (RAM) sleep. Might they be dreaming? Could RAM sleep be an equivalent to REM sleep—even though much research suggests that insects have no equivalent to REM? At this point, it remains an enigma, motivating further investigations.
Another insect, the fruit fly, often examined when there is a need for deciphering genetics, is a favorite for sleep research. Fruit flies have many genetic and physiological similarities to humans, including getting a buzz from caffeine that keeps drowsy flies awake. As with humans, if fruit flies do not get sufficient sleep they have poor memory, have reduced learning function, and die earlier. They have also been used to demonstrate the reduction in sleep associated with starvation. If a creature is not getting enough calories, the body, much to its detriment, will reduce the time spent sleeping to instead seek food. One of the most compelling sleep-related findings in this research was the discovery of a gene that controls circadian rhythm (see chapter 3). These scientists were awarded the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work.1
Fish
For ages, scientists believed that sharks do not sleep because their eyes are open when they settle into their quiet resting posture. Upon further investigation, it became apparent that sharks were sleeping, but they do not close their eyelids during sleep (Figure 4.3). Some sharks have a clear membrane covering their eyes, and others have eyelids partially covering them. The purpose of shark eyelids is not sleep related; it is to protect their eyes when fighting or attacking. Great white sharks, which do not have eyelids, have to roll their eyes back to protect their eyes when attacking. This Discovery Channel video captured a great white shark sleeping.2 You may have heard that some sharks need to move while sleeping to get oxygen across their gills, and this is true. But other sharks have spiracles that draw in water and move it over their gills so they do not need to move during sleep.
Reptiles
As late as 2016, many believed that reptiles have NREM sleep but not REM sleep. However, when researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research in Frankfurt began to study the Australian dragon—a type of lizard that is a popular pet in Germany—a surprising story emerged (Figure 4.4). The scientists set out to study visually guided behaviors and were continuously recording the lizards’ brain activity using electrodes. They did this for several days at a time, also using infrared cameras to record nighttime behavior. Although sleep was not the focus of the study, they found the lizards had the typical NREM slow-wave sleep activity—and also REM brain activity, combined with tiny twitches in the eyelids during the REM phases. Part of the significance of this finding is related to how REM sleep is also found in birds and mammals, creatures that evolved separately and much later than reptiles. Until this Australian dragon research, the conventional wisdom was that evolutionary pressure along two isolated evolutionary pathways (those of birds and mammals) resulted in the emergence of REM sleep—people thought REM sleep did not exist before birds and mammals. Now it is clear that REM sleep existed much earlier in the evolutionary line and was likely handed down to both birds and mammals.
REM sleep in other reptiles remains to be examined, but reptilian behavioral sleep patterns have been observed for ages. The beloved honu (green sea turtle of Hawaiʻi) sleeps in the ocean for several hours, usually close to the surface, holding its breath (Figure 4.5). Near the shore, they doze several feet under water, cozy under the edge of a coral reef.
It can be difficult to determine if snakes are sleeping or simply not moving.
 Other geckos are fortunate enough to have eyelids they close, just as humans do when sleeping.
Birds
Birds have evolved to sleep with one hemisphere of their brain at a time, keeping an eye on things while they snooze. This leaves the awake half of the brain alert and able to process information coming from its associated eye, which remains open during sleep. Ducks and many other birds use this skill not just for their own self-preservation but also that of their community. Sleeping in a row, sentinels on each end of the row keep one eye open, sleeping with only one hemisphere of their brain. The birds in between the sentinels enjoy a completely restful night of shut-eye, with both hemispheres sleeping at once (Figure 4.6). At either end, each sentinel bird’s open eye faces out, so after a period of sleep in this position, the bird arises and turns around to face the opposite direction, opening the closed eye, and letting the previously active brain hemisphere and eye get some sleep. Even though they are processing information with only half of their brain, it takes less than a fifth of a second for the guard birds to react to a predator. Although REM sleep is normal for birds, it seems both hemispheres must be engaged in sleeping to generate REM. Consequently, these vigilant guardians on the end of the row are only able to get NREM sleep when on duty.
Humans have a rather subtle version of sleeping with one hemisphere for the sake of vigilance. Have you ever noticed you sleep a little lighter on the first night staying over at a friend or family member’s home? And then if you stay with them for a few more nights, you notice your sleep feels more satisfying. During NREM in new surroundings, half of our brain will have a lighter version of deep sleep; the other half will have its normal restorative depth. This allows us to keep watch, ever so slightly, in our less-than-familiar setting until we have settled in for a few more nights and feel entirely comfortable.
Birds have another fascinating sleep-related adaptation. Due to their need to migrate thousands of miles over the ocean, they have evolved to safely fly nonstop for hours and hours, seemingly without sleep . . . or are they sleeping while flying? Yes, they are, and it is a unique sleep pattern. Frigate birds (ʻiwa in Hawaiian) fly for months straight and so will sleep about ten seconds at once, in flight, getting less than half an hour of sleep each day.
Some birds, such as the white-crowned sparrow, have even attracted attention from groups such as the US Department of Defense. This sparrow can stay awake for two weeks at a time during its migratory period and apparently not suffer the usual deleterious consequences of sleep deprivation. During these phases, the bird also remains capable of proficiently responding to stimuli. The US military, with its history of pressuring troops to use various forms of stimulants such as amphetamines (with deadly consequences), is highly motivated to determine a way to keep people such as pilots awake for long stretches at a time without not compromising their judgment or damaging their health. At this point, the science suggests it is not possible. Let’s hope for the sake of the troops, their families, and the world community that there are also researchers actively investigating revolutionary and innovative solutions to minimize the need to put people in harm’s way.
 The unihemispheric sleep of dolphins allows them to swim and communicate—during sleep—with other dolphins. Up in the trees, bats, with their unique wing structure, are unable to create the rapid vertical takeoff mastered by birds. The best way for a sleeping bat to escape a hungry raccoon lumbering toward its roost is for the bat to drop from the tree and take flight midair. In the sea, dozens of sea otters come together and wrap themselves in seaweed, creating a sea otter raft for safety in numbers and to keep from drifting away while snoozing. Occasionally, they even hold hands (Figure 4.10). In open grassy areas, cows, horses, zebras, and elephants can sleep standing up, able to quickly flee if attacked. They have a “stay apparatus” that allows them to essentially lock their legs, minimizing muscular effort to remain standing.
Noticing the range of adaptations and behaviors that make it possible for animals to sleep and survive, we see that sleep has persisted even in the face of environments where it seems it would have been simpler to just eliminate it from the mix. As Alan Rechtschaffen, a sleep science trailblazer, has said, “If sleep does not serve an absolutely vital function, then it is the biggest mistake the evolutionary process has ever made.”3 Then how can we resist the question, “ Why is sleep so vital?” Let’s further investigate animal sleep and get some answers.
Although they live and sleep in the water, whales, seals, and dolphins are mammals and so must breathe in the air. If they fell fully asleep underwater, they would drown, so like some birds, only half of their brain sleeps at a time. When one hemisphere is sleeping, the other hemisphere guides the animal to the surface and activates the body to take a breath. The visual system of the awake hemisphere is vigilant for danger and stays connected to other animals in its group, such as companions or offspring. These elaborate evolutionary adaptations suggest that sleep must provide a crucial function, since sleep does not make it to the bargaining table when evolutionary pressure looks for behaviors to remove. At first blush, it seems it would be easier to evolve to not sleep than to evolve the mechanisms necessary to sleep while swimming. In other words, sleep is indispensable!

Dolphins and some whales do not show obvious signs of REM sleep, but scientists speculate that they may experience transient REM sleep or REM brain activity in deeper structures than the cortex. This motivation to not rule out dolphin and whale REM sleep is partially due to observed muscle twitching, penile erections, and eyelid movements during dolphin sleep. These behaviors are associated with REM sleep in land mammals but also occur during waking states, so REM sleep in dolphins remains an area of active research. Dolphins are so highly evolved that maybe we will see they have a unique form for REM that provides additional survival benefits beyond those given to us humans during REM sleep.
Fur seals do clearly have REM sleep, but they add a unique variation to its predictability. On land, the fur seal sleeps with both hemispheres at once and goes through REM and NREM stages, similar to most mammals (Figure 4.12). However, when a fur seal sleeps in the water, its sleep is similar to a dolphin’s: it sleeps with one hemisphere at a time, and NREM is the only obvious sleep stage. Because fur seals spend weeks at a time in the sea, they go for long stretches without REM. But why would a seal have two different patterns of sleep, depending on whether or not it was sleeping in the water?
A current theory about REM is it increases brain metabolism and warms the brain and brainstem, balancing out the lower metabolic rate and brain temperature of NREM. When fur seals, dolphins, and whales sleep in the water, one hemisphere at a time, and exclusively in NREM, the theory is they would not need REM to warm up the brain, since half of the brain is always awake and warm. Then when the fur seal is sleeping on land, it reverts to the typical land mammal pattern of bilateral NREM interspersed with REM. We humans feel much more alert if we wake up shortly after or even during an REM period, as opposed to when our alarms go off in the middle of deep NREM sleep, when our brains are cool and sluggish.
If REM sleep did not provide an essential benefit, then it seems the fur seal would continue its unihemispheric NREM sleep when snoozing on land. However, it has evolved to incorporate REM sleep whenever it returns to its terrestrial home. With the myriad REM sleep–associated benefits—including emotional healing, cardiovascular system regulation, and more—it is tempting to believe REM sleep would be incorporated into a creature’s sleep cycle if at all possible.
Let’s look way back in time to compare variations in mammalian sleep. During the early stages of mammalian evolution, monotremes branched off from placentals and marsupials. Monotremes (e.g., platypuses) are egg-laying mammals. This is in contrast to placentals (e.g., humans), which carry the fetus in the uterus until a relatively late developmental stage, and marsupials (e.g., kangaroos), which give birth before the animal is completely developed, so after birth, it is usually carried in a pouch on the mother’s body (Figure 4.13). Although for decades, scientists believed monotremes do not experience REM sleep, there are now studies showing that platypuses not only have REM sleep but have a higher rate of it than placentals or marsupials.5 During REM, the platypus has rapid eye movements and twitches its bill. Its REM EEG is similar in many ways to newborn placental mammals, which have high rates of REM too. The brainstem EEG of a platypus shows that REM occurs at the same time as cerebrocortical slow-wave sleep, explaining why early investigators may have miscategorized its sleep pattern.
Hibernators
A common myth is that hibernation, which can last a few hours or as long as several months, is the same as sleep. However, although hibernation has evolved from sleep, there are fundamental differences between the two. In fact, some animals will bring themselves out of deep hibernation in order to get sleep and then return back to hibernation after a satisfying snooze. Also, sleep is easily and rapidly awoken from, but it takes an hour (or more, depending on the animal) to rouse from hibernation. And what about the function of hibernation compared to sleep? A fundamental purpose of hibernation is to save energy. If sleep and hibernation had energy conservation as a common goal, it would not make sense to expend energy to warm up the body during hibernation in order to create conditions necessary for true sleep. Yet some animals, even in frosty conditions, do exactly that.
Ground squirrel body temperature can remain close to zero degrees Celsius, the temperature at which water freezes, during hibernation, which could last the entire winter (Figure 4.14). However, once a week, for around twenty-four hours, they bring themselves out of hibernation. It takes a while, and a lot of energy, for them to speed up their metabolism and activate their brain. When they are hibernating, their EEG is practically a flat line, as though they were not alive. Remember learning about dendrites in chapter 2? During the first day of hibernation, ground squirrels lose about one-fourth of their dendrites. Then, within hours of coming out of hibernation, the dendrites are restored. Other physiological functions, such as urine production, come to almost a halt during hibernation as well. But after rousing from their week of hibernation, during that twenty-four-hour period at their normal body temperature, they eat, pass waste, and sleep before returning to another week of hibernation.
If I say “hibernating animal,” what creature comes to your mind? If it is a bear, you are in good company, as this is the typical response (Figure 4.15). You may find it surprising that some scientists argue that bears are not true hibernators; others suggest that theirs is just a different form of hibernation. A bear’s body temperature will drop only a few degrees, even when outside temperatures are below freezing. This closer-to-normal body temperature allows bears to generate NREM and REM sleep during hibernation. They also stay in their state of torpor for the entire winter, not bothering to invest energy in the weekly rousing practiced by the ground squirrel. Lastly—and this is a significant difference from the ground squirrel, as intrepid hikers will tell you—a hibernating bear can be roused quickly and easily.
1 “The 2017 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine—Press Release,” Nobel Prize, accessed May 28, 2021, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2017/press-release/ .
2 Discovery, “Great White Naps for First Time on Camera,” YouTube video, 2:33, June 28, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B7ePdi1McMo .
3 E. Mignot, “Why We Sleep: The Temporal Organization of Recovery,” PLoS Biology 6, no. 4 (April 2008), https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060106 .
4 Ocean Conservation Research: Sound Science Serving the Sea, last modified May 2021, https://ocr.org/ .
5 J. M. Siegel et al., “Monotremes and the Evolution of Rapid Eye Movement Sleep,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 353, no. 1372 (July 1998): 1147–57, https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.1998.0272 .


7.3: Results and analysis
Effect of different light conditions on the rate of photosynthesis
Data Table
Results of Different Light Conditions on Spinach Leaf Disks
| Light Condition | # Disks Floating | % Disks Floating |
| Dark | ||
| Room light | ||
| Sunlamp |
Graph
Prepare a bar graph of the % disks floating for each light condition. Be sure to give the graph a title and label each axis.
Analysis
- Predict what the results will be if your hypothesis is supported.
- What is the independent variable in this experiment
- What is the dependent variable in this experiment.
- Name one other independent variables that could affect the rate of photosynthesis?
- What petri dish is serving as the control group?
-
What is the function each of the following components of photosynthesis:
a. Light
b. H 2 O
c. O 2
d. Chloroplasts -
In this experiment the spinach leaves were infiltrated with sodium bicarbonate
solution. Why did the disks float again when exposed to light?


5.14: Olaf ‘Ole’ Colberson’s Wall Murals: Finding a Voice Against Stigma
Introduction
Going into this research project I had a lot of concerns about how I myself could approach this project. First, I have little to no academic or practical background in art history or material culture. I did have experience working in a museum under my internship at the Milwaukee Public Museum, where I worked with objects retired from the collections that would later be used in their children’s programming. However when I was eighteen, I paid less attention into the cultural significance of the objects I was handling, and more determined to create a physical and online sorting system and have an opportunity to build a stronger resume. I have always loved museums and jumped at the opportunity to take this course that would allow me to be part of an amazing opportunity to create something that would last within a community.
My academic background is a Bachelor of Arts in History, focuses on European history and modern chronological history (18th century onwards), with a certificate in Classics, and currently I am working towards my Masters in Library Information Sciences. Second, I have no Norwegian, or Scandinavian background—my family is VERY German—and other than Norse mythologies and Disney’s Frozen, came in with little cultural understanding, but have an eagerness to learn. During my undergraduate career I often wrote about the human or societal portions of history, specifically gender roles, political theories, and societal and international conflict while attempting to write with as little personal bias as possible. I learned rather quickly that History and Art History took very different approaches. After a semester in this class and discussing with people who have actual backgrounds in these topics, I believe that I needed a new approach to this research project.
Selection Process And Initial Thoughts
When we went through and selected our objects for this assignment, I remember initially reading through and selecting four or five objects that stood out to me. It was not until we chose on class day that I decided on Olaf ‘Ole’ Colberson’s Wall Murals. The biggest decision making factor was the blurb on the pieces significance and history.
Large landscapes that adorned walls at Little Norway. Olaf Colberson was born in 1860 or 1861, immigrated to the U.S. from Norway in 1888. Moved between Wisconsin and Minnesota before finding himself in the Madison area. A eulogy in our collections explains “devious means had been implemented to get him committed to Mendota” mental hospital in Madison. Friends assisted with his release and helped him get set up in Black Earth. He was a trained painter and eventually painted these murals at Little Norway. He died in 1931.
After reading through it I was intrigued by the concept of forced institutionalization and thought, “there’s a story here, with this particular artist.” I wanted to find out why he was institutionalized, I wanted to know how his friends helped him get out, and lastly I wanted to find out why the entire blurb was more about the person than it was the object itself. It made me wonder if this particular person was prominent in Mt. Horeb. I also have an interest in mental health services (my sister works for UHS in their mental health services department) and policies, specifically looking at how they have changed throughout the years.
To add onto my inexperience with material culture and art history, on my first trip to Mount Horeb where I first saw the pieces, I was initially impressed with their quality, but immediately thought there were proportion issues. Some of the figures seemed to appear as too large or too small, and I was not sure if it was from issues in perspective? This also only occurs in his paintings that have creatures in them, comparative to his landscape only works. This led me to believe that maybe he learned how to paint as a hobby, or had a natural ability, perhaps learned at the hospital itself, and was less of a professional or school training—this I would later learn was very wrong, and I will go into those details when I discuss more about Ole’s background.
My next observation was that each of the images had nail holes throughout the center of the images, and was informed that the frames were not original to the paintings. So these were not hung, but pinned (or nailed) to wherever they were displayed. The pieces were described as wall murals, and I was surprised that they were displayed in what I would consider a damaging way. Why would they not hang it from the back, or attach it to some wire?
Lastly, I noticed that the paint didn’t reach the frames along each edge, or may have been worn or rubbed off—hence why the historical society, or whoever, provided the paintings with new frames. All this initially led me to believe was that, although these paintings may have been beloved, they were not given proper or gentle treatment in their past locations or during their transition to ownership from the Mount Horeb Historical Society.
Folk Art Versus Outsider Art: My Internal Debate About Ole
Because I was only able to see the pieces twice, and read the history of the item once near the end of the semester I was working with minimal information at the beginning of my research. I had problems placing Ole for what type of artist he was, and one thought I kept returning to, where was he trained? Was he traditionally trained or did he receive training through his forced stay at the Mendota Mental Hospital? Would the answer to those questions technically define who Ole was as an artist?
My first few searches into Olaf ‘Ole’ Colberson had little findings. His work was not publicized anywhere, hospital reports are confidential, and was seemingly not placed on the internet. In fact the only specific findings I had on Ole or his family were the census records that tracked him, his wife, and his daughter’s movements between Wisconsin and Minnesota. These reports also show the U.S. government’s inability to track certain people or groups, as Ole was listed repeatedly, but under different spellings or adaptations of his name. This was fairly common for most immigrants, especially prior to the 1900’s once World War I started and the U.S. government became stricter on the groups of people that came, and keeping records of them. I will discuss what I learned more specifically about Ole in the section about him, his life, and his work.
One of the earliest ideas someone said that could relate to Ole and his murals were about outsider art. Outsider art is generally defined as art created by those who are not officially trained or are outside of an establishment. How this pertains to Ole is through his perceived mental health conditions, as many people use this form or definition of art as a therapy for mental health disorders. This concept of mental health issues and art interested me as they do discuss a lot about the people and the conditions themselves while still addressing what they are capable of artistically creating or crafting. Because I was not initially informed on when Ole was trained, it was plausible that he received training or practice while he was institutionalized at Mendota. Looking more into outsider art I found a few studies and movements that use outsider art as an aid for those with mental health, but also a political force to garner attention to larger issues. These included gaining more notice for ‘othered’ artists, promoting awareness about people with mental health conditions, and attempting to raise funds and research into how art can help those who are diagnosed with these conditions. How can art, and the promotion of outsider art lead to improved lives and awareness about the community of those who suffer from mental health conditions?
A quality example of outsider art as a political platform can be seen from the case in Denver, Colorado where a piece initiated by Leo Tanguma and David DeLay was used to increase discussion on real issues. “The artwork…was created and is exhibited with several goals in mind: to provide persons who are mentally ill with a chance to express feelings about their lives and to choose how people with mental illness are represented; to provide a reason for various community members to work together and gain confidence in their abilities; and the educate the general public.” The idea of the project was to have those with mental illnesses describe to the artist what they feel like, how they are represented, and how they wish to be represented. The initial discussion lasted about 3 hours and from there they all collaborated in designing, sketching, and painting the murals. This group included people from a wide variety of mental illnesses, ages, racial backgrounds, and health treatment.
It was clear very on that being in this environment was helpful to many of the participants in not only engaging in their own self-awareness, but also in building an understanding about art and how it can represent them too. During the building and decorating process of the project, the group of artists had to work together in lifted, decorated, and pinning the giant murals together. This process alone helped the participants improve in their social interactions, as they discussed with others in a safe and aware environment. As the meetings continued more and more people came and interacted, bringing food, or family members. They taught the group how to operate the different tools and equipment to build and together erected the murals.
The design was intricate, light, sharp, and essentially conflicted. “The shape would be basically triangular, with irregularities along the edges and two voids left in the design plane: one void an asymmetrical heart, the other a somewhat abstractly drawn butterfly with jagged borders. The openings would represent the emptiness that existed in the lives of many of the participants. The irregularities along the edges would represent a general societal view of mental illness as bizarre; they were also simply to intended to catch the eye.” The product was also divided into 2 halves, light and dark. The dark half showed how mental illnesses can be viewed, and how those views can alter a way in which the participants saw themselves. The light side was bright and colorful in hopes that they will be ‘normalized’ and understood for themselves and not for their conditions. The pieces were first shown altogether in an exhibit, and were received positively. After the initial exhibit the pieces were split up and divided throughout the Denver metropolitan area, where they continued to promote the conversation about mental health, and those who suffer from those illnesses. “The story of the murals creation and the impact of its display have conveyed to them that there is a growing community of individuals who are “coming out of the closet,” so to speak, about mental illness.”
This is only one example of how outsider art can be used as a platform, and how being “othered” or different can give people a voice in order to bridge gaps through artistic creations. Another, more recent example is the Porch Light Initiative in Philadelphia. The initiative is currently working on an ongoing, community based, healing through art project that emphasizes the importance of universal health and wellness. Together the community has banded to form an entire grouping of outsider artists who are transforming their society from the outside in. “A finished Porch Light artwork shines a light on those people who helped bring the project to life and challenges social stigmas of around mental and behavioral health, offering a fresh window of opportunity for continued progress and community growth.”
The project began as a research opportunity. They wanted to learn if creating art helps improve social, behavioral, and mental health. Not only were they measuring those participating within the program, but within the community itself. The program works by pairing porch light artists with locals who have been known to struggle with addictions or mental health disorders. Together they paint murals around the city and conduct qualitative and quantitative research to determine if the murals have a positive impact on people’s lives.
Throughout the experiment the researchers followed two timelines, individual timelines for the participants and an overlying community timeline. Starting with the individual timeline, the researchers established a baseline. They interviewed their participants to see how they felt about their specific situations, and how it was difficult to get past some of their issues with society. These interviews then continued throughout the entire process of the experiment. Next they would work with their paired artists and design and install the different murals. They would be interviewed after the artwork was completed to note any changes in their behavior or thoughts, and interviewed one last time much later to see if there were any further changes, once they were not consistently creating the artwork. The community was surveyed, interviewed, and observed once prior to the start of the community’s makeover, during the installation process, and once after in order to determine how their thoughts and feelings changed. They selected 3 communities for the large-scale mural projects, measured their demographics, and compared them to similar communities that would not receive assistance or partnership from Porch Light.
The results showed promise for future Porch Light projects, as the participants reported being less secretive about their mental health issues due to stigmas, reported experiencing less rejection, and reported a decrease in stress levels. “When Porch Light is implemented consistently with a regular group of participants, it holds promise for promoting recovery and resilience at the individual level.” The results of the study were promising enough for it to continue today. One participant, Adam Alli stated, “If I sit painting, it gives me self control over who I am. Everybody has their downfall, but right now everyone around this table has the courage and motivation to heal.” Together these participants were able to work together and create a safer sense of community, while also improving their own mental, or behavioral health. So far Porch Light has accomplished in finishing 30 murals, having 374 participants, and achieving over 3,000 community members within the project.
Their research and numbers continually show how this project has helped create a safe and more engaged community. This graph shows the results of one of the sites after one year of Porch Light’s involvement and assistance within the community.
As we can clearly see in the graph the community experienced a relatively significant change within one year of the murals project. Not only did this project create positive results in individuals but it also increased positivity throughout the community.
The concept of mental health and how it coincides with art is fascinating to me, and spending time researching these projects was an absolute joy. It is refreshing to read about people who actively make a difference in their communities, and provide awareness about the stigmas and problems we can take approaching mental health disorders and illnesses.
The reasons I thought Ole could be an outsider artist was because of his background in Mendota mental hospital. Many times outsider art does center on mental illness, and I thought perhaps there was a connection between Ole and this platform. But after getting back to Mount Horeb’s Historical Society, I learned that he would not be classified as an outside artist, as his background and work (at least the murals he painted for Little Norway) does not have the general characteristics of outside art. He can be classified as a traditional Norwegian folk artist, who presumably has a clear understanding of mental health stigmas.
Olaf ‘Ole’ Colberson
Most of what we can learn about Ole comes from his funeral and wake, where his closest friends spoke about who he was as a person, his talents, and his family. Anne Sinley, displayed the vast majority about his personal life in a touching sermon where she provides information about his travel to America, his family, his time in Mendota mental hospital, and most importantly how he was trained and commissioned to paint the murals for Little Norway. She also details that his tombstone identifies him as Olaf Kolbjornson, much different than how he was more commonly known.
She starts her letter by detailing how she came to meet Ole and his family. They were neighbors across the lake in Black Earth, Wisconsin, and because of their shared immigration experiences the families became fast friends. This was very common for many immigrant groups, and they would often form communities together. Ole was a trained painter, who learned his trade in Norway before moving to the Midwest. “—not only a house painter, but an artist who created beautiful pictures.” Anne points out an interesting cultural practice we discussed in class, and that is how folk artists and communities viewed women and needlework. In her sermon she discusses how Ole had a beautiful wife who made beautiful embroidery. It exhibits how women were valued by their creation of homely goods and how they often used those skills on their clothing. By 1909 Ole and his family had moved to Amery, Wisconsin and took in their nephew who was also coming from Norway. His nephew would later become his son-in-law as Ole’s daughter (and only child) married her cousin.
Next Anne goes into detail on Ole’s personal tragedy, and how he was placed in Mendota mental hospital, and how his friends secured his release:
Sometime about 1922 or 1923, we heard that Mr. Colberson was at Mendota, supposedly a mental case. My brother, Ole, was just then taking a degree in Psychology. He and my father went to Mendota to see our old friend. It seems that while he was undergoing some minor surgery, devious means had been implemented to get him committed to Mendota. He was listed as manic depressive and with good reason. He had been completely disowned and deserted by his wife, daughter and son-in-law and stripped of his home and all of his assets.
The people who should have cared for him the most abandoned Ole, and society had shunned and temporarily forgotten about him. In this way he does relate to the outside artists, and the stigma that follows mental health conditions.
However Ole’s artwork does not coincide with what is considered outsider art. After his friends discovered what had happened to him, they worked diligently to obtain his release from the hospital. Anne’s father obtained permission to allow Ole for one-month temporary release, and when the community saw that he did not have any ongoing mental health illnesses the governor, Phillip La Follette, obtained a permanent release for Ole. Phillip then purchased a house for Ole to reside back in Black Earth, and the community helped assist Ole to get his life back together.
While rebuilding his life Ole started with redecorating. He kept himself busy and spent his time creating artworks, and was even hired by others in the community to create art for their homes. It was around this time when Little Norway was searching for a person to help decorate some of the community spaces. They wanted someone who could paint in a traditional Norwegian style, and they selected Ole.
They began driving him back and forth between Black Earth and Little Norway for the entirety of his commission, and his work was very well received. The Mount Horeb Historical Society has in its possession a letter from Little Norway exclaiming, “Your effort is a marked contribution to the attractiveness of Little Norway and receives very high commendation on all sides…I can imagine no artist but one of Norse birth who could have done this work as they could not have gotten into the spirit of it.” It was not long after that Ole was commissioned for another large job, and began painting for the Colonial Lodge. Once he had finished that project, Ole gave back to the community and for no cost redecorated the community’s church.  Landscape scenes were his specialty and he produced original work.” Ole was survived by the family that left him, and a community that supported and appreciated him, and who continued to show appreciation in his work.
Conclusion
It is through his narrative, and the story behind the man and the murals that leads me to believe that his work can only be identified as traditional Norwegian folk art. He was trained in Norway and brought his skills to America. He was specifically commissioned for his Norwegian style of artistry for Little Norway, and predominantly lived in relatively small, significantly Norse (or Scandinavian) communities. But I also believe Ole can provide example of cultural importance, and the unfair stigma placed on those who are labeled as outside artists, and those struggling with mental health illnesses. Although I was not initially correct in my research, I found a topic that is truly amazing and promotes a healthier and more accepting society.
Although his physical work is not consistent with outside art, his life was. He felt and faced the stigma of mental illness, and how difficult it is to move on with ones life once they have been labeled—even incorrectly. Art can be a therapeutic representation of a community or one’s self, and through Ole’s landscapes we can see a man who was represented by his ethnicity and his community. Art was able to help give people in Denver and Philadelphia, and Ole a chance past the stigma of mental illness. I was correct in my initial decision in selecting these pieces; there is a story and a message here.